Sino-Xenic
Sino-Xenic (or Sinoxenic) refers to the pronunciations given to Chinese characters in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese – none of which have accepted genetic relatedness to Sinitic languages – in the Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean, and Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies. The term is used in linguistics for the use of these data in historical Chinese phonology – the reconstruction of pronunciations in earlier forms of Chinese, and hence earlier forms of Chinese languages.[1]
"Sino-Xenic" is used narrowly to refer to only these three regular, large-scale borrowings of Chinese writing, language, and culture[2] – not to smaller-scale sporadic borrowings of some words.
Contents |
[edit] Background
The term was coined by linguist Samuel Martin[1][2][3] as ‘Sino-Xenic’, and comes from Sino-xen-ic: Chinese-foreign-(adjective).
The principle of Sino-Xenic pronunciation is that when Chinese characters were introduced into other cultures, the pronunciation of the corresponding Chinese word was also borrowed, and thus some current pronunciations are descended from earlier Chinese pronunciations. The characters were also used for native words, and thus not all pronunciations in non-Chinese languages reflect Chinese pronunciations. Languages that have Sino-Xenic pronunciations are sometimes referred to as Sino-Xenic languages.
While Japanese and Ryukyuan belong to the Japonic family, Vietnamese belongs to Austro-Asiatic, Zhuang to Tai–Kadai, and Korean is a language isolate, all use extensive vocabulary from Chinese, in yet another (Sino-Tibetan) language family. Within what is known as the East Asian sprachbund, various languages that are apparently genetically unrelated share many areal features and have similar vocabularies as a result of geographic proximity and historical influence from Chinese. Hence, when referring to the vocabularies of such languages, words can be categorized as either being native to that language, or being part of a "Sino-Xenic" vocabulary.
[edit] Examples
| Native examples | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Chinese (Standard Mandarin) |
Japanese (Tokyo dialect) |
Korean (Seoul dialect) |
Vietnamese (Saigon dialect) |
Ryukyuan (Okinawan dialect) |
Zhuang (Wuming dialect) |
| Chinese people | 中国人/中國人 zhōngguórén | (Sino-Japanese 中国人 used) | (Sino-Korean 中國人 used) | người Trung Quốc (𠊚中國) | 唐ん人 tooNchu | Boux Cunghgoz (佈中国) |
| Nation | 国家/國家 guójiā | 国 kuni | 나라 nara | đất nước (𡐙渃) | 島 shima | (Sinoxenic "Guekgya" used) |
| Mountain | 山 shān | 山 yama | 메 me | núi (𡶀) | 盛 mu'i | bya (岜) |
| One | 一 yī | ひと(つ) hito(tsu) | 하나 hana | một (𠬠) | てぃいち tīchi | ndeu (刁) |
| Forest | 森林 sēnlín | 森 mori | 숲 sup | rừng (𡼹) | 山 yama | ndoeng (崬) |
| Language | 语言/語言 yǔyán | (Sino-Japanese 言語 used) | 말 mal | tiếng (㗂) | 口 guchi | Vah |
| to write | 写/寫 xiě | 書く kaku | 쓰다 sseuda | (Sino-Vietnamese "viết (曰)" used) | 書ちゃん kachan | (Sinoxenic "sij" (写) used) |
| Soup | 汤/湯 tāng | 汁 shiru | 국 guk | canh | 湯 yuu | – |
| to eat | 吃 chī,[FN 1] 食 shí[FN 2] |
食べる taberu | 먹다 meokda | ăn (𩛖) | 噛むん kamun | gwn ( ) |
| mother | 妈妈/媽媽 māmā | お母さん okāsan | 어머니 eomeoni | mẹ (媄) | あんまー 'anmaa | – |
| personal pronoun | 我 wǒ | 私 watashi | 나 na | tôi (𪝬) | 我ん wan | gou (我) |
| Sinoxenic examples | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Chinese (Standard Mandarin) |
Sino-Japanese (Tokyo dialect) |
Sino-Korean (Seoul dialect) |
Sino-Vietnamese (Saigon dialect) |
Ryukyuan (Okinawan dialect) |
Zhuang (Wuming dialect) |
| Ethnicity | 民族 mínzú | 民族 minzoku | 民族(민족) minjok | dân tộc (民族) | 民族 minzuku | Minzcuz (民族) |
| Populace | 人民 rénmín | 人民 jinmin | 人民(인민) inmin | nhân dân (人民) | 御万人 'umaNchu | Yinzminz (人民) |
| Republic | 共和国/共和國 gònghéguó | 共和国 kyōwakoku | 共和國(공화국) gonghwaguk | Cộng hòa (共和) | 共和国 kyoowakuku | Gunghozgoz (共和国) |
| Chinese character | 汉字/漢字 hànzì | 漢字 kanji | 漢字(한자) hanja | hán tự (漢字) | 漢字 kwanji | (native "Sawgun" ( 倱) used) |
| Telephone | 电话/電話 diànhuà | 電話 denwa | 電話(전화) jeonhwa | điện thoại (電話) | 電話 denwa | – |
| Great Wall of China | 万里长城/萬里長城 Wànlǐ Chángchéng | 万里の長城 Banri-no-Chōjō | 萬里 長城(만리 장성) malli jangseong | Vạn Lý Trường Thành (萬里長城) | 万里ぬ長城 manri-nu-Choojoo | – |
| Student | 学生/學生 xuéshēng | 学生 gakusei | 學生(학생) haksaeng | học sinh (學生) | 学生 gakusoo | hagseng (學生) |
| Freedom | 自由 zìyóu | 自由 jiyū | 自由(자유) jayu | tự do (自由) | – | cwyouz (自由) |
| Equality | 平等 píngděng | 平等 byōdō | 同等(동등) dongdeung | bình đẳng (平等) | – | bingzdaengj (平等) |
| News(paper) | 新闻 xīnwén | 新聞 shinbun | 新聞(신문) simmun | tin tức (信息) | (native 紙はぶ "kamihabu" used) | – |
| Film | 电影/電影 diànyǐng | 映画 eiga | 映畵(영화) yeonghwa | điện ảnh (電影) | 影踊 kaagaaudui, 影芝居 kaagaashibai |
– |
Native and Sino-Xenic readings of Chinese ideographs are distinguished as on'yomi (Sino-Japanese) and kun'yomi (native) in Japanese, Eumhun in Korean, and in Vietnamese, native words were originally written in Chữ Nôm and Sino-Vietnamese words in Hán tự, until the writing system was supplanted by the Latin alphabet.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further Reading
- Shih-hong Liu (1969). Chinese characters and their impact on other languages of East Asia. Eurasia Book Co.. pp. 108. http://books.google.com/books?id=uKMDAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 10th of February, 2012.(the University of Michigan)
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] Citations
- ^ a b Chinese, by Jerry Norman, p. 34
- ^ a b Old Japanese, by Marc Hideo Miyake, p. 98
- ^ Samuel Elmo Martin, The phonemes of ancient Chinese, American Oriental Society, 1953, (review)
.svg){kind=small} |
This East Asia-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This China-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
