漢語方言本字考證與古漢語聯綿詞

Textual Research on the Original Characters of Chinese Dialects and Ancient Chinese Lianmian Doublets

§1說明本文擬討論「漢語方言單音方言詞本字是古漢語聯綿詞的其中一字」的問題。古漢語聯綿詞「懵𤥂（懂）」的「𤥂（懂）」罕見單用；§2推測古漢語「𤥂（懂）」（「心昏昧無知不明；明白，了解」）、考證漢語方言單用的「𤥂（懂）」（「頭腦糊塗，不清楚；感覺遲鈍；混亂草率欠考慮，慌張莽撞」），兩者實一字兼正反兩義。「 足拜

This paper discusses the phenomenon of original characters for terms in Chinese dialects also appearing as one of the characters in lianmian doublets in Ancient Chinese. First, we show that the character dong (懂or懂) in the lianmian (聯綿) doublet meng-dong (懵懂, with the second character sometimes appearing as 懂) is rarely used independently. We argue that dong in Ancient Chinese (with meanings of ”a muddled mind” and ”to understand”) and in Chinese dialects (with meanings of ”muddled mind,” ” slow-witted,””not thought out,” and ” rashly done”) are in fact the same word with two opposite meanings. Next , we discuss the term paizi (足拜子, cripple), which is common to southern dialects. We argue that the original character for pai was not the second character in the lianmian doubletjibai (蹟足卑). Rather, we show that it corresponds to the character bo (九皮(允皮)) from the Middle Chinese gege (歌戈) rhymes, as this word and many others from this rhyme are pronounced with the vowel ”ai” in the vernacular pronunciations of southern dialects and are cognate with the word bo (跛) in a number of dialects. As these two examples show, of the two words making up lianmian doublets in Ancient Chinese, at least one of which , while not being able to be used independently in the koine , could be used alone in Chinese dialects. Also, the two words making up lianmian doublets in dialects could be used with a certain degree of freedom, sometimes combining to make up rhyming two-syllable words. From this we can derive a methodology for finding the original characters for words in Chinese dialects. First, one should deternline which rhymes, or endings, the words would most likely have and then search for the original character within that scope. If the original character is the one that appears in a lianmian doublets, it would be best to give at least one example of the character being used alone. It would also strengthen the argument to show that the character has cognates in other dialects. Finally, we point out that future research in this area should take into consideration lianmian doublets in both Ancient Chinese and dialects and rhyming two syllable words, with particular attention being paid to whether they have undergone the process of lexicalization, how the two words making up the doublet are used, and the stability of initial series (the motivation for meaning).