英文摘要 |
Sound gloss, as it is known among Chinese linguists, is a form of philology practiced by ancient scholars to define the meaning of homophonous words. A sizable collection of phonological information is stored in Liu Xi's ”Shiming”, which the current study analyzes. Eight kinds of initial alternations are addressed in this paper, some as common as one often sees in textbooks on historical linguistics, others so unusual that they require separate treatments. Regardless of their nature, the author has used comparative techniques, drawing parallels with modern dialects to offer some discoveries. These eight kinds of initial alternation can be broken down into three major categories: (1) alternation within sibilants; (2) alternation between sonorants and obstruents; and (3) alternations within obstruents. Overall, initials of ancient and modern Chinese dialects, like consonants, have differences in strata. 'Strata' is a tripartite composition of time, place, and phonology. The arguments in this paper lead to a clear view of historical Chinese phonology and discuss many meaningful issues. |