'Giao Chỉ'' (Jiaozhi交趾) as a Diffusion Center of Middle Chinese Diachronic Changes： Syllabic Weight Contrast and Phonologisation of Its Phonetic Correlates

交趾作為中古漢語歷時演變的擴散中心：音節強度對比和語音關聯的音素化

The essay tackles a particular linguistic facet of the sinicisation process in Southeast Asia. The focal argument addressed throughout this essay lies in the claim that Giao Chỉ (Jiaozhi 交趾) should be granted a central position regarding the transfer of Old and Middle Chinese diachronic features into Southeast Asian languages from Jiaozhi down to the Gulf of Thailand and Mekong Delta. The major linguistic argument underlying this essay is that the hallmark of the sinicisation process in Southeast Asia is not so much the monosyllabisation process per se but rather the ''phonologisation'' of its phonetic correlates. Exploiting Ferlus's lifelong seminal work on Chinese and ''Southeast Asian'' Diachronic Linguistics, it will be demonstrated that a pertaining consequence of this monosyllabisation was the phonologisation of a vowel lowering, high pitch and a modal voice developing along the tense Middle Chinese syllables (that is, originating from ancient Old Chinese sesquisyllables) and a contrastive vowel raising, low pitch and a breathy voice along the lax Middle Chinese syllables (that is, originating from ancient OC monosyllables)| in other words, the monosyllabisation process was conductive to a split of the vocalic system associated with a suprasegmental contrast based on the breathy vs. modal feature and a pitch height distinction. It will be shown that the processes that Chinese transferred into proto-Vietic from the urban areas of Jiaozhi is the monosyllabisation and the phonologisation of the tension vs. laxness contrast alongside its phonetic correlates| it will also be demonstrated that, at a certain point during the Chinese and Southeast Asian tonogenetic process, there emerged a contrast between what is glottalised and what is not.

本文處理東南亞中國化的過程中某個特定的語言面向，並主張從上古漢語和中古漢語的歷時特徵演變為東南亞語言的過程中，交趾郡應該被賦予中心地位（從交趾郡向西到泰國灣，以及向南到湄公河三角洲）。本文主要的語言論點是：東南亞中國化過程的典型特徵不僅僅是單音節化過程本身，而是其語音關聯的音素化。利用Ferlus畢生有關漢語和東南亞歷時語言學的開創性著作，本文證明這種單音節化的結果是元音低化、高音調和一個由中古漢語緊音節發展而來的濁音（即源自上古漢語的一個半音節），以及與其對比的元音高化、低音調和一個由中古漢語鬆音節發展而來的氣嗓音（即源自上古漢語的單音節）。換句話說，單音節化的過程導致元音系統的分化，此分化乃跟氣嗓音和真音的特徵與音高區別的超音段對比有關聯。最後，本文也會論證在漢語與東南亞語言聲調生成過程中的某個時刻，出現了喉音化與非喉音化的差異。