從音韻及詞族的觀點論閩南語tsĩ3的本字

On the Etymology of Tsĩ3 in Southern Min: From the Viewpoints of Phonology and Word Family

本文從臺灣閩南語口語出發，探討一個常用語詞的本字：用來表示植物幼嫩（如嫩薑）或人年輕、閱歷淺的形容詞tsĩ3。首先本文從閩語內部跨方言比較的觀點，確認臺灣閩南語tsĩ3與閩東語福州的tsieŋ3、周寧貢川的tsiᴇn3、寧德的tsem3等形式同源，在原始閩語中可以擬測為*tsiam3。其次，在漢語文獻方面，本文從詞族的觀點論證原始閩語中表示味道淡薄的*tsiɑm3（本字已知為子冉切「𩟗」）與表示稚嫩、不成熟、人閱歷淺的*tsiam3都來自「漸」（慈染切）詞族。具體而言，原始閩語中的兩種語義都與「漸」的初生芽萌義密切相關，係由「漸」孳生而來。本文同時指出，原始閩語的*tsiam3與*tsiɑm3其實是同源異形詞，它們分別來自不同的時間層次。

This article takes the Taiwanese Sothern Min spoken form as a starting point to discuss the original character of a commonly used word: the adjective tsĩ3 used to express tender plants (such as tender ginger) or young people with little experience. From the perspective of cross-dialect comparison within the Min language, this article first of all confirms that Taiwanese Sothern Min tsĩ3 has the same origin as the Eastern Min Fuzhou tsieŋ3, Zhouning Gongchuan tsiᴇn3, Ningde tsem3 and other forms. In Proto Min, it can be reconstructed as *tsiam3. Further, this article demonstrates that *tsiɑm3 (the character known as ZĭRăn Qiē“𩟗”) in Proto Min, which means light taste, and *tsiam3, which means childish, tender, immature, and inexperienced, can both be traced to the“漸”(CíRăn Qiē) word family. Specifically, those two semantic meanings in Proto Min are closely related to the meaning‘nascent’which is derived from“漸.”Finally, this article points out that *tsiam3 and *tsiɑm3 in Proto Min are actually doublets that can be traced to two different chronological strata.