『福建方言字典(Dictionary of The Hok-Keen Dialect of The Chinese Language)』文白異讀字를 통해 본 閩南 漳州方言의 歷史語音層次에 대한 고찰

A Study on the Chronological Strata of Minnan Zhangzhou Dialect through the Literary and Colloquial Readings in the Dictionary of The Hok-Keen Dialect of The Chinese Language

This study focuses on the analysis of the chronological strata in the Zhangzhou(漳州) Dialect reflected in the Dictionary of The Hok-Keen Dialect of The Chinese Language, which was written by Walter Henry Medhurst in 1832. About 12,000 Chinese characters are collected in the Dictionary, however, only 27% of the characters has both colloquial and literary readings. The colloquial and literary readings of the dictionary are somewhat various because they have reflected the different chronological strata. While the literary reading substantially has kept the Middle Chinese strata, some of the colloquial readings have preserved the Old Chinese strata, which can be found in Fei serial(非系), Zhi serial(知系), Ming initial(明母), Ri initial(日母) and Yi initial(疑母) in terms of the changes of initials from Old Chinese to the contemporary Zhangzhou dialect. Old Chinese *[-ĭai] has experienced the radical sound change of *[-ĭai] → [-ĭe](Middle Chinese) → [-i](Early Mandarin and contemporary Mandarin), the colloquial reading still has kept the low vowel [a] while the literary reading pronounce as the Early Mandarin [i] in the dictionary. The Dong Rhyming Group(東部)*[uŋ] is totally different from the Yang Rhyming Group(陽部) *[-aŋ] in the Northern Dialect of Old Chinese, however they are mixed in the Chu(楚) dialect of the southern Old Chinese. The colloquial reading of the dictionary belonging to the Dong Rhyming Group(東部) in Old Chinese is [-aŋ], therefor we can reconstruct its Proto-Sourthern Min as *[-uaŋ] which is the same as the Chu(楚) dialect.