The word for 'honey' in Chinese and its relevance for the study of Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan language contact (*Wékwos n°1)

New Formations, 2000

Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 2020

This collection of 10 articles is from the conference "The Anthropology of Language in Mainland Southeast Asia", held August 19 and 20, 2019 at the University of Sydney.

China Review International, 1998

The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia, 2018

We are very grateful to Christina van der Wal Anonby, Erik Anonby, René Lacroix and Ludwig Paul for comments and corrections on an earlier version of this introduction. We of course bear the responsibility for the remaining shortcomings.

Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 66, University of Pennsylvania, USA, 1995

Proceedings of the 2016 4th International Conference on Management Science, Education Technology, Arts, Social Science and Economics (msetasse-16), 2016

In this paper, we summarized and recorded part of ancient Chinese vocabulary frequently used in Longdong-dialect mainly through field investigation, which not only revealed the true nature of Longdong dialect, but also facilitated the in-depth study of Longdong dialect at phonological level, conducive to exploring the cultural significance of folk customs in Longdong area. Introduction People living in the east region of Gansu Province still use a lot of place names and dialects, as well as keeping folklores from Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties, which are considered as living fossils of northern Mandarin dialects and folks, and play an important role in Chinese language culture history. In this paper, we summarized and recorded part of ancient Chinese vocabulary frequently used in Longdong-dialect mainly through field investigation, which not only revealed the true nature of Longdong dialect, but also facilitated the in-depth study of Longdong dialect at phonological level, conducive to exploring the cultural significance of folk customs in Longdong area. The glossary is as follows: Han:a rain which lasts for long time. For example, "Han" refers to a rain lasting for long tine in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Cha: cutting horizontally or obliquely. For instance, Cha means cutting and chopping in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Choke: throat is obstructed by something such as dry bread. For example "Felling depressed like the throat is chocked by food" in the Book of Songs Wang Feng Shuli. Tang: a bar supporting human legs between desk leg or chair leg, including desk bar and bed bar. It refers to a bar in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Mi: entering into or attaching to something. For instance: the earth enters into eyes. It denotes grass entering into eyes in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Yong: withered or listless. For example, the sun withers the leaves of crops. It represents laziness in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Gu: the first birthday of a kid, which refers to first birthday after birth in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Zhun: something pure and real, such as real Red Fuji Apple. The word is mentioned in the Eight Volume of the Three Kingdoms. Hou: food "Hou" refers to "corn powder bread", such as: "sticky corn powder bread." The Book of Songs Daya Gongliu mentioned dried corn powder bread, and the Origin of Chinese Characters explained "Hou" as dried food. Zui: bump or swelling, or male genitalia, such as a bump on growing on the arm. It refers to male genitalia in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Liao: open space outside a house, such as open (outdoor) place. The Origin of Chinese Characters explaines it as empty place. Xiao: arms and hands, such as long arms. It denotes arm in the Origin of Chinese Characters. Bian: tucking clothes, for instance, "tucking long sleeves". It means "tucking" in On Balance Self-Discipline. Yin: reproduction and high yield. For example, high-yielding jujube. In the Origin of Chinese Characters, it refers to carrying on the family line.

2008

Chinese Transcription of Foreign Words Prior to the 19th Century Geoff Wade Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore Abstract Chinese languages have, since their emergence, been in contact with the languages of non-Sinitic peoples. The resultant language contact has meant both representation and borrowing of non-Chinese lexical items in Chinese languages. This article provides a number of vignettes showing how nonChinese languages have either represented or borrowed from non-Chinese languages over the last 2,000 years. The influences of Indic, Persian, Arab, and Mongol languages on Chinese and the way new lexical items were represented are addressed in a chronological format. This is followed by a brief examination of the attempts to formalize Chinese knowledge of foreign languages, culminating in the emergence of various vocabularies of foreign languages represented phonetically in Chinese characters. This was the format adopted when the Chinese began representing ...