Chinese 352

Readings assignment for “historical reconstruction” and “language contact”:

a. online files on “historical reconstruction”

b. online file on “language contact”

Homework 6

1. Before the use of Romanization and fanqie, what methods were used to indicate the sound of a character?  What were the problems for these methods?

2. Use the characters in group A to indicate the sounds of the characters in group B with the Fanqie method:

A: 故gù, 大dà, 钢gāng, 马mǎ, 内nèi, 可kě, 水shuǐ, 帮bāng, 扔rēng, 后hòu, 太 tài, 饭fàn

B: 凤fēng, 够gòu, 带dài, 方fāng, 裤kù

3. Chinese words/characters have been borrowed into Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese in three ways:

1) borrowing both the sound and meaning (S+M); 

2) borrowing just the meaning (M); 

3) borrowing just the sound (S).  

Identify the type of borrowing below:

Meaning/character in Chinese	Sound in Chinese	Meaning in J/K/V	Sound in J/K/V	Type？
water         水	shui	water	mur  (K)
walk           行	hang	line/order	hang (V)
vehicle         车	che	vehicle	cha (K)
capital         京	king	capital	miyako(J)
Chinese       汉	han	Chinese	han (K)

4. Based on the data, reconstruct the Middle Chinese pronunciation for the two words. Justify your decision by using all the evidence.

character	Cantonese	Hakka	Min	Mandarin	Rhyme
男	nam	nam	lam	nan	覃
难	nan	nan	lan	nan	寒

5.  Given the data, reconstruct the original initials for the two words and explain your decision. Please use all evidence, including characters.

character	meaning	Cantonese	Mandarin	Fanqie
狗	'dog'	gau	gou	古后
句	'sentence'	goy	ju	古去

6. Given the data below, reconstruct the original sound and explain your decision.

character	meaning	Cantonese	Mandarin	Sino-Japanese
六	'six”	lok	liu	loku

7. How is Chinese written evidence (Rhyme, Fanqie, Character) different in nature from dialect and foreign evidence? You can use the reconstruction problems above as examples.