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SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS

Number 7 January, 1988

Indo-European Vocabulary in Old Chinese


A New Thesis on the Emergence of Chinese Language and Civilization in the Late Neolithic Age
by Tsung-tung Chang

Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA vmair@sas.upenn.edu www.sino-platonic.org

SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair.


The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. The only style-sheet we honor is that of consistency. Where possible, we prefer the usages of the Journal of Asian Studies. Sinographs (hanzi, also called tetragraphs [fangkuaizi]) and other unusual symbols should be kept to an absolute minimum. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. Submissions are regularly sent out to be refereed and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Manuscripts should be double-spaced with wide margins and submitted in duplicate. A set of "Instructions for Authors" may be obtained by contacting the editor. Ideally, the final draft should be a neat, clear camera-ready copy with high blackand-white contrast. Contributors who prepare acceptable camera-ready copy will be provided with 25 free copies of the printed work. All others will receive 5 copies. Sino-Platonic Papers is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Please note: When the editor goes on an expedition or research trip, all operations (including filling orders) may temporarily cease for up to two or three months at a time. In such circumstances, those who wish to purchase various issues of SPP are requested to wait patiently until he returns. If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. N.B.: Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers will be published electronically on the Web. Issues from no. 1 to no. 170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web.

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C o n t e n t s Recent developments i n t h e f i e l d of h i s t o r i c a l l i n g u i s t i c s Monosyllabic s t r u c t u r e of Chinese words and Indo-European s t e m s Tonal a c c e n t s o f Middle Chinese P r e l i m i n a r i e s on t h e comparison of consonants an? vowels Some IE s t e m s c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o Chinese words o f e n t e r i n g t o n e Middle Chinese t o n e s and f i n a l consonants of I E s t e m s Some I E s t e m s c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o Chinese words of r i s i n g t o n e Some IE s t e m s c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o Chinese words o f v a n i s h i n g t o n e
1

3
3

4 5

8
9

12

Some IE s t e m s c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o Chinese words o f l e v e l t o n e 17 R e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f Middle Chinese vocalism a c c o r d i n g t o Yiin -ch i n g 26 Old Chinese v o c a l i s m Vocalic correspondences between Chinese and I E I n i t i a l s o f Old Chinese I n i t i a l consonant c l u s t e r s i n Old Chinese as s e e n from IE-sterns Proximity o f Chinese t o Germanic R e l a t i o n of Old Chinese t o neighboring languages Emergence o f Chinese Empire and language i n t h e Middle of t h e t h i r d millennium B.C.
29

30 31 31
32 33
35

Appendix Abbrevations Bibliography Rhyme Tables o f E a r l y Middle Chinese ( 6 0 0 ) Rhyme Tables o f E a r l y Mandarin ( 13 0 0 ) Word Index, E n g l i s h Piny i n

Indo-European Vocabulary i n O l d Chinese. A New T h e s i s on t h e m e r g e n c e of Chinese Language and C i v i l i z a t i o n i n t h e L a t e Neolithic Age* Tsung-tung Chang, U n i v e r s i t y of F r a n k f u r t , West Germany

I n 1786, j u s t o v e r two hundred y e a r s ago, comparative h i s t o r i c a l l i n g u i s t i c s w a s b o r n , when S i r W i l l i a m J o n e s (1746-1794) d i s c o v e r e d t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p between Old-Indian S a n s k r i t , Greek, and L a t i n . S i n c e t h e n , t h e emerging Indo-European p h i l o l o g y h a s thrown much l i g h t on t h e e a r l y h i s t o r y o f mankind i n E u r a s i a . During t h e p a s t two hundred y e a r s , many s u g g e s t i o n s were a l s o made i n r e g a r d t o r e l a t i o n s h i p s o f Indo-European t o o t h e r languages such as S e m i t i c , A l t a i c , A u s t r o n e s i a n , Korean e t c , , b u t IndoE u r o p e a n i s t s commonly r e j e c t e d such a t t e m p t s f o r want of c o n v i n c i n g e v i d e n c e . A s t o C h i n e s e , Joseph Edkins was t h e f i r s t t o advance t h e t h e s i s of i t s p r o x i m i t y t o Indo-European. I n h i s work China's
P l a c e i n P h i l o l o g y . An A t t e m p t t o show that the Language of Europe and A s i a

he p r e s e n t e d a number of Chinese words s i m i l a r t o t h o s e o f Indo-European.


have a C o n r m o n Origin

( 187 1)

I n h i s t i m e , E d k i n s ' t h e s i s seemed b o l d and e x t r a v a g a n t . But t o d a y , more t h a n a hundred y e a r s l a t e r , w e a r e i n a much b e t t e r p o s i t i o n t o c a r r y o u t a comprehensive and well-founded comparative s t u d y . S i n c e the end o f t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y , many S i n o l o g i s t s have been engaged i n r e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f t h e mediaeval and a r c h a i c r e a d i n g s of Chinese c h a r a c t e r s . Among them, Karlgren (1889-1978) was t h e most s u c c e s s f u l , and i n 1 9 4 0 h e p u b l i s h e d a comprehensive p h o n o l o g i c a l and e t y m o l o g i c a l d i c t i o n a r y e n t i t l e d ~ i a m m a t a s e r i c a . I n t h e meantime, t h e Indo-Europeanists A l o i s Walde (1869-1924) and J u l i u s Pokorny (1887-1970) w e r e d e v o t i n g themselves t o t h e c o m p i l a t i o n of a u s e f u l e t y m o l o g i c a l d i c t i o n a r y . The r e s u l t was t h e I n d o g e r m a n i s c h e s E t y m o l o g i s c h e s W o r t e r b u c h by Pokorny ( 1 959) which provides a s o l i d b a s i s f o r o u r l e x i c a l comparisons.

T h i s s t u d y i s a much expanded v e r s i o n of t h e paper I read a t t h e XXXII I n t e r n a t i o n a l Congress f o r Asian and N o r t h African S t u d i e s on August 28, 1986 i n Hamburg (Germany) .

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-European Vocabulary in Old Chinese"

Soon thereafter, some Sinoloqists made use .-of the two dictionaries by ~arlgrenand Pokorny to compare Chinese and Indo-European words. In 1967, an unaffiliated German scholar, Jan Ulenbrook, published an article "Einige Ubereinstimmungen zwischen dem Chinesischen und dem Indogermanischen", in which he claimed that 57 words are related. Shortly afterwards, Tor Ulving of the University of GBteborg, Sweden, wrote a review of this article framing the title as a question: "Indo-European elements in Chinese?" While working on his thesis on word families in Chinese, Ulving compiled for his own use two dictionaries: "Archaic Chinese - English" and "English - Archaic Chinese", and discovered thereby 238 Chinese words similar to Indo-European roots. In spite of this considerable number of word equivalents, however, Mr. Ulving became discouraged and, as he told me in his letter of April, 1986, has given up his researches in this field. The skepticism, common among Indo-Europeanists in regard to comparative studies with other languages, is largely based on the dogmatic opinion that only morphology is relevant but not vocabulary. Since the typology of Chinese seems to preclude a cognate relation to Indo-European, they are inclined to discard any lexical correspondences as merely accidental or onomatopoetic. Besides, prehistorical contacts and mixtures between these languages seem not conceivable, as the Indo-Europeans are supposed to have originated in Northern Europe or at best in the Central Asian steppe, thousands of miles away from East Asia. Hence, any research into a relationship between Old Chinese and Indo-European languages would be but futile from the outset. Yet there are also opposing views among Indo-Europeanists. Investigations into Germanic languages and the oldest Indo-European language, Hittite, led some of them to a critical revision of the prevailing conception about a Proto-Indo-European. Hermann Hirt (1934) for instance states: "Inflexion of Indo-European languages is due to a relatively late development, and its correct comprehension can be achieved only by proceeding from the time of

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

non-inflexion." And Carl Karstien (1936) holds the opinion that "Chinese corresponds most ideally to the hypothetic prototype of Indo-European." Regarding vocabulary, there are striking similarities in the monosyllabic structure of the basic words. In modern German and English, all the words of everyday speech are monosyllabic and their stereotypical structure is : initial consonant ( s ) + vowel (s) + final consonant (s)

The same word structure is valid for Chinese as well. It is fundamentally different from the disyllabic structure of Altaic words and from the triconsonantal-disyllabic structure of Semitic words. Characteristic of the monosyllabic word structure is, besides, the complexity of the syllable nucleus, which consists of different vowels and vowel clusters in contrast to the monophthongal vocalism of polysyllabic words. Another objection raised to comparisons between Chinese and IndoEuropean is the existence of tonal accents in Chinese. Since most modern Indo-European languages have only expiratory accents, Chinese is considered to be a highly exotic language. Yet, even in Chinese, the use of tonal accents as a means of lexical differentiation is a result of comparatively recent development in the long history of Chinese language, the earliest monuments of which date back to 1300 B.C. (cf, Chang 1970, p.21). Unknown to Old Chinese, the existence of tonal accents was for the first time mentioned in the 5th century by Shen Yiieh (441-513). In Middle Chinese (Mch.) there were four tone categories: A Ping-sheng , a level tone (which developed into Mandarin tone 1 or 2) B Shang-sheng k , a rising tone (Mandarin tone 3) C Ch'ii-sheng , a vanishing, i.e. falling tone (Mandarin tone 4) D Ju-sheng A , an entering tone with a staccato effect, the word being abruptly stopped by a final consonant -p, -t, -k. (In Early Mandarin the words of this tone lost their final consonant and were distributed among the tones 2, 3 and 4, respectively according to the phonation of initials) In Middle Chinese, words of the entering tone were the only group which still preserved the final stops and therefore a close syllabic structure. So they are most appropriate for convincing comparisons with monosyllabic Indo-European word stems.

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese" The f i n a l s t o p s -p, - t r -k of t h e e n t e r i n g t o n e are nowadays s t i l l e x t a n t i n d a i l y speech of s e v e r a l d i a l e c t s i n South China as w e l l a s i n Chinese borrowings i n J a p a n e s e , Vietnamese and Korean. A s a s p e a k e r o f a Taiwan d i a l e c t o f Minnan o r i g i n , I c o u l d immediately i d e n t i f y some Indo-European s t e m s w i t h c o r r e s p o n d i n g Chinese words. B e s i d e s , t h e command of Japanese and German w a s a l s o a g r e a t help f o r t h i s study. I n t h e f o l l o w i n g l i s t s I have chosen a number o f Indo-European s t e m s which are p h o n e t i c a l l y and s e m a n t i c a l l y e q u i v a l e n t t o Chinese words. Correspondences i n i n i t i a l and f i n a l consonants r e f e r t o t h e p o i n t s of a r t i c u l a t i o n , t h u s w e have e q u a t i o n s :
IE
IE

IE
IE

l a b i a l s = Old Chinese l a b i a l s , I E d e n t a l s = d e n t a l s , 1, r = d e n t a l s ( c f . p. 3 1 ) ; @, i ( f i n a l and m e d i a l ) v e l a r s = v e l a r s and l a r y n g e a l s , and occasionally ( t h e s o - c a l l e d "satemu-forms) v e l a r s = d e n t a l s i b i l a n t s and a f f r i c a t e s .

Regarding t h e manner of a r t i c u l a t i o n , t h e r e are no r e g u l a r c o r r e s pondences between Indo-European and Chinese consonants l i k e G r i m m ' s law which i s v a l i d among Indo-European d i a l e c t s t o a c e r t a i n e x t e n t . But t h i s i s n o t a s t o n i s h i n g , s i n c e i n Old Chinese t h e a l t e r n a t i o n of i n i t i a l s i n v o i c i n g w a s a c o n v e n t i o n a l means o f c r e a t i n g new words from one b a s i c form. The r u l e s of v o c a l i c correpondences among Indo-European d i a l e c t s a r e q u i t e complex. Vowels permanent1 change t h e i r q u a l i t i e s from wi,?hIn one l a n "age one language t o a n o t h e r , and from t u n e t o tlme,a%so, a s i s w e l l known from t h e h i s t o r y of E n g l i s h p r o n u n c i a t i o n s . G e n e r a l l y , t h e vocalism o f Old Greek i s t a k e n a s t h e s t a n d a r d f o r Proto-IndoEuropean. Old Chinese vowels corresponds n e a r l y ( c f . p. 30), b u t t h e d e t a i l s a b o u t t h e r e c o n s t r u c t i o n of Middle and Old C h i n e s e vocalism w i l l be t r e a t e d l a t e r (pp. 2 6 - 3 0 ) . For t h e moment, it i s n e c e s s a r y t o n o t i c e i n advance t h a t t h e s t e m of a b l a u t i n g Germanic v e r b s i s t h e form of p r e t e r i t e or noun, r a t h e r t h a n t h a t o f i n f i n i t i v e as assumed h i t h e r t o . T h e r e f o r e , i n some c a s e s I must s l i g h t l y modify t h e b a s i c vowel o f v e r b a l stems g i v e n i n Pokorny, i n o r d e r t o g e t b e t t e r b a s i s f o r comparison. A s Old Chinese v e r b s w e r e nonf l e x i o n a l , t h e y might p r o b a b l y have p r e s e r v e d t h e o r i g i n a l vowel t h e best.

Sitw -Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Indo-European

s t e m s c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o Chinese words o f e n t e r i n g t o n e :
meaning and word examples b e l l y , nhd. Bauch ags.bTic, ahd.bGht mhd bEch , schwed . buk, dan bu

Pokorny page stem loo bhug

/ 1 1

Ach.
P U ~

Mch. pjuk 1 111* buk


1 I

Nch.

fu: 3

t o bask i n t h e sun g r . ( P ~ # ' w ,a h a - b a h h a n , ags.bacan,b5c,aisl.baka 117 bheidh t o i n s i s t , t o bi,d, t o b i d e , g r TI g o t . b i d j a n , ahd.mhd. b i t t e n , a g s *biddan, as .bidd jan, e n q l .to b i d t o c l a s p (nhd klammern) ags . c l y p p a n , a f r i e s kleppa, e n g l - c l a s p

phu :

7
phu :

pi:

" 1
pi:
3

klap

keap 39 I1 niet 23 I V kiep 39

kea

5%
p e t
.

371

gnet

t o knead, nhd .kneten , ahd k n e t a n , a g s .cnedan

nie kie

4%

cheek (nhd. K i e f e r ) kep a g s . c e a f e , rnengl.chavel/

/ IVI

393 586

god kot glag


--

cot, hole an.kot, ags .cot

khu : lau
4

400
-

408

ghobh

t o give, donation g o t . g i b a n , a h d . geban, g o t . g i b a , a h d . geba, mhd. gabe , nhd.gabe t o helpi t o cooperate got. hilpa, as. a g s . h e l p a n ahd. h e l f a n , e n g l . h e l p hap, happen, s u ' i t a b l e a g s . gehoep " s u i t a b l e " schwed hapa s i g ''it happens"

ki: 3

554

kalb

xie

xie
--

610

kob

xo:

61 6

kost

(bone, r i b skr. k8stf lat. costa, f r z . c6te " r i b " labg. k o s t , p o l n . koi% i "bone"
I

kot

ku: 3

Arabic and Roman numbers i n d i c a t e t h e Rhyme g r o u p and Grade respect i v e l y ( c f . Rhyme Tables o f E a r l y Middle Chinese i n Appendix, p . 43) A l i s t o f a b b r i v a t i o n s may b e found a t t h e end of t h e p a p e r (pp.40)

Tsung-tung Chang, ''Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

Pokorny page stem


645

meaning and wokd examples what? ai .kad, lat-quid, ahd-hwaz, anohvat, as-hwat, ags-hwwt little, miserable as olGtr luttil, ahd ,luzil, mhd .liitzelr ags. lytel leaf got-lauf, ahd-loub, ags .leaf, nhd .Laub mast, to fatten ahd .mhd .mnd .mast, ags .moest to die, death a t lat.mors, ahd-mord, mhd.mort, ag.s Yais1 .mord to drown- ( ertr inken) ai .nassti, av .nas-, lat nex, "accidental death"
:

Ach. fiuat

Mch. f i z t
24 RI

Nch.
XO:

Ch. xY: he
2 4
2

kWad

45
leut

684

lend

luet
24RIII

l u e4

lje: lie ie4 Ye


4
4

st;'
lop

690

lobh

iap40IV

ie4 -

694

mad

mat

moat 24RI mot 18RI

muo

mu04 mo
4

%
mot

735

mort

. mu :

muo4 mo4

762

nak

.
.

nak

niek
35 IV

ni:

ni: ni
4

843

pauk

few (diinn, wenig) bzk 1st-pagcus, ahd-oh, fao, fo, as.fa, ags-fea

'
e

bak
31 1

Pau2

PO:
buat

pao2 Pot2 bao


2

837 856
,

plod regt

float, nhdl FloD blot ahd .mhd .vloz, ags .flGot right, nhd. richtig, ahd .mhd ,as .rat, ags .riht to tear, to slitahd-r'izan, mhd .rizen, nhd .r.e.i.Ben , schleiBen
zeak A

fa:

22QIII
zjak
4 2 I11

fa5 fa

fii2
lie
sau 3

@:'
I

shi2 lie4 lie4


SUO

859

rist
.

list

liet
21

.9.2.6. slid 877

IV

sag

S& to seek, nhd.sucheg got-sdkjan, aisl.s@kja, ahd.~uohh n, ags .sZTecan, & e as.sskian, mnd .&ken

s5k
31 I
1

SUO

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page stem


880

meaning and word examples sap, nhd Saft lat-sapa, aisl-safi, ahd.saf, sapf, ags.saep, mhd saf ,saft

Mch

Nch.

Ch.

sap

I
913 921

sup skid

i1

soup,.. nhd Suppe ,ai supaahd.s~f,souf,sopha,soffa

P
I

sop

922

skip

I I

to shit, nhd. schei0en h a t ahd.scxzan, ags-scxtan, aisl skrta

siet
21 IV

+
sie

1 xie

935
931
963

skrek skop
sleubh

I I

rudder, ship gr. 6kLriul: lat.scxpio, got .aisl .ags .skip, ahd scif

tsiap

tsiap
40 IV

tseak inclined, nhd-schrag mhd schraege, nd schrege #lJ

. .

to scoop, nhd.sch6pfen ahd-scaf, scepfen to slip into zleup ziup got.slLupan, ahd sliofan ags .slupanr nhd .schlupfe 38 IV roof, house, nhd .Dach gr. 6 ~ E f i 5 , d t o s , ahd.dah, aisl.$ak, ags.cfoec, engl-thatch dgk

ki:

1013

tog

1017

stig

to g o u p , nhd-steigen, tiak got .steigan, aisl .stxga, ahd .ags.stTgan b b !


to rush at, nhd-sturzen dut ahd sturZen, mhd s t i i rzen sturzen, mnd .mnl storten engl-start

1024

sturd

dot
18 RI

1032

stouk

1058
183

tek
dgg

arrowheaa, nhd .stuck, bret.stuclhr anord.stykkz, as-stukki, ahd stucki, mhd stiicke

tsuk
1 I

y T
tsu: tsu:

to take, nhd .bekommen, aisl.@iggia, dSn.tigge, ags .dicg an, as .tiqqian got-tEkan, engl.take

tak

tak

Tsung-tung C hang "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"


For f u r t h e r p r o g r e s s i n i n t e r l i n g u a l comparison, it i s e s s e n t i a l t o t r a c e o u t t h e l o s t f i n a l c o n s o n a n t s of Chinese words w i t h l e v e l , r i s i n g and v a n i s h i n g t o n e s . E a r l y a t t h e beg i n n i n g of h i s p h o n e t i c a l s t u d y of Old Chinese, Kwgren (1923, pp. 2 8 ) a l r e a d y came t o t h e c o n c l u s i o n t h a t t h e Middle Chinese words of r i s i n g and v a n i s h i n g t o n e s e n d i n g i n -i o r -u must o r i g i n a l l y have had a f i n a l consonant -g o r -d ( o c c a s i o n a l l y a l s o -b), b u t he d i d n o t go s o f a r a s t o a s c r i b e -g t o a l l words w i t h r i s i n g t o n e . I n Grammata S e r i c a (1940) h e i n t r o d u c e d f u r t h e r -r ( p . 2 5 ) and -g ( p e 34 and 39) f o r t h e two groups o f words w i t h l e v e l t o n e . Tung T'ung-ho (1948) t h e n reproached Karfgren w i t h methodological i n c o n s i s t a n c y and r e s t o r e d -g f o r a l l Middle Chinese words ending i n -0 and -u, l e a v i n g o n l y one group of open sflables -a as p e r m i s s i b l e f o r Old Chinese. I n d o i n g s o , Tung u n f o r t u n a t e l y r u l e d o u t a p o s s i b l e d e f i n i t e r e l a t i o n between Middle Chinese t o n e s and Old Chinese f i n a l consonants and l e d t h e whole s t u d y i n t o a deadend ( c f . Chang 1986, pp. 5 3 ) . Meanwhile P u l l e y b l a n k (1962 and 1 9 8 3 ) , among o t h e r l e a r n e d s c h o l a r s , had l o n g been i n v e s t i g a t i n g s y s t e m a t i c a l l y t h e e a r l y Chinese t r a n s c r i p t i o n s of I n d i c Buddhist terms and A s i a t i c l o c a l names i n o r d e r t o o b t a i n "independent e v i d e n c e " f o r merely t h e o r e t i c a l l y r e c o n s t r u c t e d o l d p r o n u n c i a t i o n s . With numerous examples he succeeded i n conf i r m i n g t h a t Middle Chinese words of v a n i s h i n g t o n e had a dent a l f i n a l (1962, p. 21 5 ) , and t h o s e o f r i s i n g t o n e a v e l a r f i n a l ( p. 225) i n t h e e a r l y c e n t u r i e s A.C. These correspondences which have been p a r t i a l l y a t t e s t e d by t h e rhyming of Old Chinese p o e t r y , can now a l s o be proved by Indo-European synonymous s t e m s . Thus t h e f o l l o w i n g e q u a t i o n s may be p o s i t e d :
a. Mch. v a n i s h i n g t o n e < Ach. -d, -s
= I E -s o r d e n t a l s = .IE labials

" "

( o c c a s i o n a l l y ) < Ach. -b (cf.p.16) < Ach. -g

= IE v e l a r s
= I E velars = I E -u,
-0

b. Mch. r i s i n g t o n e

< Ach. -g < Ach. -g

(occasionally)

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

c. Mch. level tone (cf. pp. 24) (cf. pp. 24)

< < < < <

Ach. Ach. Ach. Ach. Ach.

-@
-@,

-u -g -u

IE -@ -i= IE -r, -1 = IE velars


=

= IE velars
=

IE labials (occasionally)

In the following list a number of Indo-European stems are given which correspond to Chinese words of rising tone: Pokorny page stem
107

meaning and word examples

i
I

~ c h . Mch. lbou
!,2RI

1 Nch.
I
I I

Ch. pu:.4
4

bhog

141

188

188

213

227

257

book,nhd.Buch; to book bo:g ahd.buoh, as.afries aqs-an. b i 5 k bhrg castle, nhd. Burg po :g gr. T T ~ Q J ~ S ~ i latoburgus "tower", 1 got-baurgs "city,tower" engloboroughtburrow, ; local names -bury I ' taig topointat/to, deik nhd. zeigen , gr tfs6kb'ih lat.dzc6, ahd.zeigGn, mhd. zeiqen,aqs.teon toe, nhd Zehe doik lat. digitus "finger, , toe", ahd.zGha, aqs. t-Zhe, tZ drk glance (nhd- Blick) ai. df6- "glance", gr. d<pk O A A ~ n to see, to glance" idle, lazy, nhd. trage, dag dregh ahd.trXgi, mhd-traege, as.trXg , mnd trach , ,El mnl traqhe do:g dhrogh way, trail norw (dialect) drog "trail of animals, valley", russ. doroga, poln. droga "way", (hebr. d-r-q) I

1, %

pu:

4*

, I ,

! pau
i

pau
I
I

bu4 ~ p a3 o
!
I

I
a

25 I :$Cjaik
6 I11

bao t ~ 2 :t e ~ i . :3
I

3 I zhi
I

2 %

i
1 2 . 1 daiA 13 I
*

taj
I

4*

tai

dad

[tau4* itao4 ,
I

1 dai4
I

IS

1251

( dao

* In Early Mandarin,Middle Chinese rising tone changed not into


third, but into fourth tone, if the initial was voiced.

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"

Pokorny page stem


522
P

meaning and word examples

Ach.

Mch.

Nch.

Ch. khY: 3
3 ke . 3 kao3 gao 4 xaoq hao $?jap3

kak

be capable of, can hag accepta9ler ai-kaknoti "can", aisl-hagr "suitable", mhd behagen"acceptablem TiJ

k h ~ :kho: ~

27 I

597

Ic

keuk

bright, shining, ai .%cati, sucyati


#

kag

%
@

kau-t. 25 I hauL
25 I

,k

fiaug keug
,

xau4 kjau 3

kieuL
251V

658
659
'

log
q.

gr.~l'~,

to gather lat-legs
I

logh

camp, nhd. Lager ags-lagu, rnnd-lach, engl-law, ahd.luog

%@S
&SRIII

667

leig

body ,corpse,(nhd. Leiche) lhaig got .leik, aisl .lik, ahd.lih, mhd-lih, engl."lychV in lych-gate f % to tempt, nhd-locken, leug ahdolochon, lucchen, lockon, aisl. lokka ags .loccian, mnl locken, mhd liicken 3 ' 5

theiL
13IV

thi: ti3 iu3


jou4

687
I
I

leugh

jiu

!
688
louk

37 IV

YOU ie
ie3
ye3

lea, open field ahd.16hrmnd.lbh, ags-leah, lit-laukas, nhd-lokal names: -1oh horse ir .marc, ahd .marah, ags-mearh, aisl-marr

1o:g

iaL
291V

B
mag

700

mork

me*
29 I1

ma:

ma: 3

Is

ma 3

748
'

merg

a ,
sea/laker nhd .Meer ags -merece, aisl .merki, aksl.rnorje
3

(mongl.morj, -rg>-rj as in Scandinavian languages)

1 1 3 I

hai3

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page .stem


799

meaning and word examples

Ach.

,Mch. bod
12 I

Nch. pu:
4

Ch. pu: 4
bu 4

polg

folk, nhd.Volk, bog ahd.ags.folc, aisl. ,dan.,schwed .folk, poln. polk, (hebr p-l-g)

845 preg

impudent, nhd-frech, got. (faihu-) friks, "greedy after money" , aisl-frekr, ags-frecc, ahd .freh "greedy"

peag

pjai

pi:

pi: 3 bi3

6 III

898

sikW

ziag to see, sight got-saihvan,aisl.sjZ as.ahd. sehan, nhd-sehen ahd.mhd.siht, nhd.Sicht #B backbone, nhd.Rlickgrat, liog aisl-hryggr,ags-hrycg, ahd .(h) rukki, engl .ridge $ ! $

zjaib
6111

rg:4 J 4i :

shi leu3 ly:

938 kreuk

l j o : '

I 1 I11
ljaik
8111

1ii 3 li: li:3 li3 ts2: 3 zi3

965

slzk

plum, sloe ahd.slEha, mhd.slehe, ags.slZh, nhd.Schlehe, poln.'sliwka, russ.sliva

sliag

1032 treg
251
L

tseag dreg(s)l gr. reat;, - f o 5 , dhregh mhd.mnd.drec, ags.&eax, schwed.track, nhd .Dreck (=Bodensatz) @
A

tseaik tt,:3

8 11

It is fascinating to see that the velar final stop lost over 1500 years ago in Chinese is in most cases still preserved and pronounced in ~erman,English,etc. even today. Furthermore, we find that in Modern Chinese some European proper names such as Hamburg and Marx (=Markus) %f are meaningfully well transcribed The common word "p1u.m"~among Chinese.,German and Slavic languages is very instructive as positive evidence against tne Western Theory prevailing among Indo-Europeanists who would have limited the original homeland of Indo-Europeans to a small zone of Middle Europe with beech and birch trees ("Buche und Birke", cf. Kilian pp.36).

5a

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"

The f o l l o w i n g l i s t w i l l show t h a t t h e Indo-European s t e m s which s e m a n t i c a l l y a n d p h o n e t i c a l l y c o r r e s p o n d t o C h i n e s e words w i t h v a n i s h i n g t o n e have i n most cases a d e n t a l f i n a l a n d some(864/891) t i m e s -b o r -p. S e v e r a l words l i k e % (392/405) and r e f e r t o stems w i t h a d e n t a l , as w e l l a s t h o s e w i t h a l a b i a l final.

>

Pokorny page s t e m 14 5

meaning and .word examples

Ach.

Mch. pui*
1OR111

Nch.

Ch. fei fei


4

b h r u - t t o b o i l , nhd b r o d e l n pud a i s l . a g s .bro&, ahd . p r o t , b a i r .brod, e n g l . b r o t h @ "Briihe" t o split, t o burst pod gr.~fid-7~ mhd . p l a t z e n , b l a t z e n , nhd . p l a t Z e n bhorst t o b u r s t , nhd-bersten ( h e b r . p - r - t z " t o t e a r " ) $6 b h* ld b h r u s t b r e a s t , nhd.Brust g o t .ahd .mhd . b r u s t a n . b r j o s t , a g s .brEost a k s l .plugta,apr . p l a u t i plut aruss.plju6a "lung" drd
0

fi:

155

phoa*

phuo4

phuo

169 171

28.R I

PO

4
4

pud

phui*

fi:

fei

837

10 R I I 7 tod tau 37 I tseik 15 I V k h e i a khi: 4


I

fei tau tou dou


tsi:
4

207

t o d e f y , nhd t r o t z e n mhd . t r a t z e n , t r e t z e n mnd.trot, mhd.traz nhd.Trotz " d e f i a n c e " between, nhd zwischen as .twisk, n l tusschen engl .betwixt

4
4

I7
tuais

23 1

duisk

.
.

Wi:
ji
4

B%

392

gerbh

405

gred

keb t o carve, n h d - k e r b e n gr ahd k e r b a n , ags . c e o r f a n ked t o carve, nhd-kritzeln ahd . k r i z z d n , mhd . k r i t z e n

.rfa~u .
.

tqhi:

13 Iv 9eanh 23 I1 ean

qi

4 4

41 2

ghans

g o o s e , nhd .Gans, a i hahsd-h , g r X$V, l a t . a n s e r , ahd .gans, a g s .gBs, a i s l .gas

gans

jen

R E

4 yan.
i

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page s t e m
431

meaning and word examples glint, to glint, nhd Glanz , g l a n z e n ahd -mhd . g l a n z , g l e n z e n

Ach. gland

Mch. lank
23 I

Nchlan

Ch.
lan4 4 lan

ghland

'm
sland

ditto (Satem-form, cf.p.4)


436

'&
kead

t s h a a tshan4 tshan4 23 I c a n4 keak


2 9 11

ghelt

p r i c e , t o be worth a i s l .g j a l d , a g s . g i e l d , ahd .mhd . g e l t , nhd -Geld, gelten

kea

fFia4

4@!

ji a
xuaj
4

4 4

445

ghorst

516
627

kad kuat ghost

nasty, nhd-garstig goad m i r - g o i r t , mhd.mnd.garst; l i t . q r a s & "nasty person" . t o f a l l , ai.sad-, l a t -cad6 t o t u r n sour l a t .cXseus " c h e e s e "

huai*

xuaj

I
4

14RII

huai

453

u a i4 stranger , outside goad 905j* u a j lat.hostis I g o t . g a s t s , ahd .as , g a s t 1w a i 4 a g s . q i e s t , e n q l .quest 16RI The C h i n e s e c h a r a c t e r h a s 3 = fi "moon" a s p h o n e t i c and shows t h a t a s t r a n g e r must s t a y o u t s i d e a t n i g h t .
I

488

kaid gWhaid a i r , w t a t h e r l e t t .gaiss "air,weatherv l i t - g a i s a s "gleam of l i g h t i n t h e sky" R kanth ridge, shore 'mnd-kantCe], nhd .Kante, af r z .cant herd,, h e r i t a g e , d e s c e n t a i dargha-, a p e r s .&ard g o t . h a i r d a , ahd .her t a a g s h e o r d , nhd .Herde gand

k h j i k ~ k h i :ItEhi: ~ 4'
I

9 I11

526

cJan

I qi 4

an

an
an
4

E+
fied

23 I

579

kerdh

. .

~ e i * xi:
1 3 IV

4 ~ i :

%
1

xi laj

4
4
4

666

lod

I
696
inogd

g r .a$ J E ~ v l a,t . l a s s u s g o t . l a t s , as . l a t , jags . l o e t , ahd. l a z

lazy, l a t e , nhd.laB

l ; j *
15 1

lai lai

I
/mmi4

maid, ( a c h . jounger s i s t e r ) mod g o t .magabsf ahd .magad, a s .magath , nhd .Magd, Madchen r ags-moeg

moi
1 4 ~ 1

mei4
mei
4

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

Pokorny page stem 819 purd


.

meaning and word examples art, to art gr.7ied$, ahd-furz mhd.vurz, nhd.Furz, furzen, ags-feortan

Ach.
'

Mch.

Nch.

Ch. fei4 4 fei 4 phi: pi 4


4

P U ~

pfiui&' fi:4
lORIII
.

819

perd pezd

fart,,to fart,lat.pedo pad gr. 7 ~ s e d i , - r r c e J o ~ ~ . r ~ . ahd-ferzan,aisl.freta ahd .fir=, aisl-frets fright, to be fearful of pogd ahd .as .forhta, ags .fyrhtu, nhd.Furcht, got .faurhts, ahd .as. ags .forht, nhd .furchtsam

phai%
6 IV

phi:

820

porkt

pheak

pha:

pha:

'm

29 I1
dzai*

pa4

884

selbh

self, nhd.selbst, selb (er), got. silba, anord.sj&lr, ags.self, ahd selb

zaib

t ~ k :ts2: ~ 4

891

seit

since, nhd.seit ahd s I d , mhd s1t, ags.si&, aisl.siz

zaid
,

I2

6 IV
i

4 zi

892

sidh
I

to rsach one'^ aim ai sadhati, sidhyati

tsiad

3
zoad

f.Fjai* 6 III
dm&*

t ~ d . :tek: ~ 44
zhi
1

886

sbd

seat, chair, nhd .Sit2 cf ai-sddas-,gr. ~ 6 0 ais~saetr, lit.s6stas

tsuo4

tsuo4
ZUO

28 RI tsianhsin 17 IV dzia* 4 IV tsk:4 4

4
4

908

sent

seand to send, to present got-sandjan, aisl.senda ahdosenten,agsmsendan @ nhd-senden, dan-send slit aisl.slit, ahd-sliz, mhd .sliz, nhd-Schlitz dziad

f~in 4 jin 4 t s i . :
4 zi

926

slid

950

skoth scathe, nhd Schade (n) got. skabis , aisl skadi ags. scada, ahd. scado -

fiod

xa j

xa j
,hai

15 I
>

Sino-PlatonicPapers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page stem 656 slab

meaning and 1 word examples sleep, nhd. Schlaf ahd .mhd .sl'df, as. slap ags .slZep, got .slSps ai svdpiti, svepati lat.sGpi6, aisl-sofa ags-swefan to dwindle, nhd. schwinden, Schwund ahd swintan, mhd swinden, ags-swindan

Ach

Mch.

Nch.

Ic~.

zuab

1048

syap

zuab

1
( son*

I shui

1047 suendh
rl

suand

1048

suent quick n aisl.svinnr, mhd-swinde, swint, geschwinde, nhd geschwind

18 RIV

strong, sound got.swin~s. aisl.svinnr, afries-sund, ahd-gisunt, as.gisund, ags.gesund, nhd gesund

18 R I V

besom, broom, to sweep 1 ai. svapu, aisl.s6fl isl.s6pa, engl-sweep


-

zuab

zuei

suai4

suei4 4 hu i

16 RIV suei2.

1050

suerth sword, (ach. axe of A sovereign)" ahd .mhd swert , as .afries.swerd, ags sweord, nhd .Schwert

16 RIV uai*

--

1112 uald
A

reign, power uaid aisl.vald, afries .wald, as .giwalt, ags .geweald, ahd-giwalt, nhd.Gewalt, Gc aksl. vlastb want 1 wish, nhd .Wunsch ahd.wunsc, mhd.mnd. wunsch,. ags . * s c

7 RIII
P J

wei

uan3i
I

'.

yiian4

in the oracle inscriptions (1300 B.c.) is a Its archaic form drawing of an axe for slaughtering victims (cf. Chang 1970,p.135).

&

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

A g r e a t number o f words w i t h v a n i s h i n g t o n e , however, w e r e

d e r i v e d from Old Chinese words w i t h f i n a l -g, as evidenced by Indo-European stems i n t h e f o l l o w i n g l i s t . I t i s a well-known f a c t t h a t i n E a r l y Mandarin t h e words of Mch. r i s i n g t o n e a l l changed i n t o v a n i s h i n g t o n e if t h e i r i n i t i a l s were v o i c e d o r a vowel ( c f . p.9") I n many cases t h i s t o n a l s h i f t must have been on the way e a r l y be o r e t h e s i x t h c e n t u r y , s i n c e words l i k e @ , and @ a r e e n t e r e d i n t h e c h t i e h - y i i n a l r e a d y w i t h two r e a d i n g s i n both r i s i n g and v a n i s h i n g t o n e ( c f . Chou Tsu-mo 1983, p . 67 and 7 1 ) .

Pokorny page stem


74

meaning and words examples

IAch.

Mc~.

N c ~ .

ch.
j ou

aug

220

dok

a g a i n a1so;nhd. auch lo:g g r . & -rl u , got.auk,ahd.ouh, mhd. ouch, a s . an1 .dk , aqs.eak, enql-eke t o con-duct , t o l e a d 1do:g l a t .diic5, ( a l a t . d o u c ~ , ) I l a t - d u x , ahd-herizogo, a s - h e r i t o g o , nhd.Herzog @ " l e a d e r of army"
i

ju: -k

iu

4 4

37111 dau 3

tau

you t a o4 , 3

25 I
I

dao 3 t . u 4 ttou4 zhou tea : zha 4


4

240

dhogWh

276

dhrogh

d a y , nhd. Tag got.dags, a i s l . d a g r , a h d - t a c , ags.doeg, P1. d e q o r , as dag t o deceive , deception ahd-triogan, gitrog a s . bidriogan , gidrog engl-betray, t r i c k

ldog I

'tijug
37111

;
!
I

'dzog

~ ~ e a k

Itp: 4 I
lau
l a j4

3F

657

669

1076 1117

l e a k , t o l e a k ,nhd l e c k anord l e k a , ags hlec , i n n d . l a k , mhd.lechen , l e i k W ' t o bestow, t o g r a n t p i g got. leihvan , ahd. l i h a n , a q s - l i o n , enql.loan trk t h ( o ) rough, nhd. durch ,dog 0 ahd. durch , a g s durh

leg

/,,,I
lau*
37 I

;l

lOu4 I

lai&
13 I thau* I 1371

ithaul

wog

:awake, nhd. wachen lat-vegeo, got-wakan, a i s l . v a k a , as-wakon, ahd-wahhon

bog

IgE
1

!12~1

1: I

lou l a j4 4 lai thou4 tou4

'

1 4

u:4 4

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

As to the words of the Middle Chinese level tone the following Indo-European correspondences may be given :
,

Pokorny page stem


39

meaning and word examples preposition: on got-ana, as.an, ags.on, ahd.ana, an, nhd-an cup 1 bowl, nhd .Belle aisl .bolli, ags .bollat mhd.bolle; ai.pZla bear, nhd. Bar ai .bhalla-h, ahd .bero, ags.b&ra, rnhd.b$r, mnd.b@rer bare
.

Ach. oan

Mch. uen?
21 RIV

Nch. ien

Ch.
jen 2

an

'%
poi

Yan puai 1 pei

1 21

bhol

804,4pol 136 bhera

$5
peia

1 4 RI

1 be i
2

p j i a T phi:
4 111

phi:
2

@
dl%

pi

1 97

dlongh

long mpers.drang, npers. dirang , lat longus, got-laggs, an.langr ahd ags .nhd lang

qja37
31 I11

tthaY2

E
tou

chang tku'

214

drou

tree, wood av.dXuru, gr .hTP, alb*dru, got.triu, ags.trEow, as.trio town (-ton in local names) i i n "castle" air. d aisl.ags.tGn "town" nhd Zaun

pjou?
12 111

tp:I
z hu

8 k
dun

263

dhEn

don

a
tun

thun2

thun2

iM-

2 18 RI tun tshon tshunl tshunl cun1 18 R I ~

278

dor

door, ( A c h . gate of city) to: got .dadr , ahd .tor, as.dor,dur, ags-dor g r . f ~ +,& 1at.forum ~~

tou 12RI kui?

tu:

tu:

@$

du1 kusil kueil gui1 xueiL hu i2

355
639

ger kWel

639 1140
Y

kWel
we1

to turn, g r . r ~ l o ~ " e n dkuei. " afries-kEra, as.kErian, kierian, ahd keran, mhd .keren, nhd .kehren to turn, g r - ~ i x h 6uai ai, vglati, gr.c;ahh ahd. mhd. wellan, ags. wael "swirl" I

1O R I I I
hoi 14 RI
xuaiL

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

Pokorny page stem


355

meaning and word examples

Ach.

Mch. k~:?

Nch. ko:

Ch.

gZ

530

kar

ka: to sing, song .gXyati, -ti "sing"thx song, ver s e l l ., to praise ai-carkati "to praise", khr6 "singer" .

kY:

%;

1
27 I

ge
2
I

361

gleu

bal1,clew P ai-glZu-h, npers.gu1GJ.e ahd-kliuwa, kliwz, ags .cl<ewen, engl .clew

'

37 111 kou7
12 RI

qiu 2.

367

glby

kou sister of husbanc gr .ydaghs , lat.gl6s serb.s&ova, russ.zokovka B


--

ku:

ku:
gu
1

hau ai.h&ate, av-zavaiti, aksl .zoup,z%vati, russ zvat to howl, nhd -heulen C ai.kauti, gr-kw-kuw, mhd-hiulen, mnd.meng1hiilen

fiau7

--

xau

2 -

xao2

535

kau

25 1
-

hao

473

ghau

to boast
gr kd v ~d'b~ccjc

fiau

fiau?
25 I

x a u '

5 5
keu

xao2 2 hao

447

theu

to pour
gr %Lq)h

kieu? 25 IV $jeuT
25 111

&
neu
CI

kjaul f ~ j a1 o 1 jiao jau2


jao2 Yao

deposit
grA)(dfi

older dialect kau kau? 25 I u ) t fFju? l 37 I11 ju? iu kau'

XOU; x6w "to deposit"

449

ghau

watershed, nhd. Gau got-gawi, ahd.gawi, mhd.gou,giru,gcu, mnd.gB


*

kao1
gao
' I

CI

$
tseu* gOU

gheu- watershed, district *"satem"-Form (cf.p. 4)


CJ~OU

tfou 1 1 zhou
njou 2

485

cow

aieg&uh, arrn.k0v,~r./30?s, lat b6s , bovis , ahd chuo , as.k6, ags.afries.cd, nhd .Kuh, (Taiwan gu :)

137 11,

lniG2
t

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 198 8)

Pokorny page stem 520 koil

meaning and word examples hale, whole gotohails, aisl.heil1, ahd-mhd-heil,ags.h51r nhd .heil

Ach. hoi

Mch.
T.

Nch.

Ch.

khoi
14 RI

khuail xuei1 hui


1

535

kau

to hew, nhd .hauen hau ahd.hguwan, ags.hEawan, lit .kauti @ hollow, nhd-hohl ahd .mhd .as .ass.hol 1at.cavus from * couos hill ags -hyll , lat. collis ho:

kheau? kheau1 $F jao1


25 11

qiao xeul

537

kol kou kol kolm

hjo:
1 1 111

GY :
XU

593
544

@
hoi

1
1

k h j u y khiu
37111.

544

h o r n rock , holm gr.ko$o y d y , lat.columen, culmen, as.mnd.engl.holm, nhd .Holm hame (part of a harness) fiom mnl .h h e , nnl haam, westmd-Hamen, nhd-dialect Ham, Hamen

porn q. eam2
40
I1

q~hjou 1 qiu ien2


2

Yen

555

kom

fieom

. .

xeam2

qien xian

40 I1

556

kem

to hum mhd nhd meng 1 hummen

Lam

. .

3jamF
38111

jam2

jin

2
2

Psgon

yin khin2

564

kon

to strive , industrious lat .c6nor , -Zri gr. E l k o u f w hunger, nhd .Hunger anord.hungr,ags.hungor, ahd hungar ; 1it kanka "pain"

gjon?
19 I11

2 F~hin qin
2

a
hoS3

565

knk

hos3y xuang
32 RI

1 xua9
1

a
fioa

huang
xuo
2
2 xy :

582

kor

to mix, to blend av-sar-, gr. k ~ e i w an.hr@ra, ags hrEran, ahd (h) ruoren

fioa?

a
I

28 RI

he

2
2
2
1

583

kor

f i a u ? 60: hair, rough ahd.as .aisl.hgr,ags.haEr, nhd.Haar, an.sk~r @ s125 I lett sari

hau2

xao hao

Tsung-tung Chang,"Indo-European Vocabulary in Old Chinese"

Pokorny page stem


644

meaning and word examples

Ach.

Mch.
:

Nch. xo:
2

Ch.
xy :

kwa

hua who? what? ai.k&,ka, av.kUrkZ "who?", got.hva "what", apr ka, mengl .aengl hws , engl .who

. .

27 I

he

2 1

--

644

kWei

where? whither? why? gr .att . F l , ion-kf), dor T E ~ who? which? lat.quis"who?", qui "which?" ahd. (h)wer, as huZ mhd swer , 'ir-cia, nhd.wer
Z

fie

f i e i ?
131,

xi:

~ i :

zuai z juai? (Satemform) .


7 RIII

J,ai
u:
1

xi euei2

shui
u:
1

647

kWu

where? whither? ai .kc, av .kE, lat .qub, ahd.(h)war,wS, mhd-wb, nhd.w6, ags-bar how? why? ags .hu, afries .hut mnd.wti, engl.how; lat .qu6 "why"

hu:

?OUT

%
F i u :

1 2 RI

wu

1
m

648

kWu

FiouF
1 2 RI

xu:

xu:
2

&El

hu mu0

716

mol

to grindr mill moa lat.mol5, -erer mola got .ahd .malan, mhd .maln aisl .mala, nhd .mahlen E fraud, vagabond lat.mang5, 1it.manga; apr .manga
i

moz?

muo mo 2

28

RI

731

mang

rnSy

rneaff rnuag2 ma9:/

ma9
3 5 I1

C E

736

mbra

witch mo: aisl.ahd.mara, ags.mare, nhd .Mahr , skr -ks1 .mora

nbjouT
1 2 I11

W U : ~

mang 2 u:
wu2

734

mor

to defame mo: russ .mar4ju, lit .m&ginu' % ship.(ach.also "rudder") ndau ai nau-, arm.nav gr-VdcS,r g d s , latnavis,nau-, air-ndu, aisl .nGr preposition: on, at, to, o:

mbjou
1 2 111

wu: 2

u:

wu 2

755

nZu

9qjeu7qjau 2

iaO
a

772

25 I11 ?jop

rao

eu 1

Y=

1 1 I11

YU*

II

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page stem


788

meaning -and word examples flag, cloth, rag g r . ~ F v o 5 ,lat-pannus, got.fana, ahd.as.fano, afries-fona, ags-fana, nhd. Fahne to fly gr. ~ & l ) rJ "to swing" russ.-ksl.perq,pbrati, pariti "to fly" fell, skin

Ach. pan
i

Mch.

Nch.

Ch.

pan.

phuan?' fan1
i

fan1

poi

22RIII puif I fi:

801
8 17

pol por

%!
beia

10 ~ 1 1 1

803

pela

bjia? 4 111 pjou? 12111 bju? 37111 bjou? 12111 boif 14 RI o a

feil 2 phi:2 iphi:.


1

I1fei

fan1 1

flt A ~ S , lat.pellis, ahd.fe1, ags-fell, mhd-vell, aisl.fjal1


gr.

E's
plo

pi fu:

803

plo

membrane

fu: 1 ful

kr.
835

E~l-TinoIJ305
C

lit.pl&vg, sloven.pl~va aisl.t~l, fqlva

'

$
biau

pleu

to float 6 gr. ~ 2 V)L: aksl .plujp boat, float ai-plava, russ.plov tonurse, tocultivate I ai.priyayats aksl .prgj~ SO, as, if lat.si from so got swa , swE , ahd.as.rnhd.sS, nl.20, engl.norw.so

fu:

fu:2
2 fu

I F
biou

837

plou

fu:

fu: 2 fu 2

+
bai

844

prHi

phuai2 phei2 pei e 2 u


2

$3
zo:

884

so

~ u2 :

fm
5i3

11111

ru 2

907

songWh voice, nhd.Sang gr. (*songyha) got. saggws, ahd.as,ags.dan.sang, anord.songr, engl-song

Auv7/

F j a ~ Tliagl @ a 9 '
1

35111
I

sheng

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chineset'

Pokorny page stem


907

meaning and word examples old,(before, in front of), former ai sada- , av.hana- , g r . % ~ ~, s latosenex, air-sen "old"

rn

Ach.

Mch.

Nch.

Ch.

sen

scan
zeen

sienr sienl ~ i e 1 n xian 1 dzient tshienz*hienz


2 3 IV
I

WU

2 3 IV

913

s f i n

915

s i t i

son, (achegrandson and 'suan heir) 4 ai.sZnn, av.hunu-s, nhd.Sohn, got.sunus, aisl.sunr,ahd.ags.sunn, mhd.su(o)n, sEn to sew together, to re- siu pair, ai-sivyati,lat.su6.-ere, got.siujan,aisl.syja, ahd. siuwan,ags.si (o)wian @

son?

sun

qian sun1

18 R I

siu?

siu"

sun . sjou1

3 7 IV

xiu
2

927

skal

Zga: shall, nhd. sollen got-skulan,ahd-sculan, scolan., aengl .sceal ko:

I)jiaS i:
4 I11

i:

2 2

yi ku:

927

s ~ o l guilt, nhd.Schuld ags.scyld, ahd.a$sl. skuld, slit-skola s k ' o

kou?
12RI

ku: 1 gu l

951

shoe, nhd.Schuh hoa got. sk*~, aisl sk5r mhd.schuoch, as.skbh, ags.scab, dZn.Schwed.sko

h u ; ?

xuel

?Ye: xue
.

28RIII

.
l i u '

1003 (330

sreu erei)

to flow, river sleu I c / ai,.sravati, gr. e Lw : b o o s , &eTs , aksl.struja, lett.strZve, lat rivus, afz.riu, span-rio

ljuy

ljou2

3 7 I11

1iu

1009

steu

tsau to steer, nhd.steuern ahd.stiurren, aisl.styra, as.stxeran, ags. styran %


gr. 6 ~ e ~ ~ 1 ' c, iaq

tshauq tshau
25 I

tshao1
cao

1036

strenk string, nhd.Strang mir sreng , ahd mhd. stranc, ags-streng

zea~) ?jat)? j'jq2


4 2 I11

ta32
sheng2

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page stem 1037

meaning and word Examples

Mch

.
zhuan zhuang

stronk strong and severe tss3 ahd. strengi,mhd. strenge, as.fries.strang , ags. tsa9 strong, anord.strangr,

-1

1039

sour

Isalted, sour Iso: aisl.siirr,ahd.mhd.mnd. ags.norw.dan.schwed. sur lit.siiras, nhd. sauer to be, real, true 1 san 1 ahd.mhd.sin, nhd-Sein, ai. san,got.sunja "truth"

ju

34 1

sun

t J ' i n l

tean1 zhen
1

1 067

tongh

to bend a bow av .Jang court (of justice) tea3 nhd.Ding, also as local names, aisl .Ping, ags.ding, as.thing, ahd. ding, dan.ting, aengl-thing "assembly" sorrow dreary I ahd .draa, aisl .prs
I

1067

tenk

thie9'f'

1 10

72

treu

dzeu

ags.brea, Etrawu

11 147

wan

1 contented with ,to reside Iuan

1171

waris lwas, stem form of verb ua: i to be,dan.var "was", voere "is", got.wisan, ahd.wesan, nhd.war,wSnre

wanak 1 king I(cf.Heubeck, gr-Linear B inscription

.I

F
5 RIII

p.26,65)

wa-na-ka

& iv d E ,

= wanaks, att.2 v d < "king"

1
wang

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

A group of words with Middle Chinese level tone was supposed origrnally to have had a velar final as suggested by the sound com% of the characters. The hitherto merely theoretical ponent reconstruction of -g for these words by Karlgren (1940, 1957) and Tung T'ung-ho (1944) can now be confirmed by Indo-European stems given in the following list:

Pokorny page stem


1 0 0

meaning and word examples

7AC~.
I

M C ~ . Nch.

~ h .

bok

poug pack, pouch, to pack an.poki, got,puggs, ags .pohha, mnd ,packe, pak, engl .pack, nhd .Pack . to bake, to roast, boug g . !to f gr . e w f ~ , aisl-baka, fries .bzk, ags bacan,bsc , ahd-bahhan, backan, mhd nhd backen

peau?
25 11

pau I

bao 1 phau2 @ao2

113

bhEg

beau?

1
I

1I

i
25 I1

Pa0

i
i
,

798

pOkW

[ .
j

boug to cook, cook ai .p&cati, avOpac*iti, gr & & I , serb .p6e 1, , lat.coqu6 (>ahd.kochCn, nhd kochen)

beau+

phauL phao2

1 523
1

25 I1

Pa02 kho:' khy:'

kakha

1 flexed stick

i n the form - ka: of plow (nhd. Kniestiel), bough ai.saha, rnir.ge'c,, nir*g&ag, got-hsha, lit-&aka, slav.socha
I

'
'
!
I

27 I keu

ke1
WY:'

589
r

keug

to squat, nhd-hocken aisl .~Gka, mhd .hGchen, , serb.cu&ati

:kio(g) kjo?

I
4

'EEL
I

11111; kaul

jul kao1
1

I
1

589

kzk

high,nhd.hoch !lco:(g) kau? got-hauhs,aisl0h6r,hZr, ags-hsah, ahd.as,hoh, schwed-hog,d&n.hdi, engl. high 25 I

i s

gao
~y
XU
1

589

keuk

hill ahd.houg, mhd-houc, anord-haugr,engl.(local names with -how)

.hi0 (g khj o q xeu

'

+& 1 1

111

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Pokorny page stem


537

meaning and word examples hook, nhd. haken ahd.hako, haggo, mhd. hagge, hake, a g s . hoc t o remain, g r . ~ O L I T S, O lat-relicuos " l e f t o v e r " , 1 i t . l i k t i " t o remain"

Ach. koug

Mch. kauy 37 I lju?

Nch. kaul

Ch. kou
1

k5g

6%
liu

669

likW
:

liu

qou 1 l i o u2

I t i s obvious t h a t t h e words c i t e d above and some o t h e r s had

l o s t t h e i r v e l a r f i n a l i n any c a s e b e f o r e t h e g e n e r a l s h i f t from Old Chinese t o t h e Middle Chinese t o n e language d u r i n g t h e f o u r t h and f i f t h c e n t u r i e s . The e x a c t d a t i n g of t h e l o s s , however, must b e done f o r each word i n d i v i d u a l l y on t h e b a s i s of i t s rhyming i n t h e p o e t i c l i t e r a t u r e of d i f f e r e n t t i m e s . Words l i k e and e x c l u s i v e l y w i t h t h o s e of Middle @ rhyme i n t h e s h i h - c h i n g Chinese l e v e l t o n e . Hence t h e y were w i t h o u t doubt open s y l l a b l e s a l r e a d y a t t h e b e g i n n i n g of t h e f i r s t millennium B.C. Words l i k e and 4~ , rhyming i n t h e s h i h - c h i n g and c h l u - t z k w i t h t h e words of l a t e r r i s i n g as w e l l as l e v e l t o n e , w e r e j u s t

s@

a b o u t t o l o s e t h e i r v e l a r f i n a l i n t h e f i r s t millennium B.C., whereas , , , and $4 , l o s t it s u r e l y a s l a t e a s d u r i n g t h e s h i f t t o Middle Chinese. Adhering t o t h e t h e s i s of t h e c l o s e d s y l l a b i c system of Old Chinese, P u l l e y b l a n k ( 1 9 6 2 , pp. 2 1 1 ) proposed t o r e s t o r e g e n e r a l l y a v o i c e d l a r y n g a l [fi] a s t h e l o s t f i n a l consonant of t h e l e v e l t o n e which s h o u l d a l s o a c c o u n t f o r t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p of some l e v e l y opinion, t o n e words t o v e l a r f i n a l . But t h i s i s u n n e c e s s a r y i n m s i n c e t h e most Indo-European stems and Germanic words correspondi n g t o Chinese l e v e l t o n e words have e i t h e r open s y l l a b l e , o r end i n a r e s o n a n t ( - r , -1, -m, -n, - n g ) , as a l r e a d y shown i n the list above (pp. 17-23).

26

Tsung-tung Chang,"Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

It should be n o t e d t h a t t h e p h o n e t i c r e c o n s t r u c t i o n s i n t h i s

p a p e r d i f f e r from t h o s e of Karlgren and o t h e r s c h o l a r s mainly i n r e g a r d t o vocalism ( c f . Rhyme Tables i n Appendix). A s t o Middle Cninese, m y r e c o n s t r u c t i o n s a r e based upon t h e Y i i n - c h i n g % @ , i n which rhymes and headwords of homophone groupsp% a r e t a k e n %. (1007) and a r r a n g e d systemfrom t h e rhyme d i c t i o n a r y K u a n g - yiin a t i c a l l y i n 43 t a b l e s . A s t h e ~ u a n g - y i i n i s merely an e n l a r g e d v e r s i o n of t h e c h i i e h - y i i n (compiled i n 6 0 l ) , t h e Y u n - c h i n 9 may be c o n s i d e r e d t o be a p h o n e t i c framework which r e f l e c t s t h e s t a n d a r d p r o n u n c i a t i o n of E a r l y Middle Chinese ( 6 0 0 ) , r e g a r d l e s s o f t h e unc e r t a i n d a t e and unknown o r i g i n of t h i s book ( i t s o l d e s t a v a i l a b l e copy i s an e d i t i o n of 1 1 6 1 ) . Each rhyme t a b l e i n t h e Y c n - c h i n g i s d i v i d e d i n t o t h e f o u r t o n e c a t e g o r i e s and,within each t o n e , t h e headwords of homophone g r o u p s are e n t e r e d i n f o u r s e p a r a t e rows, o b v i o u s l y t o show some d i f f e r e n t a t i o n s w i t h i n t h e same rhyme group. The Chinese term f o r t h e s e rows i s c a l l e d " D i v i s i o n " by Karlgren and "Grade" by P u l l e y b l a n k ( c f 1986, - p . 7 3 ) I n a d d i t i o n , each t a b l e i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d as "unrounded" , & "rounded" o r &a - "a combination of rounded and unrounded".

s,

K a r l g r e n (1954, p.250) i n f e r r e d t h e Grades c o r r e c t l y a s a g r a d u a l r i s i n g of vowels and r e s t o r e d medium j- f o r Grade 111, i- f o r Grade I V , ju- f o r Grade R I 1 1 and i u - f o r Grade R IV-But he found no medials f o r Grade 11, Grade R I and Grade R 11. I n o r d e r t o a d h e r e t o t h e f u l l p a t t e r n o f d i s t i n c t i o n s i n t h e system of f o u r Grades, h e res o r t e d t o t h e v a r i a t i o n of t h e q u a l i t y o f p r i n c i p a l vowels Grade by Grade and p o s i t e d t h u s a l t o g e t h e r 14 vowels f o r Middle Chinese. I t i s h a r d l y c r e d i b l e t h a t such s l i g h t v o c a l i c nuances were p r a c t i c a b l e i n d a i l y communication, t h e less s o s i n c e languages w i t h more t h a n n i n e b a s i c vowels a r e q u i t e uncommon i n t h e world ( c f . C r o t h e r s , p.119). N o wonder t h a t h i s v o c a l r e c o n s t r u c t i o n s s c a r c e l y f i t t h e a c t u a l rhyme p a t t e r n o f p o e t r y i n Middle and Old Chinese. I n a monograph of 1982, I a t t e m p t e d t o a n a l y s e t h e rhyming i n t h e t e x t s o f p h i l o s o p h e r Chuang-tzu 8 % ((about 300 B. C. ) by u s i n g t h e d i c t i o n a r y of Chou Fa-kao ( 1 9 7 4 ) , i n which t h e r e c o n s t r u c t i o n s of K a r l g r e n , Tung T'ung-ho and Chou a r e c o l l o c a t e d . The d i s a p p o i n t i n g r e s u l t t h e r e b y h a s g i v e n m e r e a s o n f o r p e r s o n a l engagement i n t h e f i e l d o f h i s t o r i c a l phonology and p h o n e t i c s .

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Thus K a r l g r e n ' s scheme o f Middle Chinese rhymes, though f o l l o w e d by almost a l l s c h o l a r s , needs t o be s u b s t a n t i a l l y improved. I propose t h e f o l l o w i n g r e c o n s t r u c t i o n s : a . Grade I1 a i s composed of rhyme simplex (=Grade I ) and medial e-, which g i v e s r i s e t o p a l a t a l i z a t i o n of i n i t i a l d e n t a l s and s i b i l a n t s , b u t n o t v e l a r s . Medial e- w a s , as e v i d e n c e d by t r a n s c r i p t i o n s i n hP1ags-pa s c r i p t , s t i l l e x t a n t i n E a r l y Mandarin ( c f . Appendix, p.50) and was used i n d i s t i n c t i o n from i-, e s p e c i a l l y a f t e r v e l a r i n i t i a l s ; e a 2 ( < 2 9 11) # je ( > 2 9 111, I V ) e a j & ( 4 3 , 1511) # i: ( < I 3 111, I V ; 15 I V ) ((25 111, I V ) e&u&&(<25 11) # jau ean E(<21, 23 11) # i e n % ( t 2 1 , 23 1 1 1 , IV) (40 11) # i e m ( t 4 0 111, I V ) medial e- w a s dropped i n E a r l y Mandarin, s o t h a t Grade I1 merged w i t h Grade I. A f t e r d e n t a l s and s i b i l a n t s Grade I1 merged w i t h Grade I o r Grade 111. I n Sino-Japanese Go'on r e a d i n g s Middle Chinese /ea/ i s c o n t r a c t e d t o / e : / , whereas i n c o l l o q u i a l Taiwanese d i a l e c t s of Minnan o r i g i n , / e a / became e i t h e r /e:/ o r / a : / . b. Grade I11 h a s a m e d i a l j-, as proposed by K a r l g r e n , which g i v e s r i s e t o p a l a t a l i z a t i o n of i n i t i a l d e n t a l s and s i b i l a n t s , b u t n o t v e l a r s . The vowel o r vowel c l u s t e r s of Grade I11 remain mostly i d e n t i c a l w i t h t h o s e o f Grade I and 11. But i n groups 13, 25, and 2 3 , t h e main vowel /a/ i s r a i s e d t o /e/. c . Grade I V c o n t a i n s / i / e i t h e r i n t h e f i r s t o r i n t h e l a s t p o s i t i o n o f i t s vowel c l u s t e r s . T h i s accounts p a r t l y f o r t h e n o n - p a l a t a l i z a t i o n of i n i t i a l d e n t a l s and s i b i l a n t s . C h a r a c t e r i s t i c of Grade the I V i s t h e f r o n t i n g of,main vowel; t h u s i n groups 1 3 , 15, 25, 35, 21, 23, and 39, t h e main vowel / a / i s f r o n t e d t o / e / , whereas i n group 4 0 /o/ i s f r o n t e d t o /a/. d. Grade R(ounded) I i s composed o f medial o- p l u s rhyme simplex ( = Grade I ) . Exceptions are Grade 14R I and 1 8 R I where / o / became the main vowel, a s well a s Grade 1 2 R I and 2 R I where t h e simplex /ou/ i s p l a c e d because of o-. The r e c o n s t r u c t i o n of t h e medial o- f o r Grade R I i s , though h i t h e r t o never proposed

* rn After l a b i a l s ,

&

by s c h o l a r s , r e a s o n a b l e and c o h e r e n t

s i n c e t h i s grade must have

28

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"

had a rounded medial vowel which is lower than u- of Grades R 11, R 111, and R IV. In Early Mandarin, or probably already at Late T'ang, the medial o- was raised and merged with u-. But in Sino-Vietnamese readings o- is amply preserved as Grade R I (and occasionally also as Grade 11, but this is not in accordance with the rule). For example: /oa/: f l /oi/: /oaj/: 5 /on/: 3 /ot/: 24 R I /oan/: .fB /oat/: 32 R I / o ; g / : / o ; k / : 43 R I /oa~/: /oak/:
28 14 16 18

R R R R

I I I I

khoa (but 3 qua) , ngoa, hda ,?& dba khbi khhi, h8i, lbi, @ b6i ngoai, t81, @ h6i h6n, @ thhdn met, $ : t$t, .i4 c6t h o h , @ toan (but q u a ) doat, hoot (but mat) hdang, hoang (but quang, ubng) khodch (but $# quich) hosng (but & quhg) hoec (but q~6~c)

rtx

s'

The Middle Chinese pronunciations on/ot of Grade 18R I are preserved also in Sino-Japanese readings. e. Grade R I1 is composed of medial u- plus rhyme simplex. After sibilants and dentals it has medial cluster eu- which gives rise to palatalization of initials. f. Grade R I11 also has medial u-, and only after sibilants and dentals the medial cluster ju- as proposed by Karlgren. In my opinion, the medial u- was a sufficient cause to give rise to dentilabialization of bilabials during the Late T'ang. The main vowels of Grade R 111 are identical with those of Grade 111. g. Grade R IV has medial u-, but not iu- as proposed by Karlgren. It is composed of medial u- plus Grade IV. In groups 5R, 26R, 36R, 18R, 22R, and 24R, medial u- replaces medial i- of Grade IV. The non-palatalization'of dentals and sibilants in Grade R IV can be accounted for with medial u-.

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


According t o m y r e c o n s t r u c t i o n E a r l y Middle Chinese h a s t h e f o l l o w i n g seven vowels:
i

29

a o a 5 A l l vowels e x c e p t a r e n o t autonomous b u t must o c c u r i n cornb i n a t i o n w i t h o t h e r vowels o r f i n a l s , a s i s r e f l e c t e d i n t h e abs e n c e of t h e simplex i n t h e rhyme g r o u p s 2 9 , 9, and 1 1 , whereas s i m p l e u must be s u p p o r t e d by a i n Grade 37 I . S h o r t i , used as medial o r f i n a l , i s w r i t t e n j i n t h i s p a p e r . /A/ = [ a ] , i s a h y b r i d phoneme between /a/ and / o / , as e x t a n t i n Swed i s h , Norwegian, Danish e t c . . The r e c o n s t r u c t i o n of /b/ i s n e c e s s a r y f o r rhyme group 2 7 ( # 2 9 ) , 3 and 31 ( # 1 , 2 , 33, 3 5 ) . A s shown i n t h e Appendix ( p . 4 9 ) , Middle Chinese h a s immense numbers of d i - and t r i p h t h o n g s w i t h medial e-, j-, i- and w i t h f i n a l s -i,
- j , -u which have emerged p a r t i a l l y as compensation f o r l o s t f i -

n a l s t o p s . S i m i l a r developments of vowel c l u s t e r s a r e r e f l e c t e d i n w r i t t e n monuments o f Old Saxon, Old E n g l i s h , Danish, Old French etc. s e v e r a l c e n t u r i e s l a t e r , b u t may have occured synchronic a l l y . t o Chinese d u r i n g t h e p e r i o d of g r e a t m i g r a t i o n of n o r t h e r n tribes. Old Chinese h a s t h e same seven b a s i c vowels.

/s/

is a l s o in-

d i s p e n s a b l e f o r t h e rhyme group ( = mch. 31) which i n Old Chin e s e p o e t r y mostly rhymes i n s i d e t h e group, b u t o c c a s i o n a l l y c o n t a c t s t h e group a 9 ( = mch. 33, 35) a s w e l l as t h e group 03 ( = rnch. 1 , 2 ) . The c o r r e s p o n d i n g v o w e l i n Indo-European a l s o vati l l a t e s , and i s w r i t t e n / o / i n some d i a l e c t s , b u t /a/ i n o t h e r s ( c f t h e word " l o n g " , p . 17, N r . 197) /a/ i s t h e n e u t r a l vowel which c a n i n t e r c h a n g e w i t h a l l o t h e r vowels. The h i g h vowels i ,

e , u o c c u r f r e q u e n t l y i n company w i t h a . The autonomous /a/ i n Old Chinese became mostly /ai/, /i3/, / e i / e t c . i n Middle Chinese, and l a t e r / i / , /A/ i n E a r l y Mandarin. T h i s a f f i n i t y of /a/ and /i/ h a s i t s p a r a l l e l i n Old I n d i c where, t h e Proto-Indo-European /a/ changed t o / i / ( c f . Lehmann 1 9 5 5 , p. 9 7 ) .
On t h e b a s i s of t h e word examples g i v e n i n t h i s p a p e r , we may

p o s i t t h e f o l l o w i n g v o c a l i c correspondences between Indo-European and O l d Chinese:

30

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"

IE IE IE IE

IE a = 3, a, i f oa, o IE ai = air a: IE e = e, a, ea IE ei = ai, ei o = o f oaf oaf i,ou IE oi = oi, ai, ou IE i = ia, i IE

au = au, au, a, eu = eu , au, io ou = ou, 0: iu = iu, io

0 :

The initials of Early Middle Chinese are well documented by the 30 characters1' chosen by the late T'ang monk Shou-wen'? ?a (cf. Chou Tsu-mo p. 796, 957). They are: labials: P 3 ? ph b M m 4 dentals : palatals : velars : postdentals: palatals : ts tsh % h

Brp+

@ d d z

5
4

Re! * %

% F m

laryngeals: % B% h I ! S fi @% 9 4 / total 30 It is noteworthy that the existence of phonemic laryngeals, which has been rejected for Proto-Indo-European for more than fifty years (cf. Lehmann 1955, p. 22, note 1; Szemerknyi p. 116), is well evidenced for Middle Chinese with four initials. Beside the Li-Fang-kui (1982, consonants given above, Karlgren (1940, P o 1 6 ) ~ p . 7) anu Pulleyblank (1984, p. 191,232) would restore series of supradental initials for Grade I1 and thus expand the number of Middle Chinese initials to 36, 37, and 42 respectively. But this is wrong and unnecessary, since the distinctive feature of Grade I1 is accounted for with medial e- (cf. p. 27 above). In my opinion, the retroflex initials have emerged not in Middle Chinese, nor in Early Mandarin, but as late as in Early Ch'ing, in consideration of the fact that all dialects except Modern Mandarin are at present still lacking retroflexes. In this respect the Szechwan dialect is most instructive, as it has typical Early Mandarin finals, but no.retroflex initials. All initials of Middle Chinese are monophonematic, The absence of consonant clusters is since then typical of Chinese.
1) In Late T'ang and Early Sung (9th century to 1125) the inven-

tory of initials was enlarged to 36 with labiodentals f v labiofricative / & , an6 palatals I + $& , lated in the foreword oz Y u n - c h i n g .

s,

3k,
,

fh & , as tabu-

Sirw-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


For Old Chinese w e may r e s t o r e t h e f o l l o w i n g simple i n i t i a l consonants:

Probably v o i c e l e s s a s p i r a t e s ph, t h , k h , t s h w e r e s t i l l a b s e n t Old Chinese t o be developed l a t e r from p , l h , h , t s . The f i n a l

in

-9

was an a l l o p h o n e of n , followed by a v e l a r consonant. I n i -

tial

9-

may have emerged o n l y i n Middle Chinese from g o r

fi i n an

environment of i , 5 , o r n a s a l fina1s:Li Fang-kui ( p . 2 1 ) s u g g e s t s t h e r e s t o r a t i o n of i n i t i a l s /hm/, / h l / , / h n g j , /hngwj f o r Old Chinese as v o i c l e s s c o u n t e r p a r t s of /mi, / l / , / n g / , /ngw/. But i n rny o p i n i o n t h e r e w e r e p r e s e n t o n l y / m h / and / l h / , which are evidenced by Indo-European stems c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o t h e Chinese words hai3 & ( c f . p . 1 0 , N r . 748 and 6 6 7 ) . C h a r a c t e r i s t i c of Old Chinese consonantism i s t h e absence of r- i n i t i a l which changes mostly t o 1-, z-, d-, h-, whereas t h e l a r y n g e a l s h- and 6- s u g g e s t an ininmte r e l a t i o n s h i p t o Germanic i n i t i a l h-. The e x i s t e n c e of i n i t i a l consonant c l u s t e r s i n 016 Chinese i s suggested by t h e f a c t t h a t s e r i e s of words whose sound i s r e p r e s e n t e d by t h e same g r a p h i c component o c c a s i o n a l l y have i n i t i a l s which d i f f e r from each o t h e r i n p o i n t s of a r t i c u l a t i o n . I n many c a s e s , Indo-European words c a n throw l i g h t upon t h i s enigma, s i n c e t h e y p r e s e r v e d consonant c l u s t e r s much b e t t e r t h a n Chinese. I n t h i s paper I c o n f i n e myself t o two examples: 2 The c h a r a c t e r f o r t h e word l i u m r i v e r , t o flow" h a s t h e and ti3

as i n t h e word shu 1 & "comb, t o comb". The p u r e l y t h e o r e t i c a l r e c o n s t u c t i o n o f consonant c l u s t e r / s l - / f o r t h i s grapheme c a n now be evidenced by t h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g IndoEuropean s t e m s r e u = " r i v e r , t o flow" ( c f . above p . 2 2 , Pokorny
sound grapheme
b *

1003).

Secondly, t h e I n d o - ~ u r o p e a n s t e m smTk, Proto-German

smZh

(Pokorny p . 9 6 6 , Kluge p . 6 6 a "schmach") w i t h t h e meaning " s m a l l , l i t t l e " c a n a c c o u n t f o r t h e a l t e r n a t i v e i n i t i a l s of s- and mf o r a series of Chinese words with t h e graphemes I]\ and + which a l s o have the same b a s i c meaning "small, l i t t l e " :

sm-

: I]\ :

x i a o3 , miao
3

9 shao3
j$ miao
4

t 4

$ > I

, [V!,

miao

, $ .

miao 3

32

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

Furthermore, t h e b i s y l l a b i c Chinese word ! f miao3-xiao 3 " t i n y " can now be i n t e r p r e t e d a s a r e d u p l i c a t i o n o f k h e s t e m smZh, whereby t h e consonant c l u s t e r s m - i s d i v i d e d i n t o simple i n i t i a l s

m- and s- t o be a t t a c h e d t o each s y l l a b l e . I n t h i s way many Chin e s e b i s y l l a b i c words can be e t y m o l o g i c a l l y e x p l a i n e d by IndoEuropean stems w i t h i n i t i a l consonant c l u s t e r s .
O u r knowledge of r e g u l a r p h o n e t i c correspondences between

Old Chinese and Indo-European opens immense p o s s i b i l i t i e s f o r l e x i c a l comparison. I n t h e l a s t f o u r y e a r s I have t r a c e d o u t a b o u t 1500 cognate words which would c o n s t i t u t e r o u g h l y two t h i r d s of t h e b a s i c vocabulary i n Old Chinese. The common words a r e t o be found i n a l l s p h e r e s of l i f e i n c l u d i n g k i n s h i p , a n i mals, p l a n t s , hydrography, l a n d s c a p e , p a r t s of t h e body, a c t i o n s , e m o t i o n a l e x p r e s s i o n s , p o l i t i c s and r e l i g i o n , and even f u n c t i o n words such a s pronouns and p r e p o s i t i o n s , a s p a r t l y shown i n t h e l i s t s of t h i s paper. Among Indo-European d i a l e c t s , Germanic languages seems t o have been mostly a k i n t o Old Chinese i n c o n s i d e r a t i o n of t h e following points: a . Among Indo-European d i a l e c t s , Germanic p r e s e r v e d t h e l a r g e s t number of c o g n a t e words a l s o t o be found i n Chinese. b. Germanic and Chinese belong t o t h e group of s o - c a l l e d c e n t u m l a n g u a g e s , i n which a l l Proto-Indo-European v e l a r s remain vel a r ~ ( w i t h o n l y a few e x c e p t i o n a l v a r i a n t s i n Chinese, c f . p. 1 8 , 449; p. 18, 4 4 9 ; p. 20, 6 4 4 ) . c . The i n i t i a l / h / i n Germanic c o r r e s p o n d s mostly t o /h/ and / h / been i n Old Chinese. Though Germanic / h / h a s h i t h e r t ~ ~ l n t e r p r e t e d as a s h i f t from Indo-European /k/, it must have e x i s t e d a l r e a d y i n Proto-Indo-European, s i n c e i n t e r r o g a t i v e s b o t h i n Germanic and Chinese have l a r y n g e a l i n i t i a l s ( c f p. 6 , 645; p. 20, 644, 647, 648) d. I n comparison w i t h S a n s k r i t , Greek and L a t i n , Chinese and n o r t h e r n Germanic languages a r e poor i n grammatical c a t e g o r i e s such a s c a s e , g e n d e r , number, t e n s e , mood e t c . I would s u r m i s e g e n e r a l l y t h a t t h e d a i l y speech of Germanic Peoples might have had a much s i m p l e r grammar t h a n t h a t s u g g e s t e d by t h e e a r l i e s t Germanic l i t e r a t u r e which c o n s i s t s w i t h o u t e x c e p t i o n s of b i b l i c a l t r a n s l a t i o n s from Greek o r L a t i n . German p r o v e r b s and idioms a r e f o r m u l a t e d w i t h o u t i n d i c a t i o n s of c a s e , gender and number, l i k e

Sino-PlafonicPapers, 7 (January, 1988)


" m i t Kind und Kegel", "schwarz auf weiB", " a l t und jung". Moreover, when t h e Franks s e t t l e d i n France as c o n q u e r o r s , t h e complex d e c l i n a t i o n system of Vulgar L a t i n c o l l a p s e d and Old French emerged w i t h o u t c a s e and number. This h i s t o r i c a l f a c t may s u g g e s t t h a t t h e Germans o r i g i n a l l y spoke a language w i t h o u t d e c l i n a t i o n s .
With Old Chinese a s e v i d e n c e , w e may conclude t h a t t h e G e r m a n i c group of Indo-European w a s c o n s e r v a t i v e i n i t s p h o n e t i c a l and grammatical developments because o f i t s p e r i p h e r a l n o r t h e r n l o c a t i o n , f a r from t h e e a r l y h i g h c i v i l i z a t i o n s i n t h e Near E a s t where n t h e o t h e r hand, t h e c o m p l i c a t e d Hamitic and S e m i t i c were spoken. O c o n j u g a t i o n system i n Greek, L a t i n and Southern Germanic might have emerged l a t e r under t h e i n f l u e n c e of a r i c h modal and temporal s y s t e m of A l t a i c t r i b e s , w i t h whom Indo-Europeans had coexisted f o r thousands of y e a r s i n C e n t r a l Asia and i n whose company t h e y e m i g r a t e d i n t o Europe. Chinese i s grammatically q u i t e d i f f e r e n t from i t s neighbouring languages of a g g l u t i n a t i v e t y p e , such as Mongolian, Manchu, T u r k i s h , Korean and J a p a n e s e , and h a s a l m o s t no b a s i c words i n common w i t h them, whereas numerous borrowings from Chinese i n t h e s e languages a r e w e l l i d e n t i f i a b l e . A s t o t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p of Chinese t o T i b e t a n , t h i s i s a dead-end branch o f comparative l i n g u i s t i c s where some " S i n o - T i b e t a n i s t s " have d e v o t e d t h e i r whole l i f e i n v a i n a t t e m p t s t o prove t h e p r e v a i l i n g h y p o t h e s i s of a Sino-Tibetan language f a m i l y . R e c e n t l y , Colbin (1986) p u b l i s h e d a l i s t i n which he h a s c o l l o c a t e d 489 Sino-Tibetan r o o t s mainly suggested by Paul K . B e n e d i c t , Nichol a s C. Bodman, Axel S c h i i s s l e r and o t h e r s ( s e e I n t r o d u c t i o n p. 8 ) . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , " S i n o - T i b e t a n i s t s " a l l o w t h e m s e l v e s t o o g r e a t freedom when doing p h o n e t i c and s e m a n t i c comparison. Moreover, a l a r g e number of words a r e claimed t o be common Sino-Tibetan, though t h e y are n o t t o be found i n T i b e t a n vocabulary a t a l l ( f o r i n s t a n c e t h e word cow, c f . Coblin p. 5 2 , c a t t l e / o x ) . Thus o n l y a b o u t a t h i r d of t h e words l i s t e d by C o b l i n may be a c c e p t e d a s common Sino-Tibetan. I t i s u n l i k e l y that t h e r e had e v e r e x i s t e d a "Sino-Tibetan" a s a common mother language of Chinese and Tibetan, s i n c e : a . T i b e t a n i s s y n t a c t i c a l l y an a g g l u t i n a t i v e language l i k e Mongolian . and Japanese. I t u s e s c a s e s u f f i x e s and h a s n e i t h e r p r e p o s i t i o n s nor c o n j u n c t i o n s a t t h e head of s e n t e n c e s as i s t h e c a s e i n Chinese and i n Indo-European.

34

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabuliny i n Old Chinese"

b. Though T i b e t a n word s t e m s are mostly monosyllabic a s i n Chinese and Indo-European, t h e y a r e r i c h i n i n i t i a l consonant c l u s t e r s l i k e P o l i s h and poor i n vowel c l u s t e r s a s o p p o s i t e t o t h o s e o f Middle Chinese and Germanic. Among t h e words common f o r C h i n e s e and T i b e t a n , t h e r e a r e many Indo-European s t e m s . I n comparison w i t h Old Chinese, however, t h e Tibetan words a r e l a c k i n g f i n a l s t o p s and t h e r e f o r e r a t h e r akin t o t h o s e o f Tocharian. A s T i b e t i s l o c a t e d i n t h e neighbourhood of Southern S i n k i a n g , it .is rat h e r p o s s i b l e t h a t t h e s e words o r i g i n a t e d from t h e r e . c . I t i s n o t d e n i a b l e t h a t t h e r e i s a s m a l l s t o c k o f Sino-Tibetan common vocabulary which i s a b s e n t i n Indo-European. But w e must i n v e s t i g a t e whether such T i b e t a n words a r e borrowings from Burmese o r from Old Chinese. d . I n t h e T'ang p e r i o d , when China and T i b e t e s t a b l i s h e d t h e f i r s t d i p l o m a t i c r e l a t i o ~ ~ n o b o dey v e r n o t i c e d any common v o c a b u l a r y o r gramrner of t h e two l a n g u a g e s . I n t h e f i n a l a n a l y s i s , I would s u r m i s e t h a t T i b e t a n may h a v e emerged as a mixed language w i t h an a b o r i g i n a l and Proto-Indo-European s u b s t r a t u m and an A l t a i c s u p e r s t r a t u m . The a d j a c e n t languages i n t h e s o u t h , such a s T h a i , Vietnamese, Miao and s o o n , have similar p h o n e t i c a l f e a t u r e s a n d an e q u a l l y simple grammer l i k e Chinese. However, d i r e c t o r a l communication w i t h t h e s e t r i b e s seems t o n e v e r have been p o s s i b l e from t h e v e r y beginning o f Chinese h i s t o r y , c e r t a i n l y because of g r e a t d i f f e r e n c e s i n d a i l y vocabulary as e x i s t i n g a t t h e p r e s e n t t i m e . M s . Manomaivibool ( 1 9 7 5 ) , by well-founded p h o n e t i c comparisons, i d e n t i f i e d 621 Thai words as r e l a t e d t o Chinese. But t h i s Sino-Thai common voc a b u l a r y , t o o , b r i s t l e s w i t h Indo-European s t e m s - . I n m y opinion t h e s e s o u t h e r n tribes were once t h e abor4gines o f Northern China, and immigrated t o t h e s o u t h because t h e y were n o t w i l l i n g t o become s u b j e c t s of t h e Chinese Empire e s t a b l i s h e d by Indo-European conquerors. N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e y c o u l d n o t e s c a p e s i n c e t h e n t h e i n f l u e n c e of Chinese l a n g u a g e s and c i v i l i z a t i o n . Thus, i n many cases it w i l l be d i f f i c u l t t o a s c e r t a i n whether a T h a i word i s o f Sino-Thai common o r i g i n , o r a l a t e borrowing from Chinese.

Sim-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

35

Considering a l l t h e s e l i n g u i s t i c f a c t s , t h e t h e s i s p r e s e n t s i t s e l f t h a t Old Chinese emerged a s a mixed l a n g u a g e , though spoken w i t h Proto-Chinese n a t i v e t o n g u e , u s i n g mainly t h e Proto-IndoEuropean idiom which seems t o have s t r e t c h e d from Mongolia t o Europe d u r i n g t h e t h i r d millennium B.C. i n t h e n o r t h e r n p a r t o f . t h e t e m p e r a t e zone. H i s t o r i c a l l y t h e emergence of Old Chinese s h o u l d be connected ,,' the w i t h t h e founding of t h e Chinese Empire by Huang-ti Yellow Emperor, w i t h whom t h e Chinese s t i l l i d e n t i f y themselves today. According t o Chinese h i s t o r i o g r a p h y , he was t h e founder of t h e f i r s t s t a t e of China as w e l l a s i t s h i g h c i v i l i z a t i o n . The S h i h - c h i ( R e c o r d s of t h e Grand H i s t o r i a n ) i n f o r m s u s i n i t s f i r s t c h a p t e r t h a t towards t h e end o f t h e r u l e o f t h e c l a n of Shen-nung $$I (Divine Farmer) , Northern China w a s ravaged by war. Huang-ti d e f e a t e d Yen-ti & fi (God o f Flame C l e a r i n g ) and Ch ' ih-yu ft (Great F o o l ) , t h u s becoming emperor of China. I t i s noteworthy t h a t t h e d e c i s i v e b a t t l e t o o k p l a c e i n Chuo-lu (Deer F o r d ) , on t h e t h o r o u g h f a r e between t h e p r e s e n t Peking and I n n e r Mongolia. H u a n g - t i ' s name was Hsiian-yiian @f which means "wagon s h a f t " . A f t e r h i s enthronement, he o r d e r e d r o a d s t o be b u i l t , and was p e r p e t u a l l y on t h e move w i t h t r e k s of c a r r i a g e s . A t n i g h t he s l e p t i n a b a r r i c a d e of wagons. H e had no i n t e r e s t i n w a l l e d towns, s o o n l y one c i t y was b u i l t a t t h e bow of Chuo-lu. A l l of t h i s i n d i c a t e s h i s o r i g i n from a stock-breeding t r i b e i n I n n e r Mongolia. With i n t r o d u c t i o n of h o r s e - o r oxen-pulled wagons, t r a n s p o r t and t r a f f i c i n Northern China was r e v o l u t i o n i z e d . Only on t h i s new t e c h n i c a l b a s i s d i d t h e founding of a s t a t e w i t h c e n t r a l government become f e a s i b l e and f u n c t i o n a l . T h i s emperor must have had an app e a r a n c e of n o r t h e r n w h i t e p e o p l e , as t h e e p i t h e t "Huang-ti" can e t y m o l o g i c a l l y be i n t e r p r e t e d a s "blond heavenly god" ( c f . Word
l i s t p. 3 7 ) Huang-ti i s mentioned a l s o as t h e founder of Chinese language

in t h e ~ i - c h im g ((Book of R i t e s ) . I n t h e Chapter 23 c h i - f a $$$% ( R u l e s o f S a c r i f i c e s ) , which g i v e s t h e r e a s o n s f o r worship of a n c i e n t s o v e r e i g n s and h e r o e s , w e r e a d : "Huang-ti gave hundreds o f t h i n g s t h e i r r i g h t names, i n o r d e r t o i l l u m i n e t h e people a b o u t t h e common goods. And Chuan-hsii was able t o c a r r y on h i s work." ~ ~ i f & ? g @ , ~ ~ ~ # ~ . ~ ~ ~ f i ~

1 & ~

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"


T h i s p o i n t s o u t t h e m e r i t of Huang-ti f o r t h e s t a n d a r d i z a t i o n of Chinese language, which took a l o n g t i m e and was c o n t i n u e d by h i s grandson and s u c c e s o r Chuan-nsu. The a b o r i g i n a l people had t h u s t o l e a r n new f o r e i g n words from t h e emperors. Probably t h e r e by t h e Proto-Indo-European vocabulary became dominant i n Old Chinese. The r u l e of Huang-ti i s t r a d i t i o n a l l y d a t e d back t o t h e 2 7 t h S u b . t r a c t i n g 200 o r 3 0 0 y e a r s a s h y p e r b o l i c p r e d a t i n g , c e n t u r y B.C. w e may assume t h a t t h e founding of t h e f i r s t Chinese empire took p l a c e a t t h e l a t e s t a t a b o u t 2400 B.C. T h i s would c o i n c i d e w i t h t h e a r c h a e o l o g i c a l d a t a of t h e beginning c l a s s i c a l Lung-shan c u l t u r e (2400-2000 B.C.) i n t h e e a s t e r n v a l l e y s o f Northern China, which i s c h a r a c t e r i z e d by a g r e a t l e a p i n s t o c k - b r e e d i n g , Not o n l y p i g s , p o u l t r y and dogs a s i n t h e p r e c e d i n g n e o l i t h i c c u l t u r e s , b u t a l s o sheep, c a t t l e and h o r s e s w e r e domesticated. Above a l l , c a t t l e and h o r s e s were i m p o r t a n t f o r t h e i r usage i n t r a n s p o r t s e r v i c e and w a r f a r e , and f o r improved p r o t e i n supply f o r t h e w a r r i o r s . The m i x t u r e of a g r i c u l t u r e and stock-breeding t h u s l a i d a sound economic b a s i s , on which a g r e a t empire c o u l d f u n c t i o n and be m a i n t a i n e d . The c o n c e n t r a t e d u s e o f new economic r e s o u r c e s t h r o u g h t h e s t a t e i m p e l l e d i n t u r n t h e f u r t h e r development of Chinese c u l t u r e t o become one of t h e l e a d i n g c i v i l i z a t i o n s i n t h e a n c i e n t world. M y t h e s i s takes f o r granted t h a t the c u l t u r e i n the s t e p p e was once s u p e r i o r t o t h a t o f Northern China. I t c e i v a b l e t h a t a t t h e beginning of t h e t h i r d millennium Inner. Mongolia (40-42N) was w a r m e r and damper t h a n i n northern i s conB m C -,

later times and t h u s more f e r t i l e t h a n Northern China (34-40 N) because of more s u n s h i n e h o u r s i n summer. The f a v o u r a b l e c l i m a t i c c o n d i t i o n s t h e r e must have r e s u l t e d i n a r i c h e r economy and h i g h e r c i v i l i z a t i o n t h a n i n t h e contemporaneous Northern China. T h i s d i f f e r e n t i a l may be a t t e s t e d by r e c e n t a r c h a e o l o g i c a l f i n d i n g s . For i n s t a n c e , t h e lower s t r a t u m c u l t u r e of H s i a - c h i a - t i e n gzj#j m@%+fL i n Ch'ih-feng j $ , d a t e d 2410: 140 B.C., a l r e a d y had a h i g h c h a l c o l i t h i c c u l t u r e w i t h d o m e s t i c a t e d sheep and c a t t l e , as w e l l as s m a l l - s i z e bronze c a s t i n g s . B e s i d e s , i t s p o t t e r y had forms and d e c o r , which seem t o be t h e p r o t o t y p e s of Shang p o t t e r y and bronze ( c f . Liu Kuan-min pp. 339 and c o l o u r p l a t e I X ) ,

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

Word List: Buang-ti and Names of Animals


rl

-3

Pokorny page stem


564

meaning and word examples

Ach.

Mch. fiosq?

Nch. ma9*

Ch

konak

germ. huna (n) ga (Kluge 315 Honig ) 185 d e : O

golden ( > honey, because hoig I of color) ai.kZ%cana- ,gr.k ~ 3 ~ 0 3 , aisl.hunang,ags.hunig, ahd.honag,hoang, engl. honey, nhd.Honig "f

xua32

32RI tei*

(
ti:

huang2 ti:4

god. of Heaven ai dgvg-h "god", devi "goddess", lat deus , divus, ags.Tig "Mars", ahd,Zio

deag

Ti?.
mag

13 IV mea
29 I1

700

mork

horse ir .marc, cymr etc ,march ahd-marah, ags-mearh, . aisl.marr,nhd.Wihre

'ma:

di4 ma: 3
ma3
1 ~ G :Y

,e
keu

'

448

gheul

horse (ch-horseof 2 years) mhd-gul, nhd.Gau1 ndl guil

kjouq lkeu1 12 111


pi:2

I@

jul pi: 4

per(e)d

(cf Kluge p. 543, Wadler p.363) 482 gWou

'

bait (Ch.horse for riding, bait perhaps a mule) nhd.Pferd "horse", lat.verEdus, ahd-pfarit, mhd.phart,aqs.perid ,%* hebr .pered "mule" cow, nhd.Kuh, cf.p.18 ai.gduh, gr.att.@oGs, lat.bSs, ahd-chuo, dog
n~pers salc, npers sag, tach. AB ku

,, I ,
u 37 I11 kauk 37 I khuen3 kau iu2

bi4

gOU

njou2 niu2 kou3


g0u3

9
kug

632

kuk

,I@

632

kun-k

dog, nhd.Hund , hound huan (g)khuenk gr.kd~v,k ~ d s , f 24 RIV lat.canis , toch.A.0bl.kon fi;

tFhyan3 quan3
1

841

pork

1 ags .fearh
1038

pig, (pork) lat.porcus, ahd. far (a)h,

Peg

pea?
2911

pa:'

pa: ba'

%Q

SU(O)

I
I

1092

trog

t [ e u l sow, nhd.S L U (, to(g) j o ! av.hii, gr.ds, u o s , ! lat.sus, suis, ahd. ags s i i , aisl.s~r,toch. B suwo : I lat.troia, air-torc, : acorn.torch, bret. tourch 1 1 I11

ttu: 1

& '

'

z hu

c .

Tsung-tung Chang,"Indo-European Vocabulary i n Old Chineset'

Pokorny page stem 1038


1038

meaning and word examples swine, nhd.Schwein got.swein,ags ahd swin

Ach

Mch

Nch

Ch

suwin suk

duan

don? 18 RI ?jiaL 4111


luk

thun

thun2 tun2

swine, sow, nhd. Sau ags-sugu, as.suga, nhd.schwabisch: suge roe ahd-re'h, ags.rZha,rSege nhd Reh , Ricke

sag

p:3
lu: 4

I I 5iz3
j

B
louk

shi3lu:4 lu4
2

859

roik

Efz
ka:t

1 I

409

ghaid

goat, nhd.Geil3 got-gaits, ahd.geiz, ags.gZt, as.gEt goat abg.koza "she-goat"; ags-hecen, mnd.h8ken, mndl.hoekijn "kid" crow, nhd Krahe ahd-kraja, krEiwa,Krghe and.krX; ags-crZwa, , crZwe, cr3
I

kjat 21 111 kouk 12 RI

kie3

, #&
ko g ho:

1i tFil jie
I

517 kog

ku:3

ku: 3 9u3 jal


1

384 grZ

?ea? 29 I1

ea I

i1
i

28
1

Ya 2 xau2/ xo: ean4 tshjau3

383

granug

crane, nhd Xranig ahd-kranuh, ags.cranoc, r n n d kranek

fiauk

fisk
31 I pan tsiik

xau2
'4 he

@
s@

412 ghans 991 sparg

goose, cf.p.12 sparrow, nhd-sperling ahd-sperk, sperch,spirch gr.persona1 name = ~ ~ o ~ llsperlingll y l n fish, to fish q lit.~uvis, gr. i x ~ g ~ 4, lett. zuvs zivs crayfish, crab ai-karka-h, latecancer, norw.roeke,aksl.rak~ , ; m : , u ; s q u i t o , ;louse 5nhd.Laus)Igr-~oucq, mire sned : ags hnitu, ahd. (h) niz , : nhd Nisse s &

jen4 F ~ h j a3 o siag3/ que 2

I
416 gh&u ghiu
A

31 IV eu2

glo/gio 3joT

Y:

%
f i o g

1 1 I11

yii2

531

kark

xeaj4

pje4 xie4
2

; g
muon

15 I1

752 m u n
608

@
sknid

lmuonT wun2 i 2 0 RIII


seat

wun2 wen

sit

1
I

. .

1 J ~ Z e4C ~ :

1711

136
>

bhera

bear,nhd. BHr,cf.p.l7

9 ' peia,R*pjiaF lphi:

,I

!1 shi1
iphi:2
4

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

39

The Shang Dynasty t o o bears s t r o n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c f e a t u r e s of stock-breeding n o b i l i t y ( c f . Chang 1970, pp.79 and p.266 f o o t n o t e ) . S i n c e t h e language r e f l e c t e d i n i t s o r a c u l a r i n s c r i p t i o n s d i d n o t d i f f e r from t h a t o f c l a s s i c a l l i t e r a t u r e o f t h e f i r s t millennium B . C . , we may s t a t e t h a t t h e dominance of Indo-European vocabulary i n Chinese was a l r e a d y c o n s o l i d a t e d i n t h e second h a l f of t h e second millennium B.C. Probably s i n c e t h e middle of t h e t h i r d millennium B.C., unfav o r a b l e c l i m a t i c changes took p l a c e i n Northern E u r a s i a and caused p e r p e t u a l waves o f southword e m i g r a t i o n o f s t o c k - f a r m e r s . P a r a l l e l t o t h e emergence o f the Chinese Empire and t h e Chinese language i n E a s t Asia, t h e r e w e r e a l s o i n v a s i o n s o f Indo-European w a r r i o r s t o t h e Agean and A d r i a t i c a r e a , t o S y r o - P a l e s t i n a and even t o Egypt around 2500-2200 B.C. ( c f . Gimbutas 1970, pp. 1 9 1 ) .

I am w r i t i n g a n e x t e n s i v e work in German on t h e h i s t o r y o f

Chinese language and i t s r e l a t i o n s h i p t o Proto-Indo-European, and a m a l s o c o m p i l i n g a Sino-Indo-European Etymological D i c t i o n a r y w i t h more t h a n 1500 e n t r i e s . But t h i s w i l l t a k e two o r t h r e e more y e a r s f o r c o m p l e t i o n . So I a c c e p t e d w i t h g r e a t p l e a s u r e t h e k i n d invitation o f P r o f e s s o r V i c t o r H. Mair t o p u b l i s h t h i s paper i n E n g l i s h as a p r e l i m i n a r y r e p o r t f o r S i n o l o g i c a l and l i n g u i s t i c c o l l e a g u e s . I should l i k e t o thank him f o r a l l o f h i s e d i t o r i a l e f f o r t s and a l s o f o r s t y l i s t i c r e v i s i o n s , which a r e indispensable, s i n c e I a m not a n a t i v e speaker of English. Needless t o s a y , I a l o n e a m r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e e r r o r s t h a t may y e t remain.

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese" A b b r e v i a t i o n s (1) These are in common use among German Indo-Europeanists and taken from the Indogermanisches E t y m o l o g i s c h e s W i i r t e r b u c h by Pokorny and the E t y m o l o g i s c h e s W o r t e r b u c h der Deutschen S p r a c h e by Kluge Abbreviations for Chinese languages are of my own creation. Abbr

German altaltbulgarisch altchinesisch altenglisch altfriesisch altfranzosisch anglosachsisch althochdeutsch altindisch altirisch altisl2indisch altkirchenslavisch altnordisch altpreuSisch altrussisch altsachsisch avestisch bretonisch chinesisch cornisch kymrisch danisch

Enqlish

aabg ach ae(ng1.). afries. afrz. ags ahd ai. air. aisl. aksl. an. / anord. apr . aruss as. av

. .

. .

old Old Bulgarian (9-12th century) Old Chinese (1300 B.C.-316) Old English (700-1100) Old Friesian (till 1500) Old French (9913th c.) Anglo-Saxon ( = Old English) Old High German (740-1100) Old Indic (Vedic and Sanskrit) Old Irish Old Icelandic (9-16th c.) Old Church Slavic (9-12th c.) Old Nordian (700-1530) Old Prussian (till 16th c.) Old Russian (11th c.) Old Saxon (9912th c.) Avestan Celtic of Basse Bretagne, France Modern Mandarin (Peking 1913) Celtic of Cornwall Celtic of Wales Danish English (since -1500) French

bret

ch. corn. cymr


d-.

. .

engl frz.

englisch franzosisch

Sim-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988) ~ b b r e v i a t i o n s( 2 )

got. gr* att. ion, hebr hitt.

gotisch griechisch attisch ionisch hebraisch hettitisch indogermanisch irisch kirchenslavisch lateinisch lettisch litauisch mittelmittelchinesisch mittelenglisch mittelhochdeutsch mittelirisch mittelniederdeutsch mongolisch mittelpersisch

Gothic (4th c. ) Greek Attic Ionic Hebrew Hittite (2nd Millennium B.C.)

idg., IE ir. ksl. lat. lett. lit. mmch mengl

Indo-European Irish Church Slavic Latin Latvian (since 16th c . ) Lithuanian (since 16th c. ) middle Middle Chinese (589-1126) Middle English (1100-1500) Middle High German (1100-1350) Middle Irish Middle Low German (1346th c.) Mongolian Middle Persian ( 3rd c B C )

. mir .
mhd

. . .

mnd mongl mpers nnch nd


nhd

... .)
)

nir. nl

neuneuchinesisch niederdeutsch neuhochdeutsch neuirisch niederlandisch

new Early Mandarin (1 3th c Low 'German New High German (1350New Irish Dutch

Tsung-tug Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVdcabulary in Old Chinese"


A b b r e v i a t i o n s plural polnisch Prateritum
(3)

P1. poln. Prat

plural Polish preterite (past tense)

russ.

russisch

Russian

schwed sem. serb. skr slav. span.

schwedisch semitisch serbisch sanskr it slavisch spanisch

Swedish Semitic Serbian Sanskrit (4th c. B.C. Slavic Spain

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

B i b l i o q r a p h y Chang , Tsung-tung
1970

(1)

%@ .%
irn S p i e g e l d e r Orakel-

Der K u l t d e r S h a n g - D y n a s t i e

inschriften. E i n e paldographische Studie zur Religion i m a r c h a i s c h e n C h i n a , Wiesbaden : Otto Harrassowitz

1972

"Die Bildungsregeln und Strukturen der altchinesischen Schriftzeichen" in: M i i n c h e n e r S t u d i e n z u r S p r a c h w i s s e n s c h a f t Heft 3 0 , Muchen: R. Kitzinger
Metaph y s i k , Chuang-Tzu.
Erkenntnis und P r a k t i s c h e P h i l o s o p h i e i m

1982

Zur Neu-Interpretation

und s y s t e m a t i s c h e n

Darstellung der klassischen chinesischen Philosophie,

Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann


1986

"Zur Herkunft der mittelchinesischen Tonkategorie. Eine Untersuchung aufgrund der Reimung im Shih-ching und des Indogermanischen Wortschatzes im archaischen Chinesisch" in: G a n z a l l m a h l i c h , F e s t s c h r i f t fur G u n t h e r D e b o n , Heidelberg: Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt

Chou, Fa-kao
1974
A

&

P r o n o u n c i n g D i c t i o n a r y o f Chinese C h a r a c t e r s i n

A r c h a i c and A n c i e n t Chinese, Mandarin and Cantonese,

Hongkong: The Chinese University Press Chou, Tsu-mo


1983

a
[~emnants o f t h e Rhyme L e x i c o n s

@fhRm#Ws

f r o m the T ' a n g a n d t h e Five D y n a s t i e s ] ,

Peking : Chung-hua shu-chii


Ch 'u-tz ' u

fSi3

@
@$
Kyoto :

1979

5 1[A

Concordance t o Ch Iu-tz l u ] ,

ed. by Takeji, Sadao Coblin, Weldon South


1986
A

~ * B & f, i 2nd. ~hEbunshuppansha I+ ft ttj jJj &

ed.,

Sinologist ' s Handlist o f Sino-Tibetan Lexical

: Steyler Verlag C o m p a r i s o n s , Nettetal (Germany)

44

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"


(2)

B i b l i o g r a p h y

C r o t h e r s , John 1978 "Typology and U n i v e r s a l s of Vowel Systems" i n : Joseph H . Greenberg ( e d . ) , U n i v e r s a l s o f Human


Languages,

Vol. 2 , pp.

93-152

Edkins , Joseph 1871


C h i n a ' s P l a c e i n P h i l o l o g y . An A t t e m p t t o s h o w t h a t
t h e L a n g u a g e s o f E u r o p e a n d A s i a h a v e a common O r i g i n ,

London: Triibner & Co. Gimbutas , M a r i ja 1970 "Proto-Indo-European C u l t u r e : The Kurgan C u l t u r e d u r i n g


.

t h e F i f t h , F o u r t h , and Third M i l l e n n i a B.C." i n : I n d o - E u r o p e a n a n d I n d o - E u r o p e a n s e d . b y George P r e s s , pp. Heubeck , A l f r e d 1966


Aus d e r W e l t d e r f r u h g r i e c h i s c h e n L i n e a r t a f e l n ,

Cardona e t a l , P h i l a d e l p h i a : U n i v e r s i t y of Pennsylvania 155-197

G8ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht H i r t , Hermann 1934


H a n d b u c h d e s U r g e r m a n i s c h e n , Vole 111, p . V I I , H e i d e l b e r g : Karl Winters Universitatsbuchhandlung

K a r l g r e n , Bernhard 1923 1940 1957 1970


A n a l y t i c D i c t i o n a r y o f Chinese a n d S i n o - J a p a n e s e ,

P a r i s , R e p r i n t T a i p e i 1970
G r a m m a t a S e r i c a , Stockholm G r a m m a t a S e r i c a R e c e n s a , Stockholm Compendium o f P h o n e t i c s i n A n c i e n t and A r c h a i c C h i n e s e ,

Goteborg [ R e p r i n t of B u l l e t i n No. 20 of B M F E A Stockholm] : Elanders B o k t r y c k e r i Aktiebolag Karstien; C a r l 1936 "Indogermanisch und Germanisch" i n : F e s t s c h r i f t fur
Hermann H i r t ,

Vo1. 11, pp. 297-327,

Heidelberg

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


B i b l i o q r a p h y
(3)

K i l i a n , Lothar 1983 Z u m U r s p r u n g d e r I n d o g e r m a n e n . F o r s c h u n g e n a u s
Linguistik, P r a h i s t o r i e und A n t h r o p o l o g i e ,

Bonn: D r . Rudolf H a b e l t GmbH Kluge, F r i e d r i c h 1975 E t y m o l o g i s c h e s W o r t e r b u c h d e r D e u t s c h e n S p r a c h e [1883], 2 1 s t E d i t i o n , B e r l i n and New York: Walter d e G r u y t e r
~ u a n ~ - ~ i i n

%*

R e p r i n t of t h e Sung-Edition of 1007, e d . by Chou Tsu-mo rfig@* ,


[~nlarged ~h y m e b o o k ]

Peking 1958: Chung-hua shu-chu Lehmann, Winfred P . 1955 P r o t o - I n d o - E u r o p e a n P h o n o l o g y Austin: The U n i v e r s i t y of Texas P r e s s
1970

1985

" L i n g u i s t i c S t r u c t u r e as Diacritic Evidence on Proto-Culture" i n : I n d o - E u r o p e a n a n d I n d o - E u r o p e a n s e d . b y George Cardona e t a l , P h i l a d e l p h i a : U n i v e r s i t y of Pennsylvania P r e s s , pp. 1-10, "Indogermanisch-Germanisch-Deutsch: Genealogische Einordnung und Vorgeschichte d e s Deutschen" i n : S p r a c h g e s c h i c h t e ed. by Werner Besch e t a l , B e r l i n and N e w York: Walter de G r u y t e r , pp. 949-962

Lewin, Bruno 1983 "Korean and Indo-German. E a r l i e r German T h e o r i e s a b o u t t h e R e l a t i o n s h i p o f t h e Korean Languages" i n : K o r e a J o u r n a l , V01. 23, NO. 11 (Nov. 1983) L i Fang-kui 1982

*2

@ @%

[~esearch o n A r c h a i c ~ h o n e t i c s, ]

Peking: Commercial Press


Li-chi

@%

2 *a , f r o m

SBOO~

of ~ i t e s ] w , i t h Glossaries of Cheng Hsiian

t h e E d i t i o n of Szu-pu pei-yao

@%

46

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

B i b l i o q r a p h y

(4)

Liu , Kuan-min 8 f l 1984 3@

2 fE

Northern Steppe] in:


china],

**

"

[Bronze Culture of the

@%&&Tf%

a@%

[ ~ r c h a e o l o g i c a lD i s c o v e r i e s and I n v e s t i g a t i o n s i n New

edited by the Archaeological Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pp. 339-350 and colored plates IX, Peking: Wen-wu Press 2 @J tt] & Luo, Ch1ang-P'eiand Ts'ai Mei-piao
1959

B%%,sg%e%

' P h a g s - p a S c r i p t and C h i n e s e l a n g u a g e o f t h e M o n g o l i a n p e r i o d ] , Peking:

A ~ ; ~ ! E % % z R ~ she

Academia Sinica Press Manomaivibool, Prapin


1975
A Study o f Sino-Thai Lexical Correspondences

(Dissertation Ph.D., University of Washington) Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International Mayrhofer, Manfred
1978
Sanskrit-Grammatik m i t sprachvergl eichenden Erklarungen,

Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Pokorny, Julius


1959
Indogermanisches Etymologisches Worterbuch,

Bern und Miinchen: Francke Verlag Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1962 "The Consonantal System of Old Chinese" in: A s i a M a j o r , Vo1. IX, Part I and 11, pp. 58-144,
206-265 196533 "Close-open Ablaut in Sino-Tibetan" in: L i n g u a 14, pp. 230-240
1966

"Chinese and Indo-Europeans" in: J o u r n a l o f t h e R o y a l A s i a t i c S o c i e t y , pp. 9-39 (In this paper Pulleyblank conjectures a very intimate relationship between Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European, but did not go so far as to start lexical comparisons.)

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


B i b l i o q r a p h y
(5)

1983

"Stages i n t h e t r a n s c r i p t i o n o f I n d i a n words i n Chinese from Han t o Tang" in: Sprachen d e s Buddhismus i n Z e n t r a l a s i e n , e d . by Klaus Rohrborn and Wolfgang Veenker, pp. 73-102, Wiesbaden: H a r r a s s o w i t z
Middle C h i n e s e : A S t u d y i n h i s t o r i c a l phonology,

1984

Vancouver: U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h Columbia Press


~ h i - ~ h i

[~ecords o f t h e Grand ~ i s t o r i a n ]

1959

ed. by Szu-ma C h l i e n e d i t i o n of Ku Chieh-kang shu-chii

3JeB
@

(145-86 B.C.),

Rl ,

punctuated Peking : Chung-hua

Shih-=hing

ifg BOO^

o f poetry]

1934

A Concordance t o S h i h - c h i n g

% % 51 %$

ed. by

Harvard-Yenching I n s t i t u t e , Peking
Ting , Pang-hsin

Tg E
@ 7Zi
Et

1975

C h i n e s e Phonology of t h e Wei-Chin p e r i o d :

R e c o n s t r u c t i o n of t h e f i n a l s a s r e f l e c t e d i n p o e t r y

T a i p e i : I n s t i t u t e of H i s t o r y and P h i l o l o g y , Academia S i n i c a , S p e c i a l p u b l i c a t i o n s No. 6 5


Tdd6, Akiyasu 1957

&BS~#
[ o n C h i n e s e phonology]

Tokys: K6nan s h o y i n Tung T ' ung-ho


1944

W
[ p h o n e t i c Tables for Archaic
A raft], . . i . . *

k&gf.%%
Chinese.
*k!daas

R e p r i n t T a i p e i 1975

1953

[A P h o n e t i c H i s t o r y o f C h i n e s e ~ a n g u a g e l ,

R e p r i n t T a i p e i 1978
Ueda M a n n e n . See under Weda, Ulenbrook, Jan

Mannen.

1967

" E i n i g e Ubereinstimmungen zwischen dem Chinesischen und dem Indogermanischen" i n : Anthropos N r . 6 2 , pp- 533-551

48

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"


(6)

B i b l i o g r a p h y

Ulving, Tor 1968 "Indo-European Elements i n Chinese?" i n : A n t h r o p o s N r . 63/64, 1968/69, pp. 943-951 Wadler, Arnold 1 9 3 5 Der T u r m von B a b e l . U r g e m e i n s c h a f t d e r S p r a c h e . [Paris 1935?] R e p r i n t Wiesbaden: F o u r i e r Verlag (Though I do n o t s h a r e t h e o p t i m i s t i c view of a s i n g l e o r i g i n f o r a l l languages i n t h e world, I have g a i n e d much from t h i s book with i t s numerous examples from Hebrew and Semitic languages and i n s t r u c t i v e h i n t s on p h o n e t i c comparisons.)

Wang L i
1957

1985

he H i s t o r y of C h i n e s e l a n g u a g e . A raft] @f Peking: K'e-hsiieh chlu-pan-she $** ffl r he H i s t o r y o f C h i n e s e P r o n u n c i a t i o n ] , Peking: Chinese Academy of S o c i a l S c i e n c e Press

2 @%eE

~~~~~

Weda, Mannen k @ % % et a1 1940 D a i j i t e n [A b i g d i c t i o n a r y of Chinese c h a r a c t e r s ] , Tokyo : H eibo nsha (Go-on and kan-on r e a d i n g s a r e taken from t h i s d i c t i o n a r y . ) Yang Nai-szu lg8I

fit JP\ ~ ~ ~ $ f 2 3 $ % he
@ i

P h o n e t i c S y s t e m of t h e C h u n g - y u a n

in-gun], Peking: Chinese Academy of S o c i a l Science P r e s s


Y i i e h - H a n tz I u - t i e n

&

[ ~ i e t n a m e s e - ~ h i n e s de i c t i o n a r y ]

1966

e d . by Ho d e n g

e t a l , Peking: Commercial P r e s s (Sino-Vietnamese r e a d i n g s c i t e d i n t h i s paper are t a k e n from t h e appendix of this d i c t i o n a r y : )

Y u n - c h i n g $S

h he Mirror of ~ h y r n e s ] A Japanese E d i t i o n of 1 5 6 4 , R e p r i n t Shanghai 1955:


Commercial P r e s s

~ z e m e r g n y i ,Oswald 1980 E i n f u h r u n g i n d i e V e r g l e i c h e n d e S p r a c h w i s s e n s c h a f t , Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche B u c h g e s e l l s c h a f t

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)

49

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"


Rhymes o f E a r l y Mandarin (Nch. 1 3 0 0 ) reconstructed according t o t h e c h u n g - y u a n - y i n - y u n

(1324)

and the p h o n e t i c a l t r a n s c r i p t i o n i n t h e ~ e n g - k u - t z u - y i i n ( 1 3 0 8 )
P

Rhyme g r o u p N r . Name
I
0:

with medial Simplex


0:&&%147

e-

i-, j-

u-

total
3
3
I

ea

j 0 & 6 ~ g - 1 4 9 ~ 0 3 j i f i j d 150

13 14 3 4
II

# j

&

a:
e:

a:&&a153

$&

i t :

t:jiggiQs8I i: 'S$&j&92

k~

151
I

11

j e $ $ % l 6 1

ua&# u
-3e

is9

i 2 6'
1

g&
"
%
=. -=.

i:

( -

11s

uai&/iQ
100 118
137

ai
aj
au

99

1I I

6
11

aj%$&i131eajqa au%$$
1361 e

i~

uaj

+$d

1 1
I
I

z
3
4

a u ~ ~ ~ jau,#$@ 1 4 0

uau:
174

16

l i ; f ~a u
,
u:

a u ~ ~ ~ f $ i 7 z l u: $ # g & 1 0 3eu
9
4
W

fijg

, z ~l o ?l h
*-

2 3 !

open s y l l a b i c
1

4
80

23
2 3 3
a

U3

u3!#34gq?77 ja9$+9$~82

eu9&&&

ua3j$+xas

2 , i ~ @ j a9
I

eeag;s@j

84

15

"
7

J&% "
4 X
#+&
0 %
y.

3 ,

iat,e&.$
!an

166

e u n i g

e3 7
an

6%

120

'I
B

un
an

~ u n + h x 123

'$.~ 121;~ 1241 Iin


I
1
4

1 1

w ia~$iii~7~a~#~~170
ie)

X,

171 u e g h q

171

2
2
129

l a n s ~ ~ 1 2eanfoj$fi 6

1281-

juan$j&l I
I

3 1

+~?g:, on
1 17

;on%@-&130

eam

im (94179

i!
134

en ~

!am&+
a m
3 9 ? $q

[ i e n k z 132 uen%$

E@am ! 19 %&@e m with n a s a l


18

(%$

am

178
181

j (

2 2
2

&(@

183

iem$m&~85 k
I 1 6

:9 I

5 1981

Ii

I
25

final

Italic numerals r e f e r t o Yang Nai-szu

Sin0 -Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


I n d e x o f W o r d E x a m p l e s

The f i r s t number r e f e r s t o t h e page i n t h i s p a p e r , t h e second t o t h a t i n Pokorny. E n g l i s h a i r , wqher a l s o , a g a i n , and arrowhead awake backbone, r i d g e t o bake t o bask i n t h e sun t o be, r e a l , t r u e bear belly t o bend a bow b e t w i x t , between t o boast body, corpse to boil bone, r i b book, t o book bowl, cup breast b r i g h t , shining t o burst t o c a l l , cry I n d e x c o t , hole c o u r t (of j u s t i c e )
COW

crane crayfish, crab crow day t o defy t o defame deposit t o d i e , death dog, hound door d r e a r y , sorrow dregs t o drown t o dwindle end to fall fart f e l l , skin few

23,1067 18,482 38,383 38,531 38,384

camp
can t o carve castle cheek t o clasp clew, b a l l t o conduct, l e a d contented w i t h t o cook

fish
flag, cloth t o float float t o flow, r i v e r t o fly folk

52

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary i n Old Chinese"


20,731 14,820 10,658 5,408 9,213 13,431 7,1017 38,409 517 king t o knead lazy, late l e a , open f i e l d leaf leak 10,688 6,690 16,657 6,657 5,3.7 1 idle impudent inclined 9,227 11,845 7,935 5,117

f r a u d , vagabund fright t o gather

i n d u s t r i o u s , t o s t r i v e 19,564 to insist

t o give, donation
glance, t o glance glimt , t o glimt t o go up goat god o f heaven golden g n a t , mosquito goose guilt hair h a l e , whole hames hap, happen help, t o help herd, heritage t o hew high hill

little

31,966 t o l o a n , bestow, g r a n t 16,669 long louse 17,197 38,608

mast, t o f a t t e n
membrane milk, curd

m i l l , t o grind
t o mix, t o b l e n d nasty

hollow

t o hurse, c u l t i v a t e o l d , former on outside pack, t o pack

holm, r o c k
hook horse

t o hum hunger how? why?

p i g , pork plow, f l e x e d stick plum, sloe

t o point t o pour

18,447

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


t o praise p r e p o s i t i o n (at, t o ) p r i c e , t o be work quick
a

son sorrow sour, salted sound


SOW

t o reach reign

t o remain
t o reside r i d g e , shore right roe t o rush a t , s t a r t sap,
SOUP

sparrow to split t o squat t o stear string strong t o sweep, broom swine sword 15,1049 38,1038 15,1050

scathe t o scoop sea, lake s e a r c h , t o seek seat self


P

t o take t h a t c h , r o o f , house t o tempt toe town ( - t o n ) 7,1013 10,687 9,188 17,263 9,257 17,214 16,276 16,1076

t o send
1

severe t o sew, repair


shall s h i p , rudder shit, to shit shoe s i g h t , t o see since t o s i n g , song sleep

t r a i l , way t r e e , wood
tricky, t o b e t r a y through t o turn t o t u r n sour v o i c e , song

13,627 21,907

want, wish 15,1147 watershed, d i s t r i c t . l 8 , 4 4 9 what? where? who? witch was ( h a v i n g b e e n ) 20,644 20,736 23,117 1

slit
to s l i t t o s l i p into

sister of husband S O , as, i f

54
P i n y i n

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"


I n d e x

an1
an4 bal bao

5F
56
gao
1

fg bao2 @
bao3 beil fi
bi3

&

b i4 bi4 bu4 bu4

a.
, ! & -

gei3

goul $$!I 9ou3 gul gul #ti gu3 3 fi gu S x 1 gui

a
% fl1
2

44

can4 @ caol ce4

tun

chang 4 thou 1

h a i3

R E

h a i4

j p j

d a i4 dao 4 4 dao
9

haoZ

is

%!5
l a i4 M lai l a n 4m l a o 42iif lei3#! R

hao2 hao4 he2 he2 he2 @ J ! he2 he4 hu2 8 4 huai

lei3 &
li3
lie4 % 4

lie

B !

fei4 4 fei

tB

huangl huang 2 h u i l 8jt 2 hui h u i4 ji2

2zt
Z R

ma3 8 6 mang2 @ mei 8 rniao 3

WW&
miao4 &9 mo2

Sino-Platonic Papers, 7 (January, 1988)


shui
2

shui4 ni

la n i e4 t r 2 niu +

#it

yaoL #j ye3 9 3 ye4 y i ZS you4

3%

yin2 6
you4 X y*2 f i
yii2 yiian 4 wang'

wei2 wei4
wen
2

E B
#&
@

% zhai2 %
zha4 zhangl @ zhenl zhi1 zhi3 zhi3 zhi zhi4 zhoul

wul

z
jg *lE

wu2 w2 B

tiIE
%

wu
qiu

4 A

qiu quan 3

S t $ '
2

xi'
xian1

xian2 xiao 3 /J\

8 5
31,966 5,554 38,531 7,921 22,915 zhuangl zhuang 4

xie2
xie4

a
@

zi

xie4
xiu"
4

z i4

Tsung-tung Chang, "Indo-EuropeanVocabulary in Old Chinese"

Editor's Note: Tsung-tung Chang holds doctorate degrees in economics and in ~ i n o l o g y ; He 1 s the author of Der Kult der Shang-Dynastie im Spiegel der Orakelinschriften: Eine pallographische Studie zur Religion im archaischen China (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowltz, 1 9 / 0 ) and Metaphysik, Erkenntnis und Praktische Philosophie i m Chuang-Tzu: 2ur Neu-Interpretation und systematischen Darstelllung der klassischen chinesischen Philoso~hie (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio ~lostermann, 1982).

Since June 2006, all new issues of Sino-Platonic Papers have been published electronically on the Web and are accessible to readers at no charge. Back issues are also being released periodically in e-editions, also free. For a complete catalog of Sino-Platonic Papers, with links to free issues, visit the SPP Web site.

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