Ba–Shu Chinese

Ba–Shu Chinese (Chinese: 巴蜀語; pinyin: Bāshǔyǔ; Wade–Giles: Ba1 Shu3 Yü3; Sichuanese Pinyin: Ba¹su²yu³; IPA: [pa˥su˨˩y˥˧]), or Old Sichuanese (or Old Szechwanese; Chinese: 蜀語), is an extinct Sinitic language formerly spoken in what is now Sichuan and Chongqing, China. This language is first attested in Fangyan during the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE) and represents one of the earliest splits from Old Chinese or Early Middle Chinese. It started to disappear during the late South Song dynasty period due to the Mongolian conquest which resulted in a massacre throughout the Sichuan Basin. At that time the language was supplanted by Southwestern Mandarin after settlement by people from other parts of China, mostly from present-day Hubei and Hunan.[1]

Ba–Shu Chinese
巴蜀語
Native toChina
RegionSichuan Basin
ExtinctExtinct during the Ming dynasty. Some features are preserved in Sichuanese Mandarin, especially Minjiang dialect.
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone

Phonological aspects of Ba–Shu Chinese are preserved in the Minjiang dialect of Sichuanese Mandarin and there is debate on whether it is a variant of Southwestern Mandarin or a modern-day descendant of Ba–Shu.[2][3]

Phonology

Song dynasty

Though the Ba-Shu language is extinct, some phonology features of rhymes are able to be found by researching the local literati and poets' use of rhymes in their works.[1]

Liu Xiaonan (2014) assumed that they write verses in Standard Chinese of the Song dynasty, but because their mother tongue was Ba–Shu, they wrote in the Ba–Shu accent of the time, which was reflected in the rhymes.

Coda mergers

According to Liu's research, there is enough evidence to assume a significant number of codas mergers had taken place or were taking place in the Ba–Shu language during the Song dynasty.

  • *i(ə)m and *i(ə)n often merged as *-n (真侵部合併).
  • *i(ə)n and *i(ə)ŋ often merged as *-n (真青部合併), this progress can be abbreviated as /*im/ > /*in/ < /*iŋ/.
  • *an and *aŋ sometimes merged as *-n.
  • *am and *an sometimes merged as *-n.
    • Ditto, which can be abbreviated as /*am/ > /*an/ < /*aŋ/.
  • *-t, *-k and *-p quite probably all merged as *-ʔ, then further be dropped (especially in west of Sichuan Basin).

Vocabulary

Ba-shu language had some unique words probably identified as substrate from Old Shu language by scholars.

Word Recorded period Gloss Middle Chinese pronunciation (Zhengzhang) Standard Chinese Note
逼 late Northern and Southern dynasties to early Sui dynasty, c. 600 'pellet' *pɨkD bī; 'to force'', 'a common name for the female genitalia' Yan Zhitui—Yan Family Instructions: "Encouraging Learning"
吾在益州，与数人同坐，初晴日晃，见地上小光，问左右：“此是何物？”有一蜀竖就视，答云：“是豆逼耳。”相顾愕然，不知所谓。命取将来，乃小豆也。穷访蜀士，呼粒为逼，时莫之解。吾云：“三苍、说文，此字白下为匕，皆训粒，通俗文音方力反。”众皆欢悟。
"When I was sitting with several people in Yizhou, I saw a small light [point] on the ground when the sun was shining and asked them, "What is this?" A Shǔ (蜀) child looked at it and replied, "It is a 豆逼; dòu; 'bean'', 'to force'." They looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what he said. [We] ordered [him] to come and [found that] it was a small bean. When I visited many learned men in Shǔ, [I enquire them for that why that child] called 粒; lì; 'pellet' as 逼, but no one could explain it. I said: '[According to] Sancang and Shuowen, this character is 匕; bǐ; 'dagger' under 白; bái; 'white', [its meaning] generally interpreted as 粒, the common literal reading is 方力反.'[lower-alpha 1] The crowd was enlightened."
姐 Eastern Han 'mother' *tsiaB jiě; 'elder sister' Xu Shen—Shuowen Jiezi

蜀人呼母曰姐。
"Shǔ people call mother as 姐."

師 Tang 'monk' *ʃiɪA shī; 'master' Du Fu—Alone, Looking For Blossoms Along The River "#5"

蜀人呼僧为师，葬所为塔。
"Shǔ people call monk as 師 and call the place to bury as 塔.

塔 'burying place' *tʰɑpD tǎ; 'tower'
圍 Northern Song 'sky' *ɦʉiA weí; 'to siege' Huang Tingjian—与大主簿三十三书

蜀人呼天为围。
"Shǔ people call sky as 圍."

葭萌 Han 'tea tree', also an ancient hydronymy and a name of county *kˠaA mˠɛŋA jiāméng Yang Xiong—Fangyan

Notable speakers

Notable speakers of the Ba–Shu language include the "Three Sūs": (三蘇, sān sū):

  • Sū Shì (蘇軾), who was from Meízhōu (眉州), Chéngdū circuit (成都府路).
  • Sū Zhé (蘇轍), Sū Shì's younger brother.
  • Sū Xún (蘇洵), Sū Shì and Sū Zhé's father.

See also

Notes
  1. 方力 *ʉɐ̄ŋ lɨk → pɨk, see fánqiē.

References
  1. Liu, Xiaonan 刘晓南 (2014). 宋代四川语音研究 (in Chinese). Press of Peking University. ISBN 9787301201350.
  2. Xiang, Xuechun 向学春 (2008). "Sìchuān fāngyán zhōng de gǔ Bā-Shǔ tǔzhùyǔ yánjiū" 四川方言中的古巴蜀土著语研究 [A Study on Ba–Shu Indigenous Language in Sichuan Dialect]. Chóngqìng Sānxiá Xuéyuàn xuébào 重庆三峡学院学报 (in Chinese). 2008 (5): 103–106.
  3. Liu, Xiaonan 刘晓南 (2009). "Shì lùn Sòngdài Bā-Shǔ fāngyán yǔ xiàndài Sìchuān fāngyán de guānxì - Jiān tán wénxiàn kǎozhèng de yīgè zhòngyào gōngyòng: Zhuīxún shīluò de fāngyán" 试论宋代巴蜀方言与现代四川方言的关系——兼谈文献考证的一个重要功用: 追寻失落的方言 [On the Relation between the Bashu Dialect in Song Dynasty and the Modern Sichuan Dialect]. Yǔyán kēxué 语言科学 (in Chinese). 8 (6): 586–596.
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