What Makes Vietnamese So Chinese?
An Introduction to Sinitic-Vietnamese Studies

DRAFT

dchph

Note: This paper is still virtually a draft. It is being edited extensively and will be updated from time to time. I just started doing some serious editing, but I am still far from getting ready to put up all the qouted sources together. I am to designate this round of editing as version 8.8 for August 2008, so if you want to quote the material, please annotate your quotations accordingly and check back again for more new update.

Also in this paper Unicode font is being used to display Vietnamese, Chinese, and other IPA symbols. You may want to install Arial Unicode MS. in your system to display correctly all characters as intended.

ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY

I) INTRODUCTION

1. Foreword
2. The background
3. Convention
   1. The unconventional convention:
   2. Symbols and conventions:
4. A revised course in the adaption of the reconstructed ancient sound values
5. Vietnamese and Chinese commonalities
   1. Modern dialectal similarities
   2. The role of Mandarin

II) THE CHINESE CONNECTION

1. Hypothesis of Chinese origin of Vietnamese
2. Core matter of Vietnamese etymology
3. Chinese and the basic vocabulary stock
4. A new dissyllabic sound change approach to be explored

III) THE MON-KHMER ASSOCIATION

1. The underlined stratum of basic vocabularies
2. Haudricourt’s theory of tonal development
3. Correspondences in basic vocabularies revisited
4. Similarity in cross-lingusistic-family vocabularies proves no genetic relation
1. Basic word lists at crossroads
2. Comparative Mon-Khmer basic words and Vietnamese

IV) PARALLELS WITH THE SINO-TIBETAN LANGUAGES

1. Sino-Tibetan etyma
2. Issues in cognates of numerals
3. The unfinished work
4. Vietnamese and Chinese cognates in basic vocabulary stratum
   1. Chinese basic words
   2. Sino-Vietnamse words
   3. Sinitic-Vietnamese words

V) HOW SOUND CHANGES HAVE COME ABOUT

1. In search of sound change patterns
2. An analogy of Vietnamese etymology
   1. An corollary approach
   2. Words of unknown origin
   3. Questionable words of Chinese origin

VI) CASE STUDY WORKSHEET

VII) A sypnopsis of phonological sound changes from Chinese to Vietnamese

VIII) CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

WEBSITES

APPENDICES

ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY :

1. AC = Ancient Chinese (TiếngHán Thượngcổ 上古漢語)
2. Amoy = Fukienese or Fùjiàn (TiếngPhúckiến hay Hạmôn 厦門方言)
3. ArC = Archaic Chinese (TiếngHán Tháithượngcổ 太古漢語)
4. associative sandhi process = changes of sound of words as the results of the assimilation of the sound or form of similar word in the same context.
5. Austroasiatic = Austroasiatic linguistic family (Ngữhệ NamÁ)
6. AV= Ancient-Vietnamese, also, ancient Việt-Mường (TiếngViệtcổ, TiếngViệt-Mườngcổ)
7. B, Beijing = Beijing dialect (thổngữ Bắckinh 北京方言)
8. bound morphemes = the smallest meaningful phonological units that are bound together and usually appear in pairs to form composite words
9. C = Chinese in general (TiếngHán 漢語) (See also: tiếngTàu)
10. Cant. = Cantonese (TiếngQuảngđông 廣東方言)
11. cf., or " §" = compare (sosánh)
12. character = mostly referring to a Chinese ideogram; also, a Roman letter or a ideographic symbol (chữ, tự, mẫutự 字母, 漢字)
13. Chin., Chinese = Chinese in general (TiếngHán 漢語) (See also: tiếngTàu)
14. Chin. dialects, Chinese dialects = 7 major Chinese dialects, including sub-dialects (phươngngữHán, TiếngTàu 漢語方言)
15. Chaozhou (Chiewchow) = a sub-dialect of Fukienese, also known as Tchiewchou (tiếngTriều, tiếngTiều 朝州方言)
16. composite word = two-syllable word that is composed of two bound morphemes of which either one of them cannot function fully as a word (từkép, từ songâmtiết)
17. compound word = two-syllable word that is composed of two words (từghép, từ songâmtiết)
18. doublet = A Chinese character of the same root that appears in different form (từđồngnguyên 同源辭)
19. diachronic = concerning historical development of language of something through time
20. Dai = T’ai, Tai, Tày, and sometimes Thai, languages (TiếngTày 傣語)
21. ex. = example (= td. 'thídụ')
22. dissyllabics = Charateristics of a language based on its dominant two-syllable words in its vocabulary (tínhsongâmtiết 雙音節性)
23. EM = Early Mandarin
24. EMC = Early Middle Chinese (TiếngHán Tiềntrungcổ 前中古漢語)
25. Fk = Fuzhou, Fukienese (Fùjiàn) or Amoy (TiếngPhúckiến hay phươngngữ Hạmôn 厦門方言)
26. FQ (or Pt) = 'fănqiè' 反切 phiênthiết (initial and syllabic conjugation, a Chinese lexical spelling)
27. Hai. = Hainanese, a sub-dialect of Fukienese or Amoy (TiếngHảinam 海南方言)
28. HN = Nôm words, or Vietnamese words, of Chinese origin (HánNôm 漢喃辭匯)
29. ideograph/ideogram = a written symbol of language writing system developed from graphic representation (chữtượnghình 形像字母)
30. "iro" (or #) = in reverse order, metathesis (nghịchđảo thứtự từ)
31. IPA = the International Phonetic Symbol (Phiênâm Quốctế)
32. K, Kh. = Khmer or Cambodian (TiếngCaomiên)
33. Kinh / NgườiKinh = literally "the metropolitans", or "the Kinh", meaning the Vietnamese majority ethnic group living in the coastal lowlands as opposed to "NgườiThượng" ("the Montagnards") which denotes minority ethnic groups living in remote highlands in Vietnam (京族)
34. Latinized / Latinization: same as Romanized / Romanization (Latinhhoá 羅丁拼音)
35. loangraph = A loangraph in Chinese is a homophone connveying a different meaning but using the same ideographic character (giảtá, 假借)
36. LZ = Late Zhou, L. Zhou (Cuối ÐờiChâu 周末)
37. M = Mandarin, QT (TiếngPhổthông, tiếngQuanthoại 普通話, 國語)
38. Malay = Malay linguistic affinity (Ngữchi Mãlai 馬來語支)
39. Mao-Nan = Mao-Nan language, a Mon-Khmer language spoken by Mao-Nam ethnic group in Southern China (TiếngMaonam 毛南語) MC = Middle Chinese (TiếngHán Trungcổ 中古漢語)
40. MK = Mon-Khmer linguistic affinity (Ngữchi Mon-Khmer)
41. monosyllabics = Charateristics of a language based on its dominant one-syllable words in its vocabulary (tínhđơnâmtiết 單音節性)
42. N = Original Vietnamese, also old Chinese-based Vietnamese wrting system
43. (từ Nôm, tiếngNôm hoặc từ thuần Việt 純喃辭匯, ChữNôm "字喃")
44. Nôm= Nôm characters, an old Chinese-character bases Vietnamese writing system, or in expanding meaning Nôm words, HN (HánNôm), Vietnamese words, of Chinese origin (HánNôm 漢喃辭匯)
45. Nùng = Zhuang language, same as Ðồng, Tráng (TiếngNùng 莊語, 垌語)
46. OC = Old Chinese (TiếngHán Cổ 古漢語)
47. OV = Old Vietnamese form (TiếngViệt cổ / TiếngViệtMường cổ)
48. Pt = FQ 'fănqiè' 反切 phiênthiết (initial and syllabic conjugation, a Chinese lexical spelling)
49. Pinyin = People's Republic of China's official Romanization transcription system of Pǔtōnghuà (pinyin haylà phiênâm 拼音)
50. polysyllabism = Charateristics of a language based on its dominant multi-syllable words in its vocabulary (tínhđâmtiết 多音節性)
51. Pre-SV = pre-Sino-Vietnamese (TiềnHánViệt 前漢越辭匯)
52. Pro-C = proto-Chinese (TiếngHán Tiềnsử 前史漢語)
53. Putonghua or Pǔtōnghuà = Official name of Mandarin (Tiếngphổthông haylà Quanthoại 普通話/國語)
54. PV = proto-Vietnamese, proto-Vietic (TiếngViệt Tiềnsử)
55. radical = basic Chinese ideograpghic root on which other characters are built (tựcăn 語根)
56. Quốcngữ = Vietnamese national orthography
57. Romanized / Romanization: same as Latinized / Latinization (Latinhhoá 羅丁拼音)
58. synonymous compound = compund word that is composed of two synonymous syllables or words (từghép đẳnglập, từkép đẳnglập, từsongâmtiết đẳnglập)
59. sandhi = change of sound of word under the influence of a preceding or following sound
60. sandhi process of assimilation / association = same as the associative sandhi process
61. synchronic = studying language as it exists at a certain point in time, without considering its historical development
62. Sinicized or Siniticized = influenced, characterized, and/or identified by Chinese elements
63. ST = Sino-Tibetan (HánTạng 漢藏語系)
64. SV = Sino-Vietnamese (HánViệt 漢越辭匯)
65. Tchiewchow = a sub-dialect of Fukienese, also known as Chaozhou (tiếngTriều, tiếngTiều 朝州方言)
66. Thượng / NgườiThượng = See: Kinh/NgườiKinh
67. TiếngTàu = a slight degrading term to connote the Chinese languages, of which the term "Tàu" could have been originated from Tần 'Qín 秦' or tiếngTiều 朝州方言 (từ "Tàu" cóthể do "Tần" hoặc tiếngTiều 朝州方言 màra.)
68. V, Viet. = Vietnamese (TiếngViệt 越南話)
69. "Vietnamized" = Characterized by the localization of loanwords to fit into Vietnamese speech habit (Việthoá 越化)
70. VM = Việt-Mường form (TiếngViệtMường 越孟語)
71. VS = Sinitic-Vietnamese (HánNôm 漢喃辭匯)
72. Zhuang = the Zhuang language, same as Nùng, Ðồng, Tráng (TiếngNùng 莊語, 垌語)

x X x

» Click here to read the next page

Back to top

DRAFT

Version 8.8

Back to VNY2K Homepage