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Layers of Chinese Loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai

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Layers of Chinese Loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai LAYERS OF CHINESE first course in historical linguistics was to LOANWORDS IN PROTO- read a paper discussing the different layers of Chinese loanwords in Thai. Fascinated, SOUTHWESTERN TAI AS I stood in front of the classroom and EVIDENCE FOR THE reported on what I had read. At the end of DATING OF THE SPREAD the presentation, Professor Pranee Kullavanijaya plainly asked me a short but OF SOUTHWESTERN TAI penetrating question: “How do we know which layers each of the loanwords belong 1 Pittayawat Pittayaporn to?” That was one of the defining moments in my life, one which led me Abstract onto this journey as a historical linguist. This humble paper is an attestation of Professor Pranee’s dedication to inspiring The current ethno-linguistic landscape of and illuminating her students. mainland Southeast Asia is a result of the spread of Tai speakers from southern The ethno-linguistic make-up of mainland China. This study examines Chinese Southeast Asia observed today is a product loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai, the of successive migrations, ethno-linguistic hypothetical ancestor of all modern shifts, and hybridization that started a few Southwestern Tai varieties and proposes a millennia ago. It might not be amiss to say dating of the spread of Southwestern Tai that the most critical period of the languages. By comparing the reconstructed transformation that gave rise to the current Proto-Southwestern Tai forms with ethno-linguistic landscape was when the corresponding Chinese forms, four layers of Tai, the Burmese, and the Vietnamese Chinese loanwords existed in Proto- came to dominate the peninsula through an Southwestern Tai, namely Pre-Later Han, ethnic and political succession rooted in a Later Han Chinese, Early Middle Chinese, southward spread of agricultural practices and Late Middle Chinese layers. These (O’Connor 1995). However, it is unclear layers indicate that Proto-Southwestern when the transformation occurred. Tai was in contact with Chinese at least O’Connor places the Tai migration into until the Tang era. In collaboration with Southeast Asia in the first millennium CE. non-linguistic evidence, this paper Diller (2000) more specifically suggests therefore proposes that Southwestern Tai that the southwestward migration of Tai languages began to spread southward speakers started in the 10th century. In sometime during the eighth and the tenth contrast, Saraya (2002:24) believes that, centuries CE. due to population growth, Tai speakers began to spread south in the 12th century at Introduction the latest. Similarly, Diskul (1996) suggests that the migration probably Inspiration is perhaps the most precious started before Kublai Khan’s southern gift a teacher can offer her students. Back campaign in the 13th century. The earliest in the year 2000, one assignment in my date proposed is perhaps that by Wongthes (1994:22-24; 2005:180-184) who speculates 1 Lecturer, Department of Linguistics, Faculty that Tai speakers started their movement of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, around the first century BCE. Because Thailand Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 08:43:33PM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities, Special Issue No 20, 2014 historical records only take us so far back rodeo, etc. These loanwords are clear in time, a picture of when the ethno- attestations of the linguistic contact linguistic expansion occurred must come between English and Spanish, which in from other types of evidence. turn testifies to historical contact between speakers of the two languages. Not only From a linguistic point of view, the ethno- can they provide a picture of how the linguistic transformation resulted in a vast contact occurred, but they can also, in Tai-speaking territory stretching from many cases, reveal when it took place. For Northern Vietnam to Northeast India, and example, Dahl (1951) identifies Malagasy from Southern China down to Malaysia. etyma of Sanskrit origin and proposes that Among the branches of the Tai language its speakers left Borneo after the arrival of family, according to Li (1960, 1977), an Indian influence in the Indonesian overwhelming majority of Tai varieties archipelago in the fifth century CE. now spoken in mainland Southeast Asia Likewise, Chinese loanwords in PSWT all belong to one branch, namely can be used as evidence for Sino-Tai Southwestern Tai (SWT). Better-known contact, particularly in speculating as to SWT languages include Thai2, Lao, Yuan when SWT languages began to spread or Northern Thai, Lue, Shan, Black Tai, from their Sinospheric homeland into and White Tai. Therefore, dating the mainland Southeast Asia. spread of SWT languages from southern China in present-day Guangxi or eastern Although Tai and Chinese are nowadays Yunnan may facilitate a more precise classified in two distinct language identification of when the ethno-linguistic families, their historical connection has transformation took place. To this end, long been a topic of great interest. While Chinese loanwords may be used as Tai is a branch of the Kra-Dai language powerful evidence for situating the family, also known as Tai-Kadai, Chinese expansion of SWT languages in belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family. prehistorical chronology. This paper thus Nonetheless, the fact that they share a examines layers of Chinese loanwords in number of typological characteristics Proto-Southwestern Tai (PSWT), the including tonality and monosyllabicity, as hypothetical ancestor of all modern SWT well as a large set of common vocabulary, varieties, as evidence for the spread of led many to view them as genetically SWT into mainland Southeast Asia. related (Conrady 1896; Grierson 1903; Li 1976; Luo 1997; Manomaivibool 1976b; Loanwords as evidence for Sino-Tai Nishida 1975; Schmidt 1926; Wulff 1934). contact According to this view, the shared etyma include cognates as well as a large set of Loanwords are words adopted into one loanwords from different periods. language from other languages. For However, an alternative view that the example, English has borrowed a large similarities between Tai and Chinese are number of words from Spanish, including results of extensive and prolonged cargo, mosquito, plaza, salsa, ranch, language contact (Benedict 1942, 1975, 1997; Haudricourt 1954; Ostapirat 2005; Sagart 2004, 2005; Wulff 1942) has been 2 While ‘Thai’ refers specifically to the Tai gaining acceptance in the past few language of Thailand, ‘Tai’ is used for the decades. If the two language groups are entire language family. 48 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 08:43:33PM via free access Layers of Chinese Loanwords in Proto-Southwestern Tai indeed genetically unrelated, all the shared Most relevant to the issue at hand is the Sino-Tai vocabulary must be considered investigation of Sino-Thai lexical loanwords. Without denying the possibility correspondences by Manomanivibool (1975, of the Sino-Tai hypothesis, this paper, in 1976a). Not only does this excellent study accordance with the latter view, assumes propose Chinese etymological sources for that all etyma shared by Tai and Chinese are many words in Thai, but also shows that the due to borrowing. language contains at least four different layers of Chinese-related vocabulary With respect to Chinese vocabulary in Tai including Pre-Middle Chinese, Middle languages, a number of studies (Li 1976; Chinese, and Post-Middle Chinese3. It uses Nishida 1975; Wang 1966) have clearly phonological changes as criteria for placing shown that regular phonological the etyma in one of the layers. For example, correspondences exist among the Tai and Thai tʰâː ‘wharf’ from 渡 dù must have Chinese forms. Extremely important is the been borrowed before Middle Chinese work by Wulff (1934) who identifies a because it does not reflect the rounding of great number of shared Sino-Tai etyma. a to ɔ4 Similarly, Thai fùn ‘dust’ from 粉 Most crucially, he establishes tonal fěn is analyzed as a Late Middle Chinese correspondences between Chinese and Tai. loan because the initial f- indicates that it Specifically, etyma that had *A in Proto- was borrowed after the process of Tai (PT) regularly showed Even tone (平 labiodentalization had taken place in 聲) in Middle Chinese. Similarly, etyma Chinese. While this study successfully that show *B and *C in PT had Departing uncovered the multiple layers of Chinese tone (去聲) and Rising tone (上聲) in loanwords, it cannot be used directly to Middle Chinese, respectively. Lastly, infer the date of the spread of SWT. This etyma that had *D in PT had Entering tone is because it does not aim to determine ( 入 聲 ) in Middle Chinese. The tonal which etyma were borrowed separately by correspondences are illustrated in Table 1. Thai or which ones already existed in Note that, on the Chinese side, Departing Proto-Southwestern Tai (PSWT), the and Rising tones are annotated as *C and reconstructed ancestor of SWT. *B, respectively. In contrast, Even and Entering tones are left unmarked. In summary, a sizeable body of literature demonstrates clearly that Chinese loanwords Table 1 Correspondences between Proto- abound in Tai. These loanwords are clear Tai and Middle Chinese tones attestations of Sino-Tai contact, for which historical documents only provide a very PT Middle Chinese blurred picture. However, the present *so:ŋA ‘two’ 雙 ʂaɨwŋ Even knowledge of Chinese loanwords in Tai *A *bwi:A ‘fat’ 肥 buj 平 still cannot provide a specific date of the *ha:nB ‘goose’ 雁 ŋaɨnC Departing spread of SWT into mainland Southeast *B *ɣe:ŋB ‘shin’ 脛 ɣɛjŋB/C 去 *ha:C ‘five’ 五 ŋɔB Rising *C 3 *ma:C ‘horse’ 馬 maɨB 上 Monomaivibool (1976a) calls this layer *pe:t ‘eight’ “loanwords from certain Chinese dialects.” 八 pɛːt Entering 4 *D *ŋɯək Manomaivibool (1976a) adopts Li’s (1971) 鱷 ŋak 入 ‘crocodile’ Old Chinese reconstruction and describes this change as a change from Old Chinese *ag to Middle Chinese uo. 49 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 08:43:33PM via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities, Special Issue No 20, 2014 Asia.
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