DRAFT

Edition February 2013

Vietnamese       Chinese
What Makes Chinese so Vietnamese?

Introduction to Sinitic-Vietnamese Studies

DRAFT

dchph

STATEMENT OF RENUNCIATION OF THE SINITIC CAMP

Here comes a painful decision. I would like to renounce my long standing belief in what I have elaborated in this electronic publication about Sinitic Vietnamese. That is to say, I no longer believe in what I used to see as vestiges of sinitic linguistic elements in Vietnamese vocabulary stock that are postulated in my research paper.

The reason for my taking this course of action is, admittedly, politically motivated because I do not want my work later to serve for unforeseen evil purposes, especially in the face of Chinazi's overt actions trying to impose its hegemonism onto today's Vietnam.

My blood is boiling with revulsion and hatred after seeing a series of unrolling events currently taking place in the East Vietnam Sea. Civilized people mostly see that those behaviors could only be committed by warmongers, descendants of those same savages as vividly and accurately described in "The Ugly Chinaman" 醜陋的中國人 by Bo Yang 柏楊. Don't take me wrong, though both matters not related, given the fact that my blood is genetically embedded with Chinese DNA.

For Heaven's sake, please forgive me for all what I have been laboring on hitherto. I would appreciate your understanding and ask that you take this unstately moment of truthfulness as a statement of my renunciation of the sinitic camp and I shall accept all consequences thereof.

I would like to extend my apology to my fellow scholars, too. You may find it unpleasant and irrelevant in most postulational instances per se but if you still need to read my writing for some reason, focus instead on the antithesis of what was discussed herein on the origin of Vietnamese, that is, "de-sinitize" them by taking the opposite view on the premise that, chronologically, there first had existed the ancient Yue pollens and only then flowered the Sinitic ones.

As long as such approach is not internally contradictory, I shall attempt to do some rework on this paper, section by section, to present it under an egg-chick perspective. Should you want to cite material quoted in this paper, kindly supplement your citation with a note on the reason that underlines the new title What Makes Chinese so Vietnamese? accordingly. Your comments and questions are welcome at Ziendan TiengViet.

dchph
February 2013

ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY

I) INTRODUCTION

  1. Prologue
    1. What makes Chinese so Vietnamese?
    2. Background
    3. Symbols and conventions
  2. Rainwash on the Austroasiatic western front
    1. New approaches in the Vietnamese etymology
    2. The end of AA-MK approach
  3. Sinitic-Vietnamese Studies
    1. The Zen of Sinitic-Vietnamese
    2. On the one-size-fits-all conpiracy
    3. A revised course in the adaption of the reconstructed ancient sound values
  4. Vietnamese and Chinese commonalities
    1. Modern dialectal similarities
    2. The role of Mandarin

II) THE CHINESE CONNECTION

  1. The politics of Chinese-Vietnamese linguistic studies
  2. Is it Chinese or Vietnamese?
  3. Prelude on the Sinitic etyma
  4. Hypothesis of common Yue origin of Vietnamese and Chinese
  5. Core matter of Vietnamese etymology
  6. Chinese and the basic vocabulary stock
  7. 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 and Vietnamese basic words

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. A 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

ABBREVIATION AND GLOSSARY :

  • AA = Austroasiatic linguistic family (Ngữhệ NamÁ)
  • AC = Ancient Chinese (TiếngHán Thượngcổ 上古漢語)
  • Amoy = Fukienese or Fùjiàn (TiếngPhúckiến hay Hạmôn 厦門方言)
  • ArC = Archaic Chinese (TiếngHán Tháithượngcổ 太古漢語)
  • 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.
  • Austroasiatic = Austroasiatic linguistic family (Ngữhệ NamÁ)
  • AV= Ancient-Vietnamese, also, ancient Việt-Mường (TiếngViệtcổ, TiếngViệt-Mườngcổ)
  • B, Beijing = Beijing dialect (thổngữ Bắckinh 北京方言)
  • bound morphemes = the smallest meaningful phonological units that are bound together and usually appear in pairs to form composite words
  • C = Chinese in general (TiếngHán 漢語) (See also: tiếngTàu)
  • Cant. = Cantonese (TiếngQuảngđông 廣東方言)
  • cf., ss, or " §" = compare (sosánh)
  • character = mostly referring to a Chinese ideogram; also, a Roman letter or an ideographic symbol (chữ, tự, mẫutự 字母, 漢字)
  • Chin., Chinese = Chinese in general (TiếngHán 漢語) (See also: tiếngTàu)
  • Chin. dialects, Chinese dialects = 7 major Chinese dialects, including sub-dialects (phươngngữHán, TiếngTàu 漢語方言)
  • Chaozhou (Chiewchow) = a sub-dialect of Fukienese, also known as Tchiewchou (tiếngTriều, tiếngTiều 朝州方言)
  • 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)
  • compound word = two-syllable word that is composed of two words (từghép, từ songâmtiết)
  • doublet = A Chinese character of the same root that appears in different form (từđồngnguyên 同源辭)
  • diachronic = concerning historical development of language of something through time
  • Dai = T’ai, Tai, Tày, and sometimes Thai, languages (TiếngTày 傣語)
  • ex. = example (= td. 'thídụ')
  • dissyllabicity = dissyllabics
  • dissyllabics = Charateristics of a language based on its dominant two-syllable words in its vocabulary (tínhsongâmtiết 雙音節性)
  • EM = Early Mandarin
  • EMC = Early Middle Chinese (TiếngHán Tiềntrungcổ 前中古漢語)
  • Fk = Fuzhou, Fukienese (Fùjiàn) or Amoy (TiếngPhúckiến hay phươngngữ Hạmôn 厦門方言)
  • FQ (or Pt) = 'fănqiè' 反切 phiênthiết (initial and syllabic conjugation, a Chinese lexical spelling system in classics)
  • Hai. = Hainanese, a sub-dialect of Fukienese or Amoy (TiếngHảinam 海南方言)
  • HN = Nôm words, same VS, or Vietnamese words, of Chinese origin (HánNôm 漢喃辭匯)
  • ideograph/ideogram = a written symbol of language writing system developed from graphic representation (chữtượnghình 形像字母)
  • "iro" (or #) = in reverse order, metathesis (nghịchđảo thứtự từ)
  • IPA = the International Phonetic Symbol (Phiênâm Quốctế)
  • K, Kh. = Khmer or Cambodian (TiếngKhmer/TiếngCaomiên)
  • 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)
  • Latinized / Latinization: same as Romanized / Romanization (Latinhhoá 羅丁拼音)
  • loangraph = A loangraph in Chinese is a homophone connveying a different meaning but using the same ideographic character (giảtá, 假借)
  • LZ = Late Zhou, L. Zhou (Cuối ÐờiChâu 周末)
  • M = Mandarin, QT (TiếngPhổthông, tiếngQuanthoại 普通話, 國語)
  • Malay = Malay linguistic affinity (Ngữchi Mãlai 馬來語支); National language of Malaysia (TiếngMãlai 馬來語)
  • 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)
  • MK = Mon-Khmer linguistic affinity (Ngữchi Mon-Khmer 猛高棉語支)
  • monosyllabicity = monosyllabics
  • monosyllabics = Charateristics of a language based on its dominant one-syllable words in its vocabulary (tínhđơnâmtiết 單音節性)
  • Mèo = Hmong 苗
  • Môn = Mon
  • monosyllabism = monosyllabics
  • N = Original Vietnamese, also old Chinese-based Vietnamese wrting system
  • (từ Nôm, tiếngNôm hoặc từ thuần Việt 純喃辭匯, ChữNôm "字喃")
  • 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)
  • Nùng = Zhuang language, same as Ðồng, Tráng (TiếngNùng 莊語, 垌語)
  • OC = Old Chinese (TiếngHán Cổ 古漢語)
  • OV = Old Vietnamese form (TiếngViệt cổ / TiếngViệtMường cổ)
  • Pt = FQ 'fănqiè' 反切 phiênthiết (initial and syllabic conjugation, a Chinese lexical spelling)
  • Pinyin = People's Republic of China's official Romanization transcription system of Pǔtōnghuà (pinyin haylà phiênâm 拼音)
  • polysyllabicity = polysyllabics
  • polysyllabics = Charateristics of a language based on its dominant multi-syllable words in its vocabulary (tínhđâmtiết 多音節性)
  • polysyllabism = polysyllabics
  • pre-SV = pre-Sino-Vietnamese (TiềnHánViệt 前漢越辭匯)
  • pro-C = proto-Chinese (TiếngHán Tiềnsử 前史漢語)
  • Putonghua or Pǔtōnghuà = Official name of Mandarin (Tiếngphổthông haylà Quanthoại 普通話/國語)
  • PV = proto-Vietnamese, proto-Vietic (TiếngViệt Tiềnsử)
  • radical = basic Chinese ideographic root on which other characters are built (tựcăn 字根)
  • Quốcngữ = Vietnamese national orthography
  • Romanized / Romanization: same as Latinized / Latinization (Latinhhoá 羅丁拼音)
  • synonymous compound = compund word that is composed of two synonymous syllables or words (từghép đẳnglập, từkép đẳnglập, từsongâmtiết đẳnglập)
  • sandhi = change of sound of word under the influence of a preceding or following sound
  • sandhi process of assimilation / association = same as the associative sandhi process
  • synchronic = studying language as it exists at a certain point in time, without considering its historical development
  • Sinicized, Sinitized, or Siniticized = influenced, characterized, and/or identified by Chinese elements (Hánhoá 漢化)
  • ss, or " §" = cf., compare (sosánh)
  • ST = Sino-Tibetan (HánTạng 漢藏語系)
  • SV = Sino-Vietnamese (HánViệt 漢越辭匯)
  • Tchiewchow = a sub-dialect of Fukienese, also known as Chaozhou (tiếngTriều, tiếngTiều 朝州方言)
  • Thượng / NgườiThượng = See: Kinh/NgườiKinh
  • TiếngTàu = a coloquial term to connote the Chinese languages, of which the term "Tàu" could have originated from Tần 'Qín 秦' or tiếngTiều 朝州方言 (từ "Tàu" cóthể do "Tần" hoặc tiếngTiều 朝州方言 màra.)
  • V, Viet. = Vietnamese (TiếngViệt 越南話)
  • "Vietnamized" = Characterized by the localization of loanwords to fit into Vietnamese speech habit (Việthoá 越化)
  • VM = VietMuong or Việt-Mường form (TiếngViệtMường 越孟語)
  • VS = Sinitic-Vietnamese (HánNôm 漢喃辭匯)
  • Zhuang = the Zhuang language, same as Nùng, Ðồng, Tráng (TiếngNùng 莊語, 垌語)

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