Some old Chinese words.

• Author: Goldin, Paul Rakita

An important group of Chinese words with a graphemic, but no as yet explained semantic, relationship is the following (listed in Modern Mandarin and Middle Chinese):

MdM dao dao shou [MC.sup.1] dau/\ dau\ sj u/

"way" "lead" "head"

Both MC dau/ (rising tone) and dau\ (departing tone) should yield MdM dao [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED].(2) MC dau/ and dau\ have slightly different meanings: dau/ means "road," or "way"; dau\, on the other hand, means "show the way, explain."(3) The standard Cantonese reading of dao is sixth tone, indicating a Middle Chinese departing tone: it appears that the Middle Chinese reading dau/ for "road" was abandoned and subsumed under dau\. The development of MC dau\ (departing tone) to MdM dao [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] is irregular (we would expect dao); the Cantonese reading is sixth tone in this case, as well (again indicating a Middle Chinese departing tone); aberrant MdM dao is an isolated Mandarin phenomenon. Mc sjeu presents no problems other than the divergent initial cluster sj-.

The following are some proposed reconstructions of the Old Chinese forms of these words.

[Li.sup.4] *d??gwx *d??gwh *skhj??gwx [Schuessler.sup.5]

*gl??w? *gl??w?h *hlj??w? [Baxter.sup.6] *lu? (*lus) *hlju?

Baxter does not give a reconstruction for dao but *lus would fit his system. The newer reconstructions with initial *l- are in accordance with the suggestion of Pulleyblank: OC *l- > MC [d-.sup.7] Further evidence for this reflex is furnished by Tibeto-Burman data, which reveal several correspondences of the form Proto-TB *l-/MC [d-.sup.8] A beautiful example is Tibetan rlabs, "wave (n.)" and Chinese da [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED], "wave," MC dai\ (OC *laph.)(9). Baxter's and Schuessler's *hl- for shou is voiceless.

Suppose there were a Proto-Chinese root *lu: (the colon indicates rising tone),(10) meaning "way". This would yield OC *lu:, our reconstructed form of dao [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED]. From this we may derive dao (MC dau\). It is common in Chinese for a suffix *-h (departing tone)(11) to verbalize a noun.(12) Suffixed in this manner, *lu: would become *luh (MC dau\): "to act as a way" > "to lead" We may also derive shou. There is a common Proto-Sino-Tibetan prefix *s- for parts of the body.(14) Proto-Chinese *s-lu: would mean "the part of the body that leads; the head." I postulate: OC *sl-> MC sj-.

PC *lu: *lu:-h *s-lu: OC *lu: *(luh *thang MC dau/ dau\ sj??u/ MdM "way" "show the way" "part of the body that leads" Other examples of OC *sl-(and *shl-) > MC sj-are the following: OC MC 1. shang [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "swell *s-hlan sjang vs. tang [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "reckless *hlan thang 2. she [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "archer's *s-lyap sjap thimble" vs. ye [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] ibid. *lyap jiap 3. shen [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "deep" *s-l??m sj??m vs tan [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "probe" *l??m tam 5. shuo [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "explicate" * s-hlot sjwat vs tuo [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "loosen" *hlot thwat 6. sheng [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "keep up" *s-l??n sj??ng sheng [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "rise" *s-l??n sj??ng sheng [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "overcome" *s-l??n-h sj??ng\ vs. teng [UNKNOWN TEXT OMITTED] "rise" *l??n d??ng(15) The connection between the following two words as noted by Boodberg:(16)

MdM sheng qing

"alive" "green; grass-color"

There are many cognates in Tibeto-Burman languages.(17) For sheng, we may reconstruct OC *sren. Qing, "green," may be traced to a prefixed form, perhaps *s-sren, "things that are alive" = "green, grass." Thus:

Proto-Chinese *sren *s-sren OC *sren *shren MC

s??ng ts'ieng MdM sheng qing

The *-hr- in shren is voiceless...