Sino-Japanese
Encyclopedia
Sino-Japanese, or Kango in Japanese
, refers to that portion of the Japanese
vocabulary that originated in the Chinese language
or has been created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Some grammatical or sentence patterns can also be identified with Sino-Japanese. Sino-Japanese vocabulary is referred to in Japanese as kango (漢語), meaning 'Chinese words'. Kango is one of three broad categories into which the Japanese vocabulary is divided. The others are native Japanese vocabulary (:ja:大和言葉 yamato kotoba
or :ja:和語 wago) and borrowings from mainly Western languages 外来語 (gairaigo
). Approximately 60% of the words contained in a modern Japanese dictionary is estimated to consist of kango, and it forms about 18% of words used in speech, as measured by the National Institute for Japanese Language
in its study of language use in NHK
broadcasts from April to June, 1989.
, and other East Asian languages throughout history, in a manner somewhat similar to Latin
's preeminent position in European history. At the time of their first contact, the Japanese language had no writing system, while the Chinese had a written language and a great deal of academic information, providing new concepts along with Chinese words to express them. Chinese became the language of science, learning and religion. The earliest written language to be used in Japan was literary Chinese
, which has come to be called kanbun
in this context. The kanbun writing system essentially required every literate Japanese to be competent in written Chinese, although it is unlikely that many Japanese people were then fluent in spoken Chinese. Chinese pronunciation was approximated in words borrowed from Chinese into Japanese; this Sino-Japanese vocabulary is still an important component of the Japanese language, and may be compared to words of Latin or Greek origin in English.
Chinese borrowings also significantly impacted Japanese phonology
, leading to many new developments such as closed syllables (CVC, not just CV) and Length
becoming a phonetic feature with the development of both long vowels
and long consonants
– see Early Middle Japanese: Phonological developments.
However, there are cases where the distinction between on'yomi and kun'yomi does not correspond to etymological origin. Chinese characters created in Japan, called , normally only have kun'yomi, but some kokuji have on'yomi. One such character is 働 (as in 働く hataraku, "to work"), which was given the on'yomi dō (from the on'yomi of its phonetic, 動) when used in compounds with other characters, e.g. 労働 rōdō ("labor"). The character 腺 ("gland"), which has the on'yomi sen (from the on'yomi of its phonetic, 泉), e.g. 扁桃腺 hentōsen "tonsils", was intentionally created as a 'kango' and does not have a kun'yomi at all. Although not originating in Chinese, both of these are regarded as 'Sino-Japanese'.
By the same token, kun-yomi is not a guarantee that a word is native Japanese. There are a few Japanese words that, although they appear to have originated in borrowings from Chinese, have such a long history in the Japanese language that they are regarded as native and are thus treated as kun'yomi, e.g., 馬 uma "horse" and 梅 ume
. These words are not regarded as belonging to the Sino-Japanese vocabulary.
The best-known example is the prolific numbers of kango coined during the Meiji
era on the model of Classical Chinese to translate modern concepts imported from the West. These words include 科学 kagaku ('science'), 社会 shakai ('society'), 自動車 jidōsha ('automobile'), 電話 denwa ('telephone') and a host of other basic words. The use of Chinese elements to form words in Japanese is akin to the way that English and other European words are formed using Greek and Latin elements, known as classical compound
s, such as the English word "telephone", which was created from the Greek morphemes tele ('far') and phone ('sound'). The Japanese formation 電話 denwa means 'electric' + 'talk'. Much of this vocabulary was borrowed back into Chinese around the turn of the 20th century and is now used indistinguishably from native Chinese vocabulary. Many of these words have also been borrowed into Korean
and Vietnamese
, forming (a modern Japanese) part of their Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies.
Many Japanese-created kango refer to uniquely Japanese concepts. Examples include daimyō
(大名), waka
(和歌), haiku
(俳句), geisha
(芸者), chōnin
(町人), matcha
(抹茶), sencha
(煎茶), washi
(和紙), jūdō
(柔道), kendō
(剣道), Shintō
(神道), shōgi
(将棋), dōjō
(道場), and seppuku
(切腹).
Another miscellaneous group of words were coined from Japanese phrases or crossed over from kun'yomi to on'yomi. Examples include henji (返事 meaning 'reply', from native 返り事 kaerigoto 'reply'), rippuku (立腹 'become angry', based on 腹が立つ hara ga tatsu, literally 'stomach stands up'), shukka (出火 'fire starts or breaks out', based on 火が出る hi ga deru), and ninja
(忍者 from 忍びの者 shinobi-no-mono meaning 'person of stealth'). In Chinese, the same combinations of characters are often meaningless or have a different meaning. Even a humble expression like gohan (ご飯 or 御飯 'cooked rice') is a pseudo-kango and not found in Chinese. One interesting example that gives itself away as a Japanese coinage is kaisatsu-guchi (改札口 literally 'check ticket gate'), meaning the ticket barrier at a railway station.
Finally, quite a few words appear to be Sino-Japanese but are varied in origin, written with ateji
(当て字)— kanji assigned without regard for etymology. In many cases, the characters were chosen only to indicate pronunciation. For example, sewa ('care, concern') is written 世話, using the on'yomi "se" + "wa" ('household/society' + 'talk'); although this word is not Sino-Japanese but a native Japanese word believed to derive from sewashii, meaning 'busy' or 'troublesome'; the written form "世話" is simply an attempt to assign plausible-looking characters pronounced "se" and "wa". Other ateji of this type include 面倒 mendō ('face' + 'fall down' = 'bother, trouble') and 野暮 yabo ('fields' + 'livelihood' = 'uncouth'). (The first gloss after each character roughly translates the kanji; the second is the meaning of the word in Japanese.)
Nonetheless, the correspondences between the two are fairly regular. As a result, Sino-Japanese can be viewed as a (transformed) "snapshot" of an archaic period of the Chinese language, and as a result is very important for comparative linguists as it provides a large amount of evidence for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese
.
The following is a rough guide to equivalencies between modern Chinese words and modern Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings.
Unless otherwise noted, in the list below, sounds shown in quotation marks, such as "h" or "g", refer to Hanyu pinyin romanization for Mandarin Chinese and Hepburn romanization
for Japanese. Symbols shown within square brackets, such as [ɡ] or [dʒ], indicate IPA transcription.
Initials:
Finals:
Later developments of diphthongs: → /ɔː/ → /oː/ → /joː/ → /juː/ → /oː/ → /uː/
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, refers to that portion of the Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
vocabulary that originated in the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
or has been created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Some grammatical or sentence patterns can also be identified with Sino-Japanese. Sino-Japanese vocabulary is referred to in Japanese as kango (漢語), meaning 'Chinese words'. Kango is one of three broad categories into which the Japanese vocabulary is divided. The others are native Japanese vocabulary (:ja:大和言葉 yamato kotoba
Yamato kotoba
are native Japanese words, meaning those words in Japanese that have been inherited from Old Japanese, rather than being borrowed at some stage. They are also known as...
or :ja:和語 wago) and borrowings from mainly Western languages 外来語 (gairaigo
Gairaigo
Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...
). Approximately 60% of the words contained in a modern Japanese dictionary is estimated to consist of kango, and it forms about 18% of words used in speech, as measured by the National Institute for Japanese Language
National Institute for Japanese Language
The is an independent administrative institution in Japan, established for the purpose of studying, surveying, promoting, and making recommendations for the proper usage of the Japanese language....
in its study of language use in NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
broadcasts from April to June, 1989.
Background
China's large territory and advanced culture led Chinese to exert an enormous influence on Japanese, KoreanKorean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, and other East Asian languages throughout history, in a manner somewhat similar to Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
's preeminent position in European history. At the time of their first contact, the Japanese language had no writing system, while the Chinese had a written language and a great deal of academic information, providing new concepts along with Chinese words to express them. Chinese became the language of science, learning and religion. The earliest written language to be used in Japan was literary Chinese
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese...
, which has come to be called kanbun
Kanbun
The Japanese word originally meant "Classical Chinese writings, Chinese classic texts, Classical Chinese literature". This evolved into a Japanese method of reading annotated Classical Chinese in translation . Much Japanese literature was written in literary Chinese using this annotated style...
in this context. The kanbun writing system essentially required every literate Japanese to be competent in written Chinese, although it is unlikely that many Japanese people were then fluent in spoken Chinese. Chinese pronunciation was approximated in words borrowed from Chinese into Japanese; this Sino-Japanese vocabulary is still an important component of the Japanese language, and may be compared to words of Latin or Greek origin in English.
Chinese borrowings also significantly impacted Japanese phonology
Japanese phonology
This article deals with the phonology of the Japanese language.-Consonants:The Japanese vowels are pronounced as monophthongs, unlike in English; except for , they are similar to their Spanish or Italian counterparts....
, leading to many new developments such as closed syllables (CVC, not just CV) and Length
Length (phonetics)
In phonetics, length or quantity is a feature of sounds that are distinctively longer than other sounds. There are long vowels as well as long consonants .Many languages do not have distinctive length...
becoming a phonetic feature with the development of both long vowels
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
and long consonants
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
– see Early Middle Japanese: Phonological developments.
Sino-Japanese and On'yomi
The term kango is usually identified with on'yomi (音読み, "sound reading"), a system of pronouncing Chinese characters in a way that at one stage approximated the original Chinese. On'yomi is also known as the 'Sino-Japanese reading', and is opposed to kun'yomi (訓読み, "reading by meaning") under which Chinese characters are assigned to, and read as, native Japanese vocabulary.However, there are cases where the distinction between on'yomi and kun'yomi does not correspond to etymological origin. Chinese characters created in Japan, called , normally only have kun'yomi, but some kokuji have on'yomi. One such character is 働 (as in 働く hataraku, "to work"), which was given the on'yomi dō (from the on'yomi of its phonetic, 動) when used in compounds with other characters, e.g. 労働 rōdō ("labor"). The character 腺 ("gland"), which has the on'yomi sen (from the on'yomi of its phonetic, 泉), e.g. 扁桃腺 hentōsen "tonsils", was intentionally created as a 'kango' and does not have a kun'yomi at all. Although not originating in Chinese, both of these are regarded as 'Sino-Japanese'.
By the same token, kun-yomi is not a guarantee that a word is native Japanese. There are a few Japanese words that, although they appear to have originated in borrowings from Chinese, have such a long history in the Japanese language that they are regarded as native and are thus treated as kun'yomi, e.g., 馬 uma "horse" and 梅 ume
Ume
Prunus mume, with the common names including Chinese plum and Japanese apricot, is an Asian tree species classified in the Armeniaca section of the genus Prunus. The flower, long a beloved subject in the traditional painting of East Asia, is usually translated as plum blossom. This distinct tree...
. These words are not regarded as belonging to the Sino-Japanese vocabulary.
Words 'Made in Japan'
While much Sino-Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from Chinese, a considerable amount was created by the Japanese themselves as they coined new words using Sino-Japanese forms. These are known as ; compare to .The best-known example is the prolific numbers of kango coined during the Meiji
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
era on the model of Classical Chinese to translate modern concepts imported from the West. These words include 科学 kagaku ('science'), 社会 shakai ('society'), 自動車 jidōsha ('automobile'), 電話 denwa ('telephone') and a host of other basic words. The use of Chinese elements to form words in Japanese is akin to the way that English and other European words are formed using Greek and Latin elements, known as classical compound
Classical compound
Classical compounds are compound words composed from Latin or Ancient Greek root words. A large portion of the technical and scientific lexicon of English and other Western European languages consists of classical compounds. For example, bio- combines with -graphy to form biography...
s, such as the English word "telephone", which was created from the Greek morphemes tele ('far') and phone ('sound'). The Japanese formation 電話 denwa means 'electric' + 'talk'. Much of this vocabulary was borrowed back into Chinese around the turn of the 20th century and is now used indistinguishably from native Chinese vocabulary. Many of these words have also been borrowed into Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, forming (a modern Japanese) part of their Sino-Korean and Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies.
Many Japanese-created kango refer to uniquely Japanese concepts. Examples include daimyō
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
(大名), waka
Waka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
(和歌), haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
(俳句), geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
(芸者), chōnin
Chonin
was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. The majority of chōnin were merchants, but some were craftsmen, as well. Nōmin were not considered chōnin...
(町人), matcha
Matcha
refers to finely-milled green tea, most popular in Japan. The cultural activity called the Japanese tea ceremony centers on the preparation, serving, and drinking of matcha. In modern times, matcha has also come to be used to flavour and dye foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream...
(抹茶), sencha
Sencha
Sencha is a Japanese green tea, specifically one made without grinding the tea leaves. The word "sencha" means "decocted tea," referring to the method that the tea beverage is made from the dried tea leaves...
(煎茶), washi
Washi
is a type of paper made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub , or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat...
(和紙), jūdō
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
(柔道), kendō
Kendo
, meaning "Way of The Sword", is a modern Japanese martial art of sword-fighting based on traditional Japanese swordsmanship, or kenjutsu.Kendo is a physically and mentally challenging activity that combines strong martial arts values with sport-like physical elements.-Practitioners:Practitioners...
(剣道), Shintō
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
(神道), shōgi
Shogi
, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...
(将棋), dōjō
Dojo
A is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way". Initially, dōjōs were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any Japanese martial arts style to...
(道場), and seppuku
Seppuku
is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
(切腹).
Another miscellaneous group of words were coined from Japanese phrases or crossed over from kun'yomi to on'yomi. Examples include henji (返事 meaning 'reply', from native 返り事 kaerigoto 'reply'), rippuku (立腹 'become angry', based on 腹が立つ hara ga tatsu, literally 'stomach stands up'), shukka (出火 'fire starts or breaks out', based on 火が出る hi ga deru), and ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
(忍者 from 忍びの者 shinobi-no-mono meaning 'person of stealth'). In Chinese, the same combinations of characters are often meaningless or have a different meaning. Even a humble expression like gohan (ご飯 or 御飯 'cooked rice') is a pseudo-kango and not found in Chinese. One interesting example that gives itself away as a Japanese coinage is kaisatsu-guchi (改札口 literally 'check ticket gate'), meaning the ticket barrier at a railway station.
Finally, quite a few words appear to be Sino-Japanese but are varied in origin, written with ateji
Ateji
In modern Japanese, primarily refers to kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words, without regard to the meaning of the underlying characters. This is analogous to man'yōgana in pre-modern Japanese...
(当て字)— kanji assigned without regard for etymology. In many cases, the characters were chosen only to indicate pronunciation. For example, sewa ('care, concern') is written 世話, using the on'yomi "se" + "wa" ('household/society' + 'talk'); although this word is not Sino-Japanese but a native Japanese word believed to derive from sewashii, meaning 'busy' or 'troublesome'; the written form "世話" is simply an attempt to assign plausible-looking characters pronounced "se" and "wa". Other ateji of this type include 面倒 mendō ('face' + 'fall down' = 'bother, trouble') and 野暮 yabo ('fields' + 'livelihood' = 'uncouth'). (The first gloss after each character roughly translates the kanji; the second is the meaning of the word in Japanese.)
Phonetic correspondences between Modern Chinese and On'yomi
At first glance, the on'yomi of many Sino-Japanese words do not resemble the Modern Standard Chinese pronunciations at all. There are two main reasons for this:- Most Sino-Japanese words were borrowed in the 5th - 9th centuries AD, from Early Middle Chinese into Old JapaneseOld Japaneseis the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language.This stage in the development of Japanese is still actively studied and debated, and key Old Japanese texts, such as the Man'yōshū, remain obscure in places.-Dating:...
. Both languages have changed significantly since then, and in different ways. This has resulted in the respective pronunciations becoming more and more divergent over time. - Middle Chinese had a much more complex syllable structure than Old Japanese, as well as many more vowel and consonant differences. Many sounds and sound combinations had to be approximated in the borrowing process, sometimes with significant differences (e.g. final /ŋ/ was represented as /u/ or /i/.
Nonetheless, the correspondences between the two are fairly regular. As a result, Sino-Japanese can be viewed as a (transformed) "snapshot" of an archaic period of the Chinese language, and as a result is very important for comparative linguists as it provides a large amount of evidence for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
.
The following is a rough guide to equivalencies between modern Chinese words and modern Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings.
Unless otherwise noted, in the list below, sounds shown in quotation marks, such as "h" or "g", refer to Hanyu pinyin romanization for Mandarin Chinese and Hepburn romanization
Hepburn romanization
The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
for Japanese. Symbols shown within square brackets, such as [ɡ] or [dʒ], indicate IPA transcription.
- A major sound-shift has occurred in Mandarin since the time of modern contact with the West. Namely, the sounds written in Pinyin as "g" [k] or "k" [kʰ], when immediately preceding an "i", "y" or "ü" sound, became "j" ([tɕ], similar to English "j") or "q" ([tɕʰ], similar to English "ch"). This change is called palatalizationPalatalizationIn linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
. As a result, Peking (北京) changed to Běijīng, and Chungking (重慶) to Chóngqìng. This shift did not occur in Sino-Japanese. Thus, Mandarin qìQiIn traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...
(氣, 'breath, air, spirit') corresponds to Japanese ki. In some other Chinese dialects/languages, it is still pronounced as 'ki'. For example, 氣 in Southern Min is khì (POJ romanization). This is similar to the way the Latin, once always pronounced like an English K, became closer to an English CH in Italian words where the C is followed by an E or I, changing centum /kentum/ into cento /tʃento/. - Old Japanese did not have an "-ng" or [ŋ] syllable ending, which is very common in Chinese. This sound was borrowed as either /i/ or /u/. The combinations /au/ and /eu/ later became "ō" and "yō", respectively, in Japanese. Thus, the Mandarin reading of "Tokyo" (東京; Eastern (東) Capital (京)) is Dōngjīng; this corresponds to Japanese TōkyōTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, with sound history for 京 being supposed approximately *kiæŋ -> kyau -> kyō (for comparison: Southern Min 京 (colloquial) is kiaⁿ with a nasal diphthong). Another example is 京城, former name for SeoulSeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, which is Keijō in Japanese and Gyeongseong in KoreanKorean languageKorean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
(which, did and does have syllables ending in [ŋ]). 京 is read "kei" (*kiæŋ -> kyei -> kei) in this case. - As in the case of 京, the same character sometimes has multiple readings, e.g. "kyō" (Go-onGo-onare one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period...
) vs. "kei" (Kan-onKan-onis one of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji.They were borrowed from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century....
) vs. "kin" (Tō-onTo-on, also pronounced "tō-in", are Japanese kanji readings imported from China by Zen monks and merchants during and after the Song dynasty. This period roughly corresponds with the mid-Heian to Edo Period of Japan. During the Muromachi period, they were referred to as...
). These stem from multiple phases of borrowing, which occurred at different times and from different source dialects and were carried out by different groups of people possibly speaking different dialects of Japanese. This means that the same word may have had different Chinese pronunciations, and even if not, the borrowers may have chosen different strategies to handle unfamiliar sounds. For example, the character 京 seems to have had an approximate pronunciation of /kjæŋ/ at the time of both the Go-on (5th - 6th century AD) and Kan-on (7th - 9th century AD) borrowings; however, the unfamiliar vowel /æ/ was represented by /a/ in the former case and /e/ in the latter. (This may also indicate different source pronunciations of the vowel.) In addition, the unfamiliar final /ŋ/ was represented by /u/ in the former case but /i/ in the latter, agreeing in frontness vs. backness with the main vowel. By the time of the Tō-on borrowing (post-10th century), the pronunciation in Chinese had changed to /kiŋ/, and by this time Japanese had developed a syllable-final "n" /ŋ/; hence it could be borrowed directly as "kin". - The vowels of Chinese sometimes correspond to Sino-Japanese in an apparently haphazard fashion. However, Mandarin "ao" often corresponds to Japanese "ō" (usually derived from earlier Sino-Japanese [au]), and Chinese empty rimeSyllable rimeIn the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
[ɨ] (represented in pinyin with a "i") often corresponds to [i] (a different sound, also represented with a "i" in Hepburn) in Japanese. - The distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants ([d] vs. [t] or [b] vs. [p]) has been lost in modern Mandarin and many other Chinese languages. The key exception is in Wu dialects (呉語, e.g. ShanghaineseShanghaineseShanghainese , or the Shanghai language , is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties...
). The Shanghainese voiced consonants match the Japanese go-on (呉音) readings nearly perfectly in terms of voicing. For example, 葡萄 (grape) is pronounced "budo" in Shanghainese and "budō" (< "budau") in Japanese (preserving the voiced consonants [b] and [d]), but "pútáo" in Mandarin. Incidentally, the rising tone of the Mandarin syllables may reflect the earlier voiced quality of the initial consonants. - In modern Mandarin, all syllables end either in a vowel or in one of a small number of consonant sounds: "n", "ng", or occasionally "r". However, Middle Chinese, like several modern Chinese dialects (e.g. Cantonese, Hakka, Min), allowed several other final consonants including [p], [t], [k], and [m], and these are preserved in Sino-Japanese (except for -m, which is replaced by -n, as in 三, san, "three"). However, because Japanese phonology does not allow these consonants to appear at the end of a syllable either, they are usually followed in Sino-Japanese by an additional "i" or "u" vowel, resulting in a second syllable (-tsu or -chi if from -t, -ku if from -k, and -fu if from -p). As a result, a one-syllable word in Chinese can become two syllables in Sino-Japanese. For example, Mandarin tiě (铁, 'iron') corresponds to Japanese tetsu (鉄). This is still pronounced with a final [t] in Cantonese: /tʰiːt˧/. Another example is Mandarin guó (國, 'land'), from Early Middle Chinese /kwək/, corresponding to Japanese koku.
- The consonant "f" in Mandarin corresponds to both "h" and "b" in Japanese. Early Middle Chinese had no /f/, but instead had /pj/ or /bj/ (in other reconstructions, /pɥ/ or /bɥ/). Japanese still reflects this ("h" was /p/ in Old Japanese). For example, Mandarin Fó (佛, Buddha) corresponds to Japanese butsu (仏); both reflect Early Middle Chinese /bjut/ from a still older form /but/. In modern Southern Min Chinese, this character is still pronounced as [but].
- In addition, as in the previous example, Old Japanese /p/ became modern "h". When a Middle Chinese word ended in /p/, this produced further complications in Japanese. For example, Middle Chinese /dʑip/ "ten" (Standard Mandarin "shí", Cantonese /sɐp/) was borrowed as Old Japanese /zipu/. In time this went through a series of changes: /zipu/ > /zihu/ > /ziu/ > /zyū/ > "jū". Note that in some compounds, the word was directly borrowed as /zip-/ > "jip-"; hence "jippun" "ten minutes" (or "juppun", influenced by "jū"), rather than "*jūfun".
- More complex is the archaic dento-labial nasal sound: The character 武 (strife, martial arts) was pronounced "mvu" in Late Middle Chinese. The sound is approximated in the Japanese pronunciations "bu" and "mu". However, that sound no longer exists in most modern Chinese dialects, except Southern Min "bú", and the character 武 is pronounced "wǔ" in Mandarin, /mou˩˧/ in Cantonese, "vu" in Hakka and Shanghainese.
- The modern Mandarin initial "r" usually corresponds to "ny" or "ni" in Japanese. At the time of borrowing, characters such as 人 ('person') and 日 ('day'), which have an initial "r" sound in modern Mandarin, began with a palatal nasalPalatal nasalThe palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J...
consonant [ɲ] closely approximating FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
"gn" and SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
"ñ". (This distinction is still preserved in some Chinese dialects, such as Hakka and ShanghaineseShanghaineseShanghainese , or the Shanghai language , is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties...
.) Thus Mandarin Rìběn (日本, Japan) corresponds to Japanese Nippon. This is also why the character 人, pronounced /njin/ in Middle Chinese, is pronounced "nin" in some contexts, as in "ningen" (人間), and "jin" in others, such as "gaijin" (外人)— approximating its more modern pronunciation. In Wu dialects, including Shanghainese, 人 ('person') and 二 ('two') are still pronounced "nin" and "ni", respectively. In Southern Min (especially ZhangzhouZhangzhouZhangzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. Located on the banks of the Jiulong River , Zhangzhou borders the cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou to the northeast, Longyan City to the northwest and the province of Guangdong to the southwest.Zhangzhou...
accent), 人 is "jîn" (literary pronunciation) which is practically identical to Japanese On'yomi. - In Middle Chinese, 五 ('five') and similar characters were pronounced with a velar nasalVelar nasalThe velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
consonant, "ng" ([ŋ]), as its initial. This is no longer true in modern Mandarin, but it remains the case in other Chinese dialects such as Cantonese (/ŋ̩˩˧/) and Shanghainese. Japanese approximates the Middle Chinese "ng" with "g" or "go"; thus 五 becomes "go". In Southern Min, it is pronounced as 'go' while in Fuzhou dialectFuzhou dialectFuzhou dialect , also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it ' , meaning the language spoken in...
it is still pronounced "ngu". In addition, Japanese g is pronounced as [ŋ] anyway when medial. - The Mandarin "hu" sound (as in "huá" or "huī") does not exist in Japanese and is usually omitted, whereas the Mandarin "l" sound becomes "r" in Japanese. Thus, Mandarin Huángbò (黄檗) corresponds to Japanese Ōbaku, and Rúlái (如来) to Nyorai.
- Mandarin "h", usually from Middle Chinese [x] or [ɣ] will often correspond to "k" or "g" in Japanese. Old Japanese lacked a velar fricatives; Modern Japanese [h] is derived from Old Japanese [ɸ], which descended in most cases from a Proto-JaponicJaponic languagesJaponic languages is a term which identifies and characterises the Japanese which is spoken on the main islands of Japan and the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. This widely accepted linguistics term was coined by Leon Serafim....
*/p/. Mandarin "z" will often correspond to Japanese "j"; these are also changes in Chinese. Thus, Mandarin hànzì (漢字) corresponds to Japanese kanjiKanjiKanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
, hànwén (漢文, Chinese written language) to kanbun, and zuìhòu (最後, last) to saigo.
Chart of correspondences
Note:- MC: Middle ChineseMiddle ChineseMiddle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
- PinyinPinyinPinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Modern Standard ChineseStandard ChineseStandard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
(Mandarin) in its official spelling. Multiple outcomes for MC initials (e.g. MC /g/ → Pinyin g,j,k,q) are primarily due to two reasons:- MC voiced stops/affricates become Mandarin aspirated stops/affricates (p,t,k,etc.) when the syllable had the MC first tone (Mandarin first/second tones), unaspirated stops/affricates (b,d,g,etc.) otherwise.
- Early Mandarin velar obstruents (g,k,h) and alveolar sibilants (z,c,s) become palatal obstruents (j,q,x) when a front vowelFront vowelA front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
or glide followed.
- Go: Go-onGo-onare one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period...
(呉音), from the Southern and Northern DynastiesSouthern and Northern DynastiesThe Southern and Northern Dynasties was a period in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589 AD. Though an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spreading of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism...
China or BaekjeBaekjeBaekje or Paekche was a kingdom located in southwest Korea. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla....
Korea during the 5th and 6th centuries. Go means WuWu (region)Wu is a region in the Jiangnan area , surrounding Suzhou, in Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province of China. It is also the abbreviation of several kingdoms based in Wu. The two largest cities in the Wu region today are Shanghai and Hangzhou...
. - Kan: Kan-on (漢音), from the Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
during the 7th to 9th century. - Tō-onTo-on, also pronounced "tō-in", are Japanese kanji readings imported from China by Zen monks and merchants during and after the Song dynasty. This period roughly corresponds with the mid-Heian to Edo Period of Japan. During the Muromachi period, they were referred to as...
(唐音): ZenZenZen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
Buddhist borrowings from the Song DynastySong DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(10th to 13th century) and after.
Initials:
| Place Place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location... |
Phonation Phonation Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology... |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | Voiced | ||||
| Unaspirated | Aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
Obstruent Obstruent An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants.... |
Sonorant Sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and... |
||
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... (bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... · labiodental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... ) |
MC Middle Chinese Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties... |
幫・非 [p] · [f] |
滂・敷 [pʰ] · [fʰ] |
並・奉 [b̥] · [v̥] |
明・微 [m] · [ṽ] |
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
b · f | p · f | b,p · f | m · w | |
| Go Go-on are one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period... |
[p] → [ɸ] → [h] | [b] | [m] | ||
| Kan Kan-on is one of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji.They were borrowed from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century.... |
[p] → [ɸ] → [h] | [b] ([m] before an original [ŋ]) | |||
| Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... (alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... · retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... ) |
MC | 端・知 [t] · [ʈ] |
透・徹 [tʰ] · [ʈʰ] |
定・澄 [d̥] · [ɖ̥] |
泥・娘 [n] · [ɳ] |
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
d · zh | t · ch | d,t · zh,ch | n · n | |
| Go | [t] | [d] | [n] | ||
| Kan | [t] | [d] ([n] before an original [ŋ]) | |||
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
MC | 来 [l] |
|||
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
l | ||||
| Go | [ɽ] | ||||
| Kan | [ɽ] | ||||
| Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... sibilant Sibilant consonant A sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,... (alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... · palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... , retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... ) (affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... / fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... ) |
MC | 精・照 [ts] · [tɕ, tʂ] |
清・穿 [tsʰ] · [tɕʰ, tʂʰ] |
従・牀 [d̥z̥] · [d̥ʑ̊, d̥ʐ̊] |
|
| 心・審 [s] · [ɕ, ʂ] |
邪・禅 [z̥] · [ʑ̊, ʐ̊] |
||||
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
z,j · zh | c,q · ch | z,j,c,q · zh,ch | ||
| s,x · sh | s,x · sh | ||||
| Go | [s] | [z] | |||
| Kan | [s] | ||||
| Palatal nasal Palatal nasal The palatal nasal is a type of consonant, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter n with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom of the left stem of the letter. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is J... |
MC | 日 [ɲ] |
|||
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
r | ||||
| Go | [n] | ||||
| Kan | [z] | ||||
| Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
MC | 見 [k] |
渓 [kʰ] |
群 [ɡ̊] |
疑 [ŋ] |
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
g,j | k,q | g,j,k,q | w | |
| Go | [k] | [ɡ] | |||
| Kan | [k] | [ɡ] | |||
| Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
MC | 影 [ʔ] |
喩 (null) |
||
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
(null),y,w | y,w | |||
| Go | (null) or [j] or [w] | [j] or [w] | |||
| Kan | (null) or [j] or [w] | [j] or [w] | |||
| Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... fricative |
MC | 暁 [x] |
匣 [ɣ̊] |
||
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
h,x | h,x | |||
| Go | [k] | [ɡ] or [w] | |||
| Kan | [k] | [k] | |||
Finals:
| MC Middle Chinese Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties... |
Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Go Go-on are one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period... |
Kan Kan-on is one of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji.They were borrowed from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century.... |
Tō-on To-on , also pronounced "tō-in", are Japanese kanji readings imported from China by Zen monks and merchants during and after the Song dynasty. This period roughly corresponds with the mid-Heian to Edo Period of Japan. During the Muromachi period, they were referred to as... |
in some compounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /m/ | n | /mu/ → /ɴ/ | /ɴ/ | ||
| /n/ | n | /ɴ/ | |||
| /ŋ/ | ng | /u/ → see below | after front vowel, /i/; after back vowel, /u/ → see below | /ɴ/ | ?? same as not in compound ?? |
| /p/ | (null) | /pu/ → /ɸu/ → /u/ → see below | /Q/ | ||
| /k/ | (null) | /ku/ | after front vowel, /ki/; after back vowel, /ku/ | ?? | /Q/ |
| /t/ | (null) | /ti/ [tʃi] | /tu/ [tsu] | ?? | /Q/ |
Later developments of diphthongs: → /ɔː/ → /oː/ → /joː/ → /juː/ → /oː/ → /uː/
Examples
Notes:- Middle ChineseMiddle ChineseMiddle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
, PinyinPinyinPinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
, Go-onGo-onare one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period...
, Kan-onKan-onis one of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji.They were borrowed from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century....
: See above. - Middle Chinese reconstruction is according to William H. BaxterWilliam H. BaxterWilliam H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D...
. His phonetic notation is used, along with IPA when different. Syllables are tone 1 unless otherwise indicated. See An Etymological Dictionary of Common Chinese Characters for more info.
| Character | Meaning | Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties... |
Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Go-on Go-on are one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation of readings from Chang'an during the Nara period... |
Kan-on Kan-on is one of the sources of pronunciation of Japanese kanji.They were borrowed from the Tang Dynasty during the 7th to 9th century.... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 一 | one | ʔjit | yī | ichi < *iti | itsu < *itu |
| 二 | two | nyijH /ɲij³/ | èr < */ʐr/ < */ʐi/ | ni | ji < *zi |
| 三 | three | sam | sān | san | |
| 四 | four | sijH /sij³/ | sì | shi < *si | |
| 五 | five | nguX /ŋu²/ | wǔ | go | |
| 六 | six | ljuwk | liù | roku | riku |
| 七 | seven | tshit /tsʰit/ | qī | shichi < *siti | shitsu < *situ |
| 八 | eight | pɛt | bā | hachi < *pati | hatsu < *patu |
| 九 | nine | kjuwX /kjuw²/ | jiǔ | ku | kyū < *kiu |
| 十 | ten | dzyip /dʑip/ | shí | jū < *zipu | shū < *sipu |
| 北 | north | pok | běi | hoku < *poku | |
| 西 | west | sej | xī | ?? sei | |
| 東 | east | tuwng /tuwŋ/ | dōng | tsu < *tu | tō < *tou |
| 京 | capital | kjæng /kjæŋ/ | jīng | kyō < *kyau | kei |
| 人 | person | nyin /ɲin/ | rén | nin | jin < *zin |
| 日 | sun | nyit /ɲit/ | rì | nichi < *niti; ni | ?? jitsu < *zitu |
| 本 | base, origin | pwonX /pwon²/ | běn | ?? hon < *pon | |
| 上 | up | dzyangX /dʑaŋ²/, dzyangH /dʑaŋ³/ | shàng | jō < *zyau | shō < *syau |
| 下 | down | hæX /ɦæ²,ɣæ²/, hæH /ɦæ³,ɣæ³/ | xià | ge | ka |