The Mường features in the written Ancient Vietnamese

Springer, 2024

This book is the outcome of a Cross-national Interdisciplinary Research Grant supported by the Harvard Yenching Institute. Its primary aim is to foster productive interdisciplinary discourse among linguistics and philology experts focusing on languages in Vietnam, East, and Southeast Asia. The book delves into the study of the five major language families found in Vietnam and the broader East and South-east Asian linguistic area, namely Austroasiatic, Tai-Kadai, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, and Hmong-Mien. The goal is to gain deeper insights into the factors driving language change, including language-internal processes, prolonged interactions with other languages within the same linguistic area, and the socio-cultural context. Vietnam serves as a linguistic microcosm of the East and Southeast Asian area, leading to the book’s division into two sections. Part I (Chaps. 2–6) centers on historical linguistics concerning major languages originating in Vietnam, such as Viet-namese and its significant neighbors, Tay and Nung. Part II (Chaps. 7–11) explores the transformations observed in other languages across East and Southeast Asia that share historical, typological, and geographical connections with Vietnamese languages. These include Chinese, Austronesian, as well as Hmongic languages. In a nutshell, this book offers a comprehensive exploration of linguistic diversity and change across Vietnam and the broader East and Southeast Asian linguistic landscape, shedding light on the intricate interplay of language-internal mechanisms, linguistic contact, and socio-cultural influences in shaping these languages.

In previous research concerning the Ancient Vietnamese phonology using Chữ Nôm materials, only a few features, such as initial consonant clusters, have been considered. This study aims to reconstruct the phonological system of Ancient Vietnamese initials, using the Sino-Vietnamese version of the Buddhist sutra Phật Thuyêt Đa ̣i Baó Phu ̣ Mâũ Ân Tro ̣ ng Kinh , as well as the Proto Viet-Muong phonemes established by Ferlus (2009). The Chữ Nôm characters examined in this study allow us to consider topics such as spirantization and the voicing of medial consonants-possible thanks to the existence of a number of disyllabic words contained therein. Linguistic analysis of such texts does and will play an important role in filling the missing link between Proto Viet-Muong and Middle Vietnamese (17C).*

Journal of Language Relationships, 2021

We present a new internal classification of the Vietic languages, covering all recognized subgroups and languages for which we could source suitably comparable data. The analysis reconciles results from two distinct methodologies: (1) computational phylogenetics based on a 116-item basic word list, and (2) historical phonological changes among syllable codas. The analysis identifies five principal subgroups: Thavung-Malieng (TM), Chut-Arem, Pong-Toum, Cuoi-Tho, and Viet-Muong (VM). While the identification of these subgroups is not original, aspects of the branching structure are. We find that the Vietic tree has a binary structure at the root, splitting between TM and the rest of the branch, which we may call the Eastern Vietic clade. Within that Eastern clade, we further find a north-south division, in which the northern VM group is most innovative while those to the south are more conservative. Previously, scholars have tended to group TM and Chut together as archaic lects based on broad typological features of word structure without suggesting specific common phonological innovations to link them. Our findings suggest that syllable restructuring and tonogenesis, which are hallmarks of Vietic languages, have developed largely independently among subgroups, notwithstanding very broad commonalities in phonological change which have contributed to strong areal convergence. Additionally, the Vietic homeland question is briefly discussed, with a northern locus of dispersal arguably supported by old loanword evidence and archaeological data. 1

Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 2018

Vietnamese has numerous early-era Chinese loanwords with ngang and huyền tones, which in Middle Chinese loanwords correspond to the pingsheng level tone category, for words that should have sắc or nặng tones, corresponding to the Middle Chinese non-level qusheng departing tone category.1 It is proposed that this layer of Early Sino-Vietnamese represents borrowing of Chinese words in the period after which Old Chinese had lost final *-s and prior to tonogenesis in Viet-Muong, thus leading to words with the level-tone category when tones emerged in Viet-Muong. This paper provides 60 items of Early Sino-Vietnamese that exemplify this phenomenon of ngang/huyền tones in qusheng words, but also 120 items exemplifying the previously noted reversal of sắc/nặng and hỏi/ngã tones between Early Sino-Vietnamese and later Sino-Vietnamese (the formalized readings of Chinese characters). Altogether, this allows for an overall relative chronology of the development of tones in both Sinitic and Vietic.

JSEALS, 2020

THIS CONTAINS CORRECTED INFORMATION IN TABLE 2, SPECIFICALLY, THAT ALL STAGES OF VIETNAMESE WERE IN THE 2ND MILLENNIUM CE (NOT THE 1ST). This study provides updated numbers of and historical ethnolinguistic observations on Austroasiatic and Vietic etyma in Vietnamese. Lexical data from two dozen Vietic lects were assembled, half from the Mon-Khmer Etymological Database (MKED hereafter) and half from various other published and unpublished sources. Based on Ferlus’s preliminary reconstructions of Proto-Vietic (by Ferlus 2007 in the MKED), and data from Austroasiatic, Proto-Tai, and Old and Middle Chinese, approximately 800 items have been evaluated as viable reconstructions. However, of these, nearly 100 are Chinese loanwords of differing periods, and several are early Tai loanwords. The remaining nearly 700 items are native, including about 200 Proto-Austroasiatic etyma, with a few dozen local Austroasiatic words, and over 460 items specific to Vietic. Statistics have been gathered for cultural domains of the reconstructed vocabulary. A combination of etymological sources, semantic domains, and ethnohistorical data (i.e. archaeology, historical texts, and ethnographic information) allow for hypotheses about the ethnolinguistic circumstances of the early Vietic speech community and language contact situations. Many of the cultural domains are readily identified as part of a Neolithic lifestyle (i.e. words related to the natural environment, generic actions, etc.). Some, on the other hand, demonstrate social stratification (e.g. words related to economic practices) and developed agricultural practices (e.g. a large set of terms related to rice production). Others shed light on regional spread of cultural practices (e.g. betel-nut chewing and tooth-blackening) and intergroup contact (e.g. with Sinitic and Tai). Questions related to the spread of metallurgy and metal implements strongly support the influence of Chinese in metal terms and implements.

Journal of Language Relationship, 2019

While consonant clusters, taken broadly to include presyllables, are commonly hypothesized for Old Chinese, little direct evidence is available for establishing the early forms of specific words. A number of Vietnamese words borrowed from Chinese have initial consonant lenition in Vietnamese, which corresponds to presyllables in conservative Vietic languages, e.g.: Chinese 劍 kiæmH “sword” is borrowed as Vietnamese 劍 gươm [ɣ-] and Rục təkɨəm. Baxter and Sagart (2014) understand such words as reflecting Old Chinese preinitials, relying on conservative Vietic languages for the identity of the preinitial. This essay examines a hitherto overlooked source: Old Vietnamese, a language attested in the single document 佛說大報父母恩重經 Phật thuyết Đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh (Nguyễn Ngọc San 1982, Shimizu 1996, Hoàng Thị Ngọ 1999), which writes certain words, monosyllabic in modern Vietnamese, in an orthography suggesting sesquisyllabic phonology, e.g. rắn ‘snake’ is written 破散 (phá tản < phaH sanX), cf. Rục pəsiɲ³. For a number of words, Old Vietnamese provides the only testimony of the form of the Vietic borrowing. The small list of currently known sesquisyllabic words of Chinese origin attested in this document includes examples of both words with a secure initial Chinese cluster and words with plausible Vietic prefixation. On the one hand, we find the word *s–kương ‘mirror’ borrowed from Chinese 鏡 kiæŋH. Here, the Vietnamese *s- is corroborated by its morphological derivation, which is an instance of the Sino-Tibetan instrumental deverbal *sV-. On the other hand, for the word 阿唱 *ʔ–ɕướng ‘to chant’, likely borrowed from Middle Chinese 唱 tɕhaŋH, the Old Vietnamese form could reflect a dummy prefix *ʔ- (Section 4) that exists in other Vietic languages.

Tạp Chí Ngôn Ngữ, 2018

This paper provides evidence that Vietnamese cũng 'also' and cùng 'with' are both loanwords of the same Chinese word 共 gòng. 1 However, unlike the standard Sino-Vietnamese reading cộng, formally recognized as a reading of 共 gòng, cũng and cùng were borrowed earlier in the first millennium CE, as shown by comparative data in both Chinese and Vietnamese historical phonology and textual evidence in ancient Chinese and Vietnamese writings. The three distinct tones in each Vietnamese word represent different eras of borrowing in the process of tonogenesis in Chinese. These two grammatical Early Sino-Vietnamese loanwords, likely borrowed via large Sino-Vietnamese bilingual communities, share some semantico-syntactic properties with the Chinese etymon at points in its history. But they have also innovated in various ways since the absorption of earlier Chinese communities into the Vietic speech community after the period of Chinese administration. Thus, this Chinese etymon has status as a triplet loanword in Vietnamese and is an example of the long history of Sino-Vietnamese language contact. These Vietnamese words are also an example of the tendency of grammaticalized morphemes to continue to develop grammatical functions.

Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 2017

This article is a linguistics paper but with an interdisciplinary approach. Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese from the first half of the 1st millennium CE are grouped by semantic domains (along with ethnohistorical and archaeological support), thereby offering a way to explore the sociocultural circumstances of Sino-Vietnamese contact in that early period. ------------------------------------------------- In this study, over 60 Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese are claimed to have been borrowed during the East Han or West Jin Dynasties. These Early Sino-Vietnamese (ESV) words are identified via a combination of linguistic, historical, archaeological, and ethnological data sources and frameworks. Such an interdisciplinary method helps to confirm or refute these words’ status as loanwords and as belonging to this specific historical period. The combined linguistic and extralinguistic data also leads to hypotheses about possible phonological changes in Chinese from the Old Chinese (OC) to Middle Chinese (MC) periods. In particular, while Sino-Vietnamese words from the mc period have expected qusheng tones for Chinese qusheng loanwords, OC-era ESV words have either shangsheng or, unexpectedly, pingsheng tones. It is hypothesized that esv words with shangsheng tones for OC qusheng words were borrowed earliest, while ESV items with pingsheng represent a later stage in OC in which final *-s was in the process of being lost in the first few centuries CE.

This study focuses on grammatical vocabulary in Central Vietnamese2 (CV, hereafter) with the goal of exploring historical-linguistic developments in Vietnamese in general. One purpose of focusing on grammatical vocabulary is to provide a sample of how this type of vocabulary can innovate over time in different dialectal regions. For research on Central Vietnamese in particular, this focus also allows some identification of historical patterns of lexical preservations (e.g., forms shared with other Vietic languages), innovations or general variation, and the effects of language contact. While CV is quite obviously Vietnamese, there are a number of distinctive traits in its grammatical vocabulary which highlight some of the differentiation over time between CV and standard Vietnamese3 (StV, hereafter). In a number of instances, data suggests reconstructability at the level of Proto-Việt-Mường or even Proto-Vietic forms. These historical points are dealt with throughout this paper and summarized in the conclusion. Keywords: Vietnamese, Proto-Vietic, grammatical vocabulary

Journal of Chinese Writing Systems, 2019

The recent study by Trần Trọng Dương (Trần, 2018a) of graphemic borrowing in the transcription to chữ Nôm of Sinitic loanwords attracted our attention because of the importance of this work for research on broader questions. These are questions of language contact, in history and in the modern day, informed by linguistic theory and cognitive science approaches to the study of writing and literacy. Taking its sample from the Quốc Âm Thi Tập [Poetry Collection in the National Language], the framework of the study is centered on the Sinitic lexicon, divided between loanwords read in Sino-Vietnamese (SV) pronunciation and loanwords read in Non-Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation (NSV). The overarching purpose is to analyze the functional structure of the Nôm characters that transcribed them, emerging over many years. Within the corpus of Sinitic loanwords from the source text, the analysis centers on the design features, the 'functional structure' of the self-generated Nôm characters and how they compare to the larger set that borrows Sinitic graphic forms exactly. How the self-generated and the exact borrowings, together, came to be integrated into an autonomous orthographic system will eventually address the important problem of origins and development discussed, for example, by Nguyễn (1992). The definitive resolution of this question may be forever out of reach because only a fraction of the original written record remains. But the study makes an important contribution toward a better understanding of the role of language-specific factors, especially of the phonological subsystem, in how the adopted character system underwent transformation. The study of the design features of Nôm will also shed further light on the parallel developments in all the East Asian cultures that during the same years, more or less, adopted the Chinese characters. While on the surface the end results in the modern day in each case appear to differ markedly, the separate historical developments may have followed similar paths. An important finding of previous work, confirmed by the present study, is that of the self-generated Nôm characters all incorporate a phonetic component, either as part of a phono-semantic compound or as a 'pure phonetic,' and that none are read in SV pronunciation (Trần, 2018a: 47). Such would be one of the important keys to uncovering 'common trends' (Trần, 2018a: 43), referring back to the problem of origins and development. Take into account the two examples of sông ('river') and sống ('to live'). They are both self-generated Nôm characters belonging to category (B) of Trần's (2018a) classification, and more particularly, to the subcategory (B-), that is, those Nôm characters which lack any linkage to the graphic form of the Sinitic etymons. They are of special interest, for despite their Sinitic origin, the transcribers intuitively considered them as indigenous Vietnamese. Let us consider their internal structure in detail. Sông ('river'), reconstructed as /*krông/ (Trần, 2018b: 319), consists of two components: a radical (meaning 'water') served as the semantic notation, and the Sinitic character (read as long) served as the phonetic notation. This is one instance of the group (B4) in Trần's (2018a) classification system. On the other hand, sống ('to live'), reconstructed as /*kloŋ/ (Trần, 2018a: 49), is the composition of two phonetic notations: the Sinitic graph 古 (read as cổ), transcribing as the first consonant of the initial consonant cluster /k-/, and another Sinitic character, 弄 (read as lộng), transcribing the fluid sound / l-/ and the rhyme /-oŋ/. This instance of the group (B6) in Trần's (2018a) classification is of special value for it is the remaining vestige of the so-called phenomenon of sequisyllables with the syllabic structure of CCVC of the Vietnamese language in the 15th century.