Minnan language and ancient Chinese

First, the pedigree of Minnan dialect

In the language system, Minnan dialect is regarded as a Chinese dialect by most linguists in China. However, most western scholars disagree with this statement.

1. Because people who use different Chinese are basically unable to communicate orally, these different Chinese are basically "languages and languages" rather than "dialects and dialects".

2. If Minnan is the main topic of discussion, it will be very different from other Chinese. It is pointed out that Minnan dialect can be regarded as a language of Sino-Tibetan language family, not a dialect, and Xiamen dialect, Taiwan dialect, Quanzhou dialect and Zhangzhou dialect are dialects of Minnan language.

Second, the pronunciation of Minnan dialect

1, the consonant (initial consonant) of Minnan dialect directly inherits the initial consonant system of the ancient original language. In this respect, Minnan dialect was widely popular as early as the end of the Jin Dynasty and May, and was not influenced by the phonetic evolution of medieval Chinese, so it was far from its native land. It moved all the way south to Fujian and other places, retaining the ancient Central Plains pronunciation. It is generally believed that ancient Chinese has the initial 19. [Source Request] According to the traditional fifteen-tone analysis of Minnan dialect, today's Minnan dialect has the initial 15, which means that ancient Chinese has the initial 19, and now Minnan dialect has the initial 15.

2. Tones There are eight tones in the ancient Chinese voice, reflecting "going up to the yin and yang". Today, this phenomenon is not obvious in Putonghua, but in Chinese dialects, most of them can completely or incompletely retain some characteristics of the Middle Ages. Taking Minnan dialect as an example, Zhangzhou dialect lacks the tone of "Yang Shang" (Zhang Qiang Yang Shang merged into Yangqu); Quanzhou tone, however, does not distinguish between yin and yang, except for the elimination of tone (that is, the elimination of tone by yin and the elimination of tone by yang are combined, but they can still be distinguished after tone sandhi). Therefore, Minnan dialect still retains seven tones and eight tones, which refers to the integrity of these tonality.

Phonologically, Minnan dialect inherits and retains the sounds and tones of ancient Chinese.

Third, Minnan vocabulary

1, vocabulary Nowadays, there are many ancient Chinese words in daily language, such as: Ding: taking cookware as an example, it was called "pot" in ancient times, "pot" in North China and official discourse areas, and "Wu" and "Yi". Xiao Wan Pian in the Book of Songs: "Born without burden". Delicate: Be careful. The sound is the same as "Twelve": naughty and cunning, rainstorm in the evening, thunderstorm in the afternoon. This word remains in Japanese. Infatuation: When you see a woman, you expect to appreciate a man. There is a line of "Song and Jin are too coquettish to talk about (brother)" in Chai Jin Ji, a Chaozhou drama in Ming Dynasty, which shows that the word "crazy brother" has appeared in Chaoshan dialect in Ming Dynasty. Commonly known as "Brother Pig". J: Wet. "Zhan Zhan Lu Si" in The Book of Songs is called South: Chopsticks. Japanese is the same as Chinese characters. M: porridge is also called muddy. Shirt: clothes, too. Everything you wear from top to bottom, no matter whether it reaches your lower body, must be called a shirt. Such as a gown (robe).

2. Inverted sentences such as "shirt and trousers", "guest", "taking advantage", "sleeping on the bed", "lean meat" and "boiling water" have been used since the Tang and Song Dynasties. Its word formation is contrary to modern Chinese, but the same as ancient Chinese, such as "duck mother", "guest", "relative" and "foot hand".

3. Adverbs/auxiliary verbs/prepositions/others often say "Yaner" among screaming Taiwanese actresses (just like this).

Meng Ziliang: "Pay attention to your ears" (that's all) has: it can be added before adjectives to emphasize the tone: Minnan people will say that this watermelon is big (this watermelon is really big) and this girl is brave (this child is really brave). This usage is very close to the usage of the word "you" in the Book of Songs, such as "Zhou Nantao" (really big. 5. Doubtful words often appear in Minnan language, such as "what", "what" and "what": what, where, where and when. The format and vocabulary of these interrogative words are undoubtedly the same as those of ancient Chinese. In terms of vocabulary, the daily and written expressions of Minnan dialect are better preserved than those of Mandarin.