How does the pronunciation of Chinese characters come from?

Chinese characters originated from hieroglyphics. As early as 5,000 years ago, Dawenkou culture in China had been recognized by historians as the earliest writing in China. This is Arvintao, and this symbol is engraved on many pottery. Some experts interpret it as "Dan", that is, lighting the flame on Mount Tai to worship the rising sun in the East. Recently, some scholars interpret it as "Chinese" (1), but this family emblem character, which only appeared in Dawenkou culture period, is only used as a symbol of tribal totem for people to worship, and has no characteristics of Chinese characters at all. Maybe the text of this system has long been lost. The earliest prototype of Chinese characters we use now is Oracle Bone Inscriptions. At present, there are three places with the largest number of discoveries in Oracle Bone Inscriptions: one is Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan; The second is the site of Joo Won?, Shaanxi; The third is the site of historians in Huantai, Shandong Province. Among the three sites, the number of Oracle bones in Xiaotun, Henan Province is the largest, but it is in the late Shang Dynasty. Joo Won? site also produced a large number of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but that was from the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. However, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, published by historians in Huantai, Shandong Province, belongs to the late Yueshi culture. Although there are not many words, it can't be explained, but it is earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions published in Yin Ruins. It can be inferred that the Chinese character system was probably formed in Shandong, and then gradually spread to other regions. But the writing system has been established, which is related to modern Chinese characters, so it must have its original pronunciation. Now we are going to study the origin of Chinese pronunciation and how it evolved into what it is today.

In ancient Chinese, there were only five basic sounds: throat sound, tongue sound, tooth sound, tooth sound and lip sound. Now there is no nasal sound. These are the five basic sounds in ancient times summarized by phonologists. Accordingly, the language of our ancestors is nothing more than these five pronunciations. This is determined by the physiological characteristics of human beings or a species.

In ancient China, direct pronunciation and comparative method were generally used to pronounce difficult words. That is, taking the sum of the notes of a word with the same pronunciation as a difficult word as a reference, the phonetic notation of a word with similar pronunciation is explained. (3) This phonetic notation method has great limitations, and it cannot be used when encountering difficult words with strange pronunciation. Around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was an anti-tangent. That is, there are two words. Take the initials of the first word and the finals of the second word for phonetic notation. Of course, it is much easier to mark a word with two monosyllabic words. However, no matter which method is used in ancient phonetic notation, it can not fully explain the laws of ancient pronunciation. Therefore, we will not discuss the problems of backcutting and ancient phonetic notation here.

To study the pronunciation of Chinese characters, we must first trace its origin. First of all, we should say whether Chinese characters have pronunciations or characters. In fact, this question cannot give a clear answer. However, it is not difficult to find that almost all ethnic groups have their own languages, but only a small part of them really have written languages, and all of them have their own national languages. And those small tribes only keep their own language, no writing. From this point, it seems to be understood that human beings had language before the appearance of words. But there are no special circumstances, we don't know.

The above is our basic understanding of Chinese characters and Chinese pronunciation. Let's analyze the origin and motivation of Chinese pronunciation in detail.

Second, the determination of ancient sounds

Each case:

First of all, before the discussion, the author makes a general explanation. For the convenience of reading, this paper uses Chinese Pinyin instead of International Phonetic Alphabet. All ancient phonetics are based on Minnan phonetics and imitate Minnan phonetics. However, because some sounds cannot be spelled in Chinese Pinyin, "[]" is introduced, and the letters in this symbol are pronounced in English phonetic symbols. Such as "[e]" and [ng] ",and English phonetic symbols" з "and" AE "; "-"means short pronunciation after phonetic notation. If you encounter "-",do "_ _-"; "()" means that the letters are consistent with the tone; ":"refers to a slow sound or a sound that is separated from the previous sound and elongated. If the letters at the back are enlarged, it means that they can't be put together with the letters at the front. They should be stretched separately and the ending should be pronounced gently. Such as "da: n"; "<" stands for minor stress, that is, it is slightly smaller than the beginning of the normal pronunciation of the previous letters; "> stands for strong accent, that is, slightly larger than the opening where the previous letters are pronounced normally." & means two or more ancient sounds that connect a word; "~ ~ ~" means an elongated sound; "…" means that the sound becomes weak; If "~ ~" and "…" exist at the same time, they are marked as "~ ~ …" to distinguish them.

According to the author's repeated research, the motivations of Chinese characters can be divided into the following categories:

1, the voice of nature

This is a common pronunciation that imitates the sounds of all things in nature. It can be divided into two categories:

① Imitate the inherent sound of everything, such as the word "Ye", whose ancient sound is pronounced as …, yā or ā. Obviously, the word "ye" is a very common modal particle in ancient Chinese, and its ancient sound is very similar to "ah" and "ya" in our spoken language today. Another example is the word "Ya". If its ancient sound is ā ~ ~ …, it will be very interesting. The mute sound is like ā ~ ~ … Then let's take a look at the word "dumb", the property of the left table, the sound made for the population, and the pronunciation of the words "Ya" and "dumb" on the right table is set by imitating the voice of the dumb. In fact, we still have the tradition of making words in this way today. For example, many new chemical elements have been discovered, such as "magnesium, calcium, barium and helium".

(2) According to the sound of knowing imitation, some knowing words also show the natural sound. Let's take "Harm" and "Yi" as examples to illustrate their sound sources. Look at the word "harm" first, and Shuo Wen says: "harm, injury also. From the mouth, from the mouth, from the sound. " The word "harm" in bronze inscriptions is harmful, with a "mouth" at the bottom and hieroglyphics of the tongue at the top, and a horizontal line in the middle indicating that the tongue has been cut off. The pronunciation of "harm" comes from the "hey hey" sound made by people without tongues. It can be seen that "cutting tongue" is the original meaning of the word "harm", and then the meaning of "harm" and "harm" is extended. Look at Yi and Shuowen again: "The anger of tapirs, even vertically, stems from the enthusiasm of tapirs." Among them, "tapir" is the first word of "Yi", and the bronze inscription is Yi. The ancients used Mu Cha to push the wild boar to the ground, and quickly tied a horizontal wooden stick between Mu Cha and the pig's neck, which looked like the word "Xin". The pronunciation of "tapir" may come from the harsh screams made by pigs after wearing this equipment, which will last surprisingly long. Therefore, Shuowen is interpreted as "determined to win", which means perseverance. ⑤ These original pronunciations, in some cases, are derived from the sounds made by everything.

2. Vowels and Consonants

Of course, it is obviously not enough to just imitate the sounds made by nature to convey information. Some complex concepts can't be described when they are expressed. Therefore, it is urgent to use unnatural sounds to express abstract or indescribable sounds.

There is a word that consists of two words. The initials of the first word and the finals of the second word are spelled together, which is the pronunciation of this word. For example, in the word "Jiu", the first letter J of "Jing" on the left is spelled with the vowel ou of "You"; The initial f of "fu" on the word "Fei" and the vowel ei in the lower half of the word "Bei" spell "Fei"; After textual research, the author tries to analyze the sound source of the word "Gao" as follows: Gao, originally meant to pray during sacrifice. From Oracle Bone Inscriptions to regular script, the font is from ox to mouth. Judging from the bronze inscription, tell it. The mouth below is exactly the same as the word "mouth" in unibody. If the ancient pronunciation of "Niu" is G incarnation, then its cognate "Xi" still retains its original pronunciation well. The ancient pronunciation of "Kou" is kào or), while the ancient pronunciation of "Gao" is g (зˋ).