ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese

ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese PDF Author: Axel Schuessler
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824861337
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 679

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Book Description
This is the first genuine etymological dictionary of Old Chinese written in any language. As such, it constitutes a milestone in research on the evolution of the Sinitic language group. Whereas previous studies have emphasized the structure of the Chinese characters, this pathbreaking dictionary places primary emphasis on the sounds and meanings of Sinitic roots. Based on more than three decades of intensive investigation in primary and secondary sources, this completely new dictionary places Old Chinese squarely within the Sino-Tibetan language family (including close consideration of numerous Tiberto-Burman languages), while paying due regard to other language families such as Austroasiatic, Miao-Yao (Hmong-Mien), and Kam-Tai. Designed for use by nonspecialists and specialists alike, the dictionary is highly accessible, being arranged in alphabetical order and possessed of numerous innovative lexicographical features. Each entry offers one or more possible etymologies as well as reconstructed pronunciations and other relevant data. Words that are morphologically related are grouped together into "word families" that attempt to make explicit the derivational or other etymological processes that relate them. The dictionary is preceded by a substantive and significant introduction that outlines the author’s views on the linguistic position of Chinese within Asia and details the phonological and morphological properties, to the degree they are known, of the earliest stages of the Chinese language and its ancestor. This introduction, because it both summarizes and synthesizes earlier work and makes several original contributions, functions as a useful reference work all on its own.

ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese

ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese PDF Author: Axel Schuessler
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824861337
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 679

Get Book

Book Description
This is the first genuine etymological dictionary of Old Chinese written in any language. As such, it constitutes a milestone in research on the evolution of the Sinitic language group. Whereas previous studies have emphasized the structure of the Chinese characters, this pathbreaking dictionary places primary emphasis on the sounds and meanings of Sinitic roots. Based on more than three decades of intensive investigation in primary and secondary sources, this completely new dictionary places Old Chinese squarely within the Sino-Tibetan language family (including close consideration of numerous Tiberto-Burman languages), while paying due regard to other language families such as Austroasiatic, Miao-Yao (Hmong-Mien), and Kam-Tai. Designed for use by nonspecialists and specialists alike, the dictionary is highly accessible, being arranged in alphabetical order and possessed of numerous innovative lexicographical features. Each entry offers one or more possible etymologies as well as reconstructed pronunciations and other relevant data. Words that are morphologically related are grouped together into "word families" that attempt to make explicit the derivational or other etymological processes that relate them. The dictionary is preceded by a substantive and significant introduction that outlines the author’s views on the linguistic position of Chinese within Asia and details the phonological and morphological properties, to the degree they are known, of the earliest stages of the Chinese language and its ancestor. This introduction, because it both summarizes and synthesizes earlier work and makes several original contributions, functions as a useful reference work all on its own.

Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese

Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese PDF Author: Axel Schuessler
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824832647
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
Although long out of date, Bernard Karlgren’s (1957) remains the most convenient work for looking up Middle Chinese (ca. A.D. 600) and Old Chinese (before 200 B.C.) reconstructions of all graphs that occur in literature from the beginning of writing (ca. 1250 B.C.) down to the third century B.C. In the present volume, Axel Schuessler provides a more current reconstruction of Old Chinese, limiting it, as far as possible, to those post-Karlgrenian phonological features of Old Chinese that enjoy some consensus among today’s investigators. At the same time, the updating of the material disregards more speculative theories and proposals. Schuessler refers to these minimal forms as "Minimal Old Chinese" (OCM). He bases OCM on Baxter’s 1992 reconstructions but with some changes, mostly notational. In keeping with its minimal aspect, the OCM forms are kept as simple as possible and transcribed in an equally simple notation. Some issues in Old Chinese phonology still await clarification; hence interpolations and proposals of limited currency appear in this update. Karlgren’s Middle Chinese reconstructions, as emended by Li Fang-kuei, are widely cited as points of reference for historical forms of Chinese as well as dialects. This emended Middle Chinese is also supplied by Schuessler. Another important addition to Karlgren’s work is an intermediate layer midway between the Old and Middle Chinese periods known as "Later Han Chinese" (ca. second century A.D.) The additional layer makes this volume a useful resource for those working on Han sources, especially poetry. This book is intended as a "companion" to the original Grammata Serica Recensa and therefore does not repeat other information provided there. Matters such as English glosses and references to the earliest occurrence of a graph can be looked up in Grammata Serica Recensa itself or in other relevant dictionaries. The great accomplishment of this companion volume is to update an essential reference and thereby fulfill the need for an accessible and user-friendly source for citing the various historically reconstructed stages of Chinese.

ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs (Yanyu)

ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs (Yanyu) PDF Author: John S. Rohsenow
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824827700
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This Chinese-English dictionary of proverbs (yanyu) consists of approximately 4,000 Chinese proverbs alphabetically arranged by the first word(s) (ci) of the proverb according to the Hanyu Pinyin transcription and Chinese characters (standard simplified), followed by a literal (and when necessary also a figurative) English translation. Additional data such as brief usage notes, sources, parallel expressions, cross-references, and famous instances of use are provided where available. The proverbs are supplemented by an index of key words (both Chinese and English) found in all entries and of all topics addressed. The author has provided a scholarly introduction analyzing the definition, structure, usage, and history of these yanyu in traditional and contemporary China as well as a bibliography of collections and relevant scholarly studies of yanyu. This work, the first such scholarly collection to appear since the Reverend Scarborough’s 1926 collection, will be of use not only to sinologists in a wide variety of fields, including anthropology, literature, sociology, psychology, and history, but also to non-Chinese readers interested in Chinese culture or comparative ethnolinguistic and paremiological research.

ABC English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary

ABC English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary PDF Author: John DeFrancis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1248

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Book Description
The "ABC English-Chinese, Chinese-English Dictionary (ECCE)" is a student-oriented bilingual dictionary that organizes Chinese words by their pronunciation as written in pinyin. This innovative, straightforward alphabetical organization allows the user to find most words more quickly and easily.

Old Chinese

Old Chinese PDF Author: William H. Baxter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199945373
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This book introduces a new linguistic reconstruction of the phonology, morphology, and lexicon of Old Chinese, the language of the earliest Chinese classical texts (1st millennium BCE).

ABC Chinese-English Dictionary

ABC Chinese-English Dictionary PDF Author: John DeFrancis
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824846095
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This dictionary, also available in a pocket edition, ushers in a new era in Chinese lexicography. The first strictly alphabetically ordered and Pinyin computerized dictionary, it offers the simplest and quickest way to look up a term whose pronunciation is known. User-friendly radical and stroke indexes are provided for those cases when pronunciation of a term is not known. Each entry provides Chinese characters, part of speech, environment (area and level of usage), definition in English, and, possibly, examples. An innovative typographical format packs more than 71,400 entries into a handy, portable size without any sacrifice of legibility.

ABC Dictionary of Ancient Japanese Phonograms

ABC Dictionary of Ancient Japanese Phonograms PDF Author: John R. Bentley
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824856139
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 618

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Book Description
Making one's way through the dense jungle of Old Japanese poetry and prose can be a daunting and discouraging task because of the complex writing systems used during the Asuka (550–710 CE) and Nara (710–789 CE) eras. The intricate script is a bewildering mix of Chinese characters employed for their semantic or phonetic value or as hints to other words—or even for word games. For the first time in English, this dictionary lists all 1,215 Chinese characters used as phonograms (ongana) or vernacular characters (kungana) in Old Japanese texts. It brings together a vast amount of data in relation to Chinese phonology: Old Chinese, Later Han Chinese, Middle Chinese, Sino-Japanese (both Go-on and Kan-on), Sino-Korean, Sino-Vietnamese, and Chu Nom. The entries contain examples from more than twenty Old Japanese texts showing how each character was used and in what context. Data from excavated wooden tablets, or slips (mokkan), is included as well as a chart of all the graphs and where they appear in the cited material. Students and scholars of Old Japanese writing and language and those more widely interested in the culture and history of pre-Heian Japan now have important linguistic and textual data at their fingertips arranged by character to help them decipher material from the ancient past.

ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary

ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary PDF Author: Robert S. Bauer
Publisher: ABC Chinese Dictionary
ISBN: 9780824877323
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1248

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Book Description
Cantonese is spoken by an estimated 73 million people worldwide. It remains hugely influential and a source of great pride--especially for its speakers in Hong Kong, where it flourishes as the predominant language and so sets Hong Kong apart linguistically from all of mainland China. The first and most authoritative reference of its kind to be published in the last forty years, ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary comprises about 15,000 lexical entries that are unique to the colloquial Cantonese language as it is spoken and written in Hong Kong today. Author Robert S. Bauer, a renowned lexicographer and authority on Cantonese, has utilized language documentation resources to the fullest extent by gathering material firsthand from dictionaries, glossaries, and grammars; newspapers and magazines; government records; cartoons and comic books; film and television; websites; and native speakers striding the sidewalks of Hong Kong to capture concretely contemporary Cantonese. In addition to the Introduction, which presents an exhaustive description and analysis of Hong Kong Cantonese, this dictionary's special features include: alphabetical ordering of the lexical entries by their Jyut Ping romanized Cantonese pronunciations; parts of speech; cross-referencing with semantically related lexical items; variant pronunciations and written forms in Chinese characters and English letters; explanatory notes on social status and usage (literal, figurative, slang, jargon, humorous, obscene, obsolete, etc.); information on sociocultural, historical, and political aspects; and example sentences showing lexical usage in the context of spoken Cantonese.

Chinese Annals in the Western Observatory

Chinese Annals in the Western Observatory PDF Author: Edward Shaughnessy
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501517104
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of documents of all sorts have been unearthed in China, opening whole new fields of study and transforming our modern understanding of ancient China. While these discoveries have necessarily taken place in China, Western scholars have also contributed to the study of these documents throughout this entire period. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the contributions of these Western scholars to the field of Chinese paleography, and especially to study of oracle-bone inscriptions, bronze and stone inscriptions, and manuscripts written on bamboo and silk. Each of these topics is provided with a comprehensive narrative history of studies by Western scholars, as well as an exhaustive bibliography and biographies of important scholars in the field. It is also supplied with a list of Chinese translations of these studies, as well as a complete index of authors and their works. Whether the reader is interested in the history of ancient China, ancient Chinese paleographic documents, or just in the history of the study of China as it has developed in the West, this book provides one of the most complete accounts available to date.

The Chinese Language

The Chinese Language PDF Author: John DeFrancis
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824810689
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
"DeFrancis's book is first rate. It entertains. It teaches. It demystifies. It counteracts popular ignorance as well as sophisticated (cocktail party) ignorance. Who could ask for anything more? There is no other book like it. ... It is one of a kind, a first, and I would not only buy it but I would recommend it to friends and colleagues, many of whom are visiting China now and are adding 'two-week-expert' ignorance to the two kinds that existed before. This is a book for everyone." --Joshua A. Fishman, research professor of social sciences, Yeshiva University, New York "Professor De Francis has produced a work of great effectiveness that should appeal to a wide-ranging audience. It is at once instructive and entertaining. While being delighted by the flair of his novel approach, the reader will also be led to ponder on some of the most fundamental problems concerning the relations between written languages and spoken languages. Specifically, he will be served a variety of information on the languages of East Asia, not as dry pedantic facts, but as appealing tidbits that whet the intellectual appetite. The expert will find much to reflect on in this book, for Professor DeFrancis takes nothing for granted." --William S.Y. Wang, professor of linguistics, University of California at Berkeley