Okay, here is the translation following your instructions: Chinese and Water Language Relationship Theory

Author: Zeng Xiaoyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: Ten years ago, under the guidance of my mentor, Professor Xing Gongwan, I completed my doctoral dissertation titled A Study on Chinese and Water Relationship Words. After this work was published as a monograph, it was honored with the Beijing University Wang Li Linguistics Award and the Second Prize of the Sichuan Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award. However, strictly speaking, there were many shortcomings in it, especially the unavoidable avoidance of the tricky issue of distinguishing between cognates and old loans in relationship words. This has always troubled me—because, without solving this problem, the relationship between Chinese and Water, as well as between Chinese and Tai-Kadai languages, cannot be truly explained. To resolve this "knot" in my mind, I have not been idle over the years: I have made four trips to Guizhou and Guangxi to conduct in-depth investigations into Water, Zhuang, and local Chinese dialects such as Pinghua and Southwest Mandarin; I have consistently followed and absorbed the latest research findings on language contact, historical comparison, and the history of Chinese language both domestically and internationally; I have taken advantage of opportunities for overseas academic visits or participation in international conferences to focus on theoretical discussions with Western scholars; and in my daily teaching and research, I have focused on exploring the issue of "language relationships." Gradually, I have stood taller, broadened my horizons, and reduced my doubts, leading to the culmination of this book. The relationship between Chinese and Tai-Kadai languages is a major academic issue debated in the field of Sino-Tibetan studies both domestically and internationally since the 1940s. Based on a review of previous research, we believe that the root of the ongoing debate lies in the constraints of traditional conventional thinking: that is, the relationship between Chinese and Tai-Kadai languages is either one of common origin or contact, with common origin and contact being mutually exclusive, and one of the two must be true. In recent years, some of the most representative studies in this field include Professor Xing Gongwan's "Semantic Comparison Method (Deep Correspondence)" (1993, 1999), which proves "common origin," and Professor Chen Baoya's "Relationship Word Hierarchy Theory" (1996, 2000), which proves "contact." However, the relationship between languages is not limited to pure divergence or convergence through contact; particularly in the Sino-Tibetan language region, the relationship patterns among closely related languages are not merely "tree-like" but also "network-like." Chinese and minority languages often have both common origin and contact and fusion relationships since ancient times, which is determined by China's unique social history and geographical location. Based on this understanding, this book employs the "Relationship Word Stratification Method" to conduct a typical study of the ancient Water language within the Tai-Kadai language family. This method starts with Chinese loanwords in Water, through in-depth research on the history of the Water people, the history of the Water language, as well as the history of Pinghua and Southwest Mandarin in the areas where the Water people live. It analyzes the four layers of Chinese loanwords in Water—ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary—and clarifies the phonetic correspondence rules between each layer of loanwords and their original forms. Those that cannot be classified as loanwords (i.e., do not conform to the phonetic correspondence rules of each loanword layer) yet reflect ancient phonetic and semantic correspondences between Chinese and Water, as well as between Chinese and other Tai-Kadai languages, are identified as "relationship words," which are considered cognates of Chinese and Tai-Kadai languages. In this way, old loans and cognates are distinguished, avoiding the one-sided emphasis on either cognates or loanwords. Our conclusion is that the relationship between Chinese and Water, as well as between Chinese and Tai-Kadai languages, can be explained as a historical process of common origin—divergence—contact.
At the time of this book's completion and printing, I would like to express my sincere gratitude:
—To Laurent Sagart, Ph.D., researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and linguist. In 2001, I was invited to collaborate and exchange at the Institute of East Asian Languages at the école des Hautes études en Sciences Sociales in Paris for three months. Professor Sagart, with his profound knowledge and insightful views, provided me with many theoretical and methodological inspirations.
At the same time, I am grateful to Michel Ferlus, researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Barbara Niederer, Ph.D., and Frédéric Botte, Ph.D., for their academic discussions, from which I benefited greatly.
I am also grateful to the Cultural and Technological Cooperation Office of the French Embassy in China for providing funding for this collaboration and exchange.
—I am grateful to the cadres, scholars, and pronunciation collaborators from various ethnic groups in Guizhou and Guangxi who supported my field research from 1999 to 2002: from the Water ethnic group, Mr. Meng Xixiu, Mr. Meng Shaoqiu, Mr. Meng Zongfu, Mr. Meng Xilin, Mr. Wu Guoren, Mr. Meng Shaoxian, Mr. Pan Chaolin, Mr. Wang Pinquan, and Mr. Shi Guoyi; from the Zhuang ethnic group, Mr. Zhang Yiling and Mr. Liang Kaichen; and from the Han ethnic group, Professor Liu Cunhan and Mr. Wang Zhigang. Whenever I think of their enthusiastic and sincere nature, my research work is filled with motivation.
—I am grateful to the leadership of the School of Liberal Arts and the Linguistics Department at Nankai University for their understanding and support. Without the harmonious, relaxed, rigorous, pragmatic, and cooperative academic atmosphere of the School of Liberal Arts, which feels like a family, my research work would not have been completed.
—I am grateful to my doctoral and master's students. Their active minds and broad questions, especially during our joint translation and discussion of contemporary Western theoretical works on language contact, have made me deeply appreciate the joy of "learning from teaching." Additionally, my classmates Sun Yi, Wang Yufeng, and Gan Chunyan helped me input thousands of field research cards and original records of folk songs and folk tales into the computer. The characters numbered in the hundreds of thousands, mostly inconvenient-to-input International Phonetic Alphabet symbols, and I am particularly grateful for their hard work.
—I am grateful to Director Zhou Hongbo and Mr. Hu Zhongwen of the Chinese Language Editing Office at the Commercial Press for their support and help with the book's topic selection. I am also grateful to the editor-in-chief, Mr. Jin Xinxin, for his meticulous and careful editing and proofreading. This book strives for theoretical and methodological innovation, aiming to untie the knot of intertwined cognates and loanwords between Chinese and Tai-Kadai languages. However, due to my limited academic capabilities, there may be shortcomings or even errors in this exploration and research. I sincerely hope to receive criticism and corrections from esteemed scholars and colleagues in the academic community.
Zeng Xiaoyu
Written on August 25, 2003, in Room 408 of Fan Sun Building, Nankai University