The Diachronic Research Of The Vocabulary Ancient Chu Dialect

Chu dialect is the most powerful dialect in Chinese ancient times, and vocabulary is an important part of the dialect.There are some very detailed records of Chu dialect in Dialect by YangXiong in Han dynasty. In this book, half of the marked places were recorded in Chu dialect, and Book ten which contains about300items was almost written in Chu dialect. Furthermore, we can find more than200items Chu dialect in total has been recorded in such books as Shuowen Jiezi. Huainanzi noted by XuShen and GaoYou, ChuCi noted by WangYi, ErYa interpreted by GuoPu, Rites of Zhou noted by ZhengXuan, the Book of Rites by ZhengXuan. Zuo zhuan noted by DuYu. Guovu noted by WeiZhao, HanshuYinyi, Shuijingzhu and Wenxuan noted by LiShan. Lisao.Chuxueji. That is the statistics of various books which documented in Chu dialect clearly. As to the most of words which only appears in ChuCi, bamboo slips and silk books of Chu probably were also Chu dialect. Chu dialect belongs to the culture of Yangtze River basin, and it is also an important branch of HuaXia culture. The research of Chu dialect has great significance to reorganize and inherit traditional culture.The purpose of this dissertation is to summarize existing research findings, to search for Chu dialect words in Pre-Qin and Han dynasty classics, then generalize their meanings. Moreover, we will do our best to find illustrations in the document handed down, search for evidence in unearthed bamboo slips, silk books and inscription of bronze, compare them with modern Chinese dialects and southern minority language. At last, we will make an scientific explanation for Chu dialect vocabulary, identify information of ancient Chu dialect by synchronic and diachronic comparison and discuss the characteristics of Chu dialect that revealed in these materials.Chapter one talks about the development and evolution of ancient Chu dialect. Among the eight major dialects in Han dynasty, Chu dialect exerted the primary influences on the common language in Jin dynasty. Before the "YongJia turmoil and violence", Chu dialect was an independent dialect that been paralleled to such dialects as Hebei, EastQi, Guanzhong, Central Plains, Bashu,Wu and so on. Wu dialect and Chu dialect in Jin dynasty was gradually replaced by Min, Wu, Yue, Xiang dialect which used after Sui and Tang dynasties, but ancient Chu dialect still had tremendous influence in the Chu region during Tang dynasty. Great migration which happened in the span of Song and Yuan dynasties had made fundamental changes to the pattern of ancient Chu dialect. In Ming dynast the sounds of Three Chu resembled that of modern Hunan and Hubei dialect, which belong to northern dialect but sounds like southern dialects.Chapter two discusses the cognate words in ancient Chu dialect. The essay provide eight groups of cognate words, which based on ancient literature recorded, verified and validated by the southern dialect, and identified according to the theory of the sounds similar, the meanings in harmony". For example, a series words of "抟", most of them are "Yuan-Radical Characters" and means "圆".Chapter three analyses the scripts which are used to note the pronunciation. Part of the Chu dialect words recorded in Dialect by YangXiong had been used in the common language literature of Pre-Qin and Han dynasties; however, they were misused characters (homophone). So this chapter aims to establish a connection between them.Chapter four focuses on the illustrations of Chu dialect of all time. According to the research in this essay, part of Chu dialect vocabulary which have been identified by sages, Yang Xiong for example, had documented in common language literature of Pre-Qin dynasty, such as the Book of Songs, The Analects and Mencius.So why YangXiong still identified it as Chu dialect? It probably documented by emissary who travelled in a little, two-wheeled carriage in Zhou and Qin dynasties. YangXiong has inherited QianYan by YanJunping and GengGa by LinLvweng, and then verified and validated the materials.Chapter five explores the connection between Chu dialect vocabulary and bamboo slips or silk books discovered in Churegion. The former reseach of bamboo slips and silk books that discovered in Churegion have pay much attention for characters, as to the study of words, it still has a long way to go. This dissertation will use literature handed down and unearthed literature to support each other, so as to validate those bamboo slips and silk books which discovered in Churegion contain Chu dialect words, especially in medical, law literature. Expect for the demonstration in aspect of language, it could be useful to refer to the artifacts and objects in Churegion.Chapter six verifies the Chu dialect words that are still in use today. Through the research findings of modern Chinese dialects, it could be possible to forge a link between ancient Chu dialect and modern dialect so that on the basis of ancient materials we could deduce the current information and vice verse. Ancient Chu dialect vocabulary which be passed so far includes modern southwest official dialects in Hunan and Hubei, and Cantonese, Min, Hakaa, Gan, Wu dialects.Chapter seven elaborates on case study of Chu dialect vocabulary. In this part, dissertation will discuss specially some words such as“沓”、“鸟”、“(?)”、“陂”、“睇”、“父”、“行”.These words will be fully explored in a triangle of "Dialect-Ancient--Difference". With the comparison of diachrony and synchrony, the evolution of the word from Pre-Qin till now could be concluded.