The Explanation Of Ancient Chu Dialect

The dialect is the living fossil of regional history and culture,especially Chu dialect,which embodies so much Chu humanistic spirit. Zhang in Tang dynasty said:“When I went to Wu and Chu by boat,a lot of people spoke Chu dialect.”Huang in Tang dynasty said :“so many ancient articles were written by Chu dialect.”According to those, we know that Chu dialect cloud be found somewhere in inherited literatures or idioms. The study of Chu dialect began in Han Dynasty. Fang Yan,written by Yang Xiong,which included more than 300 Chu vocabularies. In recent years,As the Bamboo and Silk Documents unearthed continuously,so many people pay attention to Chu dialect. Nowadays,researches of Chu dialect are focus on the description of Chu dialect. However, there are not many achievements in the study of the origin of vocabulary's sense, the relationship between dialect and language of minority,and the tracing of cognates.This article selects eight representative vocabularies of Chu dialect to research and explain. Seven of those have been defined as Chu dialect. However,there are some contentious issues not be solved. On the one hand,according to the literatures about ancient dialect and ancient Chinese,the author attempts to explore those words' original meaning,extending meaning and its evolution, then,to solve the issues by clarifying the word's meanings and hackling the meaning's original. On the other hand,the author will clarify the distribution of items' vocabularies by investigating its using condition in different places.Chapter I introduces the causes,which gives a simple discussion about the condition of Chu Dialect's research and focuses on expatiating the methods of study. This article explores the regular evolution of vocabulary's meaning by combining with synchronic linguistics and Diachronic linguistics,and the relationship of cognates by combining ancients Chinese,modern Chinese and language of minority.Chapter II explains “Ruo”. There are a lot of debates among scholars that “Ruo” means a kind of bamboo or the skin of the bamboo. The author attempts to find out its original meaning and extending meaning and evolution by analyzing Dialect of Chinese and literatures of ancient Chinese,and then clarify its distribution by investigating its using condition in different places.Chapter III explains “Lu”. Basing on the inherited literatures, this part explores the regular evolution of Lu's original meaning. this part is to clarify its distribution nowadays and the relationship among “Lu”,“Jun”, “Li” and prove “Lu” is Chu dialect.Chapter IV explains “Dao”. There is no clear conclusion that the meaning of “Dao” is fear or sadness. By ancient inherited literatures, this chapter focuses on its original meaning.Chapter V explains “Ji”. “Ji” appears many times in the unearth Bamboo and Silk Documents.This chapter attempts to explore its original meaning and extending meaning by using the ” double-evidence methodology” and combining inherited literatures and unearth Bamboo and Silk Documents. Basing on this, this chapter clarifies the difference between “Ji” and “Ling” by studying inherited literatures.Chapter VI explains “Diao Hu”. We didn't know that “Diao Hu” is Chu dialect or not. The author attempts to prove it by finding out the relationship among “Diao Hu”, ”Gu”, ”Gu”,”Jiang”, ”Jiao” and using the corresponding relation of pronunciation and the research way of the historical linguistics.Chapter VII explains “Jiao Tiao”. In the book which named Shuo Wen, it says that “Jiao Tao” is called for child's crying for long time in Chu dialect. It is also called for the sound of singing. This chapter would explore its original meaning,extending meaning and evolution and researches the condition of its using in other minorities.Chapter VIII explains “Ji”. This part focuses on exploring its original meaning and extending meaning and evolution. Then according to the corresponding relation of pronunciation,the author attempts to find out its contact with Miao language.Chapter IX explains “Zuo”. In the first part of Fang Yan, Yang Xiong wrote that both “Fei” and “Zuo” mean eating. In ancient time,eating food with bulgur is called “Zuo” in Chen and Chu. This chapter focuses on exploring the relation between ”Zuo” and “Fei”.What's more,we should know “Zuo” in minority languages.