“Khitan language”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Khitan or Kitan ( in large script or in small, Khitai;^[1] {{zh|t {{linktext|契丹|語}}}}, Qìdānyǔ), also known as Liao, is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people (4th to 13th century). It was the official language of the Liao Empire (907–1125) and the Qara Khitai (1124–1218).

Classification

Khitan appears to have been related to the Mongolic languages;^[2] Juha Janhunen states, "[T]he conception is gaining support that Khitan was a language in some respects radically different from the historically known Mongolic languages. If this view proves to be correct, Khitan is, indeed, best classified as a Para-Mongolic language."{{sfn|Janhunen|2006|p=393}}

Alexander Vovin (2017) notes that Khitan has many Koreanic loanwords, pointing to intensive contact between Korean and Khitans.^[3] Both of the Korean's Goryeo dynasty and Khitan's Liao dynasty claimed themselves to be successors of Goguryeo, thus it is possible to assume the Koreanic words in Khitan are derived from the language of Goguryeo.{{Citation needed|date=March 2019}}

Script

Khitan was written using two mutually exclusive writing systems known as the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script.{{sfn|Janhunen|2006|p=393}} The small script, which was a syllabary, was used until the Jurchen-speaking Jin dynasty (1115–1234) replaced it{{Clarify|date=August 2016}} in 1191.{{sfn|Janhunen|2006|p=395}} The large script was logographic like Chinese.

Records

The History of Liao contains a volume of Khitan words transcribed in Chinese characters titled "Glossary of National Language" (國語解). It is found in Chapter 116.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty erroneously identified the Khitan people and their language with the Solons, leading him to use the Solon language to "correct" Chinese character transcriptions of Khitan names in the History of Liao in his Imperial Liao-Jin-Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation (欽定遼金元三史國語解) project.

The Liao dynasty referred to the Khitan language with the term Guoyu 國語 "National language", which was also used by other non-Han Chinese dynasties in China to refer to their languages like Manchu of the Qing, Classical Mongolian during the Yuan dynasty, Jurchen during the Jin, and Xianbei during the Northern Wei. Even today, Mandarin is referred to in Taiwan as Guoyu.

Vocabulary

There are several closed systems of Khitan lexical items for which systematic information is available.^[8] The following is a list of words in these closed systems that are similar to Mongolic. Mongolian equivalents are given after the English translation:

Seasons

Numerals

Compared with Khitan, The Tungusic numerals of the Jurchen language differ significantly: three=ilan, five=shunja, seven=nadan, nine=uyun, hundred=tangu.

Animals

Directions

Time

Personal relations

Tribal administration

Basic verbs

Natural objects

'Tao Saiyier' corresponds to Mongolian 'tavan sar' (fifth moon/month). The Turkic Kyrgyz equivalent would be 'beshinchi ay' while the Manchu (Tungusic) equivalent would be 'sunja biya'.

See also

References

1. ^"Khitan" at Omniglot.
2. ^Herbert Franke, John King Fairbank, Denis Crispin Twitchett, Roderick MacFarquhar, Denis Twitchett, Albert Feuerwerker. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906. Part 1, p.364
3. ^{{Cite journal|last=Vovin|first=Alexander|date=June 2017|title=Koreanic loanwords in Khitan and their importance in the decipherment of the latter|url=https://akademiai.com/doi/abs/10.1556/062.2017.70.2.4|journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae|language=en|volume=70|issue=2|pages=207–215|doi=10.1556/062.2017.70.2.4|issn=0001-6446}}
4. ^[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/遼史/卷116 遼史/卷116 卷116].
5. ^pp. 123-125 Howorth, H. H.. 1881. “The Northern Frontagers of China. Part V. The Khitai or Khitans”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 13 (2). Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 121–82. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25196875.
6. ^{{cite book|title=Chinese History: A Manual|first=Endymion Porter|last=Wilkinson|others=|volume=Volume 52 of Harvard Yenching Institute Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series |issue=Issue 52 of Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series| ISSN =0073-084X|editor-first=|editor-last=|edition=illustrated, revised|date=|year=2000|publisher=Harvard Univ Asia Center|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERnrQq0bsPYC&pg=PA864|page=864|isbn=0674002490|accessdate=24 April 2014| ref=harv }}
7. ^{{cite book|author1=Heming Yong|author2=Jing Peng|title=Chinese Lexicography : A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYFBtTUZFxEC&pg=PA382#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=14 August 2008|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-156167-2|pages=382–}}
8. ^Kane, Daniel The Kitan language and script 2009, Leiden, The Netherlands