Essays on Writing and Language in Honor - Sino-Platonic Papers

Sino-Platonic Papers, 27 (August 3 1, 199 1 )
contrast the two developments when they indicate possible dialect
variation. I first cite Example 2 from my 1980 monograph. This is then -
followed by W. South Coblin's item under "joke/laugh, p. 99 of his - A
Sinologist's Handlist of Sino-Tibetan Lexical Comparisons.
b.) T styel 'do harm. *skyels,
play a trick' sjews /sjau-
hkhyal 'joke, jest ' K. MA 'to laugh,
ridicule '
k yal-ka (Li:*sjagwh)
rkyal- l a Was)
**xyial 4 OC * hjian j xjian 'laugh'
**xya& + -h 4 OC *h jarh > xje-
' joke, jest '
**xyial
**xyaf
T 'khyal-ba 'joke, j est1, rkyal-ka kyal-ka
'joke, jest, trick'
- stem: 'lchyal
Certainly from the point of view of present-day Chinese, the first
example is still in common use while the second, no less valid, is
however obsolete. Both OC forms here are noted as being from Chu. Example 1,
however, is noted as from the Odes (%).
-
It is interesting to look at my old examples 22 to 27 which were
given to illustrate a completely different point, e.g. the different
developments of clusters of *s- and velars. Ex. 22 and .26 show OC -n as
the outcome of *-1 and Ex. 22 and 27 *-I has developed to *-we (In Ex.
27 there is a further change where earlier '-1 is dissimilated because
of the labiovelar initial).
.2?
. *skyil,
(27.) T skyil 'pen up, dam' 7%. 3 jin 13 jtn 4 'dam up'
123) T. ~kyor 'spoiled. *rkwyrts. 'bad we&.
w d , Pwjits /3 umi- &n, filth'
&gelmate '