Fangyan (book)

{{For|the general sense of a regional Chinese dialect|Varieties of Chinese}}

{{About|the dictionary|the work of philosophy by the same author|Fayan (book){{!}}Fayan (book)}}

{{Infobox Chinese

| title = Fangyan

| c = 方言

| l = Regional speech

| p = Fāngyán

| w = {{tonesup|Fang1-yen2}}

| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|f|ang|1|.|yan|2}}

| gr = Fangyan

| j = Fong1-jin4

| y = Fōng-yìhn

| tl = Hong-giân

| oc-bs = *{{IPA|paŋ ŋa[r]}}

}}

The Fangyan{{efn|The full title is {{zhc|c=輶軒使者絕代語釋別國方言|l=Local expressions of other countries in times immemorial explained by the Light-Carriage Messenger}}.}} is a Chinese dictionary compiled in the early 1st century CE by the poet and philosopher Yang Xiong (53 BCE{{snd}}18 CE).{{efn|Translations include 'regional words',{{Cite book |title=Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature. A Reference Guide |publisher=Brill |year=2014 |isbn=978-9-004-27185-2 |editor-last=Knechtges |editor-first=David R. |editor-link=David R. Knechtges |volume=3 |location=Leiden |page=1935 |editor-last2=Chang |editor-first2=Taiping}} 'regional expressions',{{Cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Confucianism |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-700-71199-4 |editor-last=Yao |editor-first=Xinzhong |editor-link=Xinzhong Yao |page=472}} 'dictionary of local expressions',{{Cite book |title=The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-521-23582-2 |editor-last=Needham |editor-first=Joseph |editor-link=Joseph Needham |page=118 |editor-last2=Ronan |editor-first2=Colin A.}} and 'regional spoken words'.{{Cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Timothy Michael |title=Ideography and Chinese Language Theory: A History |publisher=de Gruyter |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-110-45714-8 |location=Berlin |page=206}}{{pb}}In modern usage, the term fangyan is customarily translated as English dialect, but linguists have proposed direct neologisms of {{linktext|regionalect}} (John DeFrancis) and {{linktext|topolect}} (Victor H. Mair).}} It was the first Chinese dictionary to include significant regional vocabulary, and is considered the "most significant lexicographic work" of its era.{{sfn|Creamer|1992|p=113}} His dictionary's preface explains how he spent 27 years amassing and collating the dictionary. Yang collected regionalisms from many sources, particularly the 'light carriage' ({{lang|zh-Hant|輶軒}} {{tlit|zh|yóuxuān}}) surveys made during the Zhou and Qin dynasties, where imperial emissaries were sent into the countryside annually to record folk songs and idioms from across China, reaching as far north as Korea.{{sfn|Creamer|1992|p=113}}

{{lang|lzh|虎：陳魏宋楚之間或謂之李父；江淮南楚之間謂之李耳，或謂之於菟．自關東西或謂之伯都．|size=105%}}

Tiger: in the regions of Chen-Wei Song-Chu [Central China], some call it lifu; in the regions of Jiang-Huai Nan-Chu [Southern China], they call it li'er, and some call it wutu. From the Pass, east- and west-ward [Eastern and Western China], some call it also bodu.{{sfn|Serruys|1967|p=256}}

Comparative linguists have used dialect data from the Fangyan in reconstructing the pronunciation of Eastern Han Chinese (1st century CE), which is an important diachronic stage between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. In the above example, Paul Serruys reconstructs 'tiger' as Old Chinese {{tlit|och|*blxâg}}. Serruys also applied the techniques of modern dialectology to the distribution of regional words, identifying dialect areas and their relationships.

Terminology

Victor Mair proposed that {{lang|lzh|方言}} be translated as topolect, while dialect should be translated into Chinese as {{zhi|c=通言}} {{zhi|p=tōngyán}}.{{Cite web |last=Mair |first=Victor |date=2016-11-21 |title=Language vs. script |url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=29443 |access-date=2020-10-12 |website=Language Log}} Based on this, topolect has been used to characterize other speech varieties where an identification as either language or dialect would be controversial. Examples include Scots and the various regional varieties of Arabic and Romani. In all of these situations, an identification of distinct languages by the straightforward criterion of mutual intelligibility may not be politically or socially acceptable to a significant number of scholars. For example, several varieties of Southwestern Mandarin are not mutually intelligible, and they would be classified as distinct languages within the Mandarin branch of the Sinitic language family, if it weren't for the dominant social, historical, and political concept of Chinese as a unitary language. Mandarin, Southwestern Mandarin, the mutually unintelligible varieties of Southwestern Mandarin, and indeed the mutually intelligible dialects within those varieties are all termed "topolects".

Notes

References

= Citations =

= Works cited =

{{Cite book |last=Creamer |first=Thomas B. I. |title=History, Languages, and Lexicographers |publisher=Niemeyer |year=1992 |editor-last=Zgusta |editor-first=Ladislav |editor-link=Ladislav Zgusta |series=Lexicographica Series |volume=41 |pages=105–135 |chapter=Lexicography and the history of the Chinese language |isbn=978-3-484-30941-8}}
{{Cite book |last=DeFrancis |first=John |title=The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-824-80866-2}}
{{Cite journal |last=Groves |first=Julie M. |year=2008 |title=Language or Dialect – or Topolect? A Comparison of the Attitudes of Hong Kongers and Mainland Chinese towards the Status of Cantonese |url=http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp179_cantonese.pdf |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |volume=179 |pages=1–103}}
{{Cite journal |last=Mair |first=Victor H. |author-link=Victor H. Mair |year=1991 |title=What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic terms |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp029_chinese_dialect.pdf |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |volume=29 |pages=1–31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510155608/http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp029_chinese_dialect.pdf |archive-date=2018-05-10}}
{{Cite book |last=Serruys |first=Paul L.-M. |title=The Chinese Dialects of Han Time According to Fang Yen |publisher=University of California Press |year=1959 |location=Berkeley |oclc=3823182 |author-link=Paul Serruys}}
{{Cite journal |last=Serruys |first=Paul L.-M. |year=1967 |title=Five Word Studies on Fang Yen (Third Part): The Dialect Words for 'Tiger' |journal=Monumenta Serica |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=255–285 |doi=10.1080/02549948.1967.11744969 |author-mask=3}}

Fangyan (book)

Contents

Terminology

See also

Notes

References

= Citations =

= Works cited =

Further reading