Literary and colloquial readings

Colloquial readings typically reflect the native phonology of a given Chinese variety,{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Hongjun |work=Language and Linguistics |volume=7 |issue=1 |year=2006 |author-mask=Wang Hongjun (王洪君) |script-title=zh:層次與演變階段—蘇州話文白異讀析層擬測三例 |lang=zh}} while literary readings typically originate from other Chinese varieties,{{Citation |last=Wang |first=Futang |volume=32 |issue=9 |year=2006 |script-title=zh:文白異讀中讀書音的幾個問題 |author-mask=Wang Futang (王福堂) |script-journal=zh:語言學論叢 |lang=zh}} typically more prestigious varieties. Colloquial readings are usually older, resembling the sound systems described by old rime dictionaries like the Guangyun, whereas literary readings are often closer to the phonology of newer sound systems. In certain Mandarin and Wu dialects, many literary readings are the result of influence from Nanjing Mandarin or Beijing Mandarin during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Formal education and discourse usually use past prestigious varieties, so formal words usually use literary readings. Although the phonology of the Chinese variety in which this occurred did not entirely match that of the prestige variety, literary readings tended to evolve toward the prestige variety. Also, neologisms usually use the pronunciation of prestigious varieties.{{Citation |last=陳忠敏 |issue=3 |year=2003 |script-title=zh:重論文白異讀與語音層次 |script-journal=zh:語文研究}} Colloquial readings are usually used in informal settings because their usage in formal settings has been supplanted by the readings of the prestige varieties. Literary readings are used in high-status society and for reading texts, as well as certain performative arts such as Pingtan.{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Hongjun |title=Stratum vs. stage: Three reconstructions in the literary and colloquial strata of the Suzhou dialect |journal=Language and Linguistics |date=2006 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=63-86}} Traditional education in Taiwan involved students learning to recite Classical Chinese text in the literary pronunciation, followed by the teacher explaining the same text in the colloquial reading, either Quanzhou speech, Zhangzhou speech or Hakka. In addition, official documents were also read out in literary pronunciation.{{cite book |last1=Carsten Storm, Mark Harrison |title=The Margins of Becoming: Identity and Culture in Taiwan |date=2007 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=9783447054546 |page=39}}

Because of this, the frequency of literary readings in a Chinese variety reflects its history and status. For example, before the promotion of Standard Chinese (based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin), the Central Plains Mandarin of the Central Plain had few literary readings, but they now have literary readings that resemble the phonology of Modern Standard Chinese.{{Cite journal |last=Zhang |first=Jie |title=Evolution of Initials in TaiYuan Dialect in the Past 100 Years--《Journal of Jinzhong University》2012年05期 |url=https://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-JGZK201205024.htm |journal=En.cnki.com.cn}} On the other hand, the relatively influential Beijing and Guangzhou dialects have fewer literary readings than other varieties.

Some Chinese varieties may have many instances of foreign readings replacing native readings, forming multiple sets of literary and colloquial readings. A newer literary reading may replace an older literary reading, and the older literary reading may become disused or become a new colloquial reading. Sometimes literary and colloquial readings of the same character have different meanings.

An analogous phenomenon exists to a much more significant degree in Japanese, where individual kanji generally have two common readings—the newer borrowed, more formal Sino-Japanese on'yomi, and the older native, more colloquial kun'yomi. Unlike in Chinese varieties, where readings are usually genetically related, in Japanese the borrowed readings are unrelated to the native readings. Furthermore, many kanji in fact have several on'yomi, reflecting borrowings at different periods – these multiple borrowings are generally doublets or triplets, and are sometimes quite distant in time. These readings are generally used in particular contexts, such as readings for Buddhist terms, many of which were earlier go-on borrowings.{{Cite book |last=Labrune |first=Laurence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ix9r6CbEl6IC |title=The phonology of Japanese |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0199545834 |edition=1 |location=Oxford |pages=18–20 |access-date=25 August 2023}}

{{IPA notice}}

Cantonese literary and colloquial readings have quite regular relationships. A character's meaning is often different depending on whether it is read with a colloquial or literary reading.

Initials

• colloquial 'heavy labial' (重脣, bilabial) initials /p/ and /pʰ/ correspond to literary 'light labial' (輕脣, labiodental) initial /f/
• colloquial /ŋ/ initial (疑母) correspond to literary /j/ initial (以母)

Rimes

• colloquial readings with {{IPA|[ɛː]}} nuclei correspond to literary {{IPA|[ɪ]}} and {{IPA|[iː]}} nuclei
• colloquial {{IPA|[aː]}} correspond to literary {{IPA|[ɐ]}}
• colloquial {{IPA|[ɐi]}} correspond to literary {{IPA|[i]}}
• colloquial {{IPA|[œː]}} correspond to literary {{IPA|[ɔː]}}; of course, not all colloquial readings with a certain nucleus correspond to literary readings with another nucleus

Tones

• some Middle Chinese 'full-muddy (i.e. voiced obstruent) rising-tone' (全濁上聲) words now have colloquial 'subclear' (次清, aspirated) initials along with preserved 'muddy rising' (濁上) tone called yang rising (陽上), while literary initials are 'full-clear' (全清, tenuis) and merge into 'muddy departing' (濁去) tone called yang departing (陽去), but if they now have fricative or approximant initials then they have no aspiration distinction. Most other varieties share this sound change process to varying degrees which is called '(full) muddy rising become departing' ((全)濁上變去).

Examples:

The literary readings in Hakka in most rime groups are based on Mandarin/Northern Chinese pronunciations.{{cite book |last1=Mantaro J. Hashimoto |title=The Hakka Dialect: A Linguistic Study of Its Phonology, Syntax and Lexicon |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521133678}}

Examples:

Literary readings in modern Standard Chinese are usually native pronunciations more conservative than colloquial readings. This is because they reflect readings from before Beijing was the capital, e.g. from the Ming dynasty. Most instances where there are different literary and colloquial readings occur with characters that have entering tones. Among those are primarily literary readings that have not been adopted into the Beijing dialect before the Yuan dynasty. Colloquial readings of other regions have also been adopted into the Beijing dialect, a major difference being that literary readings are usually adopted with the colloquial readings. Some of the differences between the Standard Chinese of Taiwan and the mainland are due to the fact that Putonghua tends to adopt colloquial readings for a character{{Cite journal |last1=Chung-Yu |first1=Chen |last2=陈重瑜 |year=1994 |title=Evidence of High-Frequency Colloquial Forms Moving Towards the Yin-Ping Tone / 常用口语字阴平化的例证 |journal=Journal of Chinese Linguistics |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=1–39 |jstor=23756584}} while Guoyu tends to adopt a literary reading.{{Cite journal |last=Cheng |first=Robert L. |date=June 1985 |title=A Comparison of Taiwanese, Taiwan Mandarin, and Peking Mandarin |journal=Language |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=352–377 |doi=10.2307/414149 |jstor=414149}}

Examples of literary readings adopted into the Beijing dialect:

{{wikisourcelang|zh|普通話異讀詞審音表}}

Examples of colloquial readings adopted into the Beijing dialect:

In Sichuanese Mandarin, colloquial readings tend to resemble Ba-Shu Chinese or southern Proto-Mandarin during the Ming, while literary readings tend to resemble modern standard Mandarin. For example, in the Yaoling dialect the colloquial reading of {{lang|zh|物}} 'things' is {{IPA|[væʔ]}},杨升初（1985年S2期），《剑阁摇铃话音系记略》，湘潭大学社会科学学报 which is very similar to its pronunciation of Ba-Shu Chinese in the Song dynasty (960–1279).王庆（2010年04期），《四川方言中没、术、物的演变》，西华大学学报（哲学社会科学版） Meanwhile, its literary reading, [{{IPA|voʔ}}], is relatively similar to the standard Mandarin pronunciation [{{IPA|u}}]. The table below shows some Chinese characters with both literary and colloquial readings in Sichuanese.甄尚灵（1958年01期），《成都语音的初步研究》，四川大学学报（哲学社会科学版）

In the northern Wu-speaking region, the main sources of literary readings are the Beijing and Nanjing dialects during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and modern Standard Chinese.{{Cite book |last=Qian |first=Nairong |author-link=Qian Nairong |publisher=Shanghai renmin chubanshe |year=2003 |isbn=978-7-208-04554-5 |page=70 |script-title=zh:上海語言發展史 |lang=zh}} In the southern Wu-speaking region, literary readings tend to be adopted from the Hangzhou dialect. Colloquial readings tend to reflect an older sound system.{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Li |author-link=Wang Li (linguist) |publisher=China Book Company |year=1981 |script-title=zh:漢語音韻學 |id=SH9018-4 |lang=zh}}

Not all Wu dialects behave the same way. Some have more instances of discrepancies between literary and colloquial readings than others. For example, the character {{lang|wuu|魏}} had a {{IPAblink|ŋ}} initial in Middle Chinese, and in literary readings, there is a null initial. In colloquial readings it is pronounced {{IPA|/ŋuɛ/}} in Songjiang.{{Cite book |last=Zhang |first=Yuanqian |publisher=Shanghai cishi chubanshe |year=2003 |isbn=978-7-532-61391-5 |script-title=zh:松江方言志 |author-mask=Zhang Yuanqian (張源潛) |lang=zh}} About 100 years ago, it was pronounced {{IPA|/ŋuɛ/}} in Suzhou{{Cite book |last=Ting |first=Pang-hsin |publisher=Shanghai jiaoyu |year=2003 |isbn=978-7-532-08561-3 |script-title=zh:一百年前的蘇州話 |lang=zh}} and Shanghai, and now it is {{IPA|/uɛ/}}.

Some pairs of literary and colloquial readings are interchangeable in all cases, such as in the words {{lang|wuu|吳淞}} and {{lang|wuu|松江}}. Some must be read in one particular reading. For example, {{lang|wuu|人民}} must be read using the literary reading, {{IPA|/zəɲmiɲ/}}, and {{lang|wuu|人命}} must be read using the colloquial reading, {{IPA|/ɲiɲmiɲ/}}. Some differences in reading for the same characters have different meanings, such as {{lang|wuu|巴結}}, using the colloquial reading {{IPA|/pʊtɕɪʔ/}} means 'make great effort', and using the literary reading {{IPA|/pɑtɕɪʔ/}} means 'get a desired outcome'. Some readings are almost never used, such as colloquial {{IPAslink|ŋ̍}} for {{lang|wuu|吳}} and literary {{IPA|/tɕiɑ̃/}} for {{lang|wuu|江}}.

Examples:

{{Further|Hokkien#Literary and colloquial readings}}

Min languages, which include Taiwanese Hokkien, separate reading pronunciations ({{lang|nan|{{linktext|讀音}}}}) from spoken pronunciations ({{lang|nan|{{linktext|語音}}}}) and explications ({{lang|nan|{{linktext|解說}}}}). Hokkien dictionaries in Taiwan often differentiate between such character readings with prefixes for literary readings and colloquial readings {{zhi|c={{linktext|文}}}} and {{zhi|c={{linktext|白}}}}, respectively.

The following examples in Pe̍h-oē-jī show differences in character readings in Taiwanese Hokkien:{{Cite web |last=Mair |first=Victor H. |author-link=Victor H. Mair |year=2010 |title=Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Taiwan's language situation: How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language |url=http://pinyin.info/readings/mair/taiwanese.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213183153/http://pinyin.info/readings/mair/taiwanese.html |archive-date=13 December 2014 |access-date=13 December 2014 |website=Pinyin.info}}{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2019 |publisher=Taiwan Ministry of Education |url=http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/index.html |language=zh |trans-title=Dictionary of Common Words in Taiwanese Hokkien |script-title=zh:臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典}}

{{HokkienLiteraryColloquial}}

In addition, some characters have multiple and unrelated pronunciations, adapted to represent Hokkien words. For example, the Hokkien word {{tlit|nan|bah}} ('meat') is often written with the character {{lang|nan|肉}}, which has etymologically unrelated colloquial and literary readings {{tlit|nan|he̍k}} and {{tlit|nan|jio̍k}}, respectively).{{Cite book |last=Klöter |first=Henning |title=Written Taiwanese |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |year=2005 |isbn=978-3-447-05093-7 |page=21}}{{holodict|2607|e=肉}}

In the Fuzhou dialect of Min Dong, literary readings are mainly used in formal phrases and words derived from the written language, while the colloquial ones are used in more colloquial phrases. Phonologically, a large range of phonemes can differ between the character's two readings: in tone, final, initial, or any and all of these features.

The following table uses Foochow Romanized as well as IPA for some of the major differences in readings.

The following are examples of variations between literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters in Gan Chinese.

• Onyomi
• Reconstructions of Old Chinese, for a more detailed study on historical Chinese pronunciation
• Sino-Japanese vocabulary
• Sino-Korean vocabulary
• Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary#Monosyllabic loanwords
• Sino-Xenic pronunciations

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Category:Chinese characters

Category:Varieties of Chinese