原始汉藏语中的介音问题──关于原始汉藏语音节结构构拟的理论思考之三

Problems on Medials in Sino-tibetan Languages

汉藏语系里大多数语言有介音，这是客观事实。但原始汉藏语的音节结构中是否有介音，是汉藏语系语言研究中一直有争议的问题之一。它涉及到音节结构的类型、介音的来源等众多问题，甚至还涉及到复辅音声母的结构和复辅音后置辅音历史音变的脉络问题。本文首先讨论了介音的概念问题，界定了介音所指的内容，并根据藏缅语族语言、苗瑶语族语言、侗台语族语言介音历史音变的方式和内容，大体指出了汉藏语系语言中的介音是后起的语音现象，它的主要来源是复辅音后里辅音在历史音变过程中逐步弱化，成为介音。文章最后还讨论了与介音相关的几个问题。

The Chinese syllable can be divided to five parts , head, neck ,belly ,ending and spirit. Its neck is a medial included in the rhyme part. In the paper the author argues that post-consonants of the in- Itiala should be distinguished from the vowel-coloured medials. Medials -i- , -u-, -y- and -w- emerge in lots of modem Sino-Tibetan languages. But the medials of Chinese are new arrivals. In the 7th century's Tibetan and 11th Burmese, there were -j- and -w-, no medials -i- and -u-. Medials in Sino-Tibetan languages mainly came from weakened post-consonants of their initials. We have found few language both with -j-, -w- and -i-,-u-.