汉语“河”的词源辨考

Etymology of Chinese he

对于汉语"河"的来源,学术界基本上存在两种观点:"外来说"和"汉语固有说"。有证据表明汉语中用作河流名词的"水"来自于古羌语,"河"来自于古夷语。在北方的历史发展过程中,"水"首先具备了强大阵势,但由于种种原因,其地位最终还是被"河"所逐步取代。

On the etymology of Chinese he （河）, two hypotheses have been put forward. Norman ＆ Mei （1976） claim that he is a loanword, borrowed from Mongolian, while Wang Li （1984） and Hongming Zhang （1998, 2002, 2004） claim that he is a Chinese indigenous word. Based on linguistic data, ethnological evidence and historical documents, the authors of this paper argue against these leading hypotheses and propose that he origins from Old Yi language, in contrast with shui, which is from Old Qiang. In the forming process of old Chinese, shui was dominant at the very beginning. However, it was replaced by he in the long run of history.