“蜀左言”新解

New Explanation on “Shu Zuo Yan”

《文选·左思〈蜀都赋〉》刘逵注引《蜀王本纪》有"蜀左言,无文字"的称述,一些学者据此认为古蜀人"左言"是与汉语性质不同的少数民族语言,这几乎成为此前古蜀文化和古蜀语研究者的共识。现在古蜀有文字已经得到学术界认可,而对"蜀左言"的词语结构、文献用例、构词语素含义的研究结果表明:"蜀左言"并不是人们通常所说的少数民族语言,而是上古汉语的一个地域分支;它与上古汉语雅言并无贵贱之分,而是其重要组成部分。"蜀左言"与上古汉语的区别并非体现在词序和语序上,而主要在语音的声调上。

The commentary on Wen Xuan ~ Zuo Si ~ Shu Du Fu made by Liu Kui quotes ＂Shu Zuo Yan has no characters. ＂ from Shu Wang Ben Ji. Some scholars considered that the characters of Shu Zuo Yan used by people in Shu area were part of the minority languages, and this viewpoint was concurred by most of the scholars specializing in the research of Shu culture and language before. However, the standpoint that ancient Shu language has its own characters is recognized by the academia today. Based on the study about structure of words, the examples used in documents, the meaning of productive morpheme, the author concludes that Shu Zuo Yan is not part of the minority languages, but one of the dialects. It is also one of the most significant parts of the ancient Chinese and has the same position as ancient Chinese. The key difference between Shu Zuo Yan and ancient Chinese is not the problem of word order, but the problem of tone.