广西壮语地名分布与演化的GIS分析

GIS-based spatial analysis of Zhuang place names in Guangxi, China

以壮族人口聚居的广西壮族自治区为研究区,通过解读《中华人民共和国地名大辞典》等资料,构建了一个乡镇、县、市的壮语地名地理信息系统(GIS)数据库,并借助空间可视化技术直观显示了壮语地名集中程度从广西西南部左右江流域和西部山区向东部逐渐降低。回归模型揭示了壮语地名的分布相对集中于地势高、坡度陡的边远地区。对命名时代的分析表明,壮语地名的几何中心随时间东移,汉语地名的几何中心西推,两者逐渐靠拢,表明二者在空间分布上的趋同,映证了广西逐渐走向壮汉杂居的历史过程。本文演示GIS和相关科学分析(包括空间分析和数理统计)方法用于历史文化研究的潜力,旨在促进自然科学与人文社会科学的有机结合,推动交叉学科的发展。

This research is part of an ongoing larger project on the historical origins of the Tai in southern China and Southeast Asia. The Zhuang language is one of many languages in the Tai language family. By deciphering the authoritative toponymical dictionary series of China, this study, as its foremost purpose, has constructed a GIS database of place names in Guangxi at the township, county, and prefecture levels. Toponyms are classified as Zhuang and non-Zhuang with some （wherever available） marked with the eras when they were first recorded. Geo-visualization techniques help us display the fact that the highest concentrations of Zhuang toponyms are in the southwest Twin-Rivers Basin and the western mountainous area, and that they decline gradually towards the east. Various regression models reveal that places with Zhuang toponyms tend to be located on higher ground with a steeper slope. They are less likely to be found in locations with paddy or irrigated land. They are more remote from major transport routes and major cities. Analysis of the limited number of toponyms with time designations reveals that the Zhuang toponyms on the contemporary map are older in the west but younger in the east. We speculate that in eastern Guangxi, with larger Han settlements for a longer period, older Zhuang toponyrns were likely to be obliterated, and only younger Zhuang toponyms in more remote pockets of Zhuang settlements have been preserved. The centroids of Zhuang and non-Zhuang toponyms converge towards the center of Guangxi over time, indicating narrowing difference in their spatial distribution patterns and reflecting the impact of an increasingly integrated Sino-Zhuang settlement pattern.