古代西北方言的下位变体

Phonological Variation among Ancient North-Western Dialects in Chinese

在中世纪的中国,西北方言是汉语重要的一支。它在广大的西北地区使用,在中国与中亚民族间的文化交流中起到了重要作用。因此,在敦煌、吐鲁番及中亚各地发现的古藏语、粟特语、于阗语和回鹘语等古语中所包含的大量汉语词汇,无一例外地表现出西北方言的特点。但是如果考虑该方言分布之广,就可以想象其中产生了较多的变体。关于西北方言的下位变体,由于缺乏可靠的音韵材料,向来没有受到足够关注。藏文对音、回鹘字音、西夏语等材料表明,古代西北方言中确实存在一些十分明显的变体。

In medieval China, the North-Western dialect was considered to be an important part of the Chinese language. This dialect was popular in a vast area that extended across the Western Regions of China and played an important role as an indispensable medium in cultural exchanges between Chinese and Central Asian ethnic groups. As a result, Chinese words were found in the texts of ancient Central Asian languages such as Tibetan, Sogdian, Khotanese and Uighur that were found in Dunhuang, Turfan, and other Central Asian sites. These words generally exhibited the features of North-Western dialect. However, considering the enormously large territory over which it was spoken, it can be easily imagined that the North-Western dialect has spawned many variations. Absent reliable information on the phonological systems, less attention has been paid to such variations. This paper attempts to point out the existence of systematic and significant variations among the ancient North-Western dialects by using Tibetan transcriptions, Uighur pronunciations, and Western Xia documents.