中古二等介音的语音性质

The phonetic nature of second-division medials in Middle Chinese

“王三”二等字很少作切上字,二等字喉牙音的切上字避免使用一、三、四等开口字,“王三”三等字用非三等字作切下字时都是一等合口或二等字,二等字“类隔切”切下字只用牙喉音字。这些现象集中说明“王三”二等字具有一个与合口u性质相近的介音。《晋书音义》、“王二”、《俗务要名林》均不用非二等的开口字作二等韵切上字,《广韵》二等韵的异读大多数为合口字,这些也证明了中古二等字的介音性质。中古的音系格局、对音材料与后世方言也可作为旁证。根据以上材料,中古二等介音为听感接近u的,二等合口介音u违反OCP原则导致脱落。二等开合两类字后世演变路径不同与其中古介音的语音性质有关。

In the rhyme dictionary,the Kanmiu buque qieyun刊谬补缺切韵(the Wangsan王三version),characters/syllables of second-division are hardly used as the first character in the fanqie反切.In the fanqie of second-division characters with dental and laryngeal consonants,characters of other divisions with unrounded articulation are never found as the first character as well.If the second character in the fanqie of third-division characters is not of the third division,it is often a character with rounded articulation belonging to the first division or a character of the second division.The second characters in the leigeqie类隔切of second-division characters can only be characters with dental and laryngeal consonants.All these indicate that,in this version of the Kanmiu buque qieyun,characters of second-division have a medial similar to-u-.This hypothesis is supported by the fact that,in rhyme dictionaries such as the Jinshu yinyi晋书音义,the Kanmiu buque qieyun(the Wang er王二version),and the Suwu yaominglin俗务要名林,characters of second division never choose characters with unrounded articulation from other divisions as the first character in their fanqie.In the Guangyun广韵,variant pronunciations of second-division characters are also mostly with rounded articulation.In addition,based on the phonological system of Middle Chinese,the Chinese transcriptions of old Tibetan words and modern Chinese dialects,it is suggested that Middle Chinese characters of second division had a medial-w-which is similar to-u-.The medial of second-division characters with rounded articulation,the-u-,violates the Obligatory Contour Principle so the-w-dropped.This may have caused the separate paths of development between rounded and unrounded characters of second division.