“奴”作自称称谓词小考——兼谈《撰集百缘经》的译成时地

A Textual Research on Nu(奴)as a Self-proclaimed Appellation Word——A Concurrent Discussion on the Time and Place of the Translation of Zhuan Ji Bai Yuan Jing(《撰集百缘经》)

“奴”至晚从中古后期开始可以作自称称谓词,这种自称用法可能源于当时鲜卑、突厥等操阿尔泰语系语言的游牧民族。鲜卑、突厥等以本族语(或阿尔泰语系诸语言)中专表奴隶、奴仆义的词作为臣下对君主的自称,汉语则以“奴”来对译,以致作自称的“奴”最初流行于北朝,继而扩散开来,至唐代中晚期成为全民用语,不限性别与身份。自称称谓词“奴”的用法及行用时地,可以作为推定旧题三国吴支谦译《撰集百缘经》译成时地的语言证据之一。

Nu(奴)could have been used as a self-proclaimed appellation at least from the late Middle Ages.Its self-proclaimed usage may have initially been adopted by nomadic people who spoke Altaic languages such as Xianbei and Turkic at that time.Xianbei and Turkic used the words that were especially for slaves and servants in their native languages(or Altaic languages)as liegeman’s self-proclamation to monarch.These words were translated into nu(奴)in Chinese language,making the self-proclaimed nu(奴)fi rst popular in the Northern Dynasties and then spreading into the national language in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,regardless of gender and identity.How,where and when the self-proclaimed appelation word nu(奴)was used could be regarded as one of the linguistic evidences to infer an old topic on the time and place of the translation of Zhuan Ji Bai Yuan Jing(《撰集百缘经》)by Wu Zhiqian of the Three Kingdoms.