中国南海及临近海域的沟通语言(15~18世纪)

Contact Languages on the South China Sea and Beyond(15^(th)-18^(th) Centuries)

与葡萄牙语同时,马来语是在整个印度群岛,以及波斯、印度斯坦、上至中国的范围内使用的一种语言,但不同的是,葡萄牙语更多用于西方,而马来语更常用于印度群岛东部。——范伦丁(F.Valentijn),《新旧东印度志》,1724年,第二卷,第244页。尽管从遥远的过去中国与东南亚之间就一直保持着联系,但我们对彼此间长期的文化交流过程与沟通语言等方面却知之甚少。

Although there have been contacts between China and Southeast Asia since the remote past,very little is known regarding cultural exchanges over the long run.Our research will focus on the specific linguistic heritage shared by seafarers and traders of the China seas as seen from language borrowings from foreign idioms and eventually the coining of jargons or pidgins which were in use in the harbours of South China and insular Southeast Asia.We intend to investigate written sources in Chinese and in European languages,either published or in manuscript form,pertaining to maritime activities and Chinese abroad in order to better perceive:—The real place of Malay as Lingua Franca and language of trade across Southeast Asia and as far as the China Sea.—The borrowings between Malay languages and Minnan hua and eventually old Chinese,encompassing a geographical sphere including Fujian province and the Malay world,and the coining of some Hokkien Malay jargons.—The question of the multi-nationality or mixed crews and the need to have a common language on the ship.