“八哥”词源考

An Etymological Study on the Chinese Bird Name “Bage八哥”

本文运用文献研究法考证汉语鸟名“八哥”的来源。这种鸟汉语原称为“鸲鹆”,为避南唐后主李煜的名讳,改称“八哥”。“八哥”在汉语词汇系统中不具理据性。依据苗族迁徙史和南唐相关史料以及“八哥”在汉语、苗语中的语音关系,大体可以推断“八哥”可能是汉语按音译方式从苗语湘西方言借入的。

This paper employs the textual research method to explore the etymological origin of the bird name“bage八哥”in Chinese.This species of birds,originally called“quyu鸲鹆”in Chinese,is referred to as“bage”because of the name taboo of Li Yu李煜,the last ruler of the Nan(Southern)Tang dynasty.However,the name“bage”is unexplainable from inside the Chinese lexical system.According to the migration history of the Miao ethnic group,the relevant historical records of the Southern Tang dynasty and the sound relationship of“bage”in the Chinese and Miao languages,it can be roughly inferred that“bage”is likely to be a loanword borrowed into Chinese from the Xiangxi dialect of the Miao language by way of phonetic borrowing.