匈奴、单于、撐犂、祁连、阏氏、居次等 译音词误读千载而不知

A Study on Transliterated Words That Have Been Mispronounced for a Thousand Years

匈奴、单于、撐犂、祁连、阏氏、居次等词,是古匈奴语译音词。译音词的读音当与古匈奴语原音相对应。后世,汉字读音有变,但这些民族语译音词则应保持其原译字的读音不变。这是“译音词”的一大特性。若译音词不读其原译音,便失去译音词的职质及作用,不堪称之为译音词了。匈奴——古读“honɡ-nu”(洪奴),今误读作“xionɡ-nu”(兄奴);单于——古读“dan-wu”(丹乌),今误读作“chān-yü”(缠于);撐犂——古读“tanɡ-li”(唐犂),今误读作“chenɡ-li”(称犂);祁连——古读“tan-li”(谈犂),即“撐犂”(tānɡ-lī)、“登里”、“邓林”、“腾格里”之别译。今误读作“qi-lian”(齐莲);阏氏——古读“曷氐”(at-di急读,则为a-di=阿抵),今误读作“yan-zhi”(烟支);居次——古读“ɡu-zi”(姑子),别译为“股紫”,今误读作“jü-cì”(拘赐)。类似上述误读之译音词颇多,如:居延、姑衍、呼衍、渾邪、浑耶、昆邪、呼延、壶衍、握衍,虞衍、朐衍、屈射、五船,车师、姑师、恶师,龟兹、屈兹、苦叉、库策、库撤、苦先、库徹、库车,月氏、月支、禺氏、樾支,皋兰、贺兰、合黎、瓠、胡卢、壶卢、哈喇、哈儿,高句骊、高句丽、高丽、加罗、新罗,靺鞨、勿吉、窩集,吉贝、古贝、劫贝,曲尤(典尤)、苦峪,塔里屯、滩纳泰、达尔图、达里图,都尔伯勒津、得尔布津、杜尔柏津、都尔伯珍、朵里伯珍、朶里伯真、塔爾巴津、跌烈半金等等。以今音读之,彼此隔膜,似不相干。其中某些译音词,古代学者已有注音,但今人不知所用注字之古音,而用今音读之,乃成误读而不知其误。

Many words from ancient documents such as xiongnu匈奴,chanyu单于,chenli撐犂,qilian祁连,yanzhi阏氏and juci居次are all transliterations of ancient Xiongnu words.The pronunciations of transliterated words should thus correspond to their original pronunciations in the ancient Xiongnu language.In later times,the pronunciations of the Chinese characters used to write these words evolved,but the original pronunciations of the words remained unchanged.This is a fundamental characteristic of transliterated words;if a transliterated term is not read with its original pronunciation,it will lose the function of a transliterated word and should no longer be considered as such.In ancient times,the original Xiongnu pronunciation of xiongnu匈奴was pronounced“hong-nu”(洪奴),and is now pronounced as“xiong-nu”(兄奴);similarly,chanyu单于was pronounced“dan-wu”(丹乌)in ancient times,and now as“chān-yü”(缠于);chenɡli撐犂was pronounced“tanɡ-li”(唐犂)in ancient times,and now as“chenɡ-li”(称犂);qilian祁连was pronounced“tan-li”(谈犂),which was an alternate transliteration of“tānɡ-lī”(alternately transliterated as撐犂,登里,邓林,or腾格里),in ancient times,and as“qi-lian”(齐莲)today;yanzhi阏氏was pronounced“at-di”(曷氐),or“a-di”(阿抵)if pronounced quickly,and as“yan-zhi”(烟支)today;juci居次was pronounced“ɡu-zi”(姑子),and was also translated differently as“ɡu-zi”(股紫),but is now pronounced“jü-cì”(拘赐).There are many examples of mispronounced transliterated words,including:juyan居延,guyan姑衍,huyan呼衍,hunxie渾邪,hunye浑耶,and many more.If read with their contemporary pronunciations,the two characters that form these words appear to be completely unrelated to one another.Among such transliterated words,some terms have been provided with phonetic notations by ancient scholars,but modern readers are unfamiliar with the ancient pronunciations of the characters used for phonetic notation and instead read them in their modern pronunciations.Many transliterated terms are mispronounced for this reason.