汉语上声调的起源及其演化

Origin and Development of the Middle Chinese Rising Tone

Pulleyblank、梅祖麟等学者认为中古上声调源于喉塞尾-?的失落,我们对汉藏、汉缅语同源词进行比较研究,得出了上声调是由原始浊塞辅音韵尾演变而来的结论。《诗经押韵和谐声材料显示,西周汉语收非流音尾的阴声韵上声字有g尾(少数字有d尾),收流音尾和鼻音尾的上声字有复辅音尾ld、nd、ηg和mb。早期浊塞尾在西汉之前的某个时期业已脱落,至少从西汉开始上声调作为一个独立的调类就已经产生了。浊塞尾g在脱落之前影响到了某些韵部元音的演化。

Pulleyblank and Mei Tsu-lin(梅祖麟)believed that the rising tone derived from the ending-?.We conducted a comparative study of Sino-Tibetan and Sino-Burmese cognates,and came to the conclusion that the rising tone evolved from the original voiced plosive consonant endings.The materials of Shijing(诗经)rhyme system and Xiesheng(谐声)system show that in Western Zhou(西周)Chinese,the Shangsheng(上声)syllables of the Yin-sheng(阴声)rhymes not ended with the liquid had the ending-g(few numbers had ending-d),the Shangsheng syllables ended with the liquid*1 and nasal consonant had the compound consonant endings-ld,-nd,-mb and-ng.These voiced plosive endings had fallen off at some point before the Western Han(西汉)dynasty and at least since the Western Han(西汉)dynasty,the rising tone had come into existence as an independent tone category.The ending-g once affected the evolution of somevowels beforeitfell off.