汉语音译与方言

Chinese Transliteration of Loanwords and Dialectal Variation

本文从汉语的音节显赫特征、汉字的特点和共同语的权威几个方面探讨汉语的方言差异对汉语外来词音译的影响。音节显赫使得汉语及各方言都只能用自己的库藏音节来音译,放大了方言音译之间的差异。汉字具有超时空性,不同时代和不同方言的汉字读音存在基于同源关系的对应规律。汉字译名因此有了超越具体音值的跨时代跨方言的稳定性和一致性,便于中文社团内的交流,共同语的权威性强化了这种一致性。同时,方言差异也可能会放大译名方言音值的差异,有时带来语音保真度的显著降低。据此,论文对汉语译名策略提出了若干改进意见,在保证译名一致性的同时提高译名的音值保真度。

This paper discusses the impact of dialectal variation on transliterations of loanwords in Chinese in terms of the syllable-prominence of Chinese,the nature of Chinese characters and the prestige of standard Mandarin.Syllable prominence leads Chinese and each dialect to make transliteration merely based on their own syllable inventory,enlarging the difference of dialectal transliteration of loanwords.Chinese script shows a transcendent nature in some sense across ages and areas.The varied pronunciations of Chinese characters in different times or dialects follow corresponding rules with each other based on their shared etymology.Therefore,the transliterated loanwords based on standard Chinese are thus stable and consistent across times and dialects covering up the difference of concrete pronunciations.In a profound and factual manner,this transcendence facilitates communication within the enormous Chinese community.The prestige of standard Chinese strengthens the uniformity of loanwords.In the meantime,dialectal variations may unduly magnify the difference of pronunciations of transliterated loanwords in dialects,resulting sometimes in undermining their phonetic accuracy compared with the words in source languages.Considering these cross-domain complexities,the paper proposes some strategies for balancing and optimizing the uniformity on one hand and phonetic accuracy on the other concerning interactions between Chinese transliterations and dialectal variations.