论上古喉牙音向齿头音的演变及古明母音质——兼与梅祖麟教授商榷

On Laryngeal Changing Into Dental,and Consonant [m-](明) into [h-](晓) in Ancient Chinese --Discussing With Prof. Mei Zu-lin(梅祖麟)

上古汉语在先秦发生过的历史音变,如喉牙音演变为齿头音心母和邪母,以及明母失去唇“音质”后保留鼻“音质”从而演变为晓母,对之人们多从复辅音的角度进行解释。本文讨论了这两种历史音变类型,不同意从复辅音的角度解释这两大类谐声材料。本文还运用对音素进行再切分的方法,认为明母的发音需要唇和鼻的同时动作,将明母[m-]切分为涉及唇和鼻的两个“音质”,以解释明晓互谐的现象。这个方法可以施及对其他鼻音声母及其谐声关系的解释。

Sound changes which happened in ancient Chinese, such as laryngeal changing into dental, and consonant [m-](明) into consanant [h-](晓) with losing its labial quality and preserving its nosal quality, have been taken as the evidences of consonant clusters. Opposing this idea, this paper discusses the two kinds of historical variation of sound. By the method of dividing phoneme into little units, the author proposes that it needs lip and nose to act together to pronunce consonant [m-](明), and segments consonant[m-] into labial and nosal qualities to explain the phonetic characters between consonant [m-] (明)and [h-](晓). This method may be used to explain other nosal consonants and their phonetic characters.