Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Rivista | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Fascicolo | 60 | 2024
Articolo | Some Attempts at Enhancing Old Chinese Reconstructions Through the Lens of Paleography

Some Attempts at Enhancing Old Chinese Reconstructions Through the Lens of Paleography

Abstract

The available reconstruction systems of Old Chinese have proven to be indispensable tools for research in different fields, nevertheless, they remain flawed in many aspects and thus call for continuous refinement. Focusing on Baxter and Sagart’s reconstruction (2014), in this paper I will argue that a more systematic way of incorporating palaeographic data as an integral part of the methodology could enhance the reconstruction outcomes. In particular, the graphic forms preceding the kaishu 楷書 script of many characters and the frequent cases of phonetic borrowing in unearthed texts can provide considerable insightful data. Through some illustrative examples, I will contend that phonetic borrowings in excavated texts can provide insights for a) reconstructing items not included in current reconstructions; b) disentangling rhyme class mergers, and c) questioning and verifying the forms of items included in current reconstructions. A more porous boundary between the fields of palaeography and Chinese historical phonology could thus provide new data for answering many of the still open questions relating to Old Chinese.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 11 Marzo 2024 | Accettato: 24 Aprile 2024 | Pubblicato 25 Luglio 2024 | Lingua: en

Keywords Phonological reconstructionBamboo manuscriptsPaleographyHistorical PhonologyOld ChineseExcavated texts


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