Study On Archaic Words In Meixian Dialect

After pointed out some problems in today's study of Hakka dialects archaic words such as not great number of archaic words, difference of etymological note, short of deepgoing general study, this paper made a special study on archaic words in Meixian dialect which is representation of Hakka dialects.The main content of this paper is divided into two parts. One is Chapter two, in this chapter, based on corresponding match between pronunciation and meaning, and with archaian literatures, we have made a textual research of sorting on 482 words, which includes, astronomical (7 words), geography (9 words), season and time (14 words, farming (7 words), plant (6 words), animal (17 words), building (5 words), furnishings (16 words), appellation (8 words), folks (19 words), body (15 words), illness and medication (16 words), dress and sewing (11 words), dietetic and cooking (14 words), customs (34 words), daily living (17 words), lawsuit (2 words), intercourse (20 words), business and spending (6 words), entertainment (2 words), action (152 words), properties and character (52 words), location (5 words), pronoun (5 words), quantifier (7 words), onomatopoeia (3 words), adverb and preposition etc (13 words). We also have looked over their expressions in other dialects and pointed out errors of some archaic words in the reference books.The other is Chapter three which is a general study of archaic words in Meixian dialect and it divided into two sections. In the first section, we have studied the 482 archaic words from diachronic angle, and come to the conclusion that the archaic words in Meixian dialect are the words aggradation of various historical periods, they show very steady on both meaning and form, and there are greatest number in the era before the Qin Dynasty and the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties, as well as in Wei Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and both greater in the Sui Tang and Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty. This relates to the migrating history of Hakka's ancestors and to the forming history of Hakka dialects. In the second section, we have analysed the cause of difference of general expressions of mutual archaic words that between Meixian dialect and other dialects, and drawed the conclusion that there are various numbers of mutual archaic words that between Meixian dialect and other dialects, the closer the relation of the dialects with Hakka dialects is, the greater the number of mutual archaic words there is, and there are more mutual archaic words in dialects on south of the Long River, especially in Min dialects, Wu dialects, Yue dialects and Gan dialects, on the contrary, less in those on north of the Long River.