A Comparative Study Of Sawndip And Shui Characters

Sawndip and Shui characters,which are called "assorted-dishes characters",are all composed of derived characters,self-initiated characters and conjunctive characters.As typical of "assorted-dishes characters",they are special types of writing systems which are formed in the process of writing historical development.There are commonness and differences between them.This thesis aimed to compare the Sawndip and Shui characters to find commonness and differences of the method of character making,the symbol body,the corresponding relationship between character symbols and language units by combing quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis based on the perspective of philology.And on the basis,we discuss some related practical and theoretical problems:the status of Chinese characters in these two writings,the relationship between GanSang stone carving characters and the two writings,commonness and characteristics of assorted-dishes characters and so on.We hope these studies have certain reference value on further understanding individuality and commonness of Sawndip and Shui characters,as well as studying the relationship between other ethnic charaters.This thesis can mainly be attributed to the following three areas:First of all,refer to translations of Shui characters and common dictionary of Shui characters which published in 2007,we added 818 Shui characters forms,236 words which are not included in<research on word formation mechanism of Shui characters>written by Dr Zhai Yijiang.So our Shui characters table is the most number by far which includes 1867 forms,551 words.Secondly,integrated with original documents,we induced and summarized the characteristics of the method of character making,the symbol body,the corresponding relationship between character symbols and language units.We also explored nature,characteristics and stage of these two writings,which based on comparative study.Thirdly,discussed some related practical and theoretical problems like the status of Chinese characters in these two writings,the relationship between GanSang stone carving characters and the two writings,issues related to assorted-dishes characters combining philology,archaeology,history,ethnology and other disciplines of knowledge.Based on the research,major conclusions are as follows:First,derived characters are the main part in Sawndip and self-initiated characters are the main part in Shui character.Second,according to the results of analyzing the method of character making,Sawndip belongs to the mature ideo-phonograph and Shui characters belongs to the immature ideo-phonograph.Third,Sawndip is a mature word system which can record each word,each morpheme and each syllable in the ancient literature.Shui character is a mature and language segment-ideo writing system which can record word and paragraph.Fourth,the symbol body of Shui character is diversified.There are both symbolic strong glyph,and graphic sex strong glyph.Relatively speaking,the symbol body of Sawndip is unitary and high degree of symbolization of glyph.The aspect ratio of self-initiated Sawndip is fixed,while the aspect ratio of self-initiated Shui character is not fixed in writing.Fifth,the symbol body of self-initiated Sawndip developed towards the direction of the symbol body of derived Sawndip.While the symbol body of derived Shui character developed towards the direction of the symbol body of self-initiated Shui characters.Sixth,derived characters of Sawndip and Shui characters mainly borrow shape,sound,meaning of Chinese.Derived Sawndip borrow the regular script Chinese characters.While,derived Shui characters borrow not only the regular script but also oracle,Jin Wen,seal script,and cursive script style of Chinese characters.Seventh,the generated time of abstract symbols in conjunctive characters of Sawndip and Shui characters are different.From this we can speculate the generated time is stratified within conjunctive characters of Sawndip and Shui characters.In addition to the above conclusions,we also discover some other related phenomenon through the research and analysis in this thesis.The phenomenon may have inspiring values to comparative graphology and ordinary graphology.We put these findings here as follows:First,the method of character making of self-initiated Sawndip and self-initiated Shui characters can be divided into pictographic,righteousness,phonetic borrowed characters and mark.These words mainly accord to the righteous word.Second,there are a large number of variants in self-initiated Shui characters.But there are not variants in self-initiated Sawndip.It explains that self-initiated Sawndip have been established in use process.Third,there are forms similar to "HeWen" of Chinese characters in derived Sawndip and derived Shui characters,which be called "collection of characters".Forth,we find that there are some derived glyphs have no direct connection with characters pronunciations and meanings in derived Sawndip and derived Shui characters.We call the method of characters making "Lend Shape".Fifth,Shui-ancients used "combined method of character making" to make derived Shui characters and Zhuang-ancients used single method of character making to make Derived Sawndip.Sixth,we find that every abstract symbol in conjunctive Sawndip has special function and meaning.And functions of the same abstract symbol added to different basic characters vary.The usages of abstract symbols are flexible.While abstract symbols in conjunctive Shui characters are optional.Seventh,in addition to the word without words,with no words or a word is multi-purpose,synonymous lead to character symbols don't strictly correspond to the language units,"Yan words" is also one of the factors.Eighth,the number of derived Sawndip accounts is nearly 98%.It's enough to visible Zhuang-ancients unusual level of Chinese.But less proportion of derived Shui characters doesn't mean the Shui-ancients low level of Chinese.We know their understanding of Chinese characters is very high from various method of character making and skillfully use of various Chinese characters chirography in derived Shui characters.