Research On Tibetan-Chinese Relative Words

The unbalanced development of languages is the cause of sound difference or variation in dialects or related languages.Fortunately,there are strict laws in the process of sound change making the differences or variations come in certain regularities.With the help of such regularities,we can trace back to old languages based on modern languages and sound changes can be explained with the regularities.Traditional Sino-Tibetan comparison uses this method to recognize cognates.This dissertation argues that the laws of sound change from old Tibetan to modern Tibetan and the development of the Chinese language should enable us to verify the genetic relationship of Tibetan and Chinese.It's a worthwhile attempt to find that the two approaches verify each other.Given the fact that the two languages have a profound history of language contact,this research lays its primary focus on the Tibetan lexicon,trying to prove that there are a number of words that are related in terms of phonology and semantics.Rather than reconstructing the Proto-Sino-Tibetan,this research aims to verify the reliability of certain groups of vocabulary in both languages as cognates and also tries to explain certain controversial linguistic issues in the study of Sino-Tibetan languages.With a sufficient understanding that the generation of cognates is liable to be affected by the interference of language contact,this research adheres to the principle that the sound change has certain laws and regularities,laying its focus on the ethnic languages especially Tibetan language to study the issue of related words in Tibetan and Chinese.Starting from the pronunciation of old Tibetan and Chinese words from the old literatures,this research studies the changes of the two languages from old times to the modern times.On the basis of the patterns of sound change found in the development of Tibetan,some related words in the two languages are recognized by analyzing their phonological and semantic correspondence.This research aims both to build up a certain amount of related words in the two languages and to raise certain questions in the comparison of related words.A new,feasible approach for study is exemplified and hopefully,through this research,some meaningful references are provided for the study of Sino-Tibetan comparison,Chinese phonology,the history of Chinese language,the history of the Tibetan language,and also the study of ethnic history and culture.