Study On The Phonetic Transcription Of Ajitasena And Li Yan

With the advantages of rich materials and relatively-complete preservation,phonetic transcription,especially Sanskrit-Chinese phonetic transcription,is an important material for studying Chinese phonology.Besides,as a language of phonemic transcription,Sanskrit is very precious for the study on the historical phonetic value of Chinese.Based on the materials of Sanskrit-Chinese phonetic transcription in the Middle Tang Dynasty,this paper explores the phonetic appearance and discusses the characteristics and spread of the common language in the Middle Tang Dynasty.There are six chapters in this paper:Chapter One is the introduction,which mainly combs the research background,and briefly introduces the materials,research significance and research methods of the topic and related Sanskrit knowledge.Chapter Two sorts out and explains the materials.Based on the Taisho-pitaka(?????)and with the help of Chinese Garbha,Fangshan Stone Classics(??????),All Mantras in Mahapitaks(??????)(Lin Guangming,2001),Collection of Buddhist Incantations in Ancient Sanskrit(???????????)(Jian Fengqi,2007),Sanskrit-English Dictionary(M.Monier-Williams,1899),Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary(F.Edgerton,1953),Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary(Lin Guangming and Lin Yixin,2005)and other relevant dictionaries,this chapter sorts out and explains the two materials.Chapter Three sorts out,explains and compares the materials of phonetic transcription of initial consonants of the two scribes,and discusses the related problems,which includes the discussion of nasal consonants and voiced plosives,the differentiation of light labial consonants,the differentiation of initial consonants Ni(?)and Niang(?),aspiration of voiced initials and the devoicing of voicedsounds.Through the analysis of the materials,the author believes that the nasal consonants and voiced plosives are bidirectional and also influenced by foreign phonology in addition to the presence of “prenasalized voiced initial consonants” in the north of ancient China;the light labial sounds have not completed differentiation;the differentiation ofinitial consonants Ni(?)and Niang(?)is coming to an end;the voiced sound is pronounced with breathy voice and begins to devoice.Chapter Four sorts out,compares and explains the materials of phonetic transcription of compound vowels of the two scribes.On this basis,this chapter discusses the related problems of each primary vowels,head vowels and tail vowels.From the materials,it can be seen that the third-class rhyme has a head vowel j,and the tail vowels are disordered,which is consistent with the disordered rhymes of literati at that time.Chapter Five describes the changes in the tone pronunciation of two scribes by using the resection and tone of the original annotation.As a summary,Chapter Six compares the related researches of predecessors,summarizes the characteristics of initial constants and compound vowels of the common language of the north in the Middle Tang Dynasty,and discusses the spread of Chinese in the western regions(mainly Anxi)based on the researches of two chapters.In the Middle Tang Dynasty,the changes and development of phonetics were very obvious.From the comparison of Ajitasena ?Li Yan and Amoghavajra,the characteristics of initials consonants of common language were reflected in the following aspects that the voiced initials aspirate and have started devoicing;labial consonants have been differentiated but uneven probably because it was in the early and middle differentiation;Initial consonants Ni(?)and Niang(?)also started differentiation and was in the late differentiation.The characteristics of compound vowels were mainly reflected in their tail vowels,and it is not difficult to find that the tail vowels in this period changed significantly and started weakening or even fallingoff,which was consistent with the disordered rhymes of literati at that time as a common feature of phonetics in the North in the Tang and Five Dynasties period.In the Middle Tang Dynasty,Chinese in the western regions mainly spread through official channels.By combining with the materials,it can be inferred that the common Chinese language of Anxi and even the Western regions in the Middle Tang Dynasty was based on the Changan dialect with its own local characteristics.