Ba–Shu Chinese
Ba–Shu Chinese, or simply Shu Chinese, also known as Old Sichuanese, is an extinct Chinese language formerly spoken in what is now Sichuan and Chongqing, China.
History and influences
Ba–Shu Chinese was first described in the book Fangyan from the Western Han dynasty and represented one of the earliest splits from Old Chinese. Unlike most extant varieties of Chinese, which stem from Middle Chinese, Ba–Shu diverged directly from Old Chinese, a feature it shares only with Min Chinese. However, Ba–Shu represents an even earlier split, as Min did not begin to diverge from Old Chinese until the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period.Ba–Shu Chinese started to disappear during the late Southern Song dynasty period due to the Mongol conquest of China, which resulted in a massacre throughout the Sichuan Basin. The language was supplanted by Southwestern Mandarin after settlement by people from other parts of China, mostly from present-day Hubei and Hunan.
Phonological aspects of Ba–Shu Chinese are preserved in the Minjiang dialect of Sichuanese Mandarin, which caused debate on whether the dialect is a variant of Southwestern Mandarin or a modern-day descendant of Ba–Shu.
Phonology
Although the Ba–Shu language is extinct, some phonology features of rhymes can be found by researching the local literati and poets' use of rhymes in their works. Liu Xiaonan assumed that they wrote verses in Standard Chinese of the Song dynasty, but because their mother tongue was Ba–Shu, their verses rhymed in the Ba–Shu accent.Coda mergers
According to Liu's research, there is enough evidence to assume a significant number of coda mergers had taken place or were taking place in the Ba–Shu language during the Song dynasty:- * and often merged as .
- * and often merged as, this progress can be abbreviated as.
- * and sometimes merged as.
- * and sometimes merged as.
- * Ditto, which can be abbreviated as.
- *, *, and * probably all merged as, and sometimes are dropped entirely.
Vocabulary
Ba–Shu language had some unique words that scholars identified as possibly being influenced by the Old Shu language.| Word | Recorded period | Translation | Middle Chinese pronunciation | Standard Chinese | Note |
| late Northern and Southern dynasties to early Sui dynasty, | 'pellet' | Yan Zhitui—Yan Family Instructions: "Encouraging Learning" 。 "When I was sitting with several people in Yizhou, I saw a small light on the ground when the sun was shining and asked them, "What is this?" A Shǔ child looked at it and replied, "It is a." They looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what he said, ordered to bring over and it was a small bean. When I visited many learned men in Shǔ, called as, but no one could explain it. I said: ' Sancang and Shuowen, this character is under, generally interpreted as, the common literal reading is.' The crowd was enlightened." | |||
| Eastern Han | 'mother' | Xu Shen—Shuowen Jiezi "Shǔ people call mother as." | |||
| Tang | 'monk' | Du Fu—Alone, Looking For Blossoms Along The River "#5" "Shǔ people call monk as and call burial place as." | |||
| Tang | 'burying place' | Du Fu—Alone, Looking For Blossoms Along The River "#5" "Shǔ people call monk as and call burial place as." | |||
| Northern Song | 'sky' | Huang Tingjian— "Shǔ people call sky as." | |||
| Han | 'tea tree', also an ancient hydronym and a name of county | Yang Xiong—Fangyan |