Yǒu biān dú biān
Template:Short description Template:Title language Yǒu biān dú biān (Template:Zh), or dú bàn biān (Template:Zh), is a rule of thumb people use to pronounce a Chinese character when they do not know its exact pronunciation. A longer version is 'Template:Linktext，Template:Linktext' (yǒu biān dú biān, méi biān dú zhōngjiān; lit. "read the side if any; read the middle part if there is no side").[1]
Around 90% of Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds that consist of two parts: a semantic part (often the radical) that suggests a general meaning (e.g. the part Script error: No such module "Lang". [shell] usually indicates that a character concerns commerce, as people used shells as currency in ancient times), and a phonetic part which shows how the character is or was pronounced (e.g. the part Script error: No such module "Lang". (pinyin: huáng) usually indicates that a character is pronounced huáng in Mandarin Chinese).
The phonetic part represents the exact or almost-exact pronunciation of the character when the character was first created; characters sharing the same phonetic part had identical or similar readings. Linguists rely heavily on this fact to reconstruct the sounds of ancient Chinese. However, over time, the reading of a character may be no longer the one indicated by the phonetic part due to sound change and general vagueness.[2]
When one encounters such a two-part character and does not know its exact pronunciation, one may take one of the parts as the phonetic indicator. For example, reading Script error: No such module "Lang". (pinyin: yì) as zhǐ because its "side" Script error: No such module "Lang". is pronounced as such. Some of this kind of "folk reading" have become acceptable over time – listed in dictionaries as alternative pronunciations, or simply become the common reading. For example, people read the character Script error: No such module "Lang". ting in Script error: No such module "Lang". (Ximending) as if it were Script error: No such module "Lang". ding. It has been called a "phenomenon of analogy", and is observed in as early as the Song dynasty.[3]
See also
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Notes
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Cf. Qiu Xigui, Chinese Writing, trans. Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman, Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4, Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2000, §8.6.
- ↑ Zhu Jianing 竺家寧, "Songdai yuyin de leihua xianxiang" 宋代語音的類化現象, in Jindai yin lunji 近代音論集, Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1994, pp. 159–172.
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External links
- Template:In lang Feng, Shouzhong (S: 冯寿忠, T: 馮壽忠, P: Féng Shòuzhōng), 《与读半边有关的常用字》 (Archive), 语言文字网 Yǔyán Wénzì Wǎng。