<HTML dir=ltr><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16643" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV id=idOWAReplyText30171 dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>Jon,</FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2> You might find items of interest in Chinese transcriptions (and sometimes scripts) of the various mainland languages as contained in the diverse hua-yi-yi-yu compiled from the 13th century on.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>The items of major relevance to you are detailed in the following studies:</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2>W.K. Müller, Vocabularien der Pa-yi- und Pah-Poh-Sprachen aus dem ‘Hua-I-Yi-Yu’”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">T’oung Pao</I>, Vol. III (1892), pp. 1-37.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN lang=EN-GB><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2>Roy Andrew Miller, “The Sino-Burmese Vocabulary of the I<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">-shi-chi-yü</I>”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Harvard Journal of Asiatic</I> <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Studies</I>, Vol. 17 (1954), pp. 370-93; </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2>Nishida Tatsuo, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">A Study of the Burmese-Chinese Vocabulary Mien-tien-kuan I-yu: An Introduction to Burmese Linguistics</I>, 1972. (in Japanese)</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2>A blurb below as to what they comprise:</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">An Office of Interpreters (<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">hui-tong-guan</I> </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">會同館</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">) was founded by the Yuan administration in 1276 and eventually placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Rites. This was tasked with carrying out the various translation and interpreting functions of the administration. Not a great amount is known of its specific functions and we hear little more of such agencies until the early Ming (1368-166) dynasty. It was during the first years of the 15<SUP>th</SUP> century that the usurper Yong-le emperor sent his massive eunuch-led fleets to Southeast Asia and the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on">Indian Ocean</st1:place>, despatched military forces into Yun-nan, occupied Đại Việt and attempted to expand northwards.</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"> These attempts at regional domination demanded a more systematized knowledge of the people with whom they were interacting and the languages of those peoples. A new translation bureau was established in 1407, when the eunuch envoy Zheng He returned to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region> after his first voyage abroad. The <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Si-yi guan</I> (</FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">四夷館</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">—Bureau of the Foreigners in the Four Directions)</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"> and the work it carried out was thus obviously intended as an aide to intelligence-gathering and strategy. The bureau’s functions have already been described in some detail by Norman Wild,</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"> and these can be basically subsumed under the rubrics of translation of incoming documents, interpreting at the court and language teaching. </FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT size=3><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">As an essential tool for such duties, lists comprising vocabularies of non-Chinese languages were created. These lists, known generically as <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">hua-yi yi-yu</I> (</FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">華夷譯語</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">)</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"> were divided into standard categories. Within each category, there was a generally consistent listing of Chinese words, followed by the foreign equivalent word rendered in Chinese transcription. The categories were: 1. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">天文門</SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN lang=ZH-CN> </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB>(The Heavens); 2. </SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">地理門</SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN lang=ZH-CN> </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB>(The Earth); 3. </SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">時令門</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> (Time); 4. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">花木門</SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN lang=ZH-CN> </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB>(Plants); 5. </SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">鳥獸門</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">(Animals); 6. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">宮室門</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> (Buildings); 7. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">器用門</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> (Implements, Utensils); 8. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">人物門</SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN lang=ZH-CN> </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB>(People); 9. </SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">人事門</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">Human Affairs; and 10. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=ZH-CN style="FONT-FAMILY: SimSun; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">身體門</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">(The Human Body).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: inter-ideograph; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These listings are extremely useful in reconstructing the languages represented, but the difficulties of dating these lists militates somewhat against using them for determining historical phonologies. It is likely that most of the lists for Asian languages were initially created in the 15<SUP>th</SUP> century, </FONT></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>but some may well have been updated into the 17<SUP>th</SUP> century. Those relating to “<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Western</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Ocean</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>” (European) languages date from the 17<SUP>th</SUP> to 19<SUP>th</SUP> centuries. Of the earlier category, we have vocabularies of Mongolian, Uighur, </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Jurchen, Korean, Persian, Tibetan, Vietnamese, </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bai-yi</I> (Tai), </FONT>Bu<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>rmese, </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Malay,</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> Cham, </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Japanese, and the Ryukyu language.</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> Denison Ross describes a collection of such vocabularies dated to the equivalent of 1549 C.E.</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> This comprised vocabularies for Korean, Japanese, Persian, Uighur, Cham, Siamese, Bai-yi (Tai), <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Malay</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region></st1:place> and Ryukyu. Each of the vocabularies comprised 600-900 words, represented as noted above.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<DIV style="mso-element: footnote-list"><BR clear=all><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>
<HR align=left width="33%" SIZE=1>
</FONT>
<DIV id=ftn1 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">Norman Wild, “Materials for the Study of the Ssŭ I Kuan”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">School</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Oriental</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> and African Studies</I>, Vol. XI (1943-46), pp. 617-40. An earlier study is F. Hirth, “The Chinese Oriental College”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society </I>New series Vol. xxii (1887), pp. 203-24. E.H. Parker provided further notes in his “</FONT><A href="http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/26/2602140.pdf" target=_top><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman">The Chinese Oriental College </FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face="Times New Roman">“, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/issue.jsp?book=26" target=_top><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><FONT face="Times New Roman">The China Review, or notes & queries on the Far East,</FONT></SPAN></I></A><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Vol. 16 No. 6 (1888 May), pp. 360-65.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn4 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">“Chinese-foreign Language Translation”</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn5 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">An earlier list -- that of the Mongolian language – dates from 1382. See Wild, “Materials for the Study of the Ssŭ I Kuan” , pp. 619-20. </FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn6 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> Julius van Klaproth, “Uigurisches Wörterverzeichniss” in his <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Abhandlung über die Sprache unde Schrift</I> <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">der Uiguren</I>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Paris</st1:City></st1:place>, 1822.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn7 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">E. Gaspardone, “Le Lexique Annamite des Ming”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Journal Asiatique</I>, Vol. 216 (1953), pp. 355-397, and Jeremy H.C.S. Davidson, A New Version of<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>the Chinese-Vietnamese Vocabulary of the Ming Dynasty”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies</I>, Vol. 38 (1975), pp. 296-315 and 586-605.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn8 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">F.W.K. Müller, Vocabularien der Pa-yi- und Pah-Poh-Sprachen aus dem ‘Hua-I-Yi-Yu’”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">T’oung Pao</I>, Vol. III (1892), pp. 1-37.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn9 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">Roy Andrew Miller, “The Sino-Burmese Vocabulary of the I<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">-shi-chi-yü</I>”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Harvard Journal of Asiatic</I> <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Studies</I>, Vol. 17 (1954), pp. 370-93; and Nishida Tatsuo, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">A Study of the Burmese-Chinese Vocabulary Mien-tien-kuan I-yu: An Introduction to Burmese Linguistics</I>, 1972.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn10 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> E.D. Edwards and C.O. Blagden, “A Chinese Vocabulary of Malacca Malay Words and Phrases collected between A.D. 1403 and 1511 (?)” in <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies</I>, Vol. VI, part 3 (1931), pp. 715-749. This listing also includes categories for Clothing, Food and Drink, Jewellery, Literature and History, Colours, Numerals and General Words.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The scope of this vocabulary list reflects the very intimate relations between the Ming and Malacca during the 15<SUP>th</SUP> century.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn11 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman">C.O. Blagden and E.D. Edwards, “A Chinese Vocabulary of Cham Words and Phrases”, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">School</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Oriental</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> and African Studies</I>, Vol. X (1940-42), pp. 53-91.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn12 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> E. Denison Ross, “New Light on the History of the Chinese Oriental College and a 16<SUP>th</SUP> Century Vocabulary of the Luchuan Language” in <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">T’oung pao</I>, Vol. 9 (1908), pp. 689-95.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn13 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <st1:City w:st="on">Denison</st1:City> Ross, “New Light on the History of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Chinese</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Oriental</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">College</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>”, pp. 692-93.</FONT></SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>(Extracted from Geoff Wade, <SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> Chinese Transcription of Foreign Words prior to the 19th Century” in </FONT></FONT></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Chinese Pidgin English: Texts and Contexts</I>, Special Issue of the <st1:place w:st="on"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Hong Kong</I></st1:place><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> </I></FONT></FONT></SPAN><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US">Journal of Applied Linguistics,</SPAN></I><SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"> edited by Geoff P. Smith and Stephen </SPAN></FONT></FONT><SPAN lang=EN-US style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Matthews, Vol. 10, No. 1 , Sept 2005, pp. 1-20.)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>Best wishes</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>Geoff Wade</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>Singapore</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma size=2></FONT> </P>
<P> </P>
<DIV dir=ltr><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> tlc-bounces@lists.ucr.edu on behalf of Fernquest Jon<BR><B>Sent:</B> Mon 6/9/2008 2:19 PM<BR><B>To:</B> tlc@lists.ucr.edu<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Tlc] Indigenous Tai lexicography<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>To: <A href="mailto:tlc@lists.ucr.edu">tlc@lists.ucr.edu</A><BR>Re: [Tlc] Indigenous Tai lexicography</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Dear List Members;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I'm doing research on indigenous Southeast Asian lexicography (and also any meta-discourse like text reflecting on the usage of words in texts). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Looking for any scholarly work that has been done on indigenous Thai or Tai lexicography published in either a western language or Thai. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I wonder whether there were pre-western indigenous Tai language word lists with dictionary-like features, whether there are any manuscripts that contain such texts in central or northern Thai, and whether they have made their way into published book form. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>In Burmese there is the "that-bon kyan" or spelling book genre, that simply lists all possible words in a particular sort order (see Okell, 1968). (The emergence of this genre led eventually to increased uniformity of spelling in indigenous texts, and also probably to a decrease in ambiguity.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>And in Pali there are pre-western indigenous dictionaries, essentially word lists with dictionary-like features like: 1. grouping words by synonym, and 2. by meaning in a thesaurus-like way. For example, all words for "river" grouped together, and all words for natural phenomena like "river," "mountain," etc grouped together. Cone (1996) discusses these dictionaries and (Elizarenkova and Toporov, 1976) has a couple of pages organising words in this fashion. </FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV><BR>Pali Nissaya</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Another indigenous textual genre performs a function similar to a dictionary, namely Pali nissaya translations, pali interleaved with translation to indigenous language. (See Okell, 1967, and Pruitt, 1994)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I believe that some of the people on this list have done research in this area for Tai languages. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Also interested if any nissaya translations exist in published book form in Thai, perhaps in cremation volumes? Nissaya translations were published several times in book form in Burma during the colonial era. (See bibliography in Stewart and Dunn, 1940)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In Skilling's two bibliographies of Pali literature in Thailand, there are two sections devoted to "Nama-sapda" manuscripts which seem to be nissaya translations (see Skilling and Santi Pakdeekham, 2004).</DIV>
<DIV>Also interested in work on Tai etymology done by Thai scholars. I noticed that mention was made of works on Thai etymology recently by Thai language scholar Dr Anan Laoloetworakun at Chulalongkorn.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sorry, for perhaps providing too much detail in this posting.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Part of the purpose of this post is to stimulate discussion if anyone is interested. The early history and origins of the written Burmese language and texts, is a research interest, and comparison with neighboring textual traditions seems like one way to gain insight. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sincerely, <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Jon Fernquest<BR>Bangkok Post, Educational Services<BR><A href="http://readbangkokpost.com/">http://readbangkokpost.com/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>References</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cone, Margaret (1996) "The I.B. Horner Memorial Lecture 1995: Lexicography, Pali and Pali Lexicography," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Vol. XXII, Journal 1996.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Elizarenkova, T.Y. and V.N. Toporov (1976) The Pali language, Nauka Pub. House, Moscow. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Okell, John (1967) "Nissaya Burmese," Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. 50.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Okell, John (1968) "Alphabetical order in Burmese," Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. 51.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Pruitt, William (1994) Etude linguistique de nissaya birmans : traduction commentee de textes bouddhiques, Paris : Presses de l'Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Skilling, Peter and Santi Pakdeekham (2004) Pali and vernacular literature transmitted in Central and Northern Siam, Bangkok : Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation.</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Stewart, J.A. and C. W. Dunn (1940-) A Burmese-English dictionary, published under the auspices of the University of Rangoon, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR> <BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>