Old Yue language

There is some disagreement about the languages the Yue spoke, with candidates drawn from the non-Sinitic language families still represented in areas of southern China to this day, which includes Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and Austroasiatic languages;^[4] as Chinese, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and the Vietic branch of Austroasiatic have similar tone systems, syllable structure, grammatical features and lack of inflection, but these features are believed to have spread by means of diffusion across the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, rather than indicating common descent.^[5][6]

• Scholars in China often assume that the Yue spoke an early form of Kra–Dai. According to Sagart (2008), this is far from self-evident, because the core of the Kra–Dai area geographically is located in Hainan and the China–Vietnam border region, which is beyond the extreme southern end of the Yue area. The linguist Wei Qingwen gave a rendering of the "Song of the Yue boatman" in Standard Zhuang. Zhengzhang Shangfang proposed an interpretation of the song in written Thai (dating from the late 13th century) as the closest available approximation to the original language, but his interpretation remains controversial.^[1][7]
• Peiros (2011) shows with his analysis that the homeland of Austroasiatic is somewhere near the Yangtze. He suggests southern Sichuan or slightly west from it, as the likely homeland of proto-Austroasiatic speakers before they migrated to other parts of China and then into Southeast Asia. He further suggests that the family must be as old as proto-Austronesian and proto-Sino-Tibetan or even older.^[8] The linguists Sagart (2011) and Bellwood (2013) support the theory of an origin of Austroasiatic along the Yangtze river in southern China.^{[citation needed]}
• Sagart (2008) suggests that the Old Yue language, together with the proto-Austronesian language, was descended from the language or languages of the Tánshíshān‑Xītóu culture complex (modern-day Fujian province of China), making the Old Yue language a sister language to proto-Austronesian, which Sagart sees as the origin of the Kra–Dai languages.^[9]

Behr (2009) also notes that the Chǔ dialect of Old Chinese was influenced by several substrata, predominantly Kra-Dai, but also possibly Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Hmong-Mien.^{[10][full citation needed]}

The proto-Kra–Dai language has been hypothesized to originate in the Lower Yangtze valleys. Ancient Chinese texts refer to non-Sinitic languages spoken across this substantial region and their speakers as "Yue". Although those languages are extinct, traces of their existence could be found in unearthed inscriptional materials, ancient Chinese historical texts and non-Han substrata in various Southern Chinese dialects. Thai, one of the Tai languages and the most-spoken language in the Kra–Dai language family, has been used extensively in historical-comparative linguistics to identify the origins of language(s) spoken in the ancient region of South China. One of the very few direct records of non-Sinitic speech in pre-Qin and Han times having been preserved so far is the "Song of the Yue Boatman" (Yueren Ge 越人歌), which was transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC, and found in the 善说 Shanshuo chapter of the Shuoyuan 说苑 or 'Garden of Persuasions'.

Willeam Meacham (1996) reports that Chinese linguists have shown strong evidence of Tai vestiges in former Yue areas: Lin (1990) found Tai elements in some Min dialects, Zhenzhang (1990) has proposed Tai etymologies and interpretations for certain place names in the former states of Wu and Yue, and Wei (1982) found similarities in the words, combinations and rhyming scheme between the "Song of the Yue Boatman" and the Kam–Tai languages.^[11]

James R. Chamberlain (2016) proposes that the Kra-Dai language family was formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the Yangtze basin, coinciding roughly with the establishment of the Chu state and the beginning of the Zhou dynasty.^[12] Following the southward migrations of Kra and Hlai (Rei/Li) peoples around the 8th century BCE, the Yue (Be-Tai people) started to break away and move to the east coast in the present-day Zhejiang province, in the 6th century BCE, forming the state of Yue and conquering the state of Wu shortly thereafter.^[12] According to Chamberlain, Yue people (Be-Tai) began to migrate southwards along the east coast of China to what are now Guangxi, Guizhou and northern Vietnam, after Yue was conquered by Chu around 333 BCE. There the Yue (Be-Tai) formed the polities Xi Ou, which became the Northern Tai and the Luo Yue, which became the Central-Southwestern Tai.^[12] However, Pittayaporn (2014), after examining layers of Chinese loanwords in proto-Southwestern Tai and other historical evidence, proposes that the southwestward migration of southwestern Tai-speaking tribes from the modern Guangxi to the mainland of Southeast Asia must have taken place only sometime between the 8th–10th centuries CE,^[13] long after 44 CE, when Chinese sources last mentioned Luo Yue in the Red River Delta.^[14]

• 
  Proposed genesis of Daic languages and their relation with Austronesian languages (Blench, 2018)^[15]
• 
  Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) migration route according to James R. Chamberlain (2016).^[16]
• 
  Tai-Kadai migration route according to Matthias Gerner's Northeast to Southwest Hypothesis.^[17]

In the early 1980s, Zhuang linguist, Wei Qingwen (韦庆稳), electrified the scholarly community in Guangxi by identifying the language in the "Song of the Yue Boatman" as a language ancestral to Zhuang.^[18] Wei used reconstructed Old Chinese for the characters and discovered that the resulting vocabulary showed strong resemblance to modern Zhuang.^[19] Later, Zhengzhang Shangfang (1991) followed Wei’s insight but used Thai script for comparison, since this orthography dates from the 13th century and preserves archaisms relative to the modern pronunciation.^[19][1] Zhengzhang notes that 'evening, night, dark' bears the C tone in Wuming Zhuang xam^C2 and ɣam^C2 'night'. The item raa normally means 'we inclusive' but in some places, e.g. Tai Lue and White Tai 'I'.^[20] However, Laurent Sagart criticizes Zhengzhang's interpretation as anachronistic, because however archaic that Thai script is, Thai language was only written 2000 years after the song had been recorded; even if the Proto-Kam-Tai might have emerged by 6th century BCE, its pronunciation would have been substantially different from Thai.^[7] The following is a simplified interpretation of the "Song of the Yue Boatman" by Zhengzhang Shangfang quoted by David Holm (2013) with Thai script and Chinese glosses being omitted:^[21][b]

Some scattered non-Sinitic words found in the two ancient Chinese fictional texts, the Mu Tianzi Zhuan (Chinese: 穆天子傳) (4th c. B.C.) and the Yuejue shu (Chinese: 越絕書) (1st c. A.D.), can be compared to lexical items in Kra-Dai languages. These two texts are only preserved in corrupt versions and share a rather convoluted editorial history. Wolfgang Behr (2002) makes an attempt to identify the origins of those words:

• "吳謂善「伊」, 謂稻道「緩」, 號從中國, 名從主人。"^[22]

“The Wú say yī for ‘good’ and huăn for ‘way’, i.e. in their titles they follow the central kingdoms, but in their names they follow their own lords.”

伊 yī < ʔjij < *^bq(l)ij ← Siamese dii^A1, Longzhou dai¹, Bo'ai nii¹ Daiya li¹, Sipsongpanna di¹, Dehong li⁶ < proto-Tai *ʔdɛi^A1 | Sui ʔdaai¹, Kam laai¹, Maonan ʔdaai¹, Mak ʔdaai⁶ < proto-Kam-Sui/proto-Kam-Tai *ʔdaai¹ 'good' || proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bait

緩 [huăn] < hwanX < *^awan ← Siamese hon^A1, Bo'ai hɔn¹, Dioi thon¹ < proto-Tai *xron^A1| Sui khwən¹-i, Kam khwən¹, Maonan khun¹-i, Mulam khwən¹-i < proto-Kam-Sui *khwən¹ 'road, way' | proto-Hlai *kuun¹ || proto-Austronesian *Zalan (Thurgood 1994:353)

• yuè jué shū 越絕書 (The Book of Yuè Records), 1st c. A.D.^[23]

絕 jué < dzjwet < *^bdzot ← Siamese cod^D1 'to record, mark' (Zhengzhang Shangfang 1999:8)

• "姑中山者越銅官之山也, 越人謂之銅, 「姑[沽]瀆」。"^[23]

“The Middle mountains of Gū are the mountains of the Yuè’s bronze office, the Yuè people call them ‘Bronze gū[gū]dú.”

「姑[沽]瀆」 gūdú < ku=duwk < *^aka=^alok

← Siamese kʰau^A1 'horn', Daiya xau⁵, Sipsongpanna xau¹, Dehong xau¹, Lü xău¹, Dioi kaou¹ 'mountain, hill' < proto-Tai *kʰau^A2; Siamese luuk^D2l 'classifier for mountains', Siamese kʰau^A1-luuk^D2l 'mountain' || cf. OC 谷 gǔ < kuwk << *^ak-lok/luwk < *^akə-lok/yowk < *^blok 'valley'

• "越人謂船爲「須盧」。"^[24]

"... The Yuè people call a boat xūlú. (‘beard’ & ‘cottage’)"

須 xū < sju < *^bs(n)o

? ← Siamese saʔ 'noun prefix'

盧 lú < lu < *^bra

← Siamese rɯa^A2, Longzhou lɯɯ², Bo'ai luu², Daiya hə², Dehong hə² 'boat' < proto-Tai *drɯ[a,o] | Sui lwa¹/ʔda¹, Kam lo¹/lwa¹, Be zoa < proto-Kam-Sui *s-lwa(n)^A1 'boat'

• "[劉]賈築吳市西城, 名曰「定錯」城。"^[25]

"[Líu] Jiă (the king of Jīng 荆) built the western wall, it was called dìngcuò ['settle(d)' & 'grindstone'] wall."

定 dìng < dengH < *^adeng-s

← Siamese diaaŋ^A1, Daiya tʂhəŋ², Sipsongpanna tseŋ², Malay (Austronesian) dindiŋ², Tagalog diŋdiŋ² wall

錯 cuò < tshak < *^atshak

? ← Siamese tok^D1s 'to set→sunset→west' (tawan-tok 'sun-set' = 'west'); Longzhou tuk⁷, Bo'ai tɔk⁷, Daiya tok⁷, Sipsongpanna tok⁷ < proto-Tai *tok^D1s ǀ Sui tok⁷, Mak tok⁷, Maonan tɔk < proto-Kam-Sui *tɔk^D1, Malay (Austronesian) suntuk running out of time

Besides a limited number of lexical items left in Chinese historical texts, remnants of language(s) spoken by the ancient Yue can be found in non-Han substrata in Southern Chinese dialects, e.g.: Wu, Min, Hakka, Yue, etc. Robert Bauer (1987) identifies twenty seven lexical items in Yue, Hakka and Min varieties, which share Kra–Dai roots.^[26] The following are some examples cited from Bauer (1987):^[26]

• to beat, whip: Yue-Guangzhou faak^7a ← Wuming Zhuang fa:k⁸, Siamese faat^D2L, Longzhou faat, Po-ai faat.
• to beat, pound: Yue-Guangzhou tap⁸ ← Siamese thup⁴/top², Longzhou tup^D1, Po-ai tup³/tɔp^D1, Mak/Dong tap^D2, Tai Nuea top⁵, Sui-Lingam tjăp^D2, Sui-Jungchiang tjăp^D2, Sui-Pyo tjăp^D2, T'en tjap^D2, White Tai tup⁴, Red Tai tup³, Shan thup⁵, Lao Nong Khai thip³, Lue Moeng Yawng tup⁵, Leiping-Zhuang thop⁵/top⁴, Western Nung tup⁴, Yay tup⁵, Saek thap⁶, Tai Lo thup³, Tai Maw thup³, Tai No top⁵, Wuming Zhuang tup⁸, Li-Jiamao tap⁸.
• to bite: Yue-Guangzhou khap⁸ ← Siamese khop², Longzhou khoop⁵, Po-ai hap³, Ahom khup, Shan khop⁴, Lü khop, White Tai khop², Nung khôp, Hsi-lin hap^D2S, Wuming-Zhuang hap⁸, T'ien-pao hap, Black Tai khop², Red Tai khop³, Lao Nong Khai khop¹, Western Nung khap⁶, etc.
• to burn: Yue-Guangzhou naat^7a, Hakka nat⁸ ← Wuming Zhuang na:t⁸, Po-ai naat^D1L "hot".
• child: Min-Chaozhou noŋ¹ kiā³ "child", Min-Suixi nuŋ³ kia³, Mandarin-Chengdu nɑŋ¹ pɑ¹ kər¹ "youngest sibling", Min-Fuzhou nauŋ⁶ "young, immature" ← Siamese nɔɔŋ⁴, Tai Lo lɔŋ³, Tai Maw nɔŋ³, Tai No nɔŋ³ "younger sibling", Wuming Zhuang tak⁸ nu:ŋ⁴, Longzhou no:ŋ⁴ ba:u⁵, Buyi nuaŋ⁴, Dai-Xishuangbanna nɔŋ⁴ tsa:i², Dai-Dehong lɔŋ⁴ tsa:i², etc.
• correct, precisely, just now: Yue-Guangzhou ŋaam¹ "correct", ŋaam¹ ŋaam¹ "just now", Hakka-Meixian ŋam⁵ ŋam⁵ "precisely", Hakka-Youding ŋaŋ¹ ŋaŋ¹ "just right", Min-Suixi ŋam¹ "fit", Min-Chaozhou ŋam¹, Min-Hainan ŋam¹ ŋam¹ "good" ← Wuming Zhuang ŋa:m¹ "proper" / ŋa:m³ "precisely, appropriate" / ŋa:m⁵ "exactly", Longzhou ŋa:m⁵ vəi⁶.
• to cover (1): Yue-Guangzhou hom⁶/ham⁶ ← Siamese hom², Longzhou hum⁵, Po-ai hɔm^B1, Lao hom, Ahom hum, Shan hom², Lü hum, White Tai hum², Black Tai hoom², Red Tai hom³, Nung hôm, Tay hôm, Tho hoom, T'ien-pao ham, Dioi hom, Hsi-lin hɔm, T'ien-chow hɔm, Lao Nong Khai hom³, Western Nung ham², etc.
• to cover (2): Yue-Guangzhou khap⁷, Yue-Yangjiang kap^7a, Hakka-Meixian khɛp⁷, Min-Xiamen kaˀ⁷, Min-Quanzhou kaˀ⁷, Min-Zhangzhou kaˀ⁷ "to cover" ← Wuming-Zhuang kop⁸ "to cover", Li-Jiamao khɔp⁷, Li-Baocheng khɔp⁷, Li-Qiandui khop⁹, Li-Tongshi khop⁷ "to cover".
• to lash, whip, thrash: Yue-Guangzhou fit⁷ ← Wuming Zhuang fit⁸, Li-Baoding fi:t⁷.
• monkey: Yue-Guangzhou ma⁴ lau¹ ← Wuming Zhuang ma⁴ lau², Mulao mə⁶ lau².
• to slip off, fall off, lose: Yue-Guangzhou lat⁷, Hakka lut⁷, Hakka-Yongding lut⁷, Min-Dongshandao lut⁷, Min-Suixi lak⁸, Min-Chaozhou luk⁷ ← Siamese lut^D1S, Longzhou luut, Po-ai loot, Wiming-Zhuang lo:t⁷.
• to stamp foot, trample: Yue-Guangzhou tam⁶, Hakka tem⁵ ← Wuming Zhuang tam⁶, Po-ai tam^B2, Lao tham, Lü tam, Nung tam.
• stupid: Yue-Guangzhou ŋɔŋ⁶, Hakka-Meixian ŋɔŋ⁵, Hakka-Yongfing ŋɔŋ⁵, Min-Dongshandao goŋ⁶, Min-Suixi ŋɔŋ¹, Min-Fuzhou ŋouŋ⁶ ← Be-Lingao ŋən², Wuming Zhuang ŋu:ŋ⁶, Li-Baoding ŋaŋ², Li-Zhongsha ŋaŋ², Li-Xifan ŋaŋ², Li-Yuanmen ŋaŋ⁴, Li-Qiaodui ŋaŋ⁴, Li-Tongshi ŋaŋ⁴, Li-Baocheng ŋa:ŋ², Li-Jiamao ŋa:ŋ².
• to tear, pinch, peel, nip: Yue-Guangzhou mit⁷ "tear, break off, pinch, peel off with finger", Hakka met⁷ "pluck, pull out, peel" ← Be-Lingao mit⁵ "rip, tear", Longzhou bit^D1S, Po-ai mit, Nung bêt, Tay bit "pick, pluck, nip off", Wuming Zhuang bit⁷ "tear off, twist, peel, pinch, squeeze, press", Li-Tongshi mi:t⁷, Li-Baoding mi:t⁷ "pinch, squeeze, press".

Yue-Hashimoto describes the Yue Chinese languages spoken in Guangdong as having a Tai influence.^[27] Robert Bauer (1996) points out twenty nine possible cognates between Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou and Kra–Dai, of which seven cognates are confirmed to originate from Kra–Dai sources:^[28]

• Cantonese kɐj¹ hɔ:ŋ² ← Wuming Zhuang kai⁵ ha:ŋ⁶ "young chicken which has not laid eggs"^[29]
• Cantonese ja:ŋ⁵ ← Siamese jâ:ŋ "to step on, tread"^[30]
• Cantonese kɐm⁶ ← Wuming Zhuang kam⁶, Siamese kʰòm, Be-Lingao xɔm⁴ "to press down or suppress"^[31]
• Cantonese kɐp^7b na:^3[c] ← Wuming Zhuang kop⁷, Siamese kòp "frog"^[32]
• Cantonese khɐp⁸ ← Siamese kʰòp "to bite"^[32]
• Cantonese lɐm⁵ ← Siamese lóm, Maonan lam⁵ "to collapse, to topple, to fall down (building)"^[33]
• Cantonese tɐm⁵ ← Wuming Zhuang tam⁵, Siamese tàm "to hang down, be low"^[34]

Li Hui (2001) finds 126 Kra-Dai cognates in Maqiao Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of Shanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed.^[35] According to the author, these cognates are likely traces of the Old Yue language.^[35] The two tables below show lexical comparisons between Maqiao Wu dialect and Kra-Dai languages quoted from Li Hui (2001). He notes that, in Wu dialect, final consonants such as -m, -ɯ, -i, ụ, etc don't exist, and therefore, -m in Maqiao dialect tends to become -ŋ or -n, or it's simply absent, and in some cases -m even becomes final glottal stop.^[36]

Jerry Norman and Mei Tsu-lin presented evidence that at least some Yue spoke an Austroasiatic language:^[37][38][39]

• A well-known loanword into Sino-Tibetan^[40] is k-la for tiger (Hanzi: 虎; Old Chinese (ZS): *qʰlaːʔ > Mandarin pinyin: hǔ, Sino-Vietnamese hổ) from Proto-Austroasiatic *kalaʔ (compare Vietic *k-haːlʔ > kʰaːlʔ > Vietnamese khái and Muong khảl).
• The early Chinese name for the Yangtze (Chinese: 江; pinyin: jiāng; EMC: kœ:ŋ; OC: *kroŋ; Cantonese: "kong") was later extended to a general word for "river" in south China. Norman and Mei suggest that the word is cognate with Vietnamese sông (from *krong) and Mon kruŋ "river".

They also provide evidence of an Austroasiatic substrate in the vocabulary of Min Chinese.^[37][41] For example:

• *-dəŋ^A "shaman" may be compared with Vietnamese đồng (/ɗoŋ²/) "to shamanize, to communicate with spirits" and Mon doŋ "to dance (as if) under demonic possession".^[42][43]
• *kiɑn^B 囝 "son" appears to be related to Vietnamese con (/kɔn/) and Mon kon "child".^[44][45]

Norman and Mei's hypothesis has been criticized by Laurent Sagart, who demonstrates that many of the supposed loan words can be better explained as archaic Chinese words, or even loans from Austronesian languages; he also argues that the Vietic cradle must be located farther south in current north Vietnam.^[9][46]

• Norman & Mei also compares Min verb "to know, to recognize" 捌 (Proto-Min *pat; whence Fuzhou /paiʔ˨˦/ & Amoy /pat̚˧˨/) to Vietnamese biết, also meaning "to know, to recognize". However, Sagart contends that the Min & Vietnamese sense "to know, to recognize" is semantically extended from well-attested Chinese verb 別 "to distinguish, discriminate, differentiate" ((Mandarin: bié; MC: /bˠiɛt̚/; OC: *bred);^[47] thus Sagart considers Vietnamese biết as a loanword from Chinese.
• According to the Shuowen Jiezi (100 AD), "In Nanyue, the word for dog is (Chinese: 撓獀; pinyin: náosōu; EMC: nuw-ʂuw)", possibly related to other Austroasiatic terms. Sōu is "hunt" in modern Chinese. However, in Shuowen Jiezi, the word for dog is also recorded as 獶獀 with its most probable pronunciation around 100 CE must have been *ou-sou, which resembles proto-Austronesian *asu, *u‑asu 'dog' than it resembles the palatal‑initialed Austroasiatic monosyllable Vietnamese chó, Old Mon clüw, etc.^[7]
• Zheng Xuan (127–200 AD) wrote that 扎 (Middle Chinese: /t͡ʃˠat̚/, modern Mandarin Chinese zā, modern Sino-Vietnamese: "trát") was the word used by the Yue people (越人) to mean "die". Norman and Mei reconstruct this word as OC *tsət and relate it to Austroasiatic words with the same meaning, such as Vietnamese chết and Mon chɒt. However, Laurent Sagart points out that 扎 is a well‑attested Chinese word also meaning "to die", which is overlooked by Norman and Mei.^[47] That this word occurred in the Old Yue language in Han times could be because the Old Yue language borrowed it from Chinese.^[47] Therefore, the resemblance of this Chinese word to an Austroasiatic word is probably accidental.^[47]
• According to Sagart, the resemblance between the Min word *-dəŋ^A "shaman" or "spirit healer" and the Vietnamese term đồng is undoubtedly by chance.^[47]

Moreover, Chamberlain (1998) posits that the Austroasiatic predecessor of the modern Vietnamese language originated in modern-day Bolikhamsai Province and Khammouane Province in Laos as well as parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam, rather than in the region north of the Red River Delta.^[48] However, Ferlus (2009) showed that the inventions of pestle, oar and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of the Đông Sơn culture, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic (Việt–Mường) and Central Vietic (Cuoi-Toum).^[49] The new vocabularies of these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also correspond to the area of Đông Sơn culture. Thus, Ferlus concludes that the Northern Vietic (Viet-Muong) speakers are the "most direct heirs" of the Dongsonians, who have resided in Southern part of Red River Delta and North Central Vietnam since the 1st millennium BC.^[49] In addition, archaeogenetics demonstrated that before the Dong Son period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic: genetic data from Phùng Nguyên culture's burial site (dated to 1,800 BCE) at Mán Bạc (in present-day Ninh Bình Province, Vietnam) have close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers, while "mixed genetics" from Đông Sơn culture's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to "Dai from China, Tai-Kadai speakers from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the Kinh"; these results indicated that significant contact happened between Tai speakers and Vietic speakers.^[50]

Ye (2014) identified a few Austroasiatic loanwords in Ancient Chu dialect of Old Chinese.^[51]

There is no known evidence of a writing system among the Yue peoples of the Lingnan region in pre-Qin times, and the Chinese conquest of the region is believed to have introduced writing to the area. However, Liang Tingwang, a professor from the Central University of Nationalities, said that the ancient Zhuang had their own proto-writing system but had to give it up because of the Qinshi Emperor's tough policy and to adopt the Han Chinese writing system, which ultimately developed into the old Zhuang demotic script alongside the classical Chinese writing system, during the Tang dynasty (618–907).^[52]