The Jian group initial phoneme in Early-Mandarin : A case study from the Hebrew-Chinese transliteration of the Pentateuch Bible

Authors

• Natthasake Naksit
• Chatuwit Keawsuwan

Publication Date

2022-06-28

Abstract

This article presents a reconstruction of the Jian group initial phoneme in the Early Mandarin sound system (late Qing dynasty) through research into the Pentateuch Bible’s transliteration from Hebrew to Chinese. This article will include an introduction to the Bible, its translation to Chinese and the resulting analysis of the Jian group initial phoneme, with a summary of the differences in the Jian group initial between the sound system of Early Mandarin and Modern Chinese. Results show the Jian group initial in Early Mandarin represented only the [k] phoneme, while in Modern Chinese two different phonemes can be used: [k] and [tɕ]. Furthermore, the phoneme [tɕ] can be distinguished from [k] by presence of rhymes that have [i] or [y] as their medial or nucleus vowels.

First Page

26

Last Page

44

Recommended Citation

Naksit, Natthasake and Keawsuwan, Chatuwit (2022) "The Jian group initial phoneme in Early-Mandarin : A case study from the Hebrew-Chinese transliteration of the Pentateuch Bible," Journal of Letters: Vol. 51: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/jletters/vol51/iss1/3