A Study on the Sound Changes of Obstruents in Chinese Historical Phonology

本文討論漢語語音史中的擦音聲母，包括唇音非敷奉；齒音心生書邪(船）禪；牙喉音曉、匣。這些字母通常被研究者擬為擦音，惟不論傳世典籍、出土文獻材料或漢語方言都可見它們與塞音或塞擦音接觸。從語言的一般音變規律來看，塞音演變為塞擦音或擦音，在十九世紀初的格林定律(Grimm’s Law）已見討論；漢語方言擦音字母的塞音或塞擦音的層次異讀卻少有音變規律與語音史意義的探究。語言的發展變化，一直以來就有分化與統一兩股力量交相運作，漢語語音史的內涵尤見如此。然而，漢語方言的層次異讀已成為重要的研究課題，漢語歷史音韻的層次研究依然有待深耕。本文以大量的通假字、聲訓、又音字、漢語方言的層次異讀討論語音史上的擦音聲母。以「擦音聲母」名之，著眼於字母系統眾所周知，具有一般擬音上的共識，非謂擦音字母在古漢語的基底形式即為擦音讀法。 唇音非敷奉從塞音到擦音的演變相對單純，亦較無爭議；牙喉音曉、匣涉及較多重要議題，如曉母與清鼻音有關，曉母有塞音的來源，匣母在上古即有塞音、擦音、零聲母的異讀層次；齒音心生書邪(船）禪在文獻與方言中，每有擦音、塞擦音、塞音的異讀類型。本文以時間、地域、音變類型解釋擦音字母與塞音(含邊音）、塞擦音的關係，並認為擦音字母的塞音讀法早於塞擦音類型，塞擦音類型異讀又早於擦音讀法，此種語音邏輯順序有漢語文獻記錄與方言發展事實支持。惟文獻的記錄不可能全面，方言的發展也非同步，須有對語言發展的立體透視，才能看到擦音字母演變的邏輯過程及其內涵；漢語方言參差不等的層次異讀或韻書記錄的又音，具體而微地反映漢語音韻發展的歷史過程。The changes of obstruents are one of the most widespread and noticeable phenomena in both ancient and modern Chinese historical phonology. From the viewpoint of historical linguistics, most of these changes are “lenition,” the weakening process of sounds in which airstream becomes less obstructed in the oral cavity. Lenition involves sound changes from stops to affricates, from affricates to fricatives, and from fricatives to complete disappearance of sounds. In today’s Chinese dialects we can find many examples of lenition and few of their opposite sound change, fortition, which exemplifies the two sound change types classified by Hans Henrich Hock: “orthodox” and “heterodox” (1986). The sound changes of Chinese voiceless consonants, the fei, fu, xin, sheng, shu, xiao group, mainly belong to lenition; sound changes of Chinese voiced consonants are divided into two groups: the feng, xia group and the xie, chuan, chan group. The feng, xia group has only undergone lenition, but the sound changes of the xie, chuan, chan group (the voiced sibilants) are so complicated that their rules have not been ascertained before. The author verifies these complications by (1) comparing various materials of modern Chinese dialects, (2) relating the results to the written documents of ancient Chinese dialects, and (3) inferring the sound change rules of the xie, chuan, chan group. Expanding the studies done by our predecessors, this comparative analysis of historical dialect materials contains credible evidence showing that ancient Chinese and modern dialects have many similar variations. A proper understanding of Chinese sound changes with clear explanations is thus produced