“南朝四百八十寺”のよみ方 : 音韻同化 assimilationの一例

Abstract

In Ancient Chinese, the existence of finals -p, -t, -k distinguishes the entering tone words from those in the other tones (even, rising and falling tones). It has been maintained, however, since the Southern Sung period (12~13c.), that in Tang poems certain words in this tone should be pronounced without that characteristic. A remarkable example may be found in the line "南朝四百八十寺" by Tu Mu (杜牧, 803~852). Though the character "十" is supposed to be read as <źip>, in this case a pronunciation <źim> was recommended to be right. As an evidence to show that, Lu Yu (陸游, 1125~1210) pointed out the fact that in the dialect of Kai-fêng, the capital of Sung, "十二" in the expression "八文十二" (not worth a straw?) was pronounced not as <źip-ńi> but as <źim-ńi>. This change źip-ńi> źim-ńi can reasonably be explained by the nasalization of -p as a result of regressive assimilation. The texts in Tibetan transcription recently presented by Prof. Walter Simon (cf. BSOAS vol. XXI part 2, London 1958) teaches us that "十二" was already pronouced as <śim-źi> in China under the Tang at the beginning of the 9th century.