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Article published In:
Language Contact with Chinese
Edited by Zhiming Bao
[Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 38:1] 2023
► pp. 83–117

Aspects of early Chinese global lexical copies surviving in Modern Uyghur

| Minzu University of China , Beijing, China | Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , Berlin, Germany

The Modern Uyghur language has a large number of lexemes copied from Chinese in different periods of Uyghur. Amongst them, there is a special group of lexemes globally copied from Chinese first into the Old Uyghur literary language which is documented in the texts written in various scripts from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Some of these global lexical copies were transmitted to the next stages of Uyghur and are established in Modern Uyghur as part of its lexicon. This paper discusses aspects of this special group of lexemes from the four points, semantic reinterpretation, fusion in form and meaning, multiple copying of the same lexeme, and additions to the lexicon. The aim is to illustrate some important aspects of the historical Sino-Uyghur linguistic and cultural contact reflected in these copies and to provide Uyghur examples to understand aspects of diachronic development of copied lexemes in the recipient language.

Keywords: Modern Uyghur, code copying, global copies, early Chinese copies, Sino-Uyghur linguistic contact, phonic and semantic development of lexical copies, multiple copying of the same word, addition to the lexicon
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.A brief sketch of Chinese lexical copies in Old Uyghur and Sino-Uyghur linguistic contact
  • 2.Semantic reinterpretation of global copies
    • 2.1 Baxšï: From teacher to healer and shaman
    • 2.2 Bäg: From official to husband and honorific title of men
    • 2.3 But: From Buddha to emotionless figure
  • 3.Fusion in form and meaning
    • 3.1 Čay and ǰam: Fusion of ‘tea’ with ‘banquet’ and ‘small cup’ with ‘wine cup’
    • 3.2 Bo:run: Fusion of two bondsmen?
    • 3.3Words for mulberry: Fusion or two different words?
  • 4.Multiple copying of the same word: Words for incense and real
    • 4.1Copies of the word for incense
    • 4.2Doublet for real
  • 5.Additions to the lexicon
    • 5.1 Küy ‘melody’ and two further words for music instruments
    • 5.2Four words dealing with architecture: Lim ‘pillar’, čäŋzä ‘rafter’, pän ‘board’, and sir ‘lacquer’
    • 5.3Five words dealing with daily life: Xapan ‘wooden hopper’, čoka ‘chopsticks’, kimxap ‘brocade’, ünčä ‘pearl’, and upa ‘face powder’
    • 5.4Globally copying of adjectives: Čoŋ ‘big’ and täŋ ‘equal’
  • 6.Final remarks
  • References
Published online: 5 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00105.yak
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