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- Author or Editor: András Róna-Tas x
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In the second part of this series of papers the author investigates the way how the Khitan Small Script rendered the vowels of the Khitan language. The graphic system was tailored to the contemporary Chinese language, nevertheless, it is possible to make conclusions concerning the system of vowels. Three illabial vowels /a/, /e/ and /i/ can be identified, the back vocalic /ï/ can only be supposed. The vowel /o/ is dominant, for traces of /ö/ no sure data can be given. The phoneme /u/ can be clearly detected, the phoneme /ü/ can be supposed. The former opinion that the Khitan had a front:back vowel harmony can be confirmed. The paper presents a few newly deciphered Khitan words. The system of the Khitan word formation is emerging and a few earlier readings have been corrected.
The paper offers a sample of a Khitan–English–Chinese Wordlist in preparation by scholars from the People’s Republic of China and Hungary. After a preface on general questions, it deals with the glyphs beginning with a- and b- in the Khitan Small Script. This is followed by Khitan words beginning with the first two letters of the Latin alphabet. The aim of the paper is to open a discussion on a future Khitan Etymological Dictionary.
Khitan Studies I. The Glyphs of the Khitan Small Script
3. The Consonants, 3.1 Labial Stops
This paper investigates how the Khitan Small Script renders labial stops of the Khitan language in the initial position of words and syllables. Furthermore, it deals with the problems of alloglyphs, drawings of similar shape, and denotations of the same phoneme. The paper begins with the use of glyphs in cases where they transcribe Chinese words. Evidence permitting, this is followed by the use of glyphs in cases of Chinese loanwords and names—subjects in which we have a robust background. Finally, it examines words of Khitan origin with initial labial stops. The result of our investigation is that postaspiration was the distinguishing feature in the binary opposition of labial stops. Alternation of <b> ~ <p> writing is common in cases where a word occurs with high frequency. To demonstrate this, we used the Khitan Corpus published in 2017.
In the fourth part of this series of papers the authors investigate the way how the Khitan Small Script rendered the dental stops in initial position. They conclude that the main opposition was between the postaspirated and not postaspirated dental stops.
Khitan Studies. •
1.The graphs of the khitan small script 3. The consonants. 3.3 The oral velar and uvular consonants *
Abstract
In the fifth part of this series of papers the authors investigate the way how the Khitan Small Script (KSS) rendered the oral velar and uvular consonants stops in initial position.
