Origin of Mandarin language Part 2

Introduction

This article explains the details of why Mandarin sounds so different from the southern Chinese languages.

The influence of the Mongolian and Manchu speakers resulted in

increase in bi-syllabic words from monosyllabic words
reduction in number of tones
introduction of unstressed non-tonal syllable
change in ancient Chinese phonology

'Shi' homophones poem

Mongol Yuan dynasty

The Mongolian language is completely different from the Chinese language. Among its characteristics are that it is non-tonal and polysyllabic whereas ancient Chinese languages are tonal and monosyllabic where each phoneme is stressed.

This poses a big challenge to native Mongolian speakers who don't have a stressed short k,t,p endings which is called entering tones in their polysyllabic words.

The Beijing dialect which was spoken by the Mongolian rulers might not have any entering tones at all but the Nanjing dialect preserved the entering tones in a glottal stop represented by 'h'.

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Nanjing Mandarin
Color	色	Sik	Sih
Wade	涉	Sip	Sih
Tongue	舌	Sit	Sih

As we can see from the table above, three unique syllables in ancient Chinese languages have been reduced to near homophones in Mandarin.

Mongol words

Some Mongol words can be found in Mandarin.

English	Chinese	Mandarin (Pinyin)	Mongol
Narrow alley	胡同	Hutong	Hottog

Ming dynasty

The Han Chinese-ruled Ming dynasty corrected most but not all of the corrupted sounds and grammar of the previous Mongol Yuan dynasty except for a few like the k,t,p endings.

The merger of m and n happened during the late Ming dynasty as recorded by European missionaries.

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Beijing Mandarin
Greedy	貪	Thaam	Than
Coal	炭	Thaan	Than

As we can see from the table above, two unique syllables in ancient Chinese languages have been reduced to homophones in Mandarin.

Manchu Qing dynasty

Like the Mongolian language, the Manchu language is also non-tonal and polysyllabic.

Loss of entering tones
The Manchu rulers also had difficulty pronouncing some Chinese sounds such as the entering tones with glottal stop which were subsequently lost. However, Jiang-Huai Mandarin which was based on Nanjing dialect still retain this glottal stop today.

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Beijing Mandarin
Color	色	Sik	Sə
Wade	涉	Sip	Shə
Tongue	舌	Sit	Shə

Addition of 'er' ending
Beijing Mandarin added the ‘Er’ sounds that is inherent in their original Manchu tongue. Eg. Nur-ha-ci the name of the founder of Qing dynasty has an ‘er’ ending in the first syllable. The 'Er' sound is very prominent in the homeland of the Manchu where Northeast Mandarin is commonly spoken.

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Beijing Mandarin
Flower	花	Fa	Hua-er
Here	這兒	-	Zhe-er
Taste	味	Mei	Wei-er

Any form of 'r' sound whether trilled or retroflex do not exist in traditional Chinese languages such as Middle Chinese and all the modern Southern Chinese languages such as Yue, Min, Hakka, Wu, Gan, Xiang.

Addition of unstressed syllable
Manchu has stressed and unstressed syllables unlike ancient Chinese languages. Examples are listed
below.

Three syllables word: stressed-unstressed-stressed

English	Manchu
Tiger	Ta-s-ha
Pig	Ga-l-ha

Two syllables word: stressed-unstressed

English	Manchu
Teacher	Se-fu
Father	A-ma
Mother	E-nii

Some bi-syllable words in Mandarin are spoken with the second syllable unstressed as in the following example. This unstressed syllable is called the neutral 'tone' in Mandarin. This is not really a tone but an unstressed syllable which depends on the tone of the previous syllable. For example, the Zi (子) at the end of some nouns in Mandarin is unstressed.

English	Chinese	Beijing Mandarin - Pinyin
Child	兒子	Er-zi
Table	桌子	Zhuo-zi
Chair	凳子	Deng-zi

In Old and Middle Chinese language descendants, every syllable is stressed with a specific tone. This can be seen in modern Chinese languages such as Cantonese, Southern Min, Hakka and Annamese Chinese.

English	Chinese	Cantonese
Child	仔	Cai
Table	枱	Thɔi
Chair	凳	Tang

This also shows that Mandarin has more bi-syllabic words than older Chinese languages as a result of the increase in the number of homophones in Mandarin.

Transformation of some initial consonants
Starting from the late 19th century, some initial consonants were transformed. Beijing city was known as Peking in early Qing dynasty which is reflective of its older pronunciation.

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Hokkien	Beijing Mandarin (Pinyin)
Capital	京	King	Kiann	Cing (Jing)
Pour out	傾	Khing	Khing	Ching (Qing)
Prosper	興	Hing	Hing	Sing (Xing)

Unique Chinese sounds

Both the Manchu and Mongols don't have certain unique Chinese sounds as initial consonants as listed below. These sounds were changed and adapted to their foreign tongues.

For example, the initial consonants ŋ (ng) is common in ancient Chinese languages but the Manchu & Mongol have difficulty pronouncing it.

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Mandarin
Five	五	Ng	Wu
I	我	Ngo	Wo

Manchu words
Some Manchu words can be found in Mandarin.

English	Chinese	Mandarin (Pinyin)	Manchu
Dirty	邋遢	Lata	lekde lakda
Slow in doing things	磨蹭/磨即	Moceng/Moji	Mocokon
So so		Mama-huhu	Lala-huhu

'Lala-huhu' comes from duplication of the Manchu word 'lahu' which means unskilled.

Mandarin language subfamily

Mandarin is not a single language but a family of mutually unintelligible languages within the larger group of Sinitic languages. The major Mandarin languages are

Beijing (Greater Beijing, Northwest Xinjiang)
Northeast (Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang)
Lanyin (Gansu, Northern Xinjiang)
Zhongyuan (Southern Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Henan)
Southwest (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou)
Jianghuai (Jiangsu, Anhui)

Note that the provinces listed above are just approximation.

Conclusion

Mandarin is a Chinese language that is heavily influenced by northern invaders' phonology. Whereas the Ming dynasty corrected most of the corrupted sounds and grammar of the previous Mongolian dynasty, the present Han Chinese ruled government haven't made any effort at all.

The differences between Mandarin and Cantonese are shown in the video below. Southern Chinese languages rhyme better when reciting Tang dynasty poems. The increase in the number of homophones is illustrated in the famous 'shi' poem《施氏食獅史》.

Sources

Comments

Dave29 Jul 2020, 18:08:00
Thank you for your responses. Not sure why I can't see comments, but I see them via my email.

I'm a cantonese speaker, not a mandarin speaker, and am well aware of Manchu clothing, I am a very strong advocate of Hanfu (Manchu clothing and aesthetics is really not my thing, too garish! also doesn't represent my race!). The points I provided come from both Mainland and Western Sinologists and Linguists. The loss of the entering tone probably occurred far before the Manchu, during the Jurchen (who are basically the same people). Theres some theories about the Khitans reducing the entering tone too. Mandarin comes from middle Chinese after some unknown foreign influence (probably Jin Jurchens / Khitan / Mongol). No one is smearing Hashimoto Mantaro - sinology / linguistics has moved on since then though. You have a good point about the trilled Rs - I don't know enough about this and would have to consult a linguist. I did read of a theory about how the R developed but it's still in its early stages without evidence. The 儿 diminutive probably formed during the Ming dynasty, but would have had a completely different sound without the R, probably closer to "yi". Jianghuai Mandarin, is not Ming dynasty Mandarin, it's been changed since then too. If it were up to me, we would go back to speaking Song Dynasty Chinese or as a second choice, early Ming Dynasty Mandarin (after the corrections from HongWu). Without the entering tone, how can we even appreciate old poetry? Honestly, Ming Dynasty had a lot of mongol influences as shown by recent tomb escalations - and paintings of their emperors wearing mongol hats / clothes. They even changed the entire system of governance away from Song institutions to basically Mongol Yuan institutions. They stopped the industrial revolution which was happening under Song! Manchu wise - as the new qing history shows, they considered themselves Manchu first, and Chinese / Tibetan / Central asian, when it suited them. They did eventually lose a lot of their culture, but still considered themselves Manchu, why else did Qianlong spend so much time trying to persuade people that Hua - Yi, ie. chinese / non chinese were now the same? Ofc, one could argue that no chinese dynasty was ever purely "Han" (Qin wasn't central plans, Han was a man from Chu, Sui, Tang was half Xianbei, Northern Wei were Tuoba Wei) but most of the time they would argue that they were Han or tried to assimilate whilst the Manchu argued they were Manchu but were also Chinese and spent all their energy trying to maintain the distinction. I also hold them responsible for destroying any sense of classical beauty - especially the refined Chan (Zen) aesthetics of the Song.
princesspaulina9910 Oct 2020, 09:48:00
Hi! Can you do a separate article comparing Southern Mandarin “dialects” with Northern Mandarin, and explain how Southern Mandarin is more conservative than Northern Mandarin please? I would very much appreciate it

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