Origin of Mandarin language Part 3

Introduction

There are still some people who refused to accept that Mandarin is a Chinese language that was heavily influenced by the Manchu language even after many pieces of evidence were given.

This article continues the origin of Mandarin language by giving more pieces of evidence and comparisons. However, this article uses quite a number of linguistic terms which might be confusing for many people.

We will also show some differences between Northern Mandarin and Southern Mandarin.

Middle Chinese phonology

Middle Chinese was the Chinese language first spoken during the Sui-Tang dynasties in Xian which was the capital of China.

Voiced consonants

Middle Chinese and Old Chinese phonology contain many voiced consonants and three way distinction of voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated and voiced as shown in the Middle Chinese table below.

Note: The retroflex column in some western books is just a theory and is not substantiated because none of the current non-Mandarin Chinese languages and Sino-Vietnamese language have this set of sounds.

Furthermore, Qieyun, the Middle Chinese dictionary, has only five main columns of sounds (labial, alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal) as shown below. The last (sixth) column (approximant, lateral approximant) consisting of the 'l' and 'y' initial consonants is a minor addition to the five main ones.

The four main rows of Qieyun are the four tones (flat, rising, falling, entering/stop) of Chinese phonetics which can be further split into Yin - high pitch and Yang - low pitch each (as shown in the minor rows below) making a total of eight tones.

Mandarin languages have lost all the voiced consonants leaving behind only the unaspirated voiceless and aspirated voiceless consonants. For example, the 'b','d','g' in Mandarin Pinyin are actually voiceless unaspirated [p][t][k] respectively in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

Many native Mandarin speakers have difficulty pronouncing the voiced consonants such as 'boy' in English which is incorrectly pronounced as 'poy'.

Ending consonants

Middle Chinese and Old Chinese also have the six ending consonants [k,t,p,m,n,ng] which Mandarin has mostly lost except for [n,ng].

English	Chinese	Cantonese	Nanjing Mandarin	Beijing Mandarin
Color	色	Sik	Sih	Se
Wade	涉	Sip	Sih	She
Tongue	舌	Sit	Sih	She
Heart	心	Sam	Sin	Sin
New	新	San	Sin	Sin
Start	星	Sing	Sing	Sing

Southern Mandarin

Southern Mandarin languages consists of two languages which are Jiang-Huai and South-western Mandarin. Most Taiwanese speak Southern Mandarin.

Southern Mandarin

The Ming dynasty established its capital in Nanjing from 1368-1420 AD (before moving to Beijing) and during this period, over half of the population were newer migrants from Jiang-Huai which is the region between Yangtze (江) river and Huai (淮) river in mainly Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.

The Wu language spoken in Nanjing gradually combined with the northern proto-Mandarin dialects brought in by these newer migrants to form Jiang-Huai (江淮) Mandarin during the Ming and Qing dynasty. This is why the people in Nanjing today became Mandarin speakers and are not Wu speakers anymore.

During the Ming dynasty, speakers from Jiang-Huai Mandarin region migrated further to Sichuan and intermixed with the previous Shu Chinese language to form the Southwestern Mandarin language.

This proto-Mandarin was influenced by the Mongols during their previous rule and evolved into Southern Mandarin today. The [k,t,p] ending consonants in Southern Mandarin and Jin Mandarin have been reduced into just a glottal stop [h].

Northern Mandarin

When the Manchu ruled China during the Qing dynasty, further sound changes happened in Beijing caused by the Manchu rulers which resulted in Northern Mandarin.

The glottal stop [h] of Southern Mandarin disappeared altogether into an open vowel in Northern Mandarin. This is the so-called 'entering tone' in Chinese phonology.

The vocabulary of Northern Mandarin has also changed. The vocabulary of Southern Mandarin is closer to the vocabulary of traditional Chinese languages as shown in the table below.

English	Northern Mandarin		Southern Mandarin		Cantonese
Spoon	Shao Zi	勺子	Tiao Geng	調羹	Chi Gang	匙羹
Broom	Tiau Zhou	笤帚	Shao Ba	掃把	Sou Ba	掃把
Tomato	Xi Hong Shi	西紅柿	Fan Qie	番茄	Fan Ke	番茄
To speak	Shuo	說	Jiang	講	Kong	講
Very	Chen	沉	Zhong	重	Chong	重
Maternal grandfather	Lao Ye	姥爺	Wai Gong	外公	Ngoi Gong	外公
Maternal grandmother	Lao Lao	姥姥	Wai Po	外婆	Ngoi Po	外婆

While Southern Mandarin also use shuo (to speak), but it is more formal/literary than jiang.

English	Northern Mandarin		Southern Mandarin		Southern Min
What	Sha	啥	Shen Me	甚麼	Sim Mit	甚物
Quite good	Ting Hau	挺好	Man Hau	滿好	Hou	好

Southern Mandarin languages do not have the retroflex sounds of [sh, ch, zh] of Northern Mandarin which is a later development by the Manchu people.

The third group of Central Mandarin is an intermediate between Northern and Southern Mandarin with vocabulary from both groups.

Non-Mandarin Chinese languages

The Non-Mandarin Chinese languages can be roughly grouped into two groups based on its distance from northern China and influence from Mandarin language.

First group

The first group consists of the Wu, Northern Min, New Xiang, Gan languages which are closest to the Mandarin speaking regions.

Wu languages have lost all its ending consonants which is reduced to a glottal stop [h] due to close proximity with Southern Mandarin.

Some sound changes due to influence from Mandarin can also be seen in certain words like the word for ten-thousand 萬 'Man' to 'Wan' in some dialects.

Second group

The second group consists of the Southern Min, Old Xiang, Hakka, Yue Chinese languages which are further away from the Mandarin speaking regions.

These languages still preserve the voiced consonants and ending consonants but in varying degrees.

For example, the Cantonese dialect lost the voiced initial consonants possibly due to influence by the Mandarin speakers sometimes in the past whereas some of the other Yue Chinese languages such as Ngau-Lau preserved the voiced initial consonants to varying degrees.

Manchu phonology similarity with Mandarin phonology

The Manchu phonology is almost exactly the same as Mandarin phonology. Manchu language doesn't have the ending consonants of [k,t,p,m,ng] and the various voiced consonants such as [g,d,b] of Middle Chinese. (Note that the [g,d,b] of Manchu in the video below is actually unaspirated voiceless [k,t,p] which is the same as Mandarin [g,d,b]).

Manchu is a non-tonal language unlike Chinese languages. The Manchu also have trouble pronouncing the 6+2 tones of Middle Chinese so it was reduced to just 4 tones.

The initial consonant 'r' is a Manchu sound that are not present in any non-Mandarin Chinese languages and also Middle Chinese. Most Southern Han Chinese whose mother tongue is not Mandarin have trouble pronouncing this 'r' consonant.

Manchu also has the retroflex sounds of [sh, ch, zh] that are not present in any non-Mandarin Chinese languages and even Southern Mandarin. Even the distantly related Bai and Tujia languages which split from Han Chinese few thousand years ago do not have retroflex sounds.

Below are two videos of the Manchu language phonology.

Conclusion

This article provided further proof that Northern Mandarin was the language spoken by the Manchu emperors when they were first trying to learn the Chinese language and found some sounds difficult to pronounce for their tongue so they used the closest Manchu sound instead to approximate the Chinese sound.

Whereas Southern Mandarin was the Chinese language that was influenced by the Mongols.

The other non-Mandarin Chinese languages that border northern China were influenced to a greater degree by Mandarin than the southernmost Chinese languages such as Southern Min and Yue Chinese that were further away from the Mandarin speaking regions.

East Asian origin, history, language, culture

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