Candidates for the Old Yue language include
Kra–Dai,
Hmong–Mien, and
Austroasiatic languages. Chinese, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, and the
Vietic branch of Austroasiatic have similar tone systems, syllable structure, grammatical features and lack of inflection, but these features are believed to have spread by means of diffusion across the
Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, rather than indicating common descent. • Scholars in China often assume that the Yue spoke an early form of Kra–Dai. According to Sagart (2008), this is far from self-evident, because the core of the Kra–Dai area geographically is located in
Hainan and the China–Vietnam border region, which is beyond the extreme southern end of the Yue area. The linguist Wei Qingwen gave a rendering of the "
Song of the Yue boatman" in
Standard Zhuang.
Zhengzhang Shangfang proposed an interpretation of the song in written
Thai (dating from the late 13th century) as the closest available approximation to the original language, but his interpretation remains controversial. •
Peiros (2011) shows with his analysis that the homeland of Austroasiatic is somewhere near the
Yangtze. He suggests southern Sichuan or slightly west from it, as the likely homeland of proto-Austroasiatic speakers before they migrated to other parts of China and then into Southeast Asia. He further suggests that the family must be as old as proto-Austronesian and proto-Sino-Tibetan or even older. The linguists Sagart (2011) and Bellwood (2013) support the theory of an origin of Austroasiatic along the Yangtze river in southern China. •
Sagart (2008) suggests that the Old Yue language, together with the
proto-Austronesian language, was descended from the language or languages of the Tánshíshān‑Xītóu culture complex (modern-day
Fujian province of China), making the Old Yue language a
sister language to proto-Austronesian, which Sagart sees as the origin of the Kra–Dai languages. Behr (2009) also notes that the
Chǔ dialect of Old Chinese was influenced by several
substrata, predominantly Kra-Dai, but also possibly Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Hmong-Mien.
Kra–Dai arguments The
proto-Kra–Dai language has been hypothesized to originate in the
Lower Yangtze valleys. Ancient Chinese texts refer to non-Sinitic languages spoken across this substantial region and their speakers as
"Yue". Although those languages are extinct, traces of their existence could be found in unearthed inscriptional materials, ancient Chinese historical texts and non-Han substrata in various Southern Chinese dialects. Thai, one of the
Tai languages and the most-spoken language in the
Kra–Dai language family, has been used extensively in historical-comparative linguistics to identify the origins of language(s) spoken in the ancient region of South China. One of the very few direct records of non-Sinitic speech in pre-Qin and Han times having been preserved so far is the
"Song of the Yue Boatman" (Yueren Ge 越人歌), which was transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC, and found in the 善说 Shanshuo chapter of the Shuoyuan 说苑 or 'Garden of Persuasions'. Willeam Meacham (1996) reports that Chinese linguists have shown strong evidence of Tai vestiges in former Yue areas: Lin (1990) found Tai elements in some
Min dialects, Zhenzhang (1990) has proposed Tai etymologies and interpretations for certain place names in the former states of
Wu and
Yue, and Wei (1982) found similarities in the words, combinations and rhyming scheme between the "Song of the Yue Boatman" and the
Kam–Tai languages. James R. Chamberlain (2016) proposes that the Kra-Dai language family was formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the
Yangtze basin, coinciding roughly with the establishment of the
Chu state and the beginning of the
Zhou dynasty. Following the southward migrations of
Kra and
Hlai (Rei/Li) peoples around the 8th century BCE, the Yue (Be-Tai people) started to break away and move to the east coast in the present-day
Zhejiang province, in the 6th century BCE, forming the state of Yue and conquering the state of Wu shortly thereafter. File:Kra-Tai-Migration1.png|Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) migration route according to James R. Chamberlain (2016). File:Gerner Tai-Kadai migration route.png|Tai-Kadai migration route according to Matthias Gerner's
Northeast to Southwest Hypothesis.
Ancient textual evidence In the early 1980s, Zhuang linguist, Wei Qingwen (韦庆稳), electrified the scholarly community in Guangxi by identifying the language in the
"Song of the Yue Boatman" as a language ancestral to
Zhuang. Wei used reconstructed
Old Chinese for the characters and discovered that the resulting vocabulary showed strong resemblance to modern Zhuang. Later, Zhengzhang Shangfang (1991) followed Wei’s insight but used Thai script for comparison, since this orthography dates from the 13th century and preserves archaisms relative to the modern pronunciation. Zhengzhang notes that 'evening, night, dark' bears the C tone in Wuming Zhuang
xamC2 and
ɣamC2 'night'. The item
raa normally means 'we inclusive' but in some places, e.g. Tai Lue and White Tai 'I'. However, Laurent Sagart criticizes Zhengzhang's interpretation as anachronistic, because however archaic that Thai script is, Thai language was only written 2000 years after the song had been recorded; even if the
Proto-Kam-Tai might have emerged by 6th century BCE, its pronunciation would have been substantially different from Thai. The following is a simplified interpretation of the
"Song of the Yue Boatman" by Zhengzhang Shangfang quoted by David Holm (2013) with Thai script and Chinese glosses being omitted: {{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes {{fs interlinear|indent=2|italics3=yes|glossing4=yes Some scattered non-Sinitic words found in the two ancient Chinese fictional texts, the
Mu Tianzi Zhuan () (4th c. B.C.) and the
Yuejue shu () (1st c. A.D.), can be compared to lexical items in Kra-Dai languages. These two texts are only preserved in corrupt versions and share a rather convoluted editorial history. Wolfgang Behr (2002) makes an attempt to identify the origins of those words: • "吳謂善「伊」, 謂稻道「緩」, 號從中國, 名從主人。" “The
Wú say
yī for ‘good’ and
huăn for ‘way’, i.e. in their titles they follow the central kingdoms, but in their names they follow their own lords.” 伊
yī bq(l)ij'
← Siamese diiA1
, Longzhou dai1'', Bo'ai
nii1 Daiya li1, Sipsongpanna
di1,
Dehong li6 A1'
| Sui ʔdaai1
, Kam laai1
, Maonan ʔdaai1
, Mak ʔdaai6
1' 'good' ||
proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bait 緩 [huăn] awan'
← Siamese honA1'', Bo'ai
hɔn1, Dioi
thon1 A1'
| Sui khwən1-i
, Kam khwən1
, Maonan khun1-i
, Mulam khwən1-i
1' 'road, way' |
proto-Hlai *kuun1 ||
proto-Austronesian *Zalan (Thurgood 1994:353) • yuè jué shū 越絕書 (The Book of
Yuè Records), 1st c. A.D. 絕
jué bdzot'
← Siamese codD1'' 'to record, mark' (Zhengzhang Shangfang 1999:8) • "姑中山者越銅官之山也, 越人謂之銅, 「姑[沽]瀆」。" “The Middle mountains of
Gū are the mountains of the Yuè’s bronze office, the
Yuè people call them ‘Bronze
gū[gū]dú.” 「姑[沽]瀆」 gūdú aka
=alok''' ← Siamese
kʰauA1 'horn',
Daiya xau5, Sipsongpanna
xau1, Dehong
xau1,
Lü xău1, Dioi
kaou1 'mountain, hill' A2'
; Siamese luukD2l'' 'classifier for mountains', Siamese
kʰauA1-
luukD2l 'mountain' ||
cf. OC 谷
gǔ ak-lok
/luwk akə-lok/yowk blok''' 'valley' • "越人謂船爲「須盧」。" "... The
Yuè people call a boat
xūlú. (‘beard’ & ‘cottage’)" 須
xū bs(n)o''' ? ← Siamese saʔ 'noun prefix' 盧
lú bra''' ← Siamese
rɯaA2, Longzhou
lɯɯ2, Bo'ai
luu2,
Daiya hə2,
Dehong hə2 'boat' 1
/ʔda1
, Kam lo1
/lwa1
, Be zoa
A1' 'boat' • "[劉]賈築吳市西城, 名曰「定錯」城。" "[Líu] Jiă (the king of
Jīng 荆) built the western wall, it was called
dìngcuò ['settle(d)' & 'grindstone'] wall." 定
dìng adeng-s''' ← Siamese
diaaŋA1, Daiya
tʂhəŋ2, Sipsongpanna
tseŋ2,
Malay (Austronesian)
dindiŋ2,
Tagalog diŋdiŋ2 wall 錯
cuò atshak''' ? ← Siamese
tokD1s 'to set→sunset→west' (
tawan-tok 'sun-set' = 'west'); Longzhou
tuk7, Bo'ai
tɔk7,
Daiya tok7, Sipsongpanna
tok7 D1s'
ǀ Sui tok7
, Mak tok7
, Maonan tɔk
D1, Malay (Austronesian) suntuk'
running out of time Substrate in modern Chinese languages Besides a limited number of lexical items left in Chinese historical texts, remnants of language(s) spoken by the ancient Yue can be found in non-Han substrata in Southern Chinese dialects, e.g.:
Wu,
Min,
Hakka,
Yue, etc. Robert Bauer (1987) identifies twenty seven lexical items in
Yue,
Hakka and
Min varieties, which share
Kra–Dai roots. The following are some examples cited from Bauer (1987): Robert Bauer (1996) points out twenty nine possible cognates between Cantonese spoken in
Guangzhou and
Kra–Dai, of which seven cognates are confirmed to originate from
Kra–Dai sources: •
Cantonese kɐj1 hɔ:ŋ2 ←
Wuming Zhuang kai5 ha:ŋ6 "young chicken which has not laid eggs" •
Cantonese ja:ŋ5 ←
Siamese jâ:ŋ "to step on, tread" •
Cantonese kɐm6 ←
Wuming Zhuang kam6,
Siamese kʰòm,
Be-Lingao xɔm4 "to press down or suppress" •
Cantonese kɐp7b na:3 ←
Wuming Zhuang kop7,
Siamese kòp "frog" •
Cantonese khɐp8 ←
Siamese kʰòp "to bite" •
Cantonese lɐm5 ←
Siamese lóm,
Maonan lam5 "to collapse, to topple, to fall down (building)" •
Cantonese tɐm5 ←
Wuming Zhuang tam5,
Siamese tàm "to hang down, be low"
Substrate in Wu Chinese Li Hui (2001) finds 126 Kra-Dai cognates in
Maqiao Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of
Shanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed. According to the author, these cognates are likely traces of the Old Yue language. The two tables below show lexical comparisons between Maqiao Wu dialect and Kra-Dai languages quoted from Li Hui (2001). He notes that, in Wu dialect, final consonants such as -m, -ɯ, -i, ụ, etc don't exist, and therefore, -m in Maqiao dialect tends to become -ŋ or -n, or it's simply absent, and in some cases -m even becomes final glottal stop.
Austroasiatic arguments Jerry Norman and
Mei Tsu-lin presented evidence that at least some Yue spoke an
Austroasiatic language: • A well-known loanword into Sino-Tibetan is
k-la for
tiger (
Hanzi: 虎; Old Chinese (ZS):
*qʰlaːʔ > Mandarin pinyin:
hǔ, Sino-Vietnamese
hổ) from
Proto-Austroasiatic *
kalaʔ (compare Vietic
*k-haːlʔ >
kʰaːlʔ > Vietnamese
khái and Muong
khảl). • The early Chinese name for the Yangtze (; EMC:
kœ:ŋ; OC: *
kroŋ; Cantonese: "kong") was later extended to a general word for "river" in south China. Norman and Mei suggest that the word is cognate with Vietnamese
sông (from *
krong) and Mon
kruŋ "river". They also provide evidence of an Austroasiatic
substrate in the vocabulary of
Min Chinese. For example: • *-dəŋA "shaman" may be compared with
Vietnamese đồng (/ɗoŋ2/) "to shamanize, to communicate with spirits" and
Mon doŋ "to dance (as if) under demonic possession". • *kiɑnB 囝 "son" appears to be related to Vietnamese
con (/kɔn/) and Mon kon "child". Norman and Mei's hypothesis has been criticized by
Laurent Sagart, who demonstrates that many of the supposed loan words can be better explained as archaic Chinese words, or even loans from Austronesian languages; he also argues that the Vietic cradle must be located farther south in current north Vietnam. • Norman & Mei also compares Min verb "to know, to recognize" (
Proto-Min *pat; whence
Fuzhou &
Amoy ) to Vietnamese
biết, also meaning "to know, to recognize". However, Sagart contends that the Min & Vietnamese sense "to know, to recognize" is semantically extended from well-attested Chinese verb "to distinguish, discriminate, differentiate" ((Mandarin:
bié; MC: ; OC:
*bred); thus Sagart considers Vietnamese
biết as a loanword from Chinese. • According to the
Shuowen Jiezi (100 AD), "In Nanyue, the word for dog is (; EMC:
nuw-ʂuw)", possibly related to other Austroasiatic terms.
Sōu is "hunt" in modern Chinese. However, in
Shuowen Jiezi, the word for dog is also recorded as 獶獀 with its most probable pronunciation around 100 CE must have been
*ou-sou, which resembles proto-Austronesian
*asu,
*u‑asu 'dog' than it resembles the palatal‑initialed Austroasiatic monosyllable Vietnamese
chó, Old Mon
clüw, etc. •
Zheng Xuan (127–200 AD) wrote that (Middle Chinese: , modern Mandarin Chinese
zā, modern Sino-Vietnamese: "trát") was the word used by the
Yue people (越人) to mean "die". Norman and Mei reconstruct this word as OC *
tsət and relate it to Austroasiatic words with the same meaning, such as Vietnamese
chết and Mon
chɒt. However, Laurent Sagart points out that is a well‑attested Chinese word also meaning "to die", which is overlooked by Norman and Mei. That this word occurred in the Old Yue language in Han times could be because the Old Yue language borrowed it from Chinese. Therefore, the resemblance of this Chinese word to an Austroasiatic word is probably accidental. • According to Sagart, the resemblance between the Min word *-dəŋA "shaman" or "spirit healer" and the Vietnamese term
đồng is undoubtedly by chance. Moreover, Chamberlain (1998) posits that the Austroasiatic predecessor of the modern Vietnamese language originated in modern-day
Bolikhamsai Province and
Khammouane Province in
Laos as well as parts of
Nghệ An Province and
Quảng Bình Province in
Vietnam, rather than in the region north of the
Red River Delta. However, Ferlus (2009) showed that the inventions of pestle, oar and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of the
Đông Sơn culture, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic (Việt–Mường) and Central Vietic (
Cuoi-Toum). The new vocabularies of these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also correspond to the area of Đông Sơn culture. Thus, Ferlus concludes that the Northern Vietic (Viet-Muong) speakers are the "most direct heirs" of the Dongsonians, who have resided in Southern part of Red River Delta and North Central Vietnam since the 1st millennium BC. ==Writing system==