Xixia - Western Xia

It is one of the extinct languages ​​belonging to the Loro-Burman group of Tibeto-Burman languages. It was the official language of the Western Xia state and was written in the Western Xia script. It was recorded from the beginning of the 11th century and became extinct after the 15th century. Nowadays, the phonological and grammatical systems can be reconstructed almost certainly, so comparative linguistic research is also progressing. The language is better called Mi, and the closest language is Mi-Nyak, currently spoken near Kangding in Sichuan Province, China. Under the influence of Chinese phonology, Western Xia scholars created rhyme books and rhyme diagrams, and represented the pronunciation of Western Xia using the anti-cut system. There are 37 simple consonants at the beginning of a syllable and two types of tones, with 97 rhymes of Pingsheng and 86 rhymes of Shangsheng distinguished, and if both are combined, there are 105 rhymes. The members of a sentence are arranged in the order of subject-object-predicate, as in Japanese, and five kinds of case particles are used. The subject is tah, the genitive is ʔyeh, the at case is γah, etc. Determiners are placed before the determiner (Sanpo → San・Treasure), while adjectives are often placed after nouns (Shiratsubou → Dew・White). The grammatical function of verbs is expressed by prefixes and auxiliary verbs. There is also a method of forming nouns by adding suffixes to verbs (tšoh dig a hole → tšoh-sih something that digs a hole), and the causative voice is formed by adding phih after the verb. There was also a procedure for distinguishing nouns and verbs by contrasting tones, such as w (flat voice) shoulder and w (high voice) shoulder. The vocabulary was mainly from Lolo-Burman and Qiang languages, but there were also many loanwords from Chinese. The Western Xia translations of the Buddhist scriptures are characterized by the use of Buddhist terms that are directly translated from the Chinese and Tibetan translations, so much so that the original language can be determined from the translations.

[Tatsuo Nishida]

"Nishida Tatsuo, 'Study of the Xixia Language', volumes 1 and 2 (1964, 1966, Zayuho Publishing Association)" ▽ "Nishida Tatsuo, 'Xixia-language Huayan Sutra', 3 volumes (1975-77, Kyoto University Faculty of Letters)" ▽ "Nishida Tatsuo, 'Study of the Translation of Dumb Words' (1980, Shokado)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

チベット・ビルマ語派のロロ・ビルマ語群に属する死語の一つ。西夏国の公用言語であり、西夏文字によって書き表された。11世紀初めごろから記録され、15世紀ごろ以降に死語となった。いまでは音韻体系も文法体系もほぼ確実に再構成できるため、比較言語学的研究も進んでいる。言語名としてはミ語とよぶほうがよく、現在、中国四川(しせん)省の康定(こうてい)付近で話されるミ・ニャック語がもっとも近い言語と考えられる。中国の音韻学の影響のもとに、西夏の学者は韻書や韻図をつくり、西夏語の発音を反切(はんせつ)によって表記した。音節初頭の単純子音は37種類あり、声調は2種類で、平声(へいせい)97韻、上声(じょうせい)86韻を弁別したが、両方を組み合わせると105韻になる。文の構成員は、日本語のように、主語―目的語―述語の順に並べられ、5種類の格助詞が使われた。主格は、tah、属格はʔyeh、於格(おかく)はγahなど。限定詞は被限定詞の前に置かれるが（三宝→三・宝）、形容詞は名詞のあとにつけられることが多い（白露→露・白い）。動詞の文法機能は接頭辞と助動詞によって表現された。また、動詞に接尾詞を加えて名詞を構成する方法（tšoh 孔を掘る→tšoh-sih 孔を掘るもの）があり、動詞のあとにphihをつけて使役態を構成した。w（平声）肩とw（上声）かたぐなど声調の対立によって、名詞と動詞を弁別する手順もあった。ロロ・ビルマ語系語彙(ごい)と羌(チイヤン)語系の語彙が中心であったが、漢語からの借用語も多く含まれていた。西夏訳仏典では、漢訳やチベット訳から直訳した仏教用語が特徴的で、その訳語から原典の言語を判定できるほどである。

［西田龍雄］

『西田龍雄著『西夏語の研究』上下（1964、66・座右宝刊行会）』▽『西田龍雄著『西夏文華厳経』全3巻（1975～77・京都大学文学部）』▽『西田龍雄著『倮儸訳語の研究』（1980・松香堂）』

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