The Arts of Character Design: Providing Phonetic Information by Numbers.

Abstract

Regarding character construction before the Han’s era, there are many misconceptions. The most serious one is to think that most Siong’s characters do not contain phonetic information. This is the result of another misbelief that the phonetic-semantic method is the only way to provide phonetic information in characters. In fact, including phonetic information in characters is extremely important to the people prior to the Han’s era. Beside the only well-known method, there are other ways to provide phonetic information in the characters. The method based on numbers is discussed here. The phonetic information provided is based on the names as well as the meanings of the numbers. Being able to see the phonetic information contained in characters helps us to reclaim the lost pronunciations and meanings of characters.? This in turn allows us to understand the precise meanings of spoken words. Several illustrating examples are provided; in particular, the pronunciations, meanings and usages of the two characters “攸” and “卣” are explained in details. ? Note: The talk will be presented in Taiwanese. A preliminary version of the paper in English will be provided. ? 摘要 ? ??? 於(tui3)漢代以前之(e7)作字，又(u2)足多誤會。 上嚴重之誤解是認為大部分之商人文字無音標。 茲(tse1/he1)是因為錯誤之相信， 形聲字是唯一又(u2)提供標音資料之作字方式。 實際上， 在作字時升(ka1)入音標， 於漢代以前之人是非常非常之重要。 除了一般所知之形聲字， 尚(ah4)又其(ki5)他之標音方法。 本演講討論用數目標音之方法。 用數目標音又用數目之名亦(ia7)又用數目所代表之意義。 看其(e7)出字形內之音標， 幫助朕(lan2)尋(tshue7)歸(tN2)來失去之字音與(kah4)意義。 進一步， 於話詞之意義亦其(e7)又正確之理解。 本演講用數例來展示如何尋失去之字音與意義。 於“攸”與“卣”二字之音、意義與用法，其(e7)特別討論詳細。 ? 註明: 本演講使用台語發表。 其提供英文版之初稿。