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Xixia Language Studies and the Lotus Sutra ( II )
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Nishida, Tatsuo |
| Copyright Year | 2006 |
| Abstract | IMMEDIATELY after he had established the Xixia state in 1032, its first emperor Li Yuanhao ordered the creation of a new written language and a writing system for properly recording it, one that would replace the Tibetan and Chinese scripts that had been used till then. He intended, internationally, to enhance the prestige of his empire and, domestically, to strengthen the unity of its constituent tribes and to promote vernacular culture. The language and its ideographs are called the Xixia language and Xixia characters, respectively. The project was quickly and superbly executed and in 1036 the fruits of the endeavor— the language and the characters—were promulgated throughout the country. As a result, a new culture area was formed in the northwestern corner of the Chinese civilization sphere, as Xixia characters replaced the use of Chinese characters. The creation of the Xixia characters also represented the birth of a unique type of ideograph. Most of the tribes which composed the Xixia state, such as the Mi and the Minyak, spoke their own dialects, derivative of a common parent language (i.e., they were dialects of Dangxiang yu ). Though these dialects are considered to have shared common features, they must have been fairly different from each other in terms of phonology, grammar and vocabulary formation. For example, these differences between the expressions of their own designations in the Mi and Minyak dialects can be noted: |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.totetu.org/assets/media/paper/j015_170.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.iop.or.jp/Documents/1020/nishida.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
