Ancient Yue Language

The Old Yue language ( zh, c=古越語, p=''Gu Yueyu'') is an unknown unclassified language (or many different languages). It can refer to Yue, which was spoken in the realm of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period. It can also refer to the variety of different languages spoken by the Baiyue. Possible languages spoken by them may have been of Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, Austronesian, Austroasiatic and other origins.

Knowledge of Yue speech is limited to fragmentary references and possible loanwords in other languages, principally Chinese. The longest attestation is the '' Song of the Yue Boatman'', a short song transcribed phonetically in Chinese characters in 528 BC and included, with a Chinese version, in the '' Garden of Stories'' compiled by Liu Xiang five centuries later.

Native Nanyue people likely spoke Old Yue, while Han settlers and government officials spoke Old Chinese. Some suggest that the descendants of the Nanyue spoke Austroasiatic languages. Others suggest a language related to the modern Zhuang people. It is plausible to say that the Yue spoke more than one language. Old Chinese in the region was likely much influenced by Yue speech (and vice versa), and many Old Yue loanwords in Chinese have been identified by modern scholars.

Classification theories

There is some disagreement about the languages the Yue spoke, with candidates drawn from the non-Sinitic language families still represented in areas of southern China, pre-Kra–Dai, pre-Hmong–Mien, pre-Austronesian, and pre-Austroasiatic; as Chinese, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien, Austronesian, 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.Behr, Wolfgang (2009). "Dialects, diachrony, diglossia or all three? Tomb text glimpses into the language(s) of Chǔ",
''TTW-3, Zürich, 26.-29.VI.2009, “Genius loci”''

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. According to Chamberlain, Yue people (Be-Tai) began to migrate southwards along the east coast of China to what are now Guangxi, Guizhou and northern Vietnam, after Yue was conquered by Chu around 333 BCE. There the Yue (Be-Tai) formed the polities Xi Ou, which became the Northern Tai and the Luo Yue, which became the Central-Southwestern Tai. However, Pittayaporn (2014), after examining layers of Chinese loanwords in proto-Southwestern Tai and other historical evidence, proposes that the southwestward migration of southwestern Tai-speaking tribes from the modern Guangxi to the mainland of Southeast Asia must have taken place only sometime between the 8th–10th centuries CE, long after 44 CE, when Chinese sources last mentioned Luo Yue in the Red River Delta.

File:Genesis of Daic languages and their relation with Austronesians.png, Proposed genesis of Daic languages and their relation with Austronesian languages ( Blench, 2018)
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 ''xam^C2'' and ''ɣam^C2'' 'night'. The item ''raa'' normally means 'we inclusive' but in some places, e.g. Tai Lue and White Tai 'I'. However, Laurent 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:The upper row represents the original text, the next row the Old Chinese pronunciation, the third a transcription of written Thai, and the fourth line English glosses. Finally, there is Zhengzhang's English translation.

Some scattered non-Sinitic words found in the two ancient Chinese fictional texts, the ''Mu Tianzi Zhuan'' ( zh, 穆天子傳) (4th c. B.C.) and the '' Yuejue shu'' ( zh, 越絕書) (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'' < ʔjij < *^bq(l)ij ← Siamese ''dii^A1'', Longzhou ''dai¹'', Bo'ai ''nii¹'' Daiya ''li¹'', Sipsongpanna ''di¹'', Dehong ''li⁶'' < proto-Tai *ʔdɛi^A1 , Sui ''ʔdaai¹'', Kam ''laai¹'', Maonan ''ʔdaai¹'', Mak ''ʔdaai⁶'' < proto-Kam-Sui/proto-Kam-Tai *ʔdaai¹ 'good'

緩 uăn< hwanX < *^awan ← Siamese ''hon^A1'', Bo'ai ''hɔn¹'', Dioi ''thon¹'' < proto-Tai *xron^A1, Sui ''khwən¹-i'', Kam ''khwən¹'', Maonan ''khun¹-i'', Mulam ''khwən¹-i'' < proto-Kam-Sui *khwən¹ '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'' < dzjwet < *^bdzot ← Siamese ''cod^D1'' 'to record, mark' (Zhengzhang Shangfang 1999:8)

*"姑中山者越銅官之山也, 越人謂之銅, 「姑 ����」。"

“The Middle mountains of ''Gū'' are the mountains of the Yuè’s bronze office, the Yuè people call them ‘Bronze ''gū ūú''.”

「姑 ����」 gūdú < ku=duwk < *^aka=^alok

← Siamese ''kʰau^A1'' 'horn', Daiya ''xau⁵'', Sipsongpanna ''xau¹'', Dehong ''xau¹'', Lü ''xău¹'', Dioi ''kaou¹'' 'mountain, hill' < proto-Tai *kʰau^A2; Siamese ''luuk^D2l'' 'classifier for mountains', Siamese ''kʰau^A1''-''luuk^D2l'' 'mountain' , , ''cf.'' OC 谷 ''gǔ'' < kuwk << *^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'' < sju < *^bs(n)o

? ← Siamese saʔ 'noun prefix'

盧 ''lú'' < lu < *^bra

← Siamese ''rɯa^A2'', Longzhou ''lɯɯ²'', Bo'ai ''luu²'', Daiya ''hə²'', Dehong ''hə²'' 'boat' < proto-Tai *drɯ ,o'' , Sui ''lwa¹''/''ʔda¹'', Kam ''lo¹''/''lwa¹'', Be ''zoa'' < proto-Kam-Sui *s-lwa(n)^A1 'boat'

*" ����築吳市西城, 名曰「定錯」城。"

" íuJiă (the king of Jīng 荆) built the western wall, it was called ''dìngcuò'' settle(d)' & 'grindstone'wall."

定 ''dìng'' < ''dengH'' < *^adeng-s

← Siamese ''diaaŋ^A1'', Daiya ''tʂhəŋ²'', Sipsongpanna ''tseŋ²'' 'wall'

錯 ''cuò'' < tshak < *^atshak

? ← Siamese ''tok^D1s'' 'to set→sunset→west' (''tawan-tok'' 'sun-set' = 'west'); Longzhou ''tuk⁷'', Bo'ai ''tɔk⁷'', Daiya ''tok⁷'', Sipsongpanna ''tok⁷'' < proto-Tai *tok^D1s ǀ Sui ''tok⁷'', Mak ''tok⁷'', Maonan ''tɔk'' < proto-Kam-Sui *tɔk^D1

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.Bauer, Robert S. (1987). 'Kadai loanwords in southern Chinese dialects', Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan 32: 95–111. The following are some examples cited from Bauer (1987):

*to beat, whip: Yue-Guangzhou ''faak^7a'' ← Wuming Zhuang ''fa:k⁸'', Siamese ''faat^D2L'', Longzhou ''faat'', Po-ai ''faat''.
*to beat, pound: Yue-Guangzhou ''tap⁸'' ← Siamese ''thup⁴''/''top²'', Longzhou ''tup^D1'', Po-ai ''tup³''/''tɔp^D1'', Mak/Dong ''tap^D2'', Tai Nuea ''top⁵'', Sui-Lingam ''tjăp^D2'', Sui-Jungchiang ''tjăp^D2'', Sui-Pyo ''tjăp^D2'', T'en ''tjap^D2'', White Tai ''tup⁴'', Red Tai ''tup³'', Shan ''thup⁵'', Lao Nong Khai ''thip³'', Lue Moeng Yawng ''tup⁵'', Leiping-Zhuang ''thop⁵''/''top⁴'', Western Nung ''tup⁴'', Yay ''tup⁵'', Saek ''thap⁶'', Tai Lo ''thup³'', Tai Maw ''thup³'', Tai No ''top⁵'', Wuming Zhuang ''tup⁸'', Li-Jiamao ''tap⁸''.
*to bite: Yue-Guangzhou ''khap⁸'' ← Siamese ''khop²'', Longzhou ''khoop⁵'', Po-ai ''hap³'', Ahom ''khup'', Shan ''khop⁴'', Lü ''khop'', White Tai ''khop²'', Nung ''khôp'', Hsi-lin ''hap^D2S'', Wuming-Zhuang ''hap⁸'', T'ien-pao ''hap'', Black Tai ''khop²'', Red Tai ''khop³'', Lao Nong Khai ''khop¹'', Western Nung ''khap⁶'', etc.
*to burn: Yue-Guangzhou ''naat^7a'', Hakka ''nat⁸'' ← Wuming Zhuang ''na:t⁸'', Po-ai ''naat^D1L'' "hot".
*child: Min-Chaozhou ''noŋ¹'' ''kiā³'' "child", Min-Suixi ''nuŋ³ kia³'', Mandarin-Chengdu ''nɑŋ¹ pɑ¹ kər¹'' "youngest sibling", Min-Fuzhou ''nauŋ⁶'' "young, immature" ← Siamese ''nɔɔŋ⁴'', Tai Lo ''lɔŋ³'', Tai Maw ''nɔŋ³'', Tai No ''nɔŋ³'' "younger sibing", Wuming Zhuang ''tak⁸ nu:ŋ⁴'', Longzhou ''no:ŋ⁴ ba:u⁵'', Buyi ''nuaŋ⁴'', Dai-Xishuangbanna ''nɔŋ⁴ tsa:i²'', Dai-Dehong ''lɔŋ⁴ tsa:i²'', etc.
*correct, precisely, just now: Yue-Guangzhou ''ŋaam¹'' "correct", ''ŋaam¹ ŋaam¹'' "just now", Hakka-Meixian ''ŋam⁵ ŋam⁵'' "precisely", Hakka-Youding ''ŋaŋ¹ ŋaŋ¹'' "just right", Min-Suixi ''ŋam¹'' "fit", Min-Chaozhou ''ŋam¹'', Min-Hainan ''ŋam¹ ŋam¹'' "good" ← Wuming Zhuang ''ŋa:m¹'' "proper" / ''ŋa:m³'' "precisely, appropriate" / ''ŋa:m⁵'' "exactly", Longzhou ''ŋa:m⁵ vəi⁶''.
*to cover (1): Yue-Guangzhou ''hom⁶''/''ham⁶'' ← Siamese ''hom²'', Longzhou ''hum⁵'', Po-ai ''hɔm^B1'', Lao ''hom'', Ahom ''hum'', Shan ''hom²'', Lü ''hum'', White Tai ''hum²'', Black Tai ''hoom²'', Red Tai ''hom³'', Nung ''hôm'', Tay ''hôm'', Tho ''hoom'', T'ien-pao ''ham'', Dioi ''hom'', Hsi-lin ''hɔm'', T'ien-chow ''hɔm'', Lao Nong Khai ''hom³'', Western Nung ''ham²'', etc.
*to cover (2): Yue-Guangzhou ''khap⁷'', Yue-Yangjiang ''kap^7a'', Hakka-Meixian ''khɛp⁷'', Min-Xiamen ''kaˀ⁷'', Min-Quanzhou ''kaˀ⁷'', Min-Zhangzhou ''kaˀ⁷'' "to cover" ← Wuming-Zhuang ''kop⁸'' "to cover", Li-Jiamao ''khɔp⁷'', Li-Baocheng ''khɔp⁷'', Li-Qiandui ''khop⁹'', Li-Tongshi ''khop⁷'' "to cover".
*to lash, whip, thrash: Yue-Guangzhou ''fit⁷'' ← Wuming Zhuang ''fit⁸'', Li-Baoding ''fi:t⁷''.
*monkey: Yue-Guangzhou ''ma⁴ lau¹'' ← Wuming Zhuang ''ma⁴'' ''lau²'', Mulao ''mə⁶ lau²''.
*to slip off, fall off, lose: Yue-Guangzhou ''lat⁷'', Hakka ''lut⁷'', Hakka-Yongding ''lut⁷'', Min-Dongshandao ''lut⁷'', Min-Suixi ''lak⁸'', Min-Chaozhou ''luk⁷'' ← Siamese ''lut^D1S'', Longzhou ''luut'', Po-ai ''loot'', Wiming-Zhuang ''lo:t⁷''.
*to stamp foot, trample: Yue-Guangzhou ''tam⁶'', Hakka ''tem⁵'' ← Wuming Zhuang ''tam⁶'', Po-ai ''tam^B2'', Lao ''tham'', Lü ''tam'', Nung ''tam''.
*stupid: Yue-Guangzhou ''ŋɔŋ⁶'', Hakka-Meixian ''ŋɔŋ⁵'', Hakka-Yongfing ''ŋɔŋ⁵'', Min-Dongshandao ''goŋ⁶'', Min-Suixi ''ŋɔŋ¹'', Min-Fuzhou ''ŋouŋ⁶'' ← Be-Lingao ''ŋən²'', Wuming Zhuang ''ŋu:ŋ⁶'', Li-Baoding ''ŋaŋ²'', Li-Zhongsha ''ŋaŋ²'', Li-Xifan ''ŋaŋ²'', Li-Yuanmen ''ŋaŋ⁴'', Li-Qiaodui ''ŋaŋ⁴'', Li-Tongshi ''ŋaŋ⁴'', Li-Baocheng ''ŋa:ŋ²'', Li-Jiamao ''ŋa:ŋ²''.
*to tear, pinch, peel, nip: Yue-Guangzhou ''mit⁷'' "tear, break off, pinch, peel off with finger", Hakka ''met⁷'' "pluck, pull out, peel" ← Be-Lingao ''mit⁵'' "rip, tear", Longzhou ''bit^D1S'', Po-ai ''mit'', Nung ''bêt'', Tay ''bit'' "pick, pluck, nip off", Wuming Zhuang ''bit⁷'' "tear off, twist, peel, pinch, squeeze, press", Li-Tongshi ''mi:t⁷'', Li-Baoding ''mi:t⁷'' "pinch, squeeze, press".

Substrate in Cantonese

Yue-Hashimoto describes the Yue Chinese languages spoken in Guangdong as having a Tai influence. 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"

Cantonese ''kɐp^7b'' ''na:³''The second syllable na:³ may correspond to Tai morpheme for 'field'. ← 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:
* *-dəŋ^A "shaman" may be compared with Vietnamese ''đồng'' (/ɗoŋ²/) "to shamanize, to communicate with spirits" and Mon doŋ "to dance (as if) under demonic possession".
* *kiɑn^B 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 *-dəŋ^A "shaman" or "spirit healer" and the Vietnamese term ''đồng'' is undoubtedly by chance.

Moreover, Chamberlain (1998) posits that the Austroasiatic predecessor of 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.Chamberlain, J.R. 1998,
The origin of Sek: implications for Tai and Vietnamese history
, in The International Conference on Tai Studies, ed. S. Burusphat, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 97-128. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University. 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. In addition, archaeogenetics demonstrated that before the Dong Son period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic: genetic data from Phùng Nguyên culture's burial site (dated to 1,800 BCE) at Mán Bạc (in present-day Ninh Bình Province, Vietnam)have close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers, while "mixed genetics" from Đông Sơn culture's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to "Dai from China, Tai-Kadai speakers from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the Kinh"; these results indicated that significant contact happened between Tai speakers and Vietic speakers.

Ye (2014) identified a few Austroasiatic loanwords in Ancient Chu dialect of Old Chinese.Ye, Xiaofeng () (2014)

(Austroasiatic elements in ancient Chu dialect). . 3: 28-36.

Writing system

There is no known evidence of a writing system among the Yue peoples of the Lingnan region in pre-Qin times, and the Chinese conquest of the region is believed to have introduced writing to the area. However, Liang Tingwang, a professor from the Central University of Nationalities, said that the ancient Zhuang had their own proto-writing system but had to give it up because of the Qinshi Emperor's tough policy and to adopt the Han Chinese writing system, which ultimately developed into the old Zhuang demotic script alongside the classical Chinese writing system, during the Tang dynasty (618–907).Huang, Bo (2017)
''Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems''
Elsevier, p. 162.

Notes

References

Sources

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Further reading

* Zhengzhang Shangfang 1999. "An Interpretation of the Old Yue Language Written in Goujiàn's ''Wéijiă lìng''" ��践"维甲"令中之古越语的解读 In ''Minzu Yuwen'' 4, pp. 1–14.
* Zhengzhang Shangfang 1998. "Gu Yueyu" 古越語 he old Yue language In Dong Chuping 董楚平 et al. Wu Yue wenhua zhi 吳越文化誌 ecord of the cultures of Wu and Yue Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 253–281.
* Zhengzhang Shangfang 1990. "Some Kam-Tai Words in Place Names of the Ancient Wu and Yue States" ��吴越地名中的侗台语成份 In ''Minzu Yuwen'' 6.

{{languages of China

Unclassified languages of Asia
Extinct languages of Asia
Yue (state)
Baiyue