20.1780, Qs: Is ? a kokuji?

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List: Vol-20-1780. Sat May 09 2009. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 20.1780, Qs: Is ? a kokuji?

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews: Randall Eggert, U of Utah  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, 
and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Dan Parker <dan at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it
is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have
taken the trouble to respond to the query.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 08-May-2009
From: Richard Sproat < rws at xoba.com >
Subject: Is ? a kokuji?
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 09 May 2009 11:12:32
From: Richard Sproat [rws at xoba.com]
Subject: Is ? a kokuji?

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=20-1780.html&submissionid=216707&topicid=8&msgnumber=1
  

Editor's note: This issue contains non-ISO-8859-1 characters.
To view the correct characters, go to http://linguistlist.org/issues/20/20-1780.html.

Can anyone confirm that ? ''tara'' (codfish) is a kokuji? It is listed in
various sources as such, but it is also used in Chinese, where it has the
(Mandarin) pronunciation xue3 (interpreting the ''snow'' piece as a
phonetic), and apparently it also has a Sino-Japanese pronunciation of
''setsu'' (and a Sino-Korean pronunciation of ''sol''). So I assume if it
was invented in Japan to represent the native word ''tara'', the Chinese
pronunciation, and by extension the Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean
pronunciations must have been later reconstructions. 

Linguistic Field(s): Writing Systems





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-20-1780