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 The Baiyue (, ), Hundred Yue, or simply Yue (; ), were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of East China, South China and Northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, b ...

. 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 The ''Shuo Yuan'' (), variously translated as ''Garden of Stories'', ''Garden of Persuasions'', ''Garden of Talks'', etc., is a collection of stories and anecdotes from the pre-Qin period (先秦) to the Western Han Dynasty. The stories were comp ...

'' compiled by Liu Xiang five centuries later. Native

Nanyue Nanyue (), was an ancient kingdom ruled by Chinese monarchs of the Zhao family that covered the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, southern Fujian and central to northern Vietnam. Nanyue was establis ...

people likely spoke Old Yue, while Han settlers and government officials spoke

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 ...

. Some suggest that the descendants of the Nanyue spoke

Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...

. Others suggest a language related to the modern

Zhuang people The Zhuang (; ; za, Bouxcuengh, italic=yes; ) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of ...

. 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 South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

, pre-Kra–Dai, pre-Hmong–Mien,

pre-Austronesian The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austrone ...

, 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 The Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area is a sprachbund including languages of the Sino-Tibetan, Hmong–Mien (or Miao–Yao), Kra–Dai, Austronesian and Austroasiatic families spoken in an area stretching from Thailand to China. Neighbou ...

, 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 Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

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 Zhengzhang Shangfang (; ; 9 August 1933 – 19 May 2018) was a Chinese linguist, known for his reconstruction of Old Chinese. Zhengzhang was born as Zheng Xiangfang ( ; ) in Yongjia County, on the outskirts of Wenzhou. As and have the same ...

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 The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. 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 Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...

, was descended from the language or languages of the Tánshíshān‑Xītóu culture complex (modern day

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

province of China), making the Old Yue language a

sister language In historical linguistics, sister languages are cognate languages; that is, languages that descend from a common ancestral language, their so-called proto-language. Every language in a language family that descends from the same language as the oth ...

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 Min (; BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan, or assimilated natives of Chaoshan ...

, 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 The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by ...

. 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 The Northern Tai languages are an established branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. They include the northern Zhuang languages and Bouyei of China, Tai Mène of Laos and Yoy of Thailand. Languages Ethnologue ''Ethnologue'' distingui ...

and the Luo Yue, which became the Central-Southwestern Tai. However, Pittayaporn (2014), after examining layers of Chinese

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

s 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

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 The Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture is located in western Yunnan province, People's Republic of China, and is one of the eight autonomous prefectures of the province, bordering Baoshan to the east and Burma's Kachin State to the west. ...

''li⁶'' <

proto-Tai Proto-Tai is the reconstructed proto-language (common ancestor) of all the Tai languages, including modern Lao, Shan, Tai Lü, Tai Dam, Ahom, Northern Thai, Standard Thai, Bouyei, and Zhuang. The Proto-Tai language is not directly atteste ...

*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 Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...

*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'',

''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 The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

, Yue, etc. Robert Bauer (1987) identifies twenty seven lexical items in Yue,

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 Standard Zhuang (autonym: , , (pre-1982: ; Sawndip: ); ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect of Shuangq ...

''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'',

''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'',

''nat⁸'' ←

''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",

''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" ←

''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'',

-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'' ←

''fit⁸'', Li-Baoding ''fi:t⁷''. *monkey: Yue-Guangzhou ''ma⁴ lau¹'' ←

''ma⁴'' ''lau²'', Mulao ''mə⁶ lau²''. *to slip off, fall off, lose: Yue-Guangzhou ''lat⁷'',

''lut⁷'',

-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'',

''tem⁵'' ←

''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'',

''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",

''met⁷'' "pluck, pull out, peel" ← Be-Lingao ''mit⁵'' "rip, tear", Longzhou ''bit^D1S'', Po-ai ''mit'', Nung ''bêt'', Tay ''bit'' "pick, pluck, nip off",

''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 Yue () is a group of similar Sinitic languages spoken in Southern China, particularly in Liangguang (the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces). The name Cantonese is often used for the whole group, but linguists prefer to reserve that name for ...

languages spoken in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

as having a Tai influence. Robert Bauer (1996) points out twenty nine possible cognates between Cantonese spoken in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

and Kra–Dai, of which seven cognates are confirmed to originate from Kra–Dai sources:

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

''kɐj¹'' ''hɔ:ŋ²'' ←

''kai⁵'' ''ha:ŋ⁶'' "young chicken which has not laid eggs"

''ja:ŋ⁵'' ← Siamese ''jâ:ŋ'' "to step on, tread"

''kɐm⁶'' ←

''kam⁶'', Siamese ''kʰòm'', Be-Lingao ''xɔm⁴'' "to press down"

''kɐp^7b'' ''na:³''The second syllable na:³ may correspond to Tai morpheme for 'field'. ←

''kop⁷'', Siamese ''kòp'' "frog"

''khɐp⁸'' ← Siamese ''kʰòp'' "to bite"

''lɐm⁵'' ← Siamese ''lóm'', Maonan ''lam⁵'' "to collapse, to topple, to fall down (building)"

''tɐm⁵'' ←

''tam⁵'', Siamese ''tàm'' "to hang down, be low"

Substrate in Wu Chinese

Li Hui (2001) finds 126 Kra-Dai cognates in

Maqiao ''A Dictionary of Maqiao'' () is a novel written by Chinese writer Han Shaogong. It was first published in 1996 and was translated into English by Julia Lovell in 2003. ''Yazhou Zhoukan'' selected it as one of the top 100 greatest Chinese novels i ...

Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

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 The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

( Hanzi: 虎; Old Chinese (ZS): ''*qʰlaːʔ'' > Mandarin pinyin: ''hǔ'', Sino-Vietnamese ''hổ'') from

Proto-Austroasiatic Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while a ...

*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 Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

''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 Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong' ...

) 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 ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give t ...

'' (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 ''

'', 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 The Baiyue (, ), Hundred Yue, or simply Yue (; ), were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of East China, South China and Northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, bo ...

(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 Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, rather than in the region north of the

Red River delta The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta ( vi, Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese word ...

.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 The Dong Son culture or the Lạc Việt culture (named for modern village Đông Sơn, a village in Thanh Hóa, Vietnam) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Vietnam centred at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam from 1000 BC until the ...

, 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 The Phùng Nguyên culture of Vietnam (c. 2,000 – 1,500 BC) is a name given to a culture of the Bronze Age in Vietnam which takes its name from an archeological site in Phùng Nguyên, east of Việt Trì discovered in 1958. It was during this p ...

's burial site (dated to 1,800 BCE) at

Mán Bạc Mán Bạc is a Neolithic archaeological site located in Yên Mô District, Ninh Bình Province, Vietnam, dated from around 1,850–1,650 BC. Mán Bạc is associated with the Phùng Nguyên culture. With 95 burials found at the site, Mán Bạ ...

(in present-day Ninh Bình Province,

)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 The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

(618–907).Huang, Bo (2017)
''Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems''
Elsevier, p. 162.

Notes

References

Sources

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