Tracing linguistic variability in Old Chinese: what, if anything, was yǎyán?

Traditional approaches to reconstructed phonology, but also to historical syntax and sociolinguistics typically have a disquietingly monolithic view of pre-imperial Chinese. The widespread tacit assumption of linguistic uniformity and/or normativity, attributed to the “refined speech” (yǎyán 雅言) that emerged early on during the Zhōu period as a form of intercommunication among members of the nobility, is partly due to the nature of the sources at our disposal to reconstruct ancient social backgrounds, pragmatic settings, registers, and contact scenarios. More often than not, however, the notion of a homogenous yǎyán seems also influenced by subliminal political narratives of unification, centralization and purity which have quietly crept into the linguistic descriptions and interpretations of data, predictably resulting in, e.g., neat trees of dialect divergence, homogenous phonologies of an assumed prestige koiné, neglect of colloquial, deviant, technical, ritual speech, masking of loanwords, alloglottographies etc. 
While some scholars (e.g. Lín Yǔtáng 1932, Erkes 1935, Dǒng Tónghé 1940, Grootaers 1943, Serruys 1960, 1962, Y.R. Chao 1946 etc.) criticized this state of affairs early on, voicing eloquent pleas to allow for variability and at least a rudimentary “Sitz im Leben” for the reconstructed Early Chinese language(s), it is only the recent flurry of excavated texts, less streamlined by editorial tampering of the Hàn guardians of the textual canon, that has  now opened up the possibility to arrive at a slightly more differentiated view of the possible variability found at the time. 
After a short, critical review of the textual sources on the idea of an early yǎyán, my talk will focus on select examples from three areas where a more differentiated view of early variability has been gained: (1) phonology and lexicon of non-standard varieties of pre-Qín southern Chinese, esp. the so-called “Chǔ dialect” (cf. Yán Xuéqún 1983, Lǐ Jìngzhōng 1987, Lǐ Shùháo, Yù Sùishēng 1993, Huá Xuéchéng 2003, Xiè Róng’é 2005, 2009, Zhōu Bō 2008, Zhèng Wěi 2011, Liú Xìnfāng 2011, Hán Jiǒnghào 2014, Park 2016 etc.); (2) non-standard syntax of conjunctions and pronouns in Chǔ and Qín “dialects” (cf. Ônishi 1996, 1998, 2002, Zhōu Shǒujìn, Liào Xùdōng 2006, Lǐ Míngxiǎo et al. 2011 etc.); (3) sociolinguistics of substandards  and the emergence of maledictory speech (cf. Liú Fùgēn 2008, Guō Jùnrán 2013, Chén Tongshēng 2016 etc.) towards the end of the Warring States period. 
The aim of the talk is not to simply jettison the “traditional” approaches. Instead, I hope to  identify some methodologically interesting examples pointing to areas where our knowledge of pre-Hàn Old Chinese could be usefully complicated, iff non-variationist proponents of “trees”, “standards” and “systems” engaged in closer cooperation with paleographers and variationists.

Location: Budapest

More Info: Presentation Slides, Key Note, International Association of Chinese Linguistics, 25th Annual Meeting, Budapest

Event Date: Jun 27, 2017

Organization: IACL/ELTE/NYTUD Budapest