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"Khitan language."
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The Kitan Language and Script
The Kitan language and script have disappeared from history for more than 800 years. Recent research has partially deciphered a number of Kitan inscriptions, reveal significantly more of its lexicon and morphology. This book summarises the current state of research.
eBook
New Materials on the Khitan Small Script
This volume contains a state-of-the-art survey of Khitan Small Script studies, accompanied by a critical analysis of two recently discovered and previously unpublished epigraphic documents. The texts are reproduced in the original script, in transcription as well as in facsimile, and are supported by a preliminary translation, linguistic comments and index. This is the first ever critical edition of Khitan texts, and the two epigraphic documents analysed in the volume constitute a substantial addition to the extant corpus of Khitan Small Script materials.
eBook
Khitan studies I. the glyphs of the Khitan small script
This paper investigates how the Khitan Small Script renders labial stops of the Khitan language in the initial position of words and syllables. Furthermore, it deals with the problems of alloglyphs, drawings of similar shape, and denotations of the same phoneme. The paper begins with the use of glyphs in cases where they transcribe Chinese words. Evidence permitting, this is followed by the use of glyphs in cases of Chinese loanwords and names—subjects in which we have a robust background. Finally, it examines words of Khitan origin with initial labial stops. The result of our investigation is that postaspiration was the distinguishing feature in the binary opposition of labial stops. Alternation of ~
writing is common in cases where a word occurs with high frequency. To demonstrate this, we used the Khitan Corpus published in 2017.
Journal Article
KHITAN STUDIES - I. THE GRAPHS OF THE KHITAN SMALL SCRIPT - 1. GENERAL REMARKS, DOTTED GRAPHS, NUMERALS
In the first part of this series of papers the author investigates the peculiarities and structure of the graphs of the Khitan Small Script. The graphs are polyvalent, and their phonetic values are based on and reflect the understanding of the Chinese phonetic system of the period. The list of graphs includes allographs and variants, further graphs with the same phonetic value but having different form(s). Some graphs have dotted and nondotted pairs. The Romanisation of the graphs is a convention by modern Chinese and European scholars. In some cases the phonetic value of a given graph is unknown, but its meaning is known; these are called logographs. Dotted forms and the numeric system are also investigated.
Journal Article
Reconstructing the Khitan vowel system and vowel spelling rule through the Khitan Small Script
This paper reconstructs the Khitan vowel system by analyzing materials concerning the Khitan Small Script. First, the approximate phonetic values of the graphemes were determined by systematically comparing Khitan transcriptions of Chinese words with their original Chinese sounds and by analyzing Khitan rhymes. Next, an exhaustive survey of two adjacent graphemes in a corpus elucidated the script’s spelling rule and thus were the accurate phonetic values determined. Finally, a comparative study based on the reconstructed values established regular vowel correspondences between Khitan and Mongolian. In conclusion, the author presents twelve Khitan vowel phonemes that are distinguished by four vocalic features.
Journal Article
The Serbi-Mongolic language family: Old Chinese, Middle Chinese, Old Mandarin, and Old Tibetan records on the Hsien-pei (Xianbei) languages and their relationship to Mongolic, with notes on Chinese and Old Tibetan phonology
Although most scholars now generally agree that the Serbi (Hsien-pei or Xianbei) languages, including Kitan or 'Khitan' (Ch'i-tan or Qidan) and Taghbach or 'Tabghatch' (T'o-pa or Tuoba), are divergently related to Mongolic, up until now their Mongolic affinity has only been hinted at—no rigorous, systematic attempt has been made to present a precise, testable, and potentially falsifiable theory based on the standard historical-comparative linguistic criteria for language classification. I demonstrate in this dissertation that Kitan, Taghbach, and 'Azha—the best attested Serbi languages—are related to Mongolic, but descend not from Proto-Mongolic, but from Proto-Serbi, and that both Proto-Mongolic and Proto-Serbi descend from a common ancestor, Proto-Serbi-Mongolic. For early languages which have been extensively studied by historical linguists, general grammatical sketches are usually not a prerequisite to a historical-comparative linguistic study involving data from such languages, but very few general linguists have studied the Serbi languages. To date, with few exceptions, Taghbach, Kitan, and 'Azha have mostly been studied by philologists and historians who have not been particularly interested in describing their lexicons, phonologies, and grammatical structures in such a way as to compare them with other languages at both synchronic and diachronic levels. This preliminary work is necessary before demonstrating their divergent relationship with Mongolic. This dissertation thus presents brief sketches of as much as can be gleaned of the linguistic structures of Taghbach, 'Azha, and Kitan. Since most of these languages are primarily known from Chinese and Old Tibetan transcriptions, I first provide phonological accounts of the transcriptional languages—frontier varieties of Old Chinese, Middle Chinese, Old Mandarin, and Old Tibetan. The linguistic approach to Serbi data in this dissertation has also allowed for a preliminary reconstruction of Proto-Serbi-Mongolic, identification of ethnolinguistic contacts in the formative early history and prehistory of the Serbi-Mongolic language family, and a revised analysis of Kitan Assembled Script orthography.
Dissertation
Khitan studies I. The graphs of the Khitan Small Script. 2. The vowels
In the second part of this series of papers the author investigates the way how the Khitan Small Script rendered the vowels of the Khitan language. The graphic system was tailored to the contemporary Chinese language, nevertheless, it is possible to make conclusions concerning the system of vowels. Three illabial vowels /a/, /e/ and /i/ can be identified, the back vocalic /ï/ can only be supposed. The vowel /o/ is dominant, for traces of /ö/ no sure data can be given. The phoneme /u/ can be clearly detected, the phoneme /ü/ can be supposed. The former opinion that the Khitan had a front:back vowel harmony can be confirmed. The paper presents a few newly deciphered Khitan words. The system of the Khitan word formation is emerging and a few earlier readings have been corrected.
Journal Article
Recent developments on the decipherment of the Khitan small script
The authors review the past century of Khitan studies in Hungary and introduce the latest achievements in this field in China, the country that has become the center of academic scrutiny for the decipherment of Khitan script in recent decades. Arranged in a chronologic order for the first time, an exhaustive list of the main known Khitan Small Script monuments is also included, followed by a selected bibliography of essential pieces on Khitan studies.
Journal Article