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Comparative Common Shē and Common Neo-Hakka

Language Log 2025-11-22

I have observed the author working on this 749 page volume for many years, so it is with great rejoicing that it is available in time to send to friends, colleagues, and students as a Yuletide gift:

South Coblin, Common Shē and Common Hakka-Shē: A Comparative Study Language and Linguistics Monograph Series 68

Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (Taipei:  November, 2025)

Introduction

The present work is divided into two parts. Part I is devoted to the reconstruction of the phonology of Common Shē, the ancestral form of the closely related Sinitic dialects spoken by the Shē ethnic minority of China. The approach applied is the classical comparative method, in which modern data from seventeen modern dialects are subjected to comparative reconstructive analysis. Data from additional Shē varieties are also adduced as needed. The end product of these procedures is a hypothetical phonological system, which for the sake of brevity we call Common Shē, though this term should more precisely encompass not only phonology but also syntax and lexicon.

As outlined elsewhere (Coblin 2018; 2019), we hold that Common Shē and Common Neo-Hakka, the proto-language from which the modern Neo-Hakka dialects derive, are closely related sister languages descended from a common speech form which in the present work we call Common Hakka-Shē. Part II below is accordingly devoted to the comparison of Common Shē and Common Neo-Hakka, so as to arrive at a higher order Common Hakka-Shē reconstructed system. This comparative exercise takes as its basis the Common Shē forms reconstructed in Part I and the Common Neo-Hakka ones presented in our earlier study of comparative Hakka (Coblin 2019). The final chapter of Part II summarizes and assesses our findings regarding Common Hakka-Shē and concludes with suggestions for the future study of even earlier stages in the history of early south central spoken Chinese. At the end of the work, Appendix I gives the entire corpus of 647 Shē and Neo-Hakka comparative syllable sets used in the basic reconstruction of Common Hakka-Shē. Following this, in Appendix II, is a corpus of 658 comparative Shē lexical sets. Lexical material of this sort, which comprises both monosyllabic and polysyllabic words, is collected in a number of published Shē dialect surveys and sometimes studied in more or less detail there, but to our knowledge these data have not so far been treated from the standpoint of comparative reconstruction. We take this step here, first because the Shē dialects are relatively less well-known among students of Sinitic languages and, secondly, in order to present an experimental model for how a full comparative Shē etymological dictionary might someday be constructed. The data are arranged topically, and the entire Appendix is followed by an English index. Some data from this appendix are also adduced in the Hakka-Shē reconstructive work in Part II. Finally, a brief general index to pertinent topics in the work as a whole concludes the monograph.

References

Coblin, W. South. 2018. “Neo-Hakka, Paleo-Hakka, and Early Southern Highlands Chinese”, Yǔyán yánjiù jíkān 語言研究集刊 [Bulletin of Linguistic Studies], vol. 21 (2018). Shanghai:  Shanghai cishu chubanshe. (Special number in honor of Jerry Norman.) pp. 175-238.

Coblin, W. South.  2019.  Common Neo-Hakka: a Comparative Reconstruction. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series Number 63, Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.

[VHM:  If someone would like to have either / both of these two items, I think that I can supply them.  The copy of 2018 I can send restores all of the maps, which the publisher deleted without consulting the author.  

As to 2019, the electronic version of that is downloadable from the same Academia Sinica, Institute of Language and Linguistics website where the Hakka-She thing is found. The hard copy version has to be purchased, of course. Since about 2018 the electronic versions of all new monographs from there are available for free download. So you can get for free anything there that interests you from now on.]

The thirteen-page Table of Contents includes a two-page summary, a four-page preface, a two-page list of maps, and a two-page list of abbreviations and signs.  After that comes a detailed list of chapters and sub-chapters.  The book concludes with two appendices:

Hakka-Shē comparative data (262 pages)

Lexical sets (120 pages), which I find to be of extraordinary value and interest, so I will list them here:

1. Natural Phenomena   607 2. Earth, Fire, and Water   611 3. Man and Nature   616 4. Animals   616 5. Fowl    617 6. Domestic Animals   619 7. Insects   621 8. Fish   623 9. Man and Animals   624 10. Plants   625 11. Flowers and Grasses   627 12. Grains   627 13. Vegetables   629 14. Fruits   631 15. Man and Plants   632 16. Food and Drink   635 17. Cooking   638 18.Drugs   644 19. Clothing and Adornment   644 20. Dwelling   651 21. Furniture   655 22. Tools   657 23. Town and Country   660 24. Commerce   661 25. Measures   662 26. Communication and Travel   663 27. Culture and Education   664 28. Games and Entertainment   666 29. Religion   666 30. Social Customs   667 31. Human Body   669 32. Body Movements   675 33. Grooming   681 34. Life and Death   682 35. Sickness   683 36. Weapons   684 37. Human Relationships   685 38. Categories of People   691 39. Occupations    694 40. Activities   696 41. Mental Activities and Emotions   698 42. Sensations   701 43. Taste and Smell   702 44. Shape, Dimension, and Color   703                45. Sound   707 46. Quality   707 47. Time    712 48. Place   714 49. Motion   717 50. Existence, Location, and Possession   718 51. Quantity   719 52. Pro-words   722 53. Grammatical Functors   724

English Index to Appendix II   727

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She language

The She language (Mandarin: 畲語, Shēyǔ), autonym Ho Le or Ho Ne, /hɔ22 ne53/ or Ho Nte, is a critically endangered Hmong–Mien language spoken by the She people.[6] Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak She Chinese (possibly a variety of Hakka Chinese). Those who speak Sheyu—approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong Province—call themselves Ho Ne, "mountain people" (活聶; huóniè).

(Wikipedia)

Hakka language and people

Hakka (Chinese: 客家话; pinyin: Kèjiāhuà; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Hak-kâ-va / Hak-kâ-fa, Chinese: 客家语; pinyin: Kèjiāyǔ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Hak-kâ-ngî) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China, Taiwan, some diaspora areas of Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around the world.

(Wikipedia — language)

The Hakka (Chinese: 客家), also referred to as Hakka Chinese or Hakka-speaking Chinese, are an ethnic group and subgroup of Han Chinese whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China and who speak a language that is closely related to Gan, a Chinese language spoken in Jiangxi province. They are differentiated from other southern Han Chinese by their dispersed nature and tendency to occupy marginal lands and remote hilly areas. The Chinese characters for Hakka (客家) literally mean "guest families".

(Wikipedia — people)

 

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