“抬类词”共时分布的历时考察

表示“两人或两人以上合力举物”义,现代普通话用“抬”,方言中还有“扛”和“舁”,历史上这些词之间存在着竞争替换关系.从东汉起“舁”一直是通语中的主导词,直到明代被“抬”所取代;与“舁”基本同期出现的“扛”,历史上很可能是一个南方方言词,元以来也曾北上过,只是清以后逐渐从北方撤出;“抬”始见于唐代,明代以后逐渐成为新的通语主导词,“抬”很可能起源于江淮官话,然后往北往南扩散

A Diachronic Study of the Synchronic Distribution of Chinese Words Indicating "to Carry by Two or More Persons"

The meaning of "carrying by two or more persons" is expressed by tai(抬) in standard Chinese today,and by gang(扛) or yu(舁) in some dialects,but in ancient times there were competitions among the words collocated with these three characters.From the Eastern Han dynasty(25-220) on,yu(舁) had been an indispensable character in forming words,until it was replaced by tai(抬) in the Ming dynasty(1368-1644).The character Gang(扛),arising at more or less the same time as yu(舁),was probably a character restricted to south Chinese dialects in the history,having been in use in the north from the Yuan dynasty(1206-1368) on but eliminated from north Chinese dialects shortly after the Qing dynasty(1644-1911).As to tai(抬),it was first seen in the Tang dynasty(618-907) and gradually became a kernel character after the Ming dynasty;it originated most probably from the official speech prevalent in the area where the Huaihe River pours into the Changjiang River,and later spread northward and southward to be more widely used.