 Thank you very much Professor Yeh for inviting me and I've been really enjoying visiting Shamen and I hope that you'll find my talk interesting. So first an overview of the talk. So I will look at words for Tiger in Southeast Asia and then words for Tiger in Tibet and Japan where they don't have Tigers. So they probably will use someone else's word. And then how do we reconstruct Tiger in all Chinese? So first looking at Tigers in Southeast Asia in Angkorian Khmer the word for Tiger is Kla. And in Old Burmese the word for Tiger is Kla. So basically all of Southeast Asian languages they have a word like Kla for Tiger. So that's Tiger in Southeast Asia is Kla. So how about in Tibet and Japan? So in Japanese the word for Tiger is Kora. And it's first attested in the year 702. And then in Tibetan the word for Tiger is Stak. So here I just want to say that possibly you know there's no relationship between Tiger in Southeast Asia, Tiger in Japan and Tiger in Tibet. This I don't think actually that my presentation needs to hang on this question. But some people have thought that these words are related to the Chinese. So I want to look at that a little bit. Okay. So Alexander Vovin who is a Japanologist, a guy who studies the history of Japanese language in 2021. So quite recently and actually he has subsequently passed away. So this is one of his very last articles. He directly connects the Japanese and Southeast Asian forms. He's not very clear about what he has in mind. But he more or less proposes that the Japanese T in Torah corresponds to the K in Kla and the Japanese R in Torah corresponds to the L in Kla. So it's not clear to me how he thinks it works. But this much he does make clear that he thinks Torah comes from Kla. Now I talk about in Tibet. Yeah. So Beckwith, who's an American and Kyosei, a Japanese scholar, they reconstruct all Chinese stars. Okay. Which would be in the conventions in just the symbols used by Backstreet Cigar would be star. So I think most people think this is a very strange way to reconstruct all Chinese and that they are basing it very closely on the Tibetan form. This reconstruction is according to the normal rules of all Chinese historical phonology. It's not possible. Yeah. But if Japanese and Tibetan we think of as having similar words for Tiger and somehow they do, right? Like they both have a T and then a vowel and then some kind of consonant at the end, right? So stuck and Torah could be somehow related, especially because Japanese would have added a vowel there, right? They do that in Japanese. They always add vowels for monotactic reasons. So maybe the Japanese and Tibetan are related. If they are, they would have to come from China, right? Because China is the place between Tibet and Japan. So I'm going to work on the hypothesis that the Chinese borrowed a word like kala and then they loaned a word like, you know, stuck or Torah, right? So that seems to be the, I think the, in some ways, the null hypothesis, right? That like, because tigers are probably oldest in, I don't know, a monk mare or, you know, Southeast Asian languages. So maybe Chinese borrowed kala and then lent something with the T. That's my hypothesis. And then we see whether I can get it to work or not. That's kind of the rest of the papers to see whether to get it to work. Okay. So now let's look at Tiger in Chinese. So the word for Tiger is who, right? So in middle Chinese, it's, it's, it's also who. But I just explained, yeah. This is, this is, yeah, the little X is up. And the big X means Hong Kong. No, sorry, no, is that right? Yeah. Okay. So yeah, so yeah, middle Chinese has four tones, right? Yeah. So this is writing in there in Baxter or in Baxter's system for writing middle Chinese. So what does it come from in all Chinese? Well, this comes from, yeah. And this is the so-called the fish section. Yeah, like in middle Chinese is who like in the word, you know, you know, fish, right? Yeah. So it's a, in middle Chinese is who and in all Chinese are. So if you've studied Chinese stochophonology, that will just be something you know. But I will give you some proof anyhow. So the word Buddha, which in middle Chinese would be something like, it is Buddha in, let's say, Pan Dynasty Chinese. Yeah. So the, the do comes from the Da, right? Okay. Now, also, if you look at Sino-Tibetan comparisons, we have, I don't know, Wu maybe, like Wu is me. Yeah. So in middle Chinese, it was pronounced Wu. But the Tibetan word is Nga. And the Burmese word is Nga. Yeah. So we think the old Chinese was probably Nga. Yeah. So now I've given you at least some indication that the Wu in middle Chinese comes from ah, in old Chinese, right? So now if we just imagine our word for tiger, it's something like ha, right? Maybe not who, but ha. Yeah. But what does the the sound come from? The, what is the sources of ha in all Chinese? Yeah. That's this question. What is the source of the ha in old Chinese? And I think I don't prove it because it gets way too complicated. Yeah. But I just tell you the sources of ha in old Chinese. So these are the three main sources of ha in old Chinese. And then I'll just point to them and say them as best I can. So this one is a voiceless veal or nasal. So it's Nga. Yeah. Okay. This one is a voiceless bilabial nasal. So ma. And this one is a aspirated uveal or stop. So it's very hard for me to do, but something like ah. So this is, you know, let's say most people, I think, at least in Dublin and in Shaman, we agree these are three sources of middle Chinese ha. So now we could say tiger, maybe, maybe tiger was ma or maybe it was ma or maybe it was ha. Okay. But it's not so easy even because in a western dialect of old Chinese, there's three more options. No, four options. Yeah, four options. So I'll go through these as well. So this one is a voiceless R. So no, but it's okay. It's like an R. Yeah. But then, but then you make it voices. Like, like this, you can make the normal theories are like, you know, world venture, but then don't vibrate your voice. You say, it's it. Okay. And then this one is same, but for an L. So say, like love, like lie or lie. You say slice. Okay. And then also no, no. And then this one I won't, well, maybe I'll try to say it's like the earlier one, like this one, but with an R after it. So. So I don't know whether everyone, let's say these are relatively uncontrovertible, like, like Leap On Kuei said this, these two. And then this one is from Phan Nguyen in the 90s, I think late 90s. I don't know whether people generally agree or not, but the idea, but I'm following your back since you got 2014. So they proposed in their 2014 book that, you know, Western dialect of Chinese. These are four sources of in Middle China. Okay. So now we have four, five, six, seven possible origins of the sound in Chinese. So, so which one is it, right? We have to try to narrow it down. Okay. Okay. So let's look at the Xie Xiang connections of Tiger. I don't know if everyone here like knows what is Xie Xiang series. Yeah. Okay. So which characters does are written using Tiger as phonetic, right? So here they are and they're and I'm giving the Middle Chinese, right? So Hu, Qiu, Chou, Lu, Liu, Liu, and Zhu. So then I reconstruct the ones that are easy to reconstruct. Okay. So this is just if you just follow normal ways of like, you know, I don't know, if you just take one class in reconstructing all Chinese and someone says, okay, reconstruct these words into from Middle Chinese into all Chinese. This is what you would get. So quite, these are the easy ones, right? So this can either come from crap or from cow. It's hard. You can't tell in murder. So then we write the R in parentheses because we don't know. Does it have a R? Does it not have a R? Anyhow. Then this is so and it comes from ta, ta. So again, this is the, this is the function. Okay. And then this one's very easy. So line will come from R in all Chinese to the row. And then this has to do with this gay means something in Middle Chinese. Yeah. So that's why there's no little symbol. This symbol means not something. Okay. So this one is this one. So this age is the future. Yeah. So this is and then this one is. So this is how I think, you know, if you, if I gave you a test and said to reconstruct these words into all Chinese, this is how you should do it. Yeah. Okay. So now I just point out that this one is ta is weird, right? Like, they all have some kind of raw in them, except this one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, 因为他根据这个汉,就是刚才这个词的读,他对应的是乌达,就是这个词,就是阿不是东古的乌可以对散古的阿,所以由此来非断他的散古的运猛是,不是乌持阿。 然后现在他要解释的是,生母,就是说东古是喝嘛,我们现在也是喝,对不对?但是呢,散古他不是喝,那么他就觉得,他就说,给你们介绍一下就是有几种可能,比如说这个,这里面讲的这个,呃,这个,这个,一个,就是底下加一个圈,或者上面加一个圈,呃,实际上是表示,呃,我们知道这个,我们的鼻音, 比如说它卓德的类,那加了圈的这个是清的,那,因为我们现在汉 Yes, it's a... We're all going to be... I know it's a light. So, how many kinds of drinks do you have? Like, a Chinese drink? We have a lot of drinks now. So, how many kinds of drinks do you have? It all becomes a drink. So, what's the next thing he wants to tell you? What's his conclusion? The question is, this is who, right? So, why do they write who? Why do they use who to write you? Right? Why? And why do they write who to write you? Is who and you not so similar? So, one way to understand is I'm looking here for what does everything share? Right? What does the series mean? What's common all here? And it looks like it's a Ra. Because here you have Ra, Ras, Ra, Ra, Ra. So, it looks like Ra is what the symbol who means. Right? But there's one problem, which is this Ta. There's no Ra, right? So, this one is very strange. You know, we want it to be Ra, right? Ra, Ra, Ra, Ra, Ra. But why Ta? It's strange, right? So, I asked myself, can I make it Ra? Somehow, according to the rules that Baxter and Sagar give, the answer is I can, yeah? But it has to be this. It has to be this, yeah. So, these ones we forget about now, because we are finished with them. So, we leave them on. So, there's a Ta, right? So, you said there's a Ta, right? So, maybe the last one is this one. There's another one that says, there's a Ra. So, there's a Ra, right? In ancient times, it means Ra. So, we read Ra now, right? But in ancient times, it's different. So, you said there's a Ra, right? Yeah, so, like, I skipped this, but just, you know, if you read their book, Baxter and Sagar, they think that the Ra would mean the just Ta, yeah? So, this is, like, I'm allowed to do it. It's okay. If I really want to put a Ra into this, it's how it looks, yeah? Now, it, you know, like, well, I'll just go back here and say, okay. So, now, it's Ra, Ra, Ra, Ra, Ra, and probably Ra, right? Or Ta, Ra, Ra, yeah? So, now the question is, what about who? Yeah? What does who come from? Like, the tiger word, yeah? So, let's go back and remind ourselves, these are all the options. So, is it this one? No, probably not, right? Is it this one? No, this one? No, this one? This one? This one? Which one is it? It's the R, right? Because, because, you know, let's say these are the possible sources of Ha and only the R would make sense in the series, right? Here's R, here's R, all R, everywhere, R, yeah? So, that means who also has to have an R, right? Because we only get R as a source of Ha in a Western diet. So, now, it looked to me like this is what we should reconstruct, right? Because this is the only way to get the whole series to make sense. But this is not what Baxter and Cigar do. This is what Baxter and Cigar do. So, they reconstruct this Q, H, R, A. Here, R, yeah? And then this one we don't know. It could be a T or a K or a T. They don't know, yeah? But they think this one's some kind of constant. And then this one, a T. So, they think that K is somehow the same. So, I don't know why, right? Or it's confusing. So far, I've tried to do everything by the rules. Like, okay, we say what are the sources of who, the Ha sound, what's in the Checheng series. And I came up with a different reconstruct. So, why do they do it? Let's see what they say in their book. So, they say, as noted by Norman, 1973, the Min dialects occasionally have Proto-Min K-H for ka. So, this is, oops. Okay. So, here you can read the quote in Chinese. And then these are the forms they give. And I don't know these dialects. So, I can't really pronounce it well. So, in Zhen Qin, they say ku. And in Jian O, they say ku. And then in Jian Yang, they say ho. Okay. So, these are mean forms. That's why Bacter and Sagar reconstruct the Q. So, now I have a problem, right? Because I like my reconstructions more, right? Because, you know, let's just remind ourselves. This is mine, yeah? So, I want this in order to get the R everywhere, right? So, theirs doesn't have the R everywhere. Mine has the R everywhere. I think it's the only way to make sense of the Checheng series is to have the R in all of the characters, right? So, what do I do with these mean forms? Okay. I go forward. Just pause on this one just to remind you, yeah? Yeah, so now I need to change my reconstructions to somehow explain these mean dialect. And, you know, I'm not going to invent some whole new system of all Chinese reconstruction. So, instead, I just ask, okay, Bacter and Sagar, they don't do it, but according to their rules, according to their system, what am I allowed to do? Can I keep what I've done so far with the R and also explain the mean forms following their system, but not following their choice of how to reconstruct Q. So, these are the mean forms, yeah? And then, this is what I propose. So, basically, I add a K with a schwa bell. So, Ke, Ke, Ra, yeah? And then, Ke, Ra. And then here, we already had it. Ra. But if you type, oh, sorry, yeah. Well, I don't really need to do this, but I'm allowed to. I can just make it look more similar, right? So, according to the Bacter and Sagar rules, these are things I can do. So now, I've made myself happy because these haze in the word for tiger can explain the mean forms, but I still have the R to explain why the K-tron series is written all with R, right? So, that's tentatively, this is what I propose to reconstruct. Do you understand? Because, as you just saw, in the Bacter and Sagar rules, the word for tiger is not a tiger, right? So, to put it simply, the tiger in the tent is also related to the K-tron series. So, its meaning is that the upper part of the word is also related to the two-ringed-jie. So, in the Bacter and Sagar rules, the word for tiger is R. But I have to explain why the K-tron series is written all with R. So, this is why the word for tiger is like this. So, the word for tiger is like this. We don't know the meaning of the word for tiger. So, we will make a hypothesis. The hypothesis is like this. But our hypothesis is not based on the word for tiger. Our hypothesis is, for example, our dialect, our language, and the relationship between the dialect and the Tibetan language. According to the terms, for example, the word for tiger is written all with R. Why the word for tiger is written all with R? Why is it written all with R? Why is it written all with R? So, the word for tiger is written all with R. So, in a way, I could stop here and just say, this is what I propose to reconstruct. But I keep talking anyhow. Let's look at words for tiger in the Fang Yan. You know the Fang Yan? I'm confused because Fang Yan is just a normal Chinese word for dialect. There's also the name of a book from the Han Dynasty. So, I'm talking about the book from the Han Dynasty. So, in this book from the Han Dynasty, it's called the Fang Yan, we look for Hu. And these are the four possible words for tiger that occur in the Fang Yan. So, here they are in Middle 30s. And here they are in Old 20s, just according to the normal root. So, it means that, you know, in the Han Dynasty, there were somehow words like this, you know, that meant tiger. So, something like, kua la, kua la, kua long. Yeah. Okay. So, kua long. So, when we talk about the?" It's also the angua saying. So now how do we incorporate this information, right? Well, what's the big difference between what I had reconstructed and in this form? These forms have an L, whereas I reconstructed an R. Just remind you, this is what I had. So I say, but in the fangyan, it's not, it's, so what to do? Well, it turns out that in the history of Chinese, 下 and 下 merge, they were, they became the same thing. Yeah. So now I give you some evidence of that. So this is the merger of 下 and 下, yeah. So this guy, his name is Tang, okay. He was the founder of the 下 dynasty, yeah. So later, his name is Tang, this one. So it used to be this one, then it was this one. I think it's Su, Mr. Su. Okay. So this one reconstructs to 下. Yeah. This is from back then. So it shows that 下 and 下, they merged, yeah. This is a Tongjia relationship, right? So because 下 and 下 merge, then I can reconstruct, I can reconstruct 下, yeah. No problem. Okay, now you say, wait a second. You reconstruct 下, the 下. But these forms, they're not 下. This is in the Tongjia, wait a second, you can see it. These ones, it's q, it's not 下, it's q, yeah. So you think you're wrong because it's q, it's not 下. So how do I deal with this? It's actually no problem at all. Because in type A syllables, that means in 下 and 下, although it's a little bit more complicated than that. But basically, in 下 and 下, then k in the Han dynasty was pronounced like q. And the way we know this actually is loans from Chinese into 苗苗. So 苗苗, they distinguish 下 and 下, yeah. And in 上等, they borrow 下 as 下. But outside 上等, they borrow 下 as 下, yeah. So we know that in the Han dynasty, 下 in non-sungdom. So we'd say type A syllables was pronounced as 下, yeah. This part maybe people don't follow. Yes. So we're from, have you ever learned Chinese? No. Have you ever learned it? No, I haven't. No, I haven't. So Chinese is one, two, three, four. And in 下等, 下等, 下等, 下等, 下等, 下等, 對,就是像, 你們看到那個有個問號的那個文號, 他就是這種區別, 就是有那個問號的, 他就是, 一二四的, 然後有沒有那個字三的。 那其實他就說 上古是灰山的那句, 那就是二四的。 二四的他覺得他的歌是來自, 這個歌是, 我們現在說的是叫軟二音嗎? 但是那個歌是一個小舌音是更厚面的, 其實它是, 就是我們人體的發音器官有小舌音在這裡面, 然後舌聲音靠前一點, 在往前就是我們不要出現的歌呢? 叫舌音嘛,對。 那其實他就說這個灰山的歌就是那句小舌音。 So, let me just sum up and say, this reconstruction, it explains the Feishan relationships, it explains the Min forms, and it explains the evidence from the Fang Yan. So, I think it's kind of has a lot going for it. So, and this thing about Nya Nya loans, is just to point out that the Fang Yan form with the Q aren't a problem. It's okay, I can reconstruct it, it's okay. So, I like this reconstruction, it's what I'm endorsing. It deals with the Feishan evidence, it deals with the Min evidence, and it deals with the Fang Yan evidence. Oh, and then also, you know, like, it's almost exactly the same as the Khmer Mon Burmese, right? So, it's Kala, right? So, it makes a lot of sense as borrowing from Southeast Asia into old Chinese. So, now the question is, what about Tibetan and Japanese? So, again, I don't think this really matters in a sense, like, if you don't like it, that's fine. Like, if you're convinced so far, we can say who cares what Tibetan and Japanese come from. But, let's try to see what we can do with it. So, this ta, ta, could come from flam. Basically, you get rid of the k, because if you drop the k, then you get flam, then it would become ka in Chinese, right? So, if Tibetan and Japanese borrow the word from Chinese, they borrow it probably from a form like this, yeah? So, you can imagine that Japanese toda comes from ta. Well, what about Tibetan stak? Well, the s is the problem. So, we would expect ta to be borrowed as gtak in Tibetan, but it's not gtak, it's stak. But, and let's say, according to Tibetan orthography, gtak could be possible. But, actually, I'll just tell you, it looks weird to me. Like, it looks weird. No word could ta. So, maybe it's not possible for phonotactic reasons. I'm not sure. I would have to study the question more. Say, like, why did they borrow ta as stak and not gtak? It's, this is the weakest point, I think, for me. So, now I just conclude. In old Chinese, the word for tiger was ka-cha. In early Han Chinese, it was ka-la-la. Yeah. So, the k changes to a few. The type A symbol is normal. And then, this form is recorded with these cells in the fangnye. In a Western dialect of later Han, we get ta. And that becomes pu. In a Eastern dialect of later Han, we get ta. And then, this is borrowed as stak and hora. So, that's the summary of what I think happened. So, what are the problems? So, Tibet is in the West. So, why would they borrow a word from Eastern dialect of Han? This is a problem, right? But it's not necessarily a big deal, because the capital is lo-yaan, and lo-yaan is in the East. So, maybe it's OK. But it's, if you think it's a problem, I'm OK with that, right? Like, Tibet's in the West, they should borrow the Western word, not the Eastern word. But they borrowed the Eastern word. That's one problem, but not a big problem, I think. The other problem is, why does Chinese, like modern Chinese, why did they use the Western word, rather than the Eastern word? So, I don't have an explanation for that. But it's part of the larger question of how different dialects merge in the Han dynasty to create Middle Chinese. But so, these are, you know, I think these are some problems that need maybe more research. But basically, I'm happy with this story. So, that's everything. So, I just say, thank you. Thank you. So, in the middle of the night, I wrote an email saying that Han Kongfeng was out of control. So, I didn't tell him to sit down. So, he, but at that time, I really don't know. When I got up on the second day and found this problem, he only came back to London to wait for my news. Luckily, Han Kongfeng was out of control. He changed his mind, so he insisted on coming. So, I think we have to thank him very much. So, this is a very intuitive study of Han Chinese dialects. You can see the success of our report. So, first of all, he studied Chinese. And because of the relationship between the Chinese and the Chinese, he decided to study Chinese. So, a foreigner can study Chinese so well. He has a lot of achievements. One of them is one of the students who studied in our university before. He is now studying in China. And the other two students are also from China. They are working in China. So, they are currently working with Dr. He. They work with our Han Chinese dialects. So, today, Dr. He is sharing with us this story. The old tiger is a very familiar animal. He is very young and scared and very affectionate. I think this is a very interesting story. So, Dr. He is going to use English to speak. So, I invited Ms. Anna today. She is my student. She is my research student. She graduated a few years ago. She is now working in China. So, after Dr. He talks about it, if you don't understand, please come and help us to translate it. Okay? So, let's start with Ms. Anna. Please translate it.