Cross-Linguistic Transcription and Phonological Representation in the Huìtóngguǎnxì Huáyíyìyǔ

Ji-eun Kim

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arXiv · 2605.14480

Cross-Linguistic Transcription and Phonological Representation in the Huìtóngguǎnxì Huáyíyìyǔ

Ji-eun Kim

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Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates the transcription principles underlying Huìtóngguǎnxì Huáyíyìyǔ (HHY), a series of multilingual glossaries compiled by the Ming government between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for interpreter training. The study treats HHY not as a collection of isolated language materials, but as a coherent multilingual transcription system representing spoken forms of non-Chinese languages through Chinese characters. Methods: A substantial portion of HHY was digitized and aligned with Chinese phonological categories. Previous reconstructions of individual language sections were critically reviewed and integrated into a unified comparative database. The analysis focuses on cross-linguistic regularities in Main Transcription (MT) and Supplementary Transcription (ST) across eight language sections. Results: MT generally represents sounds compatible with the Chinese syllable structure of the period, whereas ST mainly encodes phonetic features less compatible with Chinese phonology. The analysis further shows that Chinese phonological categories were used more flexibly in foreign-language transcription than previously assumed. HHY therefore functioned as a relatively systematic method of phonetic approximation rather than a direct projection of Chinese phonology onto non-Chinese languages. Conclusion: HHY can be analyzed as an internally structured transcription system rather than merely as a collection of glossaries. More broadly, the study demonstrates that historical transcription systems can provide valuable evidence for historical phonology, particularly for under-documented Asian languages with limited historical records.

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Ji-eun Kim. 2026-05-26. Cross-Linguistic Transcription and Phonological Representation in the Huìtóngguǎnxì Huáyíyìyǔ. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14480

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