Reading dialect (Shinasthana)

The reading dialect (讀書音, dok-shia-'riehm) is a language of the Shinasthana family of languages used in Themiclesia. As it has no native speakers, some consider it a dead language, but it remains employed in limited settings as a cultural and liturgical language. As a written language is almost universal in formal documents, poetry, and some genera of prose literature. It was standardized by government fiat in 1949. Themiclesia's national curriculum requires all students to have acquired written and "reading" proficiency in the reading dialect by the time they graduate from high school. The curriculum does not require students be able to converse in this language, and in actuality it is rarely heard in conversation.

The reading dialect is noted for its preservation of archaic features in the grammar and phonology of the Old Menggok language, from which Shinasthana developed. It possesses multiple phonemes, consonant clusters, and triphthongs and even tetraphthongs that are not attested in any other dialect. It has been widely accepted that the reading dialect has evolved far less than other dialects of comparable age, in part as a conscious effort preserving archaic rhymes and in another part due to the sedate pace at which it is spoken; it sees most use in "reading" classical texts, for which it is named. It is opposed to "speaking" (語音, ngia-'riehm) dialects, which are vernaculars used in conversation. It is also used to provide a uniform notation of phonetic value for an inter-dialectal audience; as the reading dialect is quite distant from any vernacular, the government has extensively employed it to avoid accusations of regional favourtism.

Unless otherwise noted, phonetic values given in this page are those standardized by the government in 1949.

Origins

The reading dialect has been reputed by Themiclesian scholars since the 4th Century as the "language of the Meng court" during the Meng dynasty; however, modern analyses generally find these historical claims untenable. In the 1920s and 30s, linguists debated whether the reading dialect was ever a language native to any community in Themiclesia or Menghe; those that agree tend to argue that the dialect is the native language of first of Menghean settlers, arriving during the 2nd and 3rd Centuries, while others claim that it is an artificially created dialect, combining known characteristics of Old Menggok phonology, grammar, and writing system, and compiled in the middle of the 5th Century as a statement of political legitimacy and heritage from the Meng monarchy. More recent scholarship have sought to reconcile these views and posit the existence of a lingua franca that was used for inter-dialectical communication and formal speeches, from which the modern mandarin dialect diverged.

Evidence for the divergence of Themiclesian Menggok dialects from Menghean ones have been presented and dated to as far as the mid-4th Century. A number of modern studies based on early texts giving pronunciations suggest that the reading dialect reflects at least two features of Themiclesian speech that significantly differ from known elements of Meng-era speech at the start of the Common Era; others question the reliability of reconstructions of the Old Menggok language and by extension the comparison of the reading dialect thereto. At any rate, scholars agree that the relative phonetic values and number of phonemes have been fixed by the Ngiok-p'jian, a rhyming guide, by the middle or even the early 5th Century, and subsequent changes have largely been confined by the prescriptions of that work.

Names

Previously, the reading dialect was known as the "proper speech" (雅言), since it purportedly reflected the speech of the educated gentry in the Meng capital at the start of the Common Era, which is now called Old Menggok language; however, as other dialects gained recognition in the modern period, "proper speech" was widely considered pejorative to other dialects, which may be shown in the light of an "improper" language. Its alternate name denoting its function, "reading dialect", thus became its standard name. The term "dialect at the River Meng" (孟下音, mrangh-ghraah 'riehm) was also used to label its geographical origins, though this is now known to be inaccurate. Historically, it was also termed "chant of scholars at the River Meng"; this may indicate its use as a learned or academic language even at the start of the Common Era.

Phonology

Consonants

The reading dialect has 43 consonants, of which 41 can stand in syllable initial position and are named; the other two only appear as medials. Some analyses provide that, though there are 41 named phonetic values, ten of them are in complimentary distribution, which reduces the inventory of phonemes to 36. It is considerably richer in fricatives and affricates than most modern Shinasthana dialects. In particulary, it has a three-way opposition between unaspirated, aspirated, and voiced consonants.

Initials	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal	Notes
Stop—unaspirated	幫 /p/ ⟨p⟩	端 /t/ ⟨t⟩	知 /ʈ/ ⟨tr⟩		見 /k/ ⟨k⟩	匣 /ɢ/ ⟨gh⟩	影 /ʔ/ ⟨'⟩
Stop—aspirated	滂 /pʰ/ ⟨p'⟩	透 /tʰ/ ⟨t'⟩	徹 /ʈʰ/ ⟨tr'⟩		溪 /kʰ/ ⟨k'⟩
Stop—voiced	並 /b/ ⟨b⟩	定 /d/ ⟨d⟩	澄 /ɖ/ ⟨dr⟩		群 /g/ ⟨g⟩
Nasal	明 /m/ ⟨m⟩	泥 /n/ ⟨n⟩	娘 /ɳ/ ⟨nr⟩	日 /ɲ/ ⟨gn⟩	疑 /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩
Sibilant affricate—unaspirated		精 /t͡s/ ⟨ts⟩	莊 /t͡ʂ/ ⟨tsr⟩	章 /t͡ɕ/ ⟨tsh⟩
Sibilant affricate—aspirated		清 /t͡sʰ/ ⟨ts'⟩	初 /t͡ʂʰ/ ⟨tsr'⟩	昌 /t͡ɕ/ ⟨tsh'⟩
Sibilant affricate—voiced		從 /d͡z/ ⟨dz⟩	崇 /d͡ʐ/ ⟨dzr⟩	禪 /d͡ʑ/ ⟨dzh⟩
Sibilant fricative—unaspirated		心 /s/ ⟨s⟩	生 /ʂ/ ⟨sr⟩	書 /ɕ/ ⟨sh⟩
Sibilant fricative—voiced		邪 /z/ ⟨z⟩	俟 /ʐ/ ⟨zr⟩	船 /ʑ/ ⟨zh⟩
Non-sibilant fricative					曉 /x/ ⟨h⟩
Approximant	/w/*	來 /l/ ⟨ɹ⟩		/j/*	云 /ɰ/ ⟨gh⟩
Lateral approximant				以 /ʎ/ ⟨j⟩

• Not used as an initial consonant

Vowels

The following chart presents phonemic vowels in the reading dialect.

i•y______________ɨ______________u
  \              \              |
   \             |              |
    \_____________\_____________|
     \            |             |
      \            ə            |
      ɛ•œ__________|____________ɔ
        \           \           |
         \          |           |
          a__________\__________ɒ

In reality, the realization of these vowels can vary widely by context, especially due to syllabic onglide, which in many cases is phonemic in itself. The onglide is given particular attention by authors commenting on the reading dialect: syllables are classified into "classes" according to the characteristics of the glide. Modern works typically distinguish "consonantal" glides, which are semivocalic, and "vocalic" onglides, which actually forms a diphthong (or triphthong) with the following vowel(s).

Syllable structure

Syllables in the reading dialect have a maximal form of P·CGGGVXXT, where P represents a prefix, C the main initial, G the syllable onglides, V the main vowel, X the final consonants, and T the tone. In traditional notation, the value of C is described as the "sound" (聲), while that of the remainder, the "rhyme" (韻). Not all combinations of these elements are permissible, and not all permissible syllables are used. In the most widely circulated rhyme guides, 478 distinct "rhymes" exist. The total number of syllables in use is disputed, as some syllables are only weakly associated with some very seldom-used words or those of uncertain pronunciation; a "very approximate and hypothetical" total, provided by the Themiclesian Institute of Languages (震旦語言學會, tshjienh-tanh-ngia2-ngian-ghrok-ghuads), puts the total at 10,432 distinct syllables.

Initials

Unlike other Shinasthana dialects, the reading dialect permits complex initials composed of two consonants. This is one of several features that attracted the attention of Casaterran scholars when they introduced new methods in the field of linguistics, and they have subsequently discovered rules that govern complex initials:

• Nasal initials can take /x/ initials only, e.g. 海 (/xməʔ/, "sea").
• Liquid intials can take velar (/k kʰ g/) or bilabial (/p pʰ b/) prefixes, e.g. 隆 (/gloŋ/, "augment").
• Dental, bilabial, and velar initials can take /s/ initials only, e.g. 瑟 (/sbiet/, "a strummed string instrument").
• Additionally, liquids appearing after a stop are typically retained and re-interpreted as medials, e.g. 龐 (/braŋ/, "enormous"); these words may still take another prefix consonant.

The reading dialect does not, according to most authorities, represent the fullest extent of consonant clusters present in the Old Menggok language, particularly in its earlier stages. Certain words which logically should be read with a complex initial only have a simple one in the reading dialect, an anomaly typically attributed to prefixes dropped prior to the solidification of the phonetic system. However, even with these limitations, linguists have postulated several other forms of complex initials (even some triple initials) to have existed during the Old Menggok period.

There is considerable debate as to how these extra consonants failed to disappear, like they have in all other Menghic languages. One theory states the following:

• Its confined use in chanting classical poetry and other culturally important events tended to ensure a degree of accuracy above that paid to daily languages;
• The very slow pace of the chant encouraged reciters to enunciate very clearly, making changes in pronunciation more obvious;
• Complex initials sometimes serve metrical purposes, in the absence of which a line becomes out of time with the melody; in this case, the first element of the complex initial is pronounced with an indeterminate vowel that has no phonemic value, e.g. /xməʔ/ becomes /xəməʔ/. Syllabified prefixes are always distinguishable from the main syllable, as they can only last a single beat, whereas normal syllables usually lasts two or more.

Medials

The onglide structure in the reading dialect is highly developed compared to other dialects; there exist three phonemic and semivocalic glides ⟨r j w⟩, all of which may exist in any combination in a single syllable, such as ⟨rj jw rjw⟩. The sonority hierarchy amongst semivocalic glides favours ⟨r⟩ over ⟨j⟩ and ⟨j⟩ over ⟨w⟩; however, when ⟨w⟩ stands alone, it fluctuates between semivocalic /w/ and vocalic /u/ according to the vocalism of proximal glides and, in their absence, the vocalism of the initial consonant. There are four vocalic glides ⟨i y e œ⟩; ⟨i y⟩ may further be prefixed with ⟨r⟩ to form ⟨ri ry⟩, but ⟨e œ⟩ must stand alone. In total, there are 13 possible onglide variations.

Main vowels

The reading dialect may appear, prima facie, to have a relatively limited amount of phonemic vowels /ə e ɒ a ɔ u/; however, this is largely due to the treatment of some elements of diphthongs and triphthongs as medials and finals. Therefore, these six vowels are more properly considered the monophthongs in the reading dialect. In reality, complex vowels such as /yai œə jəi/ occur frequently.

Finals and tone

Finals follow a syllable's main vowel. Though notionally only one final is permitted, this rule has a number of exceptions. The permitted finals are /i w p t k m n ŋ ɕ/. Finals can be tone-specific: /i w m n ŋ/ are called "lax" finals (舒聲), while /p t k/ are "entering" finals (入聲), and lax finals can take the level, rising, and departing tones, while entering finals can, as their name suggests, only take the entering tone. There are three additional finals that indicate tones; /ʔ/ always follows a word with the rising tone, while /h/ and /ɕ/ follow those that take the departing tone. Both tone-indicating finals occur after any pre-existing final. Furthermore, /ɕ/ is always preceded by /ɨ/, which has an allophone /d/ in that position but only after /a/.

The reading dialect is a tonal language using contoured pitches phonemically to distinguish syllables. There are three such tones, a flat one with no pitch variation, a rising one, and a falling one. Some theories suggest that tones may have originated as reflexes of lost final consonants, and the reading dialect provides favourable evidence for them, since there is a weak final consonant associated with each of the tones.

Illegal syllables

There are many limitations on the possible combinations phonemes to form a syllable, not only in the reading dialect, but in all Shinasthana languages. Most of these rules, when viewed with historical phonology in mind, are cognate with each other. Some prohibitions are due to divergence in the evolution of dialects, and as such the divergent reflexes have natural mutual exclusivity. This can be exemplified by the retroflex stops and nasal series /ʈ ʈʼɖ ɳ/ entailing an r-colouring effect, and there is consensus amongst most scholars that these developed from plain alveolar stops /t t' d n/ followed by a medial /r/, which had the effect of retroflexing the preceding consonant. When plain alveolar stops were proximal to /j/, the palatalized initial later merged with the retroflected ones. As such, they can only be followed by medials including /r/ and /j/, while plain alveolars cannot be followed by /r/ and /j/. The same relationship exists between /ɢ/ and /ɰ/, as the latter is directly formed by medial /j/ following /ɢ/. These vowels are said to be in complimentary distribution, though they are phonetically distinct.

Illegal syllables should be distinguished from those that are hypothetically possible but not in use, such as /eɔŋ/, and from those that are indistinguishable from others that are in use. The latter includes the lack of medial /w/ before /u/, which is explained that /wu/ would be almost indistinguishable from /u/ in speech, since /u/ is a rounded vowel and /w/ has a rounding effect as well. The same applies to syllables ending in /wk/ and /uŋ/.

Rhymes

The standardized reading dialect possesses 461 distinct rhymes, which are the combinations of medial(s), vowel, coda(s), and tone that are in use.　These are strictly linguistic rhymes, not poetic ones; according to most poetic manuals, only 106 rhyming groups (韻攝) are distinguished.

Roles prior to standardization

Linguistics

The reading dialect has been used as a point-of-reference or as a theoretical source for all other dialects since its definition in the 5th Century. While other dialects are definitely not derived from the reading dialect, it was widely thought that the reading dialect remained constant while others diverged from a common source at an earlier time. Early Themiclesian scholars were able to record simple phonological differences between the reading dialect and local vernaculars and, though observing patterns and deducing rules, predict what another character might sound like.

After the introduction of modern linguistic methods in the late 19th Century, the peculiarities of the reading dialect has attracted a sizeable amount of attention and scholarship. Relying heavily on evidence in the language, Rajian linguist B. Garmand published the first modern reconstruction of the Old Menggok language in 1926, inspiring a series of other scholars, of several nationalities, to research the same topic independently. Their work has culminated in a generally accepted structure for the Old Menggok language, upon which recent scholars still rely to synthesize more detailed aspects of the ancient tongue.

Reading

As its name implies, the reading dialect was most often used while reading classical texts but not vernacular texts; this is due to the assumption that the reading dialect is the language of the Warring States period in Menghe, in which many doctrinal texts for various schools of thought and anthologies of ancient poetry were first committed to writing. As it stands in opposition to the vernaculars (語音), Themiclesians generally do not converse in the reading dialect; the grammar and vocabulary of the reading dialect is also far removed from that of vernaculars, most of which had developed a number of dysyllabic words, while those in the reading dialect mostly remained monosyllabic. Highly formalized situations (particularly with prepared dialogues) are an exception to this rule.

Public speaking

In public oration, the reading dialect sees more usage. Depending on the circumstances and the style of the speech, an orator may elect to use the reading dialect. This is particularly true if the speech is written in the grammar of the Old Menggok language, which is still employed, albeit with minor modifications, in most official documents. Prior to 1905, all local magistrates were also required to be conversant in the reading dialect; since then, written proficiency has been sufficient.

Education

Language education in Themiclesia has historically consisted of classical literature almost exclusively; vernacular literature was deemed vulgar until the 19th Century. Modern Themiclesia introduces both classical and vernacular literature under its primary and secondary school curricula; however, only the reading and mandarin dialects are systematically taught as a language, and students are expected to have a conversational command of the local vernacular where they are schooled.

In all cases where official assessments are made on poetry, the reading dialect is used as a standard. Poetry was a standard topic for civil service examinations in Themiclesia as late as 1910, and whether a poem rhymed was judged through the phonetic values of the reading dialect.

Standardization

Selection

In the 19th Century, Themiclesians natively spoke a large variety dialects, many of which are mutually unintelligible. Prior to industrialization, most Themiclesians were peasants and did not stray far from their hometowns; linguistic difference was thus an exclusive concern for the educated gentry, whose members made up the central bureaucracy. There was, in fact, an established standard found in the Ngiok-p'ien, whose phonological system is known as the reading dialect; scholars from different regions interpreted the information in the rhyming guide differently, often with regional influence, yet due to the prescriptions of the work, these regional variations were kept from diverging far, and most varities of the reading dialect remained mutually intelligible into the modern era. As the reading dialect was not a spoken standard, and its phonetic values only mattered inasmuch as they provided a standard by which poetic rhyme was judged, there was considerable difficulty in producing a spoken standard for cirricular use. However, the inter-regional nature of the reading dialect allowed it to prevail over other dialects when the government instituted mandatory education in 1878. Students were not required to speak the reading dialect, but to pronounce words according to it. This situation persisted into the 1900s.

Creation

The impetus for further consolidation came from a number of more radical intellectuals, who in 1907 suggested that a more uniform standard be adopted in the interest of ease of commercial communication and national solidarity. The government, which was considerably more traditionally-minded, initially deemed a uniform spoken language for an entire country an impossibility. Rather than outright dismissing the idea, the government in 1909 call together a panel of 57 linguists to establish the "proper phonetic values" of all Shinasthana words in precise terms, a charge that some have interpreted as attempting to prove its insurmountability. The government provided funding for their research. In 1911, the body decided that the "proper" pronunciation is that of the last common ancestor to all Shinasthana dialects, which is the Ngiok-p'ien's stated purport. 35 years later, in 1947, the panel reported that they had, as instructed, established the "proper" pronunciations of all 53,332 words found in the Ngiok-p'ien, having devised a phonological system that conforms accurately to the one stipulated in the fifth-century rhyming guide and that satisfies modern concepts in historical linguistics.

The panel's work was greeted with mixed opinions upon publication. On the one hand, most historical linguists praised it for its academic soundness and the correctitude of its conclusions; noted linguist A. Anderson reputed it as the "definitive statement over the language of the gentry in early Themiclesia"; on the other hand, scholars from other disciplines questioned its suitability as a standard language to be taught in schools and spoken by the general public.

Educational use

Starting in 1950, the language component of Themiclesia's primary school curriculum included vernacular literature for the very first time. Vernacular content was particular to each prefecture and read according to its modal dialect; classical content had been nationally uniform since the 1800s, but the phonetic values of words were brought in line for the first time. The government advertised this as an unprecedented cultural achievement.

Historically, the subject of Small Studies (小學) encompassed the reading dialect, amongst other fields such as word formation, vocabulary, and calligraphy; children began a scholarly education with Small Studies, as a set of foundational skill, and then progressed to poetry and philosophy. To acquaint students with the large number of rhymes, a song was composed using representative characters from the rhyming guide.

Criticism

Artifical difficulty

Some second language experts have criticized the reading dialect as one that is "artificially difficult", which they typically attribute to the large inventory of phonemes and complex vowel structure, easily exceeding that of most dialects. In particular, for Menghean immigrants, who have arrived in large numbers since the late 1980s, the persistent use of the reading dialect in formal education has been thoroughly criticized. Some Themiclesian commentators, in turn, characterize this as the result of the orchestrated hyper-simplification of the Menghean language, which they claim has deprived its speakers of the ability to acquire foreign tongues.

Dissimilarity with other dialects

A considerable number of scholars believe that the reading dialect, as a lingua franca, is sufficiently different from any regional language that Themiclesian society should be deemed bilingual. While it is theoretically possible for a person to speak only the reading dialect and be understood, surveys have found that this almost never occurs, except with foreigners.

Redundancy

Certain commentators have pointed out that the reading dialect is in a redundant position given the use of the mandarin dialect as a lingua franca. The mandarin is, in some theories, a language that was derived from the reading dialect; in fact, according to more assertive theories, the mandarin is precisely the spoken version of the reading dialect, since the reading dialect in 300s and 400s was almost exclusively called the "chant of scholars at the River Meng" (孟下書生詠), contrasting with the conventional name of the spoken version "proper speech" (雅言). They further provide that the different manner in which the same language was used created the divergence—the reading dialect preserving archaic features through its slow and precisely controlled enunciation, and the spoken one evolving with fewer restrictions.

Yet whatever the differences may have been in the first place, the two were considered distinct from each other as early as the middle of the 7th Century, when Hia Kjiengh-tsung (許敬宗, 610~673) compiled a list of rhymes that he believed reflected the situation better than the Ngiok-p'jian, which is associated with the reading dialect.

Miscellaney

• The Menghean government changed the pronunciation of the Standard Menghean word wonsu (怨讎, "hated enemy") to wonssu to distinguish it from wonsu (元帥), which is the preferred title of Menghean leader Choe Sŭng-min. While these two words are homophones in Menghean, their pronunciations are very different in the reading dialect. The former is pronounced as /ŋjʷânh ʑi͡u/ and latter /ŋjʷan ʂɹyê͜ɨɕ/. Since the alteration by the Menghean government, this example has been often cited to demonstrate the relationship and differences between the two languages not only in academic settings, but also to the general public.