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Ba-Shu Chinese (Chinese: 巴蜀語; pinyin: Bāshǔyǔ; Wade–Giles: Ba¹ Shu³ Yü³; Sichuanese Pinyin: Ba¹su²yu³; IPA: [pa˥su˨˩y˥˧]), or Old Sichuanese (or Old Szechwanese; Chinese: 蜀語), is an extinct Sinitic language formerly spoken in what is now Sichuan and Chongqing, China. This language is first attested in Fangyan during the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE) and represents one of the earliest splits from Old Chinese or Early Middle Chinese. It started to disappear during the late South Song Dynasty period due to the Mongolian conquest which resulted in a massacre throughout the Sichuan Basin. At that time the language was supplanted by Southwestern Mandarin after settlement by people from other parts of China, mostly from present-day Hubei and Hunan.[1]

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Ba-Shu Chinese
巴蜀語
Native to	China
Region	Sichuan Basin
Extinct	Extinct during the Ming dynasty. Some features are preserved in Sichuanese Mandarin, especially Minjiang dialect.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Ba-Shu Chinese
Dialects	Minjiang dialect (Disputed)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None
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Phonological aspects of Ba-Shu Chinese are preserved in the Minjiang dialect of Sichuanese Mandarin and there is debate on whether it is a variant of Southwestern Mandarin or a modern day descendant of Ba-Shu.[2][3]

Phonology

Song dynasty

Though the Ba-shu language is extinct, some phonology features of rhymes are able to be found by researching the local literaries and poets' use of rhymes in their works.[1]

Liu Xiaonan assumed that they write verses in Standard Chinese of the Song dynasty, but because their mother tongue was Ba-shu, they unconsciously wrote with a Ba-shu accent of the time, which was reflected in the rhymes.

Codas Merger

According to Liu's research, there is enough evidence to assume a significant number of codas mergers had taken place or were taking place in Ba-shu language during the Song dynasty.

• *i(ə)m and *i(ə)n often merged as *-n (真侵部合併) .
• *i(ə)n and *i(ə)ŋ often merged as *-n (真青部合併), this progress can be abbreviated as /*im/ > /*in/ < /*iŋ/.
• *an and *aŋ sometimes merged as *-n.
• *am and *an sometimes merged as *-n.
  • Ditto, which can be abbreviated as /*am/ > /*an/ < /*aŋ/.
• *-t, *-k and *-p quite probably all merged as *-ʔ, then further be dropped (especially in west of Sichuan Basin).

Vocabulary

Ba-shu language had some unique words probably identified as substrate from Old Shu language by scholars.

Word	Recorded period	Meaning	Pronunciation in Middle Chinese (Zhengzhang)	Literal pronunciation and meaning in Putonghua	Note
逼	late Northern and Southern Dynasties to early Suí Dynasty, around AD600	pellets	*pɨkD	bī 'to force; a common name for the female genitalia'	Yán Zhītuī《颜氏家训·勉学篇》： 吾在益州，与数人同坐，初晴日晃，见地上小光，问左右：“此是何物？”有一蜀竖就视，答云：“是豆逼耳。”相顾愕然，不知所谓。命取将来，乃小豆也。穷访蜀士，呼粒为逼，时莫之解。吾云：“三苍、说文，此字白下为匕，皆训粒，通俗文音方力反。”众皆欢悟。When I was sitting with several people in Yìzhōu(益州, another name of Chéngdū), I saw a small light [point] on the ground when the sun was shining and asked them, "What is this?" A Shǔ (蜀) child looked at it and replied, "It is a 豆逼(dòu bī, lit. 'bean, to force')." They looked at each other in amazement, not knowing what he said. [We] ordered [him] to come and [found that] it was/were small bean(s). When I visited many literaties in Shǔ, [I enquire them for that why that child] called 粒 (lì, 'pellet') as 逼, but no one could understand. I cloud: "[According to] Sāncāng (三蒼) and Shuōwén (説文解字, Shuōwénjiězì), this hànzì is 匕 (bǐ, 'baggar') under 白 (bái, 'white'), [its meaning] generally interpreted as 粒, the common literal reading is 方力反(方力 *pʉɐ̄ŋ lɨk → pɨk, see fánqiē)." The crowd was enlightened.
姐	Eastern Han	mother	*tsiaB	jiě 'elder sister'	Xǔ Shèn《说文解字》：蜀人呼母曰姐。Shǔ People call mother as 姐.
師	Tang	monk	*ʃiɪA	shī 'master'	Dù Fǔ《江畔独步寻花 ①(其五)》：蜀人呼僧为师，葬所为塔。Shǔ People call monk as 師 and call the place to bury as 塔.
塔		bury place	*tʰɑpD	tǎ 'tower'
圍	Northern Song	sky	*ɦʉiA	weí 'to siege'	Huáng Tíngjiān《与大主簿三十三书》：蜀人呼天为围。Shǔ People call sky as 圍.
葭萌	Han	tea tree, also an ancient hydronymy and a name of county	*kˠaA mˠɛŋA	jiāméng	Yáng Xióng《方言》

Notable speakers of Ba-shu language

Three Sū(s) (三蘇, sān sū)

• Sū Shì (蘇軾), who was from Meízhōu (眉州), Chéngdū circuit (成都府路).
• Sū Zhé (蘇轍), Sū Shì's younger brother.
• Sū Xún (蘇洵), Sū Shì and Sū Zhé's father.

See also

• Shu Han
• Ba
• Shu
• Bashu culture

References

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