Cross-Linguistic Transcription and Phonological Representation in the Huìtóngguǎnxì Huáyíyìyǔ
This research paper examines the Huìtóngguǎnxì Huáyíyìyǔ (HHY), a historical multilingual glossary system used by the Ming government for interpreter training. The study treats HHY as a systematic transcription method, analyzing how Chinese characters were adapted to represent sounds from various non-Chinese languages. Findings indicate that HHY employed Chinese phonological categories flexibly to approximate foreign sounds, offering valuable insights into historical phonology and under-documented Asian languages. AI
IMPACT Provides insights into historical linguistic analysis methods, potentially informing future AI-driven language reconstruction.