他 tuō?

[OneEye]

In Fuller's An Introduction to Literary ChineseLesson 10 (新序：兩頭蛇), he glosses 他 as tuō. I can't figure out why. Zdic has nothing on this, 王力古漢語字典 only lists tā, and the only pronunciation listed in the Unicode database is tā. I did find it in 國語辭典, but all it says is:

（又音）ㄊㄨㄛ　ｔｕｏ（02796）

Which I guess just means it's an alternate pronunciation. 康熙字典 says X音拖 (X being a variant of 並 which truncates my post), with no further explanation, so same deal there. Is there a certain time when tuō is appropriate, or is it a regional thing? It seems that without a good reason to gloss it as tuō, it would make much more sense to stick with the more common (by far, it seems) reading. Any light to shed here, or ideas on where I could look? I have access to a decent university library here in Taiwan, I just don't know where to start looking.

Damn post truncation!!

[skylee]

If you google it you will find that the tuo pronunciation is usually used when 他 is used in Buddhist texts/scriptures. The online Lin Yutang Dictionary also has this pronunciation.

[OneEye]

Ah, I see that now. In that case, I wonder why he glossed it as tuō in this text, since it isn't Buddhist. A slip-up, perhaps?

Thanks for the link to Lin Yutang, I hadn't seen that before!

[Daan]

It's not all that uncommon - I'm surprised only one of the dictionaries you checked listed it as a 又音. As far as I know, the character 他 was also pronounced as (the precursor of) tuō when it meant 'other', as in the famous passage from the Mencius:

孟子謂齊宣王曰：「王之臣有託其妻子於其友，而之楚遊者。比其反也，則凍餒其妻子，則如之何？」

王曰：「棄之。」

曰：「士師不能治士，則如之何？」

王曰：「已之。」

曰：「四境之內不治，則如之何？」

王顧左右而言他。

(source: Chinese Text Project, see also for English translation)

I'm beginning to doubt, however, whether it's really all that common. My textbook, like Fuller's, gave it as the only "proper" reading for 他 and said the reading tā is more recent. But the phonetic spellings on http://ap6.pccu.edu....ord.asp?no=2472 seem to disprove that, and now I'm not really sure what to believe anymore. If I don't forget, I'll check this in a few dictionaries when I get back to Leiden - after the Christmas break.

[Hofmann]

There was only one pronunciation of 他. Baxter reconstructs Old Chinese as /hlaj/. The Middle Chinese pronunciation is 託何切 (reconstructed as /tʰa/ or /tʰɑ/), which rhymes with 何, 羅, 那, 多, etc. Other characters pronounced 託何切 in 廣韻 are 佗拕它蛇痑鼧. The more regular evolution to Mandarin would yield tuō, even though tā sounds more like Middle Chinese.

[skylee]

As far as I know, the character 他 was also pronounced as (the precursor of) tuō when it meant 'other'

The Lin Yutang Dictionary also lists this under "其“ -

5. 其他 [qi2ta1] (coll. [qi2tuo1]), phr., and others, often 及其他 and others; the other (persons, things): 其他作品 and other works.

And under ”它“ -

ㄊㄨㄛ [tuo1] (*ㄊㄚ [ta1]; *'te when unaccented). [Var. 他 91A.70]

(1) Modern invented pron. to represent English “it”as dist. from “he,” “she.” Theoretical pr. [tuo1], actually spoken as [ta1].

(2) (AC) other, different: 或敢有它志 may perhaps entertain other, different, motives

But I think the pronunciation is not common.

[Daan]

Thanks, Hofmann and skylee!

[OneEye]

Thanks, all! Interesting stuff.

[Jose]

In his excellent "Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar", Edwin Pulleyblank refers to pronunciations such as tuō for 他 as "special literary readings" that were common in the past and that have been replaced in the modern standard language by what he calls "colloquial pronunciations". I've found the relevant passage (p. 7) through Google Books: http://books.google.es/books?id=pM8QiZGImRgC&lpg=PA7&ots=1sDKBbv8eU&pg=PA7#v=onepage

Fuller's "An Introduction to Literary Chinese" seems to adhere to the same preference for those older literary readings, which often match the standard in Taiwan (as in qí for 期).

[OneEye]

Ah, of course. I had forgotten about literary readings. Thanks for the reference!