Re: Hakka Language and Japanese Go-On Borrowings

["Daryl Wong" <darylw@mbox2.singnet.com.sg>]

Dylan, reading your entries has always given me new perspectives.  Sorry to
say that I have difficulty following your writings especially when it comes
to the different dynasties.  I think it would be helpful if you could give
a chronological overview.  I believe not all of us here at this forum are
well-verse with the history of China and would really appreciate your
effort.

What you said about the influence of Chinese language to the Japanese is
extremely interesting.  I would really appreciate if you could give a more
complete analysis of the relationship between Chinese, especially Hakka,
with Japanese language.  Do you see a possibility that Hakka was a major
language spoken in Tang Dynasty, just what SL Lee has proposed?

You have also pointed out that Hakka was well preserved despite the vast
movements over the centuries.  Do you mean that Hakka had not been
influenced by Cantonese at all?  As you know, there seems to be a lot of
saying that Hakka was very much influenced by Cantonese.  The sole reason
is that we had been their neighbour for hundreds of years.  I believe in
this theory that Hakka was a well preserved language too.  This is base on
my own observation that despite proximity to Cantonese, Hakkas were still
very isolated with the outside world.  I think it can be seen from our
culture that Hakkas are a very close-knit group of people and we had been
comfortable living in a rural and mountainous region.  It does not seem
that there was much trade between Hakka and Kwantung in the old days. 

If Hakkas and Cantonese co-exist in the Wu kingdom, I wonder why Cantonese
called us the "Hakka". Up till now, I am still very interested to know the
relationship between the Hakka and Cantonese.  This relationship, as I
speculated, could fall back to the period of Three Kingdoms.  Cantonese
could have occupied a certain °ê ¡C I think you have heard of the  phrase
¦Ê °ê ª§ »ï .  Somehow, Cantonese have lost a war and they started moving
to the present kwangtung.  It was later followed by the Hakkas.  This is of
course just my own speculation that is now put into this forum solely for
the purpose of sharing and let me know if you see this possibility.

Daryl