Re: hakka: Re: Hakka Dialect

["Dylan W.H. Sung" <mabr12@dial.pipex.com>]

Hi there,

Many people will have cug6pu2 or family clan histories which will link them
to historic figures of the TANG dynasty, and before. Amongst these on the
web is Jonathan Teoh's segment of his family history at your site under
'Genealogy'. The name (BIG5: ±i¤EÄÖ) Chang Chiu Ling (Zhang Jiu Ling) is
mentioned. He served under the only female Emperor of China, Empress Wu
Zetian. He lived between the dates 673-740 AD. 

My cugpu mentions a distant ancestor, §º¿[ Sung4 Gin2 (Sung Ching / Song
Jing) [663-737] who served under the same imperial reigns as Zhang Jiu
Ling. Since Jonathan and I identify ourselves as having Hakka connections,
and our ancestry point to court life of the Tang Dynasty, it goes someway
to establishing some of the assertion that Hakka people are people of Tang,
ie, Tong2 Ngin2. Is this too circumstantial a link anyone?

It would be interesting as a straw poll to know, how many people reading
can trace names of ancestors which played major roles in public life in the
Tang era? (I estimate this to be between 40 and 45 generations ago, taking
30yr/gen.) And how many of these identify themselves as being present day
Hakka, Cantonese, Mandarin, Fujianese or other speakers? 

I would suggest that even Cantonese, and some Mandarin speakers will say
that they have similar claims. The reason being that, as time goes by, they
could assimilate into the dialects of their local regions and lose their
original speech patterns. We see this today where children do not speak the
language of their grandparents. It isn't too far fetched a thought.

Dylan. 


----------
sllee wrote:
: Doreen,
: 
: I don't think there is a 100% verification of this theory, but so far the
: evidence is there. Please see my articles under language.Join our
: discussion by writing to the Cc. addresses. Thanks.
: 
: SL Lee
:
****************************************************************************
**
: 
: On Sun, 2 Aug 1998, doreen wrote:
: 
: > I grew up calling myself a "Tong Ngin" or people of Tang. Is it true
that Hakka was the dialect of the court during the Tang Dynasty, that the
emperors spoke it?
: > 
: > pitt