(Sawndip: ; ) are Chinese characters used to write the Zhuang languages in the Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan. is a Zhuang word that means "immature characters". The Zhuang word for Chinese characters used in the Chinese languages is ( 'Han characters'); gun is the Zhuang term for the Han Chinese. Even now, in traditional and less formal domains, Sawndip is more often used than alphabetical scripts.
Names Sawndip is also called old Zhuang script, usually used to distinguish it from the Latin-based Standard Zhuang. In Standard Chinese, the old Zhuang script is called Gu Zhuangzi () or Fangkuai Zhuangzi ().
Sawndip and its synonyms can be used with a spectrum of narrow to broad meanings. The narrowest meaning confines its use just to characters created by Zhuang to write Zhuang and excludes existing Chinese characters. At its broadest, it includes all the "square" characters used to write Zhuang regardless of whether they are of Chinese or Zhuang origin. However, it is not always possible to determine the origin of a character. In this article the inclusive broader meaning is usually used.
In Chinese, while usually old Zhuang script () and square Zhuang script () are synonymous, when used contrastively, the former is restricted to those characters used before the founding of the Republic of China in 1911.
Characteristics
Sawndip is made up of a combination of Chinese characters, Chinese-like characters, and other symbols. Like Chinese it can be written horizontally from left to right, or vertically from top to bottom. The script has never been standardized; some morphosyllables have more than a dozen associated variant glyphs.Bauer, Robert S. (2005), "Written Representation of Zhuang and Cantonese" , Workshop on Zhuang Language, Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong. According to Zhang Yuansheng (), characters not also used in Chinese usually make up about 20% of Sawndip texts, although some texts may be composed almost entirely of characters also used in Chinese.
Classification Different scholars categorize Sawndip in slightly different ways. Displayed below is the estimated frequency of different types of characters by Holm:Holm, David. (2009). A typology of readings of Chinese characters in traditional Zhuang manuscripts [Les lectures des caractères chinois dans les manuscripts Zhuang traditionnels et leur classification]. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 38(2), 245–292. +Character types in Sawndip Mode of reading Number Percentage Phonetic 2303 71.3% Semantic 78 2.4% Phono-semantic 40 1.2% Chinese loan 708 21.9% Zhuang 97 3.0% Dubious 5 0.2% Total 3231 100%
According to Bauer, Sawndip characters can be categorized using a more complex system than the six traditional classification principles: Symbols that do not resemble Chinese characters, and are borrowed from non-Chinese writing systems such as the Latin alphabetNoted in page 43 of 《右江流域方块壮字文献的用字研究》(2010), a thesis by Wei Yufang (韦玉防) . Example, "k" is used on page 1031 of 平果嘹歌:长歌集 published by 广西民族出版社 in 2004, . and (possibly) Burmese Non-standard Chinese-like characters created as ideographic compounds Non-standard Chinese-like characters created as phono-semantic compounds Example: 'mountain' is often written as, containing the ideographic in conjunction with phonetic (). Example: 'person' is often written as , containing the ideographic radical in conjunction with phonetic (). Standard Chinese characters borrowed solely for their pronunciations, and do not share the same original meaning in Chinese (in accordance with the phonetic loan principle) Example: 'to have' is often written as , a character that is pronounced in Mandarin Chinese as , but which means 'eyebrow'. Non-standard Chinese-like characters created specifically for Zhuang to indicate the meaning of certain morphosyllables (in accordance with indicative ideograms) Standard Chinese characters representing loanwords or etymologically related morphosyllables from Chinese Example: 'cup' is written as , a variant character of (; 'cup' in Chinese). Standard Chinese characters borrowed solely for their meanings and do not have a matching reading in Zhuang with Chinese New characters made by juxtaposing a pair of Chinese characters that "spell out" the pronunciation of the Zhuang word as in the traditional Chinese fanqie system, with one character representing the initial consonant and the other the rest of the syllable.
History The script has been used for centuries, mainly by Zhuang singers and shamans, to record poems, scriptures, folktales, myths, songs, play scripts, medical prescriptions, family genealogies and contracts, but exactly when it came into being is not known. It is usually reckoned that Sawndip started to be used over one thousand years ago in the Tang dynasty or earlier. However a study comparing Sawndip with the similar but different neighbouring chữ Nôm script of Vietnam suggested that the script started at latest in the 12th century at about the same time as chữ Nôm."方块壮字与喃字比较研究","Comparative Research into Sawndip and Chu Nom" by 李乐毅 in "民族语文"1987年第4期
Early vernacular characters Even before the Tang dynasty, Zhuang or closely related languages were written down using characters that were either Chinese or made up of Chinese components. Whether these are viewed as Sawndip, or as some sort of precursor to Sawndip, depends not only the evidence itself, but also differing views of what counts as Sawndip and from what era the term Zhuang can be applied.
Some scholars say Sawndip started in the Han dynasty and note the occurrence on words of Zhuang origin in ancient Chinese dictionaries such as which is Sawndip for Zhuang ('water buffalo') and in section 19 of the Erya is given as having similar pronunciation and means ('cattle').
There are some similarities in the poetical style of "The Song of the Yue boatman" () from 528 BC and the Zhuang "Fwen" style. Wei Qingwen () has interpreted the song by reading the characters as Zhuang and some consider the written version and other such songs to be a forerunner though not an example of Sawndip, it has also been interpreted as being Thai, Dong and Cham.
Tang dynasty (7th–9th centuries) The fact that Zhuang readings of borrowed Chinese characters often match Early Middle Chinese suggests a Sui–Tang date, however it has been noted these could also be explained as later borrowings from conservative Pinghua varieties. Chinese characters were already in use in the Zhuang area, as illustrated by two Tang dynasty steles entitled in 682 and in 697. Although these are written in Chinese, the latter contains a number of non-standard characters. One of these is the Sawndip character consisting of '' over for 'paddy field'.
Song dynasty (10th–13th centuries) Several Song dynasty Han Chinese authors give examples of used in Guangxi such as Zhou Qufei in Lingwai Daida and Fan Chengda in the Guihai yuheng zhi () saying that such characters were common in the area and used in legal documents such as indictments, complaints, receipts and contracts.
Table of characters noted in the Song dynasty Guihai yuheng zhi and also in 1986 Sawndip dictionary: Sawndip𨱥䦟𡘫仦𡚻Zhuangdaemq,gaenqonj,vaenjonj,vaenjneuxdahEnglishshortsteadysteadyweakused addressing a lady
Ming dynasty (14th–17th centuries) Whilst no manuscripts from the Ming dynasty have been found, dozens of classic Sawndip works that survive to this day were first written during this dynasty or earlier. Some consider this to be the most abundant period of Sawndip literature. Exact dating is difficult in part because some songs were composed and transmitted orally before being written down, such as ('Song to tell others'), which Liang Tingwang () has stated whilst containing some content comes from centuries before that was written down during the Ming dynasty. Similarly "Songs of March", "Songs of the Daytime", "Songs of the Road", and "Songs of House Building" where first created between the Tang and Song dynasties or earlier and certainly written down at latest during the Ming dynasty.Liao Songs of Pingguo Zhuang Songs of March pages 60ff
Some songs were both created and written down during the Ming dynasty. "Songs of War" () from Pingguo which is considered to be such despite some lines which are later additions.Liao Songs of Pingguo Zhuang Songs of March page 60 壮族嘹歌研究 editor 覃乃昌 广西民族出版社 2008 page 48-52 ('The Dragon Eye Fruit Song'), a love story, is also from the Ming era.壮族民歌古籍集成 情歌 （二）欢𭪤 (田阳情歌)，广西民族出版社 1997 Chief Editor 张声震 page 2 of introduction
A number of songs written in Sawndip are stories which are originally of Han origin but for hundreds of years have been part of the Zhuang tradition, such as ('Song about Tang emperors') about Li Dan and ('Song about Yingtai') and ('Song about Wenlong') to name but a few are reckoned to have first been written down in Sawndip during the Ming dynasty or earlier. In the case of , the original Han story itself has been lost.壮族长诗《唱文龙》源流及其变异 The origin and variations of the Zhuang long poem "Song of Wenlong" by Luo Hantian () published in 《民族文学研究》 Ethnic Literature Research 1984 Volume 2 pages 123–133
Qing dynasty (mid-17th–19th centuries) Thousands of Sawndip manuscripts from the Qing period survive to this day. One well known old surviving text is the Yuefeng () book of folksongs from Guiping, published in the 18th century. A book entitled Taiping Spring () that contains a number of songs and is kept in Lingyun is dated as 1682.清代戏曲抄本叙录 List of Qing dynasty Opera Manuscripts by 朱恒夫
Another source is the Huayu yiyu ( 'Barbarian vocabulary') compiled by the Bureau of Translators in the mid-18th century on the order of the Qianlong Emperor, and now held in the archives of the Imperial Palace Museum. The survey of western Guangxi () was less thorough than other parts of the empire, consisting of just 71 to 170 items from three locations. Each entry consists of a Zhuang word written in the Zhuang script, with its pronunciation and meaning given in Chinese. It demonstrates both the wide use and lack of standardization of Sawndip.
Modern era (20th–21st centuries)
While after the introduction of an official alphabet-based script in 1957, Sawndip have seldom been used in some formal domains such as newspapers, laws and official documents, they continue to be used in less formal domains such as writing songs, and personal notes and messages.
After the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, communist revolutionary propaganda was written using sawndip. In 1957 an official romanized Zhuang script was introduced. However, there are major phonetic and lexical differences between Zhuang dialects, and the Latin-based system is based on the Wuming dialect. Because of this and other reasons, there still are many Zhuang speakers that prefer to write Zhuang using sawndip. Even though it is not the official script at grassroots level various departments have continued to use Sawndip on occasions to get their message across. Coming into the 21st century, Sawndip understanding and usage of Sawndip remains significant: of those surveyed in two dialect areas, just over one third said that they understood Sawndip, and about one in ten that they use Sawndip in most domains.《壮族民间群体古壮字使用状况的调查与分析》"Survey of analysis of the situation of old Zhuang script(Sawndip) usage among Zhuang people" by 黄南津 Huang Nanjian and 唐未平 Tang Weiping 《暨南学报(哲学社会科学版)》 Jinan Journal – Philosophy and Sociology 2008 Volume 1 These rates are approximately twice those for the romanized script: with only one-sixth saying they understood it, and only one in twenty saying they used it in most domains.《广西壮族人文字使用现状及文字社会声望调查研究》 "Research into survey of the scripts used by Zhuang in Guangxi" 唐未平 Tang Weiping http://www.doc88.com/p-644582398739.html