A Summary of Studies on Sino-Thai Lexical Correspondence

Abstract

The Sino-Thai lexical correspondence study uses the comparison method in historical linguistic to analyze phonetic and semantic correspondence between Chinese and Thai lexicons, to discuss the relationships between Chinese and Tai languages and to determine which language family Chinese and Tai should be classified into based on the characteristics of phonetic and semantic correspondence between the two lexicons. In this article, Sino-Thai lexical correspondence studies from Thailand, China and other countries are collected and summarized with the emphasis of studies that use Chinese and Thai as their comparative target. The Sino-Thai lexical correspondence studies can be divided into four periods. The first period includes studies conducted in the second half of the 19th century when the first studies of Sino-Thai lexical correspondence are found. The second period includes studies conducted in the first half of the 20th century. The study in this period creates controversies and leads to endless arguments between linguists. The third period of the study includes studies conducted in the second half of the 20th century. The study in this period has numerous achievements. The fourth period includes studies conducted in the 21st century. In this period, the study of Sino-Thai lexical correspondence is diversifying.