Hieroglossia IV - Sinoglossia | Collège de France

This fourth colloquium devoted to hieroglossia (the study of the relationship that develops within a group of languages, one of which acts as the central, sacred or dominant language) will focus on the spread and use of the literary Chinese language as it has become established throughout the Far East, sacred or dominant language) will focus on the spread and use of literary Chinese throughout the Far East, including China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, from the early Middle Ages to the ^20th century, with a particular focus on Japan.

There are at least two aspects to this Sinoglossic universalization : on the one hand, the direct use of classical Chinese for written composition, based on the teaching of classical Chinese texts, the canonical list of which spread to all the regions concerned ; on the other, the influence of classical Chinese on the literary formation of regional languages, which restructured both their vocabulary and grammar in order to adequately convey the content of Chinese texts. The exemplary importance of the " explanatory " (kundoku) reading method, which became widespread in Japan, should be noted here. This consisted of systematizing the oral transposition of an original Chinese text into Japanese, before becoming one of the foundations of literary style itself. Although the Japanese model is the most finely developed, analogues can be found to varying degrees in all of China's peripheral cultures.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the current situation of sinoglossia in East Asia, where a discrepancy can be discerned between the ordinary awareness of sinoglossia held by educational policy-makers, teachers, writers and journalists - an awareness that is either very vague, hostile or negative - and the linguistic situation : the abolition of Chinese characters has in no way abolished sinoglossia, it has merely made things more difficult to grasp.

The colloquium, which takes place over two days and brings together fourteen participants, sets out to examine the two facets of sinoglossia, from its historical beginnings to the changes brought about by the modern era, changes which may have diminished the visible aspects of sinoglossia but whose impact has been far less significant on the deeper strata of the languages " sinoïdes ".

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Program

Hieroglossia IV - Sinoglossia

Documents and media

Program

A word of welcome

Opening address

Classical Chinese narratives in East Asia and historical narration

Dao'an (312-385 CE) and the Language of Chinese Buddhist Translations

Origins, forms and evolution of the vernacular script of spoken Vietnamese

Vernacular Character Scripts of the Tai-speaking Peoples of Southern China and Northern Vietnam

Kanshi and Allusion, Social Intercourse, and East Asian-criture: The Example of Mori Ōgai

The conspiracy of demons : the perenniality of sinoglossia

Sound and Sense: Linguistic Consciousness in Japanese Remarks on Poetry

Poetic psalmody (gin.ei) and " explanatory reading "(kundoku)

The current state of Sinoglossia in Korean Buddhist circles

Awakening in the original language : Japanese Zen and the limits of intimacy with the Chinese language

Describing language situations : Nara Japan and Republican Rome

The cultural strategy of manuscripts in Chinese characters(mana-bon) - The religious nature of stories in written Chinese read as " explanatory reading "(kundoku)

General conclusion

See also