A new decipherment and linguistic reconstruction of the Kitan—Chinese bilingual inscription of 1134 A.D.

Shimunek, Andrew (2014) A new decipherment and linguistic reconstruction of the Kitan—Chinese bilingual inscription of 1134 A.D. Acta Orientalia, 67 (1). pp. 97-118. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

This paper presents a new decipherment of the Langjun Inscription of 1134 A.D., including a significantly revised phonological reconstruction of the text, new readings of several graphemes, paleographical notes on certain Kitan and Chinese graphemes encountered in the text, and a glossary of words contained in the text including identifiable etyma. In terms of methodology, the Kitan and corresponding Chinese texts of this bilingual inscription are juxtaposed to facilitate decipherment and reconstruction. Although several important philological studies of this text exist, this article presents the first linguistic reconstruction of the inscription.

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