Variations in Zhuang traditional character (Sawndip) as written in Mo books : a case study of function words

Abstract

This study attempted to identify geographic and non-geographic patterns of Zhuang traditional character variations. Data sources included: Sawndip Sawdenj (Ancient Zhuang Character Dictionary, Su YongQin, al, 1989) and Mo Books (8 volumes of Annotated Translation of Photomechanical Printing of Zhuang Mo Scripture Buluto, Zhang Shengzhen, 2004). Function words were selected to be analytical objects not only because they are much fewer than content words, but they also have high occurring frequency in the texts. Two frameworks were applied during research due to study objectives, dialectology (Chamber ＆ Trugill, 2004) method and Zhuang variation mapping (Holm, 2013) was employed to analyze variation distribution in order to find out the geographic mapping patterns of Zhuang variations. Iconicity principle (Hiraga, 2004) was applied to analyze correlation between context and variation shapes. The results of analysis showed that geography mapping of variations displays regional continuum and boundaries features and meaning and use may cause variations, isomorphism of text structure that may restrict variations;