- Ziyuan
The "Ziyuan" (zh-cpwl|c=字苑|p="Zìyuàn"| w="Tzu-yüan"|l=Character Garden; or "Essays on Chinese Characters") was a
Chinese dictionary attributed to theEastern Jin Dynasty scholarGe Hong . The original text was lost, and the small modern "Ziyuan"recension has 34 headwords, mostlyChinese Buddhist loanword terminology.The "Ziyuan" is notable for having the first occurrence of the Chinese borrowing "ta" (; "tǎ"; "t'a"; "tower;
pagoda "). Feng (2004:205) classifies "ta" as a "monosyllabic phonemic loanword," and notes:塔/"ta"/=浮屠/"futu"/=浮图/"futu"/=佛图/"futu"/=数斗波/"shudoupo"/=兜婆/"doupo"/：Buddhist tower: "塔,佛堂也 [The "ta" is Buddhist tower] " (字苑), "作九层浮图 To build the Buddhist tower with nine levels" (水经注), "塔亦胡言, 犹宗庙也. ["ta" comes from languages of Hu nationalities, it means tower.] " (魏书). It was borrowed from "buddhastupa" of Sanskrit. The process of pronunciation change is as follows: "Buddhastupa" "stupa" "tupa" "t’ap".
References
*Feng Zhiwei, " [http://ling.cuc.edu.cn/htliu/feng/loanword-zwfeng.pdf The Semantic Loanwords and Phonemic Loanwords in Chinese Language] ", "Proceedings for 11th International Symposium, The National Institute for Japanese Language", pp. 200-229, 2004, Tokyo.
External links
* [http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/43498.htm The Origin of Pagodas] , China Through a Lens
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