Chinese Dialects : List with all references

Number: 1883

Chinese etymology: Chinese etymology

Character: 維

MC description : 止合三平脂以

ZIHUI: 4850 1247

Beijing: uei 12

Jinan: uei 12

Xi'an: vei 12

Taiyuan: vei 1

Hankou: uei 12

Chengdu: uei 12

Yangzhou: uǝi 12

Suzhou: vi 12

Wenzhou: vu 12

Changsha: uei 12

Shuangfeng: ui 12

Nanchang: ui 31

Meixian: vi 12

Guangzhou: uai 12

Xiamen: i 12

Chaozhou: zui 12

Fuzhou: mi 12

Shanghai: vi 32

Zhongyuan yinyun: vi 12

Character: 維

Modern (Beijing) reading: wéi

Preclassic Old Chinese: wij

Classic Old Chinese: wij

Western Han Chinese: wjǝj

Eastern Han Chinese: źwǝj

Early Postclassic Chinese: źwɨj

Middle Postclassic Chinese: jwɨj

Late Postclassic Chinese: jwɨj

Middle Chinese: jwi

English meaning : impersonal equational copula: to be, it is

Russian meaning[s]: 1) связывать; связь; соединять; 2) нить, леска; 3) сохранять, соблюдать; 4) глагольная связка есть, является; 5) служебное слово в начале предложения, ритмически выделяющее подлежащее; 6) только, лишь, но; 7) в офиц. документах ставится перед датами в начале предложения

Shuowen gloss: 車蓋維也.從糸.隹聲.

Comments: Schüssler reconstructs the word with *l- (*ljuǝj), but it very clearly rhymes in *-ij in OC and thus must have possessed a labial initial. For initial *w- (not *wh-) cf. Xiamen i2, Chaozhou zui2, Fuzhou mi2 (the last two forms reflect a secondary Min nasalisation).

The word is alternatively written in Early Zhou as ** or 惟.

The original meaning and reading of the character is *wij 'to bind, tie' attested in Early Zhou (Shuowen glosses it as "cover of a carriage" - perhaps as "smth. tied"?).

The etymology of the copula is not quite clear: perhaps one should relate it to 為 *waj 'to do, make' q.v. (with *-aj / *-ij as old vowel alternation?).

Dialectal data: Dialectal data

Radical: 120

Four-angle index: 899

Karlgren code: 0575 o-p

Shijing occurrences: 2.1, 3.2, 3.3, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 15.2, 21.2, 24.3, 27.1, 27.2, 45.1, 45.2, 57.1

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