"gau21" 本字

almost every Banlam language book said: "gau21" 本字 is "到".
but i think "gau21" 本字 is "往".

[ 本帖最後由 will 於 2009-11-15 17:46 編輯 ]

kàu?

Every Banlam book said so? Perhaps you've just read those written by non-professionals.... If you try some academic one, you may encounter something different. For example, Lin Baoqing's dictionary says that the original character is "告", and Li Rulong observes that "遘" is more appropriate. I guess academically speaking 遘 is quite widely accepted now, though I do think that 造 is also a good choice given its phonetic relation to 告 as well as its meaning as "arrive" in the Jin Dynasties as is frequently found in books like 世说新语.
However, 到 is still possible if we take into consideration the k-t alteration which is not uncommon to Banlam-Teochew languages. In Teochew, a branch from the Proto-Banlam, we have such pairs: 干 kàng-tàng, 家己ka-kī~ ka-tī and "cheek" kih-kau~tih-kau, etc. Thus we cannot safely eliminate the possibility of "到" as the original character of kàu.

BTW, your suggestion of 往 is, to me, not quite qualified, for we cannot find out the phonological corresponding rules that can explain how the Mandarin 往 and Banlam kàu is genetically correlated. 往 is 云母阳韵上声字, members of the rime 阳 in Banlam does not have au as its corresponding pronunciation, and, more still, the tone seems inexplicable in the light of historical phonology.
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潮州话八调代表字:
1胎tho 2讨thó 3退thò 4托thoh
5逃tô 6在tŏ 7袋tō 8夺tôh
潮罗特殊变体:[ɯ]=ṳ=ur;[ã]=aⁿ=an;
[aʔ8]=âh=a̍h;[ts]=ts=ch;[tsʰ]=tsh=chh
we may use "舊事" to replace "往事".
in Cantonese, "舊" is pronounced to "gau21" (the vowel is similar to "au" but not 100%).
so i am pretty much sure that the Banlam "gau21" 本字 is "往".

[ 本帖最後由 will 於 2009-11-15 17:48 編輯 ]