Iteration marks and repeaters in ancient Chinese texts
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Let us begin this post with a brief introduction to the 16th-century Hokkien (Minnan) drama, Tale of the Lychee Mirror:
The Tale of the Lychee Mirror (traditional Chinese: 荔鏡記; simplified Chinese: 荔镜记; pinyin: Lì jìng jì; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Nāi-kèng-kì, Lē-kèng-kì) is a play written by an unknown author in the Ming dynasty. Tân Saⁿ and Gō͘-niû (traditional Chinese: 陳三五娘; simplified Chinese: 陈三五娘; pinyin: Chén Sān Wǔniáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân-saⁿ-Gō͘-niû) is a popular Taiwanese opera based on the script.
(source)
Kirinputra asks:
One thing I can add at this stage is that I have seen 二 used as a mark of repetition in early Chinese texts (e.g., Dunhuang manuscripts from the medieval period).
For coverage of iteration marks in Chinese, Malayo-Polynesian languages, Japanese, Nuosu, Egyptian, Khmer, Thai, and Lao, as well as ditto marks in European languages, see this Wikipedia article.
Selected readings
- "Acquiring literacy in medieval Dunhuang" (2/20/21)
- "Polysyllabic characters revisited" (6/18/15)
Chris Button said,
February 28, 2023 @ 1:37 pm
Could it just be 匕 for 比 to give a sense of pairing/repetition? The same way 々 is used in Japanese (supposedly from 仝/同 "same"), or 二 "two" even further back in Chinese.