祖語

Chinese

		ancestor; forefather; grandparents	speech; language; dialect speech; language; dialect; tell to
trad. (祖語)		祖	語
simp. (祖语)		祖	语

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): zǔyǔ

  (Zhuyin): ㄗㄨˇ ㄩˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): zou² jyu⁵

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: zǔyǔ [Phonetic: zúyǔ]
    • Zhuyin: ㄗㄨˇ ㄩˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: zǔyǔ
    • Wade–Giles: tsu³-yü³
    • Yale: dzǔ-yǔ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tzuuyeu
    • Palladius: цзуюй (czujuj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡su²¹⁴⁻³⁵ y²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: zou² jyu⁵
    • Yale: jóu yúh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: dzou² jy⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: zou² yu⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sou̯³⁵ jyː¹³/

Noun

祖語

1. (linguistics) proto-language

Japanese

Kanji in this term
祖	語
そ Grade: 5	ご Grade: 2
on’yomi

Alternative spelling
祖語 (kyūjitai)

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) そ​ご [sóꜜgò] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [so̞ɡo̞]

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 祖語 (MC tsuX ngjoX, literally “ancestor + words, language”).

Noun

祖(そ)語(ご) • (sogo) 

1. (Buddhism) the words of the founder of a particular sect

Etymology 2

Appears to be a repurposing of the earlier Buddhist term as a calque of English proto-language.

Noun

祖(そ)語(ご) • (sogo) 

1. (linguistics) a proto-language from which later daughter languages evolve

   Synonym: (uncommon) 母語 (bogo)

References

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN