吐蕃
Chinese
| phonetic | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (吐蕃) | 吐 | 蕃 | |
| simp. #(吐蕃) | 吐 | 蕃 | |
| alternative forms | 土蕃 | ||
Etymology
An exonym for Tibet that appeared in the Tang dynasty. Some scholars argue the second syllable, 蕃, was originally read with the -n coda in Middle Chinese (i.e. pʉɐn or bʉɐn, the former of which regularly gives rise to modern Mandarin fān). They argue that the modern Tǔbō reading is recent, possibly originating from French sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat’s (1788-1832) argument that the second syllable should be pronounced this way to match Tibetan བོད (bod, “Tibet”) (Pelliot, 1915). Rhymes in poetry from Tang and Yuan dynasties also suggest that the second syllable 蕃 was read with the -n coda during those times (Yao, 2014).
Pronunciation
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