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Chinese Faculty

W. South Coblin

Professor of Ancient Chinese
626 Phillips Hall - 319.335.2153
Email: south-coblin@uiowa.edu

INTERESTS

Chinese historical phonology, Chinese historical and comparative dialectology, Sino-Tibetan comparative and historical linguistics; Classical Chinese grammar, the language of early Chinese vernacular texts; the origins, history, and development of Chinese koines; history and development of pre-modern Mandarin, Chinese in 'Phag-pa script.

REGULARLY TAUGHT COURSES

039:108 Classical Chinese: First Semester
039:109 Classical Chinese: Second Semester
039:139 Chinese Historical Phonology
039:144 Introduction to Chinese Linguistics
039:239 Seminar in Chinese Linguistics

*NEW COURSE for Spring 2010 (Languages of Asia Cultural and Historical)

BACKGROUND

Educational:

B.A., University of Washington, 1967, Chinese
Ph.D., University of Washington, 1972, Chinese

Professional:

Academic:

• University of Washington:

Research Assistant, 1971-72
Teaching Associate, 1972-73

• University of Iowa:

  Assistant Professor, 1973-78
  Associate Professor, 1978-85
  Professor, 1985-

Administrative:

• University of Iowa:

  Acting Chairman, Department of Asian Languages and Literature, 1978, 1981-82
  Chairman, 1982-84

Academic Honors and Awards (since 1973):

Old Gold Faculty Fellowships, University of Iowa, 1974 and 1976
ACLS Grant for Research in Chinese Civilization, Summer, 1975
ACLS Grant for Research in Chinese Civilization, 1979-80
ACLS China Conference Travel Grant, Summer, 1982
MUCIA International Travel Grant, Summer, 1982
ACLS Grant for Research in Chinese Studies, 1985-86
CCK Foundation Senior Scholar Grant for Chinese Studies, 1997-8

Committee Assignments:

University of Iowa

Language Laboratory Advisory Committee, 1974-75
Committee on Language Instruction, 1976-77
Interdepartmental Language Committee, 1979
Foreign Language Council, 1983-84
Humanities Task Force, 1982-84
Advisory Committee on Awards in the Humanities, 1982- 83
Iowa Critical Languages Program, 1986-87
Search Committee, Director of International Programs, 1987-88
Language Media Center Advisory Committee, 1989-90

Professional Service

American Oriental Society, Nominating Committee, 1979- 82
International Association of Chinese Linguistics, Executive Committee(1994-97)
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Editorial Committee (Current)
Yuen Ren Society Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data, Review Referee (Current)
Hanyushi yanjiu jikan ( Chongqing), Editorial Committee (Current)
Vice President, International Association of Chinese Linguistics, 2000-2001
President, International Association of Chinese Linguistics, 2001-2002
Presidential Advisor, International Association of Chinese Linguistics, 2002- 2003

Community Service:
Governor's Task Force on Foreign Language Studies and International Education, 1982-83
Consultant on the Governor's Trip to China, Sept. 1984

PUBLICATIONS

Books and Monographs:

• A Handbook of Eastern Han Sound Glosses, The Chinese University Press, Chinese University of Hong Kong,
  Hong Kong, 1983.
  Reviews: W.H. Baxter, BSOAS 48 (1985), pp. 170-1.
  P.B. Denlinger, TP LXXII (1986), pp. 315-316.
  P.B. Denlinger, MS 37 (1986-87), pp. 311-327.
  G.L. Mattos, MS 36 (1984-5), pp. 211-227.
  E.G. Pulleyblank, JAOS 105 (1985), pp. 303-308.
  Victor Mair, Sino-Platonic Papers, 14 (December, 1989), pp. B-5 - B 6.
  
• A Sinologist's Handlist of Sino-Tibetan Lexical Correspondences , Monumenta Serica Monograph Series, no. XVIII, Nettetal, 1986.
  Reviews: P.B. Denlinger, MS 37 (1986-87), pp. 398-399.
  Søren Egerod. BSOAS 51 (1988), pp. 590-591.
  Bulcsu Siklo 2s , Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland No. 1 (1988), pp. 242-243.
  Victor Mair, Sino-Platonic Papers, 14 (December, 1989), pp. B-6 - B-7.
  G. Kara, Acta Orientalia Academia Scientarum Hungaricae 44 (1990), pp. 423-24.
  
• A Study of the Old Tibetan Inscriptions , Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Special Publications No. 91. Taipei, 1987. By F.K. Li and W. South Coblin.
  Review: Wang Yao, MZYW 1988.4.51-54.
  
• Studies in Old Northwest Chinese , Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series Number 4. Berkeley. 1991.
  
• A Compendium of Phonetics in Northwest Chinese , Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series Number 7. Berkeley. 1994.
  
• Francisco Varo’s Grammar of the Mandarin Language (1703) , W. South Coblin and Joseph A. Levi, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2000.
  Reviews: Yao Xiaoping, ZGYW 2001.5.475-78.
  Barbara Niederer, Histoire Épistemologique Langage 24/1 (2002): 185-86
  Victor Mair, Sino-Platonic Papers (2004). pp. 14-17.

Editing:

Papers from the Fourteenth International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics , edited by Chauncey Chu, W. South Coblin, and Feng-fu Tsao. Student Book Co., Taipei, 1983.

Journal Articles:

• "An Early Tibetan Word for 'Horse'," JAOS, 94.1 (1974), pp. 124-5.
• "The Initials of the Wei-Chin Period as revealed in the Phonological Glosses of Kuo P'u and Others," MS 31 (1974-5), pp. 288-318.
• "Notes on Tibetan Verbal Morphology," T'oung Pao 52 (1976), pp. 45-70. [Chinese version in Minzu yuwen yanjiu 3 1984), pp. 107-132. Trans. by Yu Guanxing.]
• "The Initials of Xu Shen's Language as Reflected in the Shuowen duruo Glosses," JCL 6 (1978), pp. 27-75.
• "The Initials of the Eastern Han Period as Reflected in Phonological Glosses," MS 33 (1977-78), pp. 207-247.
• "A New Study of the Pai-lang Songs," Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 12 (1979), pp. 179-216.
• "The Finals of Xu Shen's Language as Reflected in the Shuowen duruo Glosses," JCL 7 (1979), pp. 181-245.
• "The Finals of Cheng Hsüan's Language as Reflected in Phonological Glosses," MS 34 (1979-80), pp. 263-317.
• "Notes on the Dialect of the Han Buddhist Transcriptions," Proceedings of the First International Conference on Sinology, Section on Linguistics and Paleography, Taipei, 1981. pp. 121-183.
• "Notes on the Western Han Initials," Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, 14 (1982), pp. 111-133.
• "The Finals of Yang Xiong's Language," JCL 12 (1984), pp. 1-52.
• "The Finals of the Shiming Language," in Contributions to Sino- Tibetan Studies, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1986. pp. 283-344.
• "Some Sound Changes in the Western Han Dialect of Shu," JCL 14 (1986), pp. 184-226.
  [Chinese versions in Yuyanxue lunwenji, Taiyuan, 1989. pp. 219-237. Trans. by Guo Jianrong, Han Zijing, and Lu Jingwen; and in Yuwen lunwenji, Beijing 1991, by the same translators]
• "The Rimes of Chang-an in Middle Han Times, Part I: The Late Western Han Period," AO ( Copenhagen) 47 (1986), pp. 93-131.
• "The Rimes of Chang-an in Middle Han Times, Part II: The Early Eastern Han Period," AO 48 (1987), pp. 89-110.
• "A Note on Old Tibetan Mu," LTBA 10.1 (1987), pp. 166-168.
• " Fangyan Gleanings," MS 37 (1986-87), pp. 113-143.
• "Notes on the Finals of a Northwest Dialect of Tang Times," BIHP LIX, Part III (1988), pp. 835-890.
• "A Reexamination of the Second Edict of Khri-srong-lde-btsan," in Reflections on Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory of Turrell V. Wylie, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, 1990. pp. 165-185.
• "Notes on the Initials of a Northwest Dialect of Tang Times," Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Sinology, Section on Linguistics and Paleography, Taipei, 1989. Vol. I, pp. 125-144.
• "Notes on Sanghabhara's Mahamayuri Transcriptions," Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale XIX (1990), pp. 195-251.
• "Notes on Old Tibetan rje-blas," Tibetan History and Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Géza on his Seventieth Birthday (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, Heft 26). Vienna, 1991. pp. 63-110.
• "A Study of the Old Tibetan Shangshu Paraphrase," Part I: JAOS 111.2 (1991), pp. 303-322; Part II: JAOS 111.3 (1991), pp. 523-539.
• "A Survey of Yijing's Transcriptional Corpus," Yuyan yanjiu 1991.1, pp. 68-92.
• "Thoughts on Dentilabialization in the Tang-time Dialects of Shazhou," T'oung Pao LXXVII (1991). pp. 88-107.
• "Comparative Studies on some Tang-time Dialects of Shazhou," MS 40 (1992), pp. 269-361.
• "BTD Revisited -- A Reconsideration of the Han Buddhist Transcriptional Dialect," BIHP 63 (1993), pp. 867-943.
• "Erh ya," in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, edited by Michael Loewe. Berkeley. 1993. pp. 94-99.
• "A Note on the Modern Reading of Tufan," Sino-Platonic Papers 46 (July, 1994), pp. 149-151.
• "Remarks on Some Early Buddhist Transcriptional Data from Northwest China," MS 42 (1994): 151-169.
• “An Old Tibetan Variant for the Word “Fox,” LTBA 17.2 (1994), pp. 117-119.
• "Two Notes on the London Long Scroll," BSOAS LVIII (1995), pp. 104-108.
• "Marginalia on Two Translations of the Qieyun Preface," JCL 24 (1996), pp. 85-97.
• "Tone and Tone Sandhi in Early Qing Guanhua," Yuen Ren Society Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data 2 (1996), pp. 43-57.
• Jerry L. Norman and W. South Coblin, “A New Approach to Chinese Historical Linguistics,” JAOS 115.4 (1995), pp. 576-584. [Chinese version: “Hanyu lishi yuyanxue yanjiu de xin fangfa”, (translators: Zhu Qingzhi and Zhang Yongyan), Hanyushi yanjiu jikan 1.674-691, Chengdu, 1998.]
• “Northwest Reflections on the Yunjing,” T’oung Pao 82 (1996), pp. 349-363.
• “Palatalization of velars in the Nanking Dialect,” BSOAS 60 (1997), pp. 533-537.
• “Notes on the Sound System of Late Ming Guanhua,” MS 45 (1997), pp. 261-307.
  Reviews: Laurent Sagart, Review Bibliographique de Sinologie 1998, p. 325.
  Editor, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 20 (1998), p. 56.
• John Yu and W. South Coblin, “Dui wai gu Hanyu jiaoxue chutan — yi ‘ye’ ji qi xiangguan juxing wei li’” [Exploring the Methodology of Teaching Classical Chinese to Non-Native Students: the Particle ye and Related Sentence Patterns]. Yuyan jiaoxue yu yanjiu 2 (1998), pp. 96-107.
• “Francisco Varo and the Sound System of Early Ming Mandarin,” JAOS 118.2 (1998), pp. 262-267.
• “Periodization in Northwest Chinese Dialect History,” JCL 27 (1999), pp. 104-119.
• “Thoughts on the Identity of the Chinese ‘Phags-pa Dialect,” Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series no. 15, Issues in Chinese Dialect Description and Classification, ed. Richard V. Simmons. Berkeley, 1999. pp. 84-144.
• “Contact, Drift, and Convergence in Nanking Guanhua,” Hanyushi yanjiu jikan 1999.2, pp. 379-431.
• “Paul L-M. Serruys, C.I.C.M. (1912-1999),” MS 47 (1999), pp. 505-514.
• Paul Harrison and W. South Coblin, “The Oldest Buddhist Incantation in Chinese? A Preliminary Study of the Chinese Transcriptions of the Mantra in the Druma-kinnara- r1aj1a-par>iprcch1a-s1utra ,” in Buddhism across Boundaries — Chinese Buddhism and the Western Regions, Collection of Essays 1993, edited by John McRae and Jan Nattier. Taipei: Fo GuangShan Foundation, 1999. pp. 137-186.
• “Late Apicalization in Nankingese,” JCL 28 (2000), pp. 52-66.
• “A Diachronic Study of Míng Gu1anhu4a Phonology,” MS 48 (2000), pp. 267-335.
• “The Phonology of Proto-Central Jiang-Huai: An Exercise in Comparative Reconstruction”, in In Memory of Professor Li Fang-Kuei: Essays of Linguistic Change and the Chinese Dialects, Taipei and Seattle: Academia Sincia and the University of Washington. 2000. pp. 73-140.
• “Fang-kuei Li: a Personal Memoir”, in In Memory of Professor Li Fang-Kuei: Essays of Linguistic Change and the Chinese Dialects, Taipei and Seattle: Academia Sincia and the University of Washington. 2000. pp. 367-376.
• “A Brief History of Mandarin,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 120 (2000), pp. 537-552.
• “’Phags-pa Chinese and the Standard Reading Pronunciation of Early Ming: A Comparative Study.” Language and Linguistics 2.2 (2001), pp. 1-62.
• John Yu and W. South Coblin, “Gu Hanyu jiaoxuezhong mingwuhua de Yingyi wenti” [English translation as a tool for solving nominalization problems in teaching Classical Chinese]. Yuyan jiaoxue yu yanjiu 2001.5, pp. 96-107.
• “Thoughts on the Formation of Early Guanhua Phonology”, Yuen Ren Society Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data 3 (2002), pp. 307-337.
• “Migration history and dialect development in the lower Yangtze watershed,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies ( London), 65.3 (2002), pp. 529-543.
• “Reflections on the Study of Post-Medieval Chinese Historical Phonology,” Papers from the Third International conference on Sinology, Linguistics Section, Dialect Variation in Chinese, ed. Dah-an Ho, Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Preparatory Office Academia Sinica, 2002. pp. 23-50.
• “On Certain Functions of ‘A-chung in Early Tibetan Transcriptional Texts,” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 25.2 (2002) p.169-184.
• "A Palatal Nasal in Late Ming Guanhua,", Acta Orientalia 63 (2002) pp. 207-220.
• "A Sample of Eighteenth Century spoken Mandarin from North China", Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 32.2 (2003), pp. 195-2244.
• "Robert Morrison and the Phonology of Mid-Qing Mandarin", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 13.3 (2003), pp.339-355.
• "The Chiehyunn and the Current State of Chinese Historical Phonology," Journal of the American Oriental Society 123.2 (2003), pp. 377-383.

Reviews:

• William S.Y. Wang, CLIBOC: Chinese Linguistics Bibliography on Computer. AA 76.2 (1974), p. 458.
• James A. Matisoff, The Loloish Tonal Split Revisited. JAOS 94.4 (1974), pp. 522-524.
• Paul K. Benedict, Sino-Tibetan: A Conspectus. MS 30 (1972-73), pp. 635-42.
• E.G. Pulleyblank, Middle Chinese. MS 36 (1984-85), pp. 211-227.
• S. Robert Ramsey, The Languages of China, Princeton, 1987. JAOS 108.4 (1988), pp. 644-646.
• Jerry Norman, Chinese, Cambridge Univ. Press., New York, 1988. JAOS 110.1 (1990), pp. 110-113.
• E. G. Pulleyblank, Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin, Univ. of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1991. MS 41 (1993), pp. 299-315.
• William H. Baxter: A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 64. Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992. MS 43 (1995), pp. 509-519.
• Nicholas C. Bodman, Proto-Chinese and Sino-Tibetan, Chinese version, translated by Pan Wuyun and Feng Zheng. Peking: Zhonghua Shuju. 1995. JCL 24 (1996), pp. 391-5.
• Ping Chen, Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Anthropological Linguistics 42.1 (2000), pp. 122-24.
• David P. Branner, Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology. The Classification of Miin and Hakka. Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000. T’oung Pao LXXXVIII (2002), pp. 198-210.
• Gong, Hwang-cherng, Collected Papers on Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Language and Linguistics Monograph Series Number C2-1, Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2002. Language and Linguistics 4.4 (2003), pp. 887-902.

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• Dept. of Asian and Slavic Languages and Literatures
• 111 Phillips Hall
• The University of Iowa
• Iowa City, IA 52242

• Contact Information:
• asian-slavic@uiowa.edu
• (Phone) 319-335-2151
• (Fax) 319-353-2207