A Preliminary Study of the Double Phonetic Component Phenomenon in Dongba Script
This article investigates the phenomenon of "double phonetic components" (double sound-loan components) in Dongba script, analogous to a known feature in Chinese characters where two phonophoric elements combine without any semantic radical. Drawing chiefly on examples from the Complete Translated Collection of Naxi Dongba Classics, the author identifies two forms of this phenomenon: components representing one syllable within a polysyllabic word (e.g., proper nouns like personal or place names), and components representing a monosyllabic morpheme. The study finds a certain rationale governing character selection for these phonetic symbols and identifies three formation pathways: attaching a phonetic symbol onto a loan character, loss of the semantic component from a double-phonetic phono-semantic compound, and loan-based phonetic annotation forming compound characters. As the writing system develops, such double phonetic components tend to evolve in two directions—fusing into a single character or losing one of the phonetic elements. Since all identified cases come from Ludian-region scriptures representing a later stage of Dongba script development, the phenomenon reflects scribes' pursuit of clearer phonetic-semantic expression and deliberate innovation, illustrating a special stage in the phonetization of logographic writing systems, with implications for comparative research on Chinese characters.
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