The Characteristics and Development of Dongba Phono-Semantic Compound Characters: A Comparison with Ancient Chinese Phono-Semantic Compound Characters
Liu Yan's 2022 article analyzes the roughly 20% of Naxi Dongba characters that are phono-semantic compounds, comparing them with early Chinese characters. It shows that Dongba phonetic components often indicate only one syllable of a polysyllabic character, sometimes require multiple phonetic elements, may double as semantic elements (and vice versa), and can be read twice for balance or replaced freely among near-homophones — all signs of low systematic categorization. Semantic components remain highly concrete rather than generalized into broad classes, and multi-form/multi-phonetic characters are common. Unlike Chinese, which fully transitioned from phonetic loans to phono-semantic compounds, Dongba script stalled at the phonetic-loan stage, which the author attributes to the free, context-dependent use of loan characters, Dongba script's restriction to a priestly elite rather than the whole population, and the encroachment of Chinese characters. The comparison suggests ancient Chinese script may have passed through an analogous early stage before oracle-bone script.
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