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大秦

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Chinese

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big
great
greater
Qin
trad. (大秦)
simp. #(大秦)
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Etymology

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"Roman Empire"
Attested in the Book of the Later Han (《後漢書·西域傳》) in a semi-legendary account as reported by the envoy Gan Ying (甘英). Pulleyblank (1999) believes that the name "[was] clearly not a transcription of a foreign word", and the identification remains vague. Unconvincingly, the passage in the Later Han attempts to explain:
人民中國大秦 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
人民中国大秦 [Literary Chinese, simp.]
From: The Book of the Later Han, circa 5th century CE
Qí rénmín jiē cháng dà píng zhèng, yǒu lèi Zhōngguó, gù wèizhī Dàqín. [Pinyin]
Its people are all built tall, robust, balanced, and upright, resembling (the people) of the Zhongguo. For this reason it is called Daqin (the Great Qin).
In contrast, Zhang (1919) conjectured that the word may have indeed been a borrowing ultimately from Latium, Latinum, etc. (transcribed as in his writing) based on comparisons among Sinitic languages; see also the Baxter–Sagart reconstruction below. However, this etymology remains hypothetical.
"Roman Levant; Syria region; etc."
Used by 8th-century Syriac Christians themselves (see quotation below) after contact with Tang Chinese literati.

Pronunciation

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Rime
Character
Reading # 1/2 2/2 1/1
Initial () (7) (7) (15)
Final () (25) (94) (43)
Tone (調) Departing (H) Departing (H) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open Open Open
Division () I I III
Fanqie
Baxter dajH daH dzin
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/dɑiH/ /dɑH/ /d͡ziɪn/
Pan
Wuyun
/dɑiH/ /dɑH/ /d͡zin/
Shao
Rongfen
/dɑiH/ /dɑH/ /d͡zjen/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/dajH/ /daH/ /d͡zin/
Li
Rong
/dɑiH/ /dɑH/ /d͡ziĕn/
Wang
Li
/dɑiH/ /dɑH/ /d͡zĭĕn/
Bernhard
Karlgren
/dʱɑiH/ /dʱɑH/ /d͡zʱi̯ĕn/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
dài duò qín
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex
daai6 do6 can4
BaxterSagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/2 2/2 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
qín
Middle
Chinese
‹ daH › ‹ dajH › ‹ dzin ›
Old
Chinese
/*lˁat-s/ (MC F!) /*lˁa[t]-s/ /*[dz]i[n]/
English big big Qín (place name)

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character
Reading # 1/2 2/2 1/1
No. 1934 1939 10497
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
1 1 1
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*daːds/ /*daːds/ /*zin/

Proper noun

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大秦

  1. (historical and archaic, speculative, imprecise designation in Chinese historiography) the Roman Empire; the City of Rome; etc.
  2. (historical and archaic, imprecise designation in Chinese historiography) the Hellenistic or Greco-Roman world in general, the West
  3. (historical and archaic, Chinese historiography) the Coele Syria or the Roman Levant; the Syria region under Roman dominion
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