Talk:三味線

Etymology

Why does this instrument's name have the word 味 (flavor) in it? 24.29.228.33 22:03, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Fixed the etymology to explain this better. -- Eiríkr Útlendi | Tala við mig 06:31, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

The use of 味 is phonetic ateji (当て字).

@Eirikr: this link says that the sanshin was never called a jabisen in Okinawan; the Okinawan pronunciation would have been jafishin. Suggest a change to “Shift from 蛇皮線 (jabisen, literally “snakeskin strings”) via 蛇味線 (jamisen)” without the Okinawan borrowing/derivation? ～ POKéTalker（═◉═） 05:04, 21 September 2019 (UTC)

@Poketalker: Thank you for the ping. A few thoughts:

• JA sources are consistent in mentioning the 蛇皮 as the reason for the non-standard reading of 三味.
• They're also consistent in tracing the instrument to Okinawa.
• The RYU pronunciation サンシン is probably traceable to 三線, the regular Chinese-derived spelling and associated reading.
• Historical RYU documentation is probably spotty at best, from what little I've been able to glean.

Considering the above, I see two likely possibilities.

1. The JA derives from RYU 蛇皮線 (*jafishin), which has since been superseded in RYU by 三線 (sanshin). (Note also the existence in JA of both 三味線 and 三線.) The JA reading is simply the regular expected reading of the 蛇皮線 kanji, rather than a borrowing of the RYU phonetics.
2. The JA etymon 蛇皮線 is simply a descriptive term for the Okinawan instrument, regardless of what it might have been called in RYU.

Door #2 is better supported by the resources I have access to. And I've learned more about researching etymologies since last I dug into this deeply in 2011. For example, the KDJ entry for 蛇皮線 notes, emphasis mine:

沖縄の代表的な弦楽器三線(さんしん)の俗称。

Calling it 俗称 doesn't rule out a borrowing, but it does imply a less formal speech register -- which could in turn imply the possibility of a borrowing from RYU, which was not viewed as a prestige language.

Confusingly, the Britannica Japan entry for 三線 suggests that the kanji 蛇皮線 are read as さむしる somewhere, but it's not clear where -- is that a Japanese dialect? Some purported variety of RYU? Anyway.

At any rate, the etym does need a bit of work to clarify that jabisen is not Okinawan. Thanks again for bringing this up! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 17:19, 23 September 2019 (UTC)