TANG, John. 2013. Allographic adjustments in Jurchen graphotactics: Exemplified with “monastery” and “monk”. Altai hakpo 23. 69-78. The Altaic Society of Korea.

Different from the bipartite Chinese nomenclature ever used, this paper argues a newly tripartite nomenclature instead — “logogram/logographic”, “syllabogram/syllabographic”, and “phonogram/phonographic” — to analyze the extant Jurchen writing system. Exemplified with two typical Jurchen terms for “monastery” (characteristic of logographic phoneticism) and “monk” (characteristic of precise recording of loanwords), the diverse Jurchen spelling types involved can uncover two main allographic adjustments in Jurchen graphotactics. Therefore, these significant adjustments are indicative of Jurchen writing innovations triggered mostly by the polysyllabic agglutinating language in recording based on its Chinese writing inheritances much of an isolating monosyllabicism; and the terminological deviation of “syllabogram/syllabographic” from “phonogram/phonographic” can properly describe such an organic modification of one writing system to another lingual system with different typological features. 

Keywords: Jurchen graphotactics, syllabography, phonography, allographic adjustment, monastery, monk