Zhengzhang Shangfang facts for kids

Zhengzhang Shangfang (9 August 1933 – 19 May 2018) was a famous Chinese linguist. A linguist is a scientist who studies human language. Zhengzhang Shangfang was especially known for his work on how ancient Chinese languages sounded. This is called the reconstruction of Old Chinese.

Who Was Zhengzhang Shangfang?

Early Life and His Unique Name

Zhengzhang Shangfang was born on August 9, 1933. He was born in Yongjia County, which is near the city of Wenzhou in China. His birth name was Zheng Xiangfang.

In the local Wenzhou dialect, the sounds for "Xiang" and "Shang" were the same. Because of this, his personal name became Shangfang. When he was in high school, his parents decided to combine their family names. His father's family name was Zheng, and his mother's was Zhang. This is how he got the special family name Zhengzhang.

A Passion for Language

Even when he was young, Zhengzhang Shangfang loved studying how languages changed over time. This field is called historical phonology. He spent a lot of time at the Wenzhou library. There, he studied the works of other famous language experts like Yuen Ren Chao and Wang Li.

In 1954, he wanted to go to university to study languages. However, he could not attend for family reasons. Instead, he went to the Beijing University of Geosciences. He then started working in geology, which is the study of Earth's physical structure.

Developing His Own Ideas

Even with his geology job, Zhengzhang Shangfang kept working on his language studies in his free time. He focused on how ancient Chinese sounds were made, especially the endings of words and vowel sounds.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he helped with a project to study different Chinese dialects in Wenzhou. A dialect is a form of a language spoken in a specific area. During the Cultural Revolution, a difficult time in China, he was sent to work in a factory.

Big Discoveries in Language

While the factory was closed for a short time, Zhengzhang Shangfang met with other language experts. He shared his ideas with Pan Wuyun and Jin Shengrong. Together, they improved his system for understanding Old Chinese sounds. He developed a system with six main vowel sounds.

Interestingly, other linguists like William H. Baxter and Sergei Starostin also came up with very similar systems on their own. In 1980, Zhengzhang Shangfang joined the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This is a major research organization in China.