How does Mazu's mother read it?

As the "Mazu fever" continues to heat up, the word "Mazu" appears more and more frequently in various media. In Putian dialect, the word "Mazu" is pronounced as "Mazu", but in Putonghua, "Ma" has no sound of "Ma", so a strange phenomenon appears. In the album "Walking Around Putian, China" broadcast by CCTV and various Mazu-related activities, Putian people pronounce "Ma" as the upper voice, and the host reads "Yin Ping". This ambiguous pronunciation will often make foreigners, especially northerners, misunderstand and always think that Putian people pronounce it incorrectly. Because "Ma" is pronounced as "Pingdiao", some researchers think that "Mazu" means "mother's ancestor", and the word formation of "Mazu" is equivalent to "Mommy" in Hong Kong dialect. So, how to pronounce Mazu's "Ma" correctly? The author believes that it is correct to read "Mazu" as "Mazu" no matter from the historical basis or the actual situation. The reasons are as follows.

First, judging from the historical pronunciation, "Ma" was originally a consonant. From Pian Yu, Guang Yun, Jiyun, Dragon Watcher's View to Kangxi Dictionary in Qing Dynasty, the word "horse" is reversed as "Mo Chu Qi" or "Man Bu Qi", and its sound and meaning are equivalent to "wood" and "wood". Then why did it change to "horse"? In fact, this is because of the change of pronunciation. Fang Yizhi, a famous scholar at the end of Ming Dynasty, explained in Tong Ya: "The ancient book" Mother "and" Horse "have the same pronunciation, both of which were intercepted by Gu Mo", and "Grandmother in the South of the Yangtze River" or "Grandmother" are transliteration of the mother. Indeed, in ancient times, "horse" belonged to the rhyme of "fish", and it was neighing. "The Songs of Chu: Mourning the Country": "Tan has two rounds and four horses, and he plays drums with jade wooden bags." "Horse and drum" just rhymes. Shanghai Wu dialect "Ma" still has vowels. Therefore, there is a cross talk called "A horse lays an egg", which is a joke misinformed by Shanghai dialect "A hen lays an egg". "Mazu" is actually a "mother ancestor" and a "grandmother" and has nothing to do with the mother.

Second, judging from the spread history of the word "Mazu", the pronunciation is also "Mazu". In the coastal map of Guangdong drawn by the missionary Matteo Ricci during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, "Ama Port" is actually the old name of Macao, and the Portuguese translation of Macao is also "Ma Jiao" instead of "Marco". In the early Qing Dynasty, Mazu was named Mazu in Yu Yonghe's Diary of Sulphur Mining, Hurricane Mazu on March 23rd and Xiangzu Notes by Wang Shi. Similarly, Mazu Island in Lianjiang and Magong in Penghu are also from Mazu. It can be proved that "Mazu" has been reading "Mazu" since ancient times. Even foreigners do.

Thirdly, from the reality, it is not only the problem of phonetic inheritance, but also the problem of word meaning interpretation. In Putian dialect, the "mom" in the upper voice means grandma, not mom. The titles related to Mazu are "mother, aunt, ship mother, army mother, Meizhou mother, silver mother, aunt, second mother" and so on, among which "mother" has nothing to do with mother. According to the principle of "following the Lord", the pronunciation of "Mazu" should undoubtedly follow the pronunciation of Fujian dialect and cannot be changed without authorization. This is just like the reason that the ancients "Cao Dajia" also read "Cao Dajia": "Qi" also read "Li Yiji".

Fourthly, in view of the special meaning of "horse" in Fujian dialect, many dialect dictionaries published in recent years have included its sound and meaning. For example, Chinese Dialect Vocabulary, Taiwan Province Dialect Dictionary, Putonghua Minnan Dialect Dictionary and Chinese Dialect Dictionary. Both contain the pronunciation and meaning of "Ma", which is the fact and basis for "Mazu" to pronounce "Mazu". Therefore, Modern Chinese Dictionary should increase the pronunciation of "Ma" and "Ma", and at the same time increase the corresponding definitions, so that "Mazu" as the pronunciation of "Mazu" in Putonghua has a legal basis. Only in this way can we completely solve the problem of confusing pronunciation of Mazu at present.