Abstract:
Chinese language has borrowed a large number of Indic loanwords through Buddhist sūtra
translation from Sanskrit and Prakrit languages. Buddhist sūtra translation is a major pillar in
the evolution of Chinese translation theory and philosophy and it has expanded the
terminologies of many spheres in China including literature, art, politics and law. These
words constitute the strongest linguistic relationship between East and South Asian languages
since most Indo-Aryan languages were derived from Classical Sanskrit. Although much
research has been conducted on Buddhist loanwords in Chinese, their linguistic relationship
with the Indo-Aryan languages and how it could be utilized to develop the pedagogical
implications for teaching Chinese in South Asia have been less addressed. The present study
is a corpus based study which examines the prospects of utilizing phonological and lexical
similarities between Buddhist loanwords in Indo Aryan languages and Chinese for teaching
Chinese in the South Asian region. An algorithm has been employed to measure the
similarity levels of phonological features at segmental level and it is recommended that
words of higher similarity level be utilized in teaching Chinese phonetics. An amalgamated
approach of intuitive-imitative and analytic-linguistic methods is perceived as most
appropriate for teaching phonetics using Buddhist loanwords. Word formation strategies in
Chinese language could be taught to students by using the most productive phono-semantic
matchings of Buddhist loanwords in Chinese language. Culture-sensitivity is perceived as the
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core of cross-cultural translation and knowledge of Buddhist loanwords is an essential
component of translating Chinese texts into South Asian languages and vice versa.
