The initials of Xu Shen’s language as reflected in the Shuowen duruo glosses
《说文》读若注释中许慎语言的声母
W. South Coblin 柯蔚南

Abstract 摘要
The duruo glosses in the first century A.D. dictionary Shuowen Jiezi are an important source of material for the study of Eastern Han phonology. Although these glosses have already been treated in a major modern study, it is argued here that the findings of this earlier investigation are in need of reevaluation. In the present paper the nature of the duruo glosses is discussed and the data preserved therein are then used to reconstruct the initial system of the language of the Shuowen author, Xu Shen.