Colexification of “thunder” and “dragon” in Sino-Tibetan languages

This paper explores the colexification of “thunder” and “dragon” in languages spoken in the Qinghai-Tibetan region. A sample of 372 languages from Sino-Tibetan, Dravidian, Indo-European, Mongolic-Khitan, Tungusic, and Turkic was collected. These languages were classified into colexifying and dislexifying languages, depending on whether the two concepts are associated with shared lexical forms. The findings reveal that 47 languages in the sample exhibit thunder-dragon colexification; most of them are Bodic and Na-Qiangic languages, with a few Sinitic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages. This areal pattern results from both inheritance and language contact. For the latter factor, Tibetan influence plays a significant role, as evidenced by the borrowing observed in non-Bodic languages. The linguistic boundary of thunder-dragon colexification aligns with the territory of the historical Tibetan Empire. Moreover, based on historical linguistic reconstruction from Old Chinese, the colexification is a likely feature of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, well preserved in Bodic languages but lost in Sinitic ones. However, some modern Sinitic dialects, particularly the Wu dialects, still maintain the relic connection between “dragon” and “lightning.” Finally, the findings suggest that thunder-dragon colexification originated from North China, and dragon is the mythologized form of thunder and lightning by the Proto-Sino-Tibetan people during the Neolithic period. Copyright © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.