On Chinese Hui-Muslim elementary vocabulary (2): Funeral terminology

Abstract

With this paper the writers continue their series of articles on Chinese Muslim elementary vocabulary. As already mentioned in the first part,2 in most Chinese dictionaries the specific elementary vocabulary of Islam is omitted. The paper in hand deals with the funeral terminology of Chinese Muslim.3 In contrast to the prayer terminology, we can only find one direct borrowing in Sino-Arabic, but no Sino-Persian transcription (Arabic and Persian loanwords phonetically transcribed with Chinese characters) among the funeral terms. More often the common Chinese terms are also used in the specific Muslim context. Furthermore, it is obvious that the number of terms is somehow limited comparing to the prayer terminology. (1) bìn yí tīng (殡仪厅) ‘house for washing, shrouding and preparing the corpse before burial’ (~ Arabic تىوملل لةسمخ maḫsala lilmawtā). Not all Muslim communities have such a house. It mainly depends on costs for running such an institution. 1 The paper in hand results from some fieldworks in the context of socio-linguistic research on the Hui-Muslim communities in the province of Shāndōng. 2 Sūn, Knüppel (2020a). 3 On the Hui Muslims’ funeral customs cf. also Sūn, Knüppel (2020b).