Abstract:

Shuiwen" is an ancient national written language used by the Shuiwen people in Guizhou Province to write their classic, The Book of Shui. Shuiwen has a great cognitive value to general philology. This is mainly because it is a kind of "assorted - dish written language" which has not only its own characters created by the nation but also some characters borrowed from Chinese characters. Its numeral characters and Heavenly - stem and Earthly - branch characters have some common features as well as their own features. Based on a study of them both, some conclusions can be drawn as follows: the self - source characters in Shuiwen emerge earlier than its borrowing characters; the spread of language tends to experience a remolded course; the borrowing characters tend to have variants.

Key words: Shuiwen written language, numeral character, Heavenly - stem and Earthly - branch characters