Middle Chinese
Encyclopedia
Middle Chinese also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren
, refers to the Chinese language
spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties
and the Sui
, Tang
, and Song
dynasties. The term "Middle Chinese", in contrast to Old Chinese
and Modern Chinese
, is usually used in the context of historical Chinese phonology
, which seeks to reconstruct the pronunciation of Chinese used during these times.
Middle Chinese can be divided into an early period, generally called Early Middle Chinese (EMC, c. 5th–7th century AD), and a later period, Late Middle Chinese (LMC, c. 10th–12th century AD). EMC is usually connected with the Sui dynasty
and early Tang dynasty
rime dictionaries, especially the Qieyun
(601 AD), while LMC is usually connected with Song dynasty
rime tables, especially the Yunjing
(c. 1150 AD). The transition point between EMC and LMC is often associated with the development of labiodental
initials /f v mv/ from earlier bilabial
initial
s /p pʰ b m/ in particular phonological environments (see below). Because the Chinese writing system does not reflect phonological changes, it is unclear when exactly this change happened, although labiodentals are already present in the Jiyun
rime dictionary (1037 AD).
ic script; therefore, sounds cannot be derived directly from writing.
, Korean
and Vietnamese
), which borrowed large amounts of Chinese vocabulary; the transliterations of foreign words into Chinese characters
; evidence from classical Chinese poetry
composed during the Middle Chinese period; and above all, the native Chinese grammatical tradition, encoded in what are termed rime dictionaries and rime table
s.
Ancient Chinese philologists devoted a great amount of effort in summarizing the Chinese phonetic system, which was done especially to aid in the correct composition of poetry. Chinese poetry
abounded during the Tang era, with a rigid verse structure that relied on the rhyme and tone of the final characters in lines of poetry. The rime books (the spelling "rime" is normally preferred in this context) were a primary aid to authors in composing this poetry.
However, the rime books did not break syllables down into phoneme
s, as a modern analysis would do, but only into "initials" and "finals". The syllable structure of Middle Chinese and modern Chinese consists of the following components, in order: an initial consonant, or "initial"; an optional glide or "medial" (either a true semivocalic glide, such as /j/ or /w/, a vocalic "glide" such as /i/ in a diphthong /ie/, or a combination such as /jw/ or /wi/); a main vowel or "nucleus"; and an optional final consonant or "coda" (/j/, /w/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /p/, /t/ or /k/; sometimes additional codas such as /wk/ or /wŋ/ are reconstructed). The combination of medial, nucleus and coda is collectively termed a "final", while the combination of nucleus and coda is termed a "rime", which is an older spelling of "rhyme" and is indeed the unit that serves in the formation of rhyming poetry.
The evidence from different sources work to complement each other. The rime books directly indicate the categories of phonetic distinctions, but do not in general indicate the actual pronunciation of these distinctions. Evidence from the modern varieties can help determine the pronunciation, but this requires reconstruction work; in addition, most modern varieties descend from a Late Middle Chinese koine and cannot very easily be used to determine the pronunciation of Early Middle Chinese. Much of the Sino-Xenic vocabulary, on the other hand, descends from Early Middle Chinese, but again, reconstruction work in required, and in addition many distinctions were inevitably lost in mapping Chinese phonology onto foreign phonological systems.
Although the evidence from Chinese transcriptions of foreign words is much more limited, and is similarly obscured by the mapping of foreign pronunciations onto Chinese phonology, it serves as direct evidence of a sort that is lacking in all the other types of data, since the pronunciation of the foreign languages borrowed from – especially Sanskrit
– is known in great detail. For example, the Sanskrit word Dravida was translated by religious scribes into a series of characters 達羅毗荼 that are now read in Standard Mandarin
as /ta˧˥ luo˧˥ pʰi˧˥ tʰu˧˥/ (Pinyin: Dáluópítú). This suggests that Mandarin /uo/ (Pinyin -uo) is the modern reflex of an ancient /a/-like sound, and that the Mandarin tone /˧˥/ is a reflex of ancient voiced consonants.
(601 AD), is the oldest of the rime dictionaries and the main source for the pronunciation of characters in Early Middle Chinese (EMC). At the time of Bernhard Karlgren
's seminal work on Middle Chinese in the early 20th century, only fragments of the Qieyun were known, and scholars had to rely on later, expanded rime dictionaries such as the eleventh-century Song Dynasty Guangyun
and Jiyun
, which mix earlier and later pronunciations. However, significant sections of a copy of the Qieyun itself were subsequently discovered in the caves of Dunhuang
, and a complete copy was found in the Palace Library in 1947.
The Qieyun indexes Chinese characters by their pronunciation, according to a rigorous hierarchy of initial, final and tone. Characters with identical pronunciations are grouped into homophone classes, and each class is described according to two fanqie characters, one of which matches the initial sound of the characters in the homophone class and one of which matches the final. The use of fanqie is an important innovation of the Qieyun and allowed the pronunciation of all characters to be described exactly; earlier dictionaries simply described the pronunciation of unfamiliar characters in terms of the most similar-sounding familiar character. The Qieyun appears to use multiple synonymous fanqie characters to represent each particular initial; likewise for finals. Determining the number of categories actually represented for initials and finals thus took a good deal of careful work on the part of Chinese linguists. The way this was done was by equating two fanqie whenever one is used in the fanqie spelling of the pronunciation of the other, and then using transitive closure
to create larger groups. (For example, if the pronunciation of a particular character is defined using the fanqie spelling AB, and the pronunciation of character A is defined using the fanqie spelling CD, and the pronunciation of character C is defined using the fanqie spelling EF, then characters A, C and E are all equivalent fanqie characters for the same initial sound.) The Qieyun classifies homonyms under 95 tables, one per rhyme, describing a phonological system with 167 separate finals. Multiple finals grouped into a single rhyme class generally differ only in the medial (especially when it is /w/) or in so-called chongniu doublets (see below).
(c. 1150 AD) is the oldest of the so-called rime table
s, which provide a more detailed phonological analysis of the system contained in the Qieyun. It is important to note that the Yunjing was created centuries after the Qieyun, and that the authors of the Yunjing were attempting to interpret a phonological system that differed in significant ways from that of their own Late Middle Chinese (LMC) dialect. They were aware of this, and attempted to reconstruct Qieyun phonology as well as possible through a close analysis of regularities in the system and co-occurrence relationships between the initials and finals indicated by the fanqie characters. However, the analysis inevitably shows some contamination by LMC, which needs to be taken into account when interpreting difficult aspects of the system.
The Yunjing is organized into four sections, one per tone (shēngdiào 聲調 "sound intonation"), using the traditional four-tone system. Within each section are 43 tables, each containing 4 rows and 23 columns. Each square in a table contains a character corresponding to a particular homophone class in the Qieyun, if any such character exists. From this arrangement, each homophone class can be placed in the following categories:
Each initial is further classified as follows:
Each of the 43 tables is further classified as follows:
obstruent
s, including a three-way distinction between dental (or alveolar
), retroflex
and palatal
among fricatives and affricates, and a two-way dental/retroflex distinction among stop consonant
s. Old Chinese
had a simpler system with no palatal or retroflex consonants; the more complex system of EMC is thought to have arisen from a combination of Old Chinese obstruents with a following /r/ and/or /j/ (Baxter, 1992). By LMC, the palatal consonants had merged with the retroflex consonants; the current set of palatal consonants in modern Mandarin Chinese is a later development, unconnected with the earlier palatal consonants.
[ɦ] is not a separate phoneme, but an allophone of /ɣ/ before /j/. However, because [ɦ]) was later lost, causing syllables with this initial to be interpreted in the rime tables as having an initial /j/, a separate rime-table initial is usually assigned for [ɦ].
晓, 匣, 喻, 云 and 影 are considered as '喉音'.
来 is considered as '半舌音'
Bernhard Karlgren
, who developed the first modern reconstruction of Middle Chinese, reconstructed a somewhat different system. The following table shows Karlgren's equivalents of the above sounds, along with the "ASCII-friendly" notation used by William H. Baxter
, for sounds where either Karlgren's version or Baxter's ASCII version differs noticeably from the IPA version. Note that ȶ and ȡ are non-IPA symbols that indicate alveopalatal stops. Using IPA, they would likely be notated as palatal stops /c/ /ɟ/ or palatalized alveolar or dental stops /tʲ/ /dʲ/.
The main differences between Karlgren and current reconstructions are:
Theoretical form corresponding to EMC syllables with /pʰ/; not synchronically distinct from /(p)f/.
An unusual initial. Different scholars have variously speculated on the actual pronunciation of this segment, e.g. [ɱ], [w̃] or [ʋ]. (As noted by various authors, however, according to Peter Ladefoged
and Ian Maddieson
, the sound [ɱ] rarely if ever occurs as a phoneme.) It shows up today in various varieties as either [w], [v]/[ʋ] or [m].
Theoretical form that attempts to preserve the EMC distinction between voiced affricate and voiced fricative. In reality, both sounds merged into LMC /dʐ/.
, are widely used in practice. Because of this lack of consensus, understanding of the reconstruction of finals requires delving into the details of rime tables and rime dictionaries; see the discussion above for an introduction.
In the last case mentioned, the split into different rows is clearly artificial. In addition, in the case of chóngniǔ pairs, both finals appear to have palatalization, which in general is a characteristic of grade 3 but not grade 4. As a result, linguists generally assume that all of the finals involved "should" be in grade 3 and have been placed elsewhere simply to make the tables more compressed; otherwise, additional columns or tables would need to be created to avoid homophone conflation.
To handle these cases, a distinction is made between the "grade" (the actual row that the homophone class is placed in) and the "division" (the row that the class properly belongs in). This article distinguishes grades by Arabic numerals 1 2 3 4 and divisions by Roman numerals I II III IV. In addition, chóngniǔ finals in division III but grade 4 are notated in the table of final outcomes below as III/4.
Note:
The clearest difference is between division III and other divisions, with division III generally corresponding to palatal initials and/or finals with palatal (i.e. high-front) vowels or glides. In addition, divisions I and IV allow exactly the same set of initials in EMC, suggesting that the distinction between the two postdates the EMC period. Division-IV syllables are commonly thought to reflect a diphthong containing a vocalic glide /i/ in LMC, corresponding to an EMC mid-front monophthong, variously reconstructed as /ɛ/, /e/ or ɪ. Beyond this, there is no consensus.
Karlgren, and many authors following him, suggest that neither divisions I nor II had any medial other than /w/ or /u/, with division I corresponding to back vowels and division II to front vowels. Some authors have suggested that division II corresponded not so much to front vowels as to centralized vowels. Many authors have recently suggested that division-II syllables consistently had a medial /r/ in Old Chinese
, although this appeared to have already disappeared by EMC, so it's unclear exactly how this would have been carried forward into LMC. (Some have suggested that the system of divisions dates back at least to the time of the Qieyun
(c. 600 AD), and reflects a medial /ɣ/ present very early on in the EMC period.)
spelling. The table does not explicitly list finals ending in /p/, /t/ or /k/ (the so-called "entering tone" syllables), but these can easily be derived by substituting /p/ for /m/, /t/ for /n/, and /k/ for /ŋ/. Note also that some columns are not strictly in IPA
.
Late Middle Chinese (LMC) outcomes
Codes for initial classes:
Standard Mandarin outcomes
The modern outcomes are listed using the following codes:
The outcomes are written either as individual outcomes in Pinyin, or combined outcomes in "pseudo-Pinyin" (when the outcome begins with a "-" or uppercase letter). "Pseudo-Pinyin" uses Pinyin conventions but without any of the abbreviations normally in use in Pinyin. Examples:
When not indicated, the choice of whether a velar or palatal occurs is determined by the following vowel: palatals before -i or -ü, velars elsewhere.
Example: A listed outcome like -uo, Ge, PMo; also Ta, occ. wo means that the outcome is -e for a guttural (i.e. ge, ke, he, e); -o for a labial (i.e. po, bo, mo); -uo elsewhere; but for alveolar stops, -a also appears (i.e. either tuo, duo or ta, da), and wo occasionally appears instead of e as the outcome of MC ʔ- or ŋ- (the outcome of both is a "null initial", which is counted as a "guttural" in the modern outcomes).
These outcomes assume the normal correspondences between EMC initials and Standard Mandarin initials:
In a couple of situations where two different EMC initials have merged, the modern outcome is nonetheless different depending on the EMC initial:
The table uses the notation in (Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation), which differs in some ways from (Middle Chinese), as indicated:
In , these finals are indicated as ɛɨ and wɛɨ, but in , they have changed to simply ɛ and wɛ.
These finals occur only in tone 3 (the "departing tone"). This is because they come from Old Chinese
finals in -ts > -js, while the corresponding Old Chinese finals in -j lost the /j/. As a result, they often appear in as e.g. aɨj(s) and in as e.g. æjH, where the s and H are the respective notations for tone 3.
classified characters in four parts according to their tone: even tone (平聲), rising tone (上聲), departing tone (去聲), and entering tone (入聲). The first three are often notated as tones 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in modern publications. The "entering tone", also known as a "checked tone", actually refers to syllables characterized by a final stop consonant
(/p/, /t/, or /k/) rather than a distinct pitch.
It is difficult to determine the exact contours of the other tones, although the names themselves suggest level, rising and falling pitches, respectively. In 《元和韻譜》 is written 「平聲哀而安，上聲厲而舉，去聲清而遠，入聲直而促」, which approximately translates (somewhat cryptically) as "Level tone, sad but safe; rising tone, vigorous and moving; departing tone, clear and far; entering tone, straight and promoting."
), with largely monosyllabic words, little or no derivational morphology, three tones, and a syllable structure consisting of initial consonant, glide, main vowel and final consonant, with a large number of initial consonants and a fairly small number of final consonants. Not counting the glide, no clusters could occur at the beginning or end of a syllable.
Old Chinese
, on the other hand, had a significantly different structure. There were no tones, a lesser imbalance between possible initial and final consonants, and a significant number of initial and final clusters. There was a well-developed system of derivational and possibly inflectional morphology, formed using consonants added onto the beginning or end of a syllable. This system is similar to the system reconstructed for Proto-Sino-Tibetan and still visible, for example, in the written Tibetan language
; it is also largely similar to the system that occurs in the more conservative Mon–Khmer languages, such as modern Khmer
(Cambodian).
The main changes leading to the modern varieties have been a reduction in the number of consonants and vowels and a corresponding increase in the number of tones (typically through a pan-East-Asiatic tone split that doubled the number of tones while eliminating the distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants). This has led to a gradual decrease in the number of possible syllables. In Standard Mandarin
, this has progressed to a farther extent than elsewhere, with only about 1,200 possible syllables. The result, in Mandarin especially, has been the proliferation of the number of two-syllable compound words, which have steadily replaced former monosyllabic words, to the extent that the majority of words in Standard Mandarin are now composed of two syllables.
For more specifics, see historical Chinese phonology
.
Bernhard Karlgren
Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods...
, refers to the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties
Southern and Northern Dynasties
The Southern and Northern Dynasties was a period in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589 AD. Though an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spreading of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism...
and the Sui
Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty....
, Tang
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, and Song
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
dynasties. The term "Middle Chinese", in contrast to Old Chinese
Old Chinese
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
and Modern Chinese
Modern Chinese
Modern Chinese can refer to the following:*Modern Chinese history*Any or all of the modern varieties of Chinese, most commonly**Standard Chinese or Modern Chinese, sometimes known as Mandarin, the national language of the People's Republic of China...
, is usually used in the context of historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. As Chinese is written with logographic characters, not alphabetic or syllabary, the methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in, for example, Indo-European...
, which seeks to reconstruct the pronunciation of Chinese used during these times.
Middle Chinese can be divided into an early period, generally called Early Middle Chinese (EMC, c. 5th–7th century AD), and a later period, Late Middle Chinese (LMC, c. 10th–12th century AD). EMC is usually connected with the Sui dynasty
Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty....
and early Tang dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
rime dictionaries, especially the Qieyun
Qieyun
The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor...
(601 AD), while LMC is usually connected with Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
rime tables, especially the Yunjing
Yunjing
The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi ....
(c. 1150 AD). The transition point between EMC and LMC is often associated with the development of labiodental
Labiodental consonant
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
initials /f v mv/ from earlier bilabial
Bilabial consonant
In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
initial
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s /p pʰ b m/ in particular phonological environments (see below). Because the Chinese writing system does not reflect phonological changes, it is unclear when exactly this change happened, although labiodentals are already present in the Jiyun
Jiyun
The Jiyun is a Chinese rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du and others expanded and revised the Guangyun. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff , that Sima Guang completed the text in 1067...
rime dictionary (1037 AD).
Reconstruction
The reconstruction of Middle Chinese by different modern linguists varies slightly. The differences are minor and fairly uncontroversial in terms of consonants; however there is a more significant difference as to the vowels. (Middle) Chinese is not written using an alphabetAlphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
ic script; therefore, sounds cannot be derived directly from writing.
Methods of reconstruction
The sounds of Middle Chinese must instead be inferred from a number of sources, including the modern Chinese varieties; the pronunciation of Chinese words borrowed during Middle Chinese times into other languages, especially the Sino-Xenic languages (JapaneseJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
), which borrowed large amounts of Chinese vocabulary; the transliterations of foreign words into Chinese characters
Transliteration into Chinese characters
In Chinese, transcription is known as yīnyì or yìmíng . While it is common to see foreign names left in their original forms in a Chinese text, it is also common to transcribe foreign proper nouns into Chinese characters....
; evidence from classical Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
composed during the Middle Chinese period; and above all, the native Chinese grammatical tradition, encoded in what are termed rime dictionaries and rime table
Rime table
A rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the fǎnqiè analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries...
s.
Ancient Chinese philologists devoted a great amount of effort in summarizing the Chinese phonetic system, which was done especially to aid in the correct composition of poetry. Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language, which includes various versions of Chinese language, including Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Yue Chinese, as well as many other historical and vernacular varieties of the Chinese language...
abounded during the Tang era, with a rigid verse structure that relied on the rhyme and tone of the final characters in lines of poetry. The rime books (the spelling "rime" is normally preferred in this context) were a primary aid to authors in composing this poetry.
However, the rime books did not break syllables down into phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s, as a modern analysis would do, but only into "initials" and "finals". The syllable structure of Middle Chinese and modern Chinese consists of the following components, in order: an initial consonant, or "initial"; an optional glide or "medial" (either a true semivocalic glide, such as /j/ or /w/, a vocalic "glide" such as /i/ in a diphthong /ie/, or a combination such as /jw/ or /wi/); a main vowel or "nucleus"; and an optional final consonant or "coda" (/j/, /w/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /p/, /t/ or /k/; sometimes additional codas such as /wk/ or /wŋ/ are reconstructed). The combination of medial, nucleus and coda is collectively termed a "final", while the combination of nucleus and coda is termed a "rime", which is an older spelling of "rhyme" and is indeed the unit that serves in the formation of rhyming poetry.
The evidence from different sources work to complement each other. The rime books directly indicate the categories of phonetic distinctions, but do not in general indicate the actual pronunciation of these distinctions. Evidence from the modern varieties can help determine the pronunciation, but this requires reconstruction work; in addition, most modern varieties descend from a Late Middle Chinese koine and cannot very easily be used to determine the pronunciation of Early Middle Chinese. Much of the Sino-Xenic vocabulary, on the other hand, descends from Early Middle Chinese, but again, reconstruction work in required, and in addition many distinctions were inevitably lost in mapping Chinese phonology onto foreign phonological systems.
Although the evidence from Chinese transcriptions of foreign words is much more limited, and is similarly obscured by the mapping of foreign pronunciations onto Chinese phonology, it serves as direct evidence of a sort that is lacking in all the other types of data, since the pronunciation of the foreign languages borrowed from – especially Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
– is known in great detail. For example, the Sanskrit word Dravida was translated by religious scribes into a series of characters 達羅毗荼 that are now read in Standard Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
as /ta˧˥ luo˧˥ pʰi˧˥ tʰu˧˥/ (Pinyin: Dáluópítú). This suggests that Mandarin /uo/ (Pinyin -uo) is the modern reflex of an ancient /a/-like sound, and that the Mandarin tone /˧˥/ is a reflex of ancient voiced consonants.
The Qieyun
The QieyunQieyun
The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor...
(601 AD), is the oldest of the rime dictionaries and the main source for the pronunciation of characters in Early Middle Chinese (EMC). At the time of Bernhard Karlgren
Bernhard Karlgren
Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods...
's seminal work on Middle Chinese in the early 20th century, only fragments of the Qieyun were known, and scholars had to rely on later, expanded rime dictionaries such as the eleventh-century Song Dynasty Guangyun
Guangyun
The Guangyun is a Chinese rime dictionary that was compiled from 1007 to 1008 under the auspices of Emperor Zhenzong of Song. Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong were the chief editors....
and Jiyun
Jiyun
The Jiyun is a Chinese rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du and others expanded and revised the Guangyun. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff , that Sima Guang completed the text in 1067...
, which mix earlier and later pronunciations. However, significant sections of a copy of the Qieyun itself were subsequently discovered in the caves of Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...
, and a complete copy was found in the Palace Library in 1947.
The Qieyun indexes Chinese characters by their pronunciation, according to a rigorous hierarchy of initial, final and tone. Characters with identical pronunciations are grouped into homophone classes, and each class is described according to two fanqie characters, one of which matches the initial sound of the characters in the homophone class and one of which matches the final. The use of fanqie is an important innovation of the Qieyun and allowed the pronunciation of all characters to be described exactly; earlier dictionaries simply described the pronunciation of unfamiliar characters in terms of the most similar-sounding familiar character. The Qieyun appears to use multiple synonymous fanqie characters to represent each particular initial; likewise for finals. Determining the number of categories actually represented for initials and finals thus took a good deal of careful work on the part of Chinese linguists. The way this was done was by equating two fanqie whenever one is used in the fanqie spelling of the pronunciation of the other, and then using transitive closure
Transitive closure
In mathematics, the transitive closure of a binary relation R on a set X is the transitive relation R+ on set X such that R+ contains R and R+ is minimal . If the binary relation itself is transitive, then the transitive closure will be that same binary relation; otherwise, the transitive closure...
to create larger groups. (For example, if the pronunciation of a particular character is defined using the fanqie spelling AB, and the pronunciation of character A is defined using the fanqie spelling CD, and the pronunciation of character C is defined using the fanqie spelling EF, then characters A, C and E are all equivalent fanqie characters for the same initial sound.) The Qieyun classifies homonyms under 95 tables, one per rhyme, describing a phonological system with 167 separate finals. Multiple finals grouped into a single rhyme class generally differ only in the medial (especially when it is /w/) or in so-called chongniu doublets (see below).
The Yunjing
The YunjingYunjing
The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi ....
(c. 1150 AD) is the oldest of the so-called rime table
Rime table
A rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the fǎnqiè analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries...
s, which provide a more detailed phonological analysis of the system contained in the Qieyun. It is important to note that the Yunjing was created centuries after the Qieyun, and that the authors of the Yunjing were attempting to interpret a phonological system that differed in significant ways from that of their own Late Middle Chinese (LMC) dialect. They were aware of this, and attempted to reconstruct Qieyun phonology as well as possible through a close analysis of regularities in the system and co-occurrence relationships between the initials and finals indicated by the fanqie characters. However, the analysis inevitably shows some contamination by LMC, which needs to be taken into account when interpreting difficult aspects of the system.
The Yunjing is organized into four sections, one per tone (shēngdiào 聲調 "sound intonation"), using the traditional four-tone system. Within each section are 43 tables, each containing 4 rows and 23 columns. Each square in a table contains a character corresponding to a particular homophone class in the Qieyun, if any such character exists. From this arrangement, each homophone class can be placed in the following categories:
- Tone (shēngdiào 聲調 "sound intonation"), using the traditional four-tone system in which finals ending in /p/, /t/ or /k/ are considered to be entering toneEntering toneA checked tone, commonly known by its Chinese calque entering tone , is one of four syllable types in the phonology in Middle Chinese which are commonly translated as tone. However, it is not a tone in the phonetic sense, but rather describes a syllable that ends in a stop consonant, such as p, t,...
variants of finals ending in /m/, /n/ or /ŋ/ rather than separate finals in their own right. - Table number (1 to 43). Each table corresponds to one or more of the 95 Qieyun rhyme classes, and no rhyme class is split across two tables. It should be noted that 34 of the 95 Qieyun rhyme classes end in /p/, /t/ or /k/ and as a result are considered in the Yunjing to be tonal variants rather than classes in their own right; i.e. finals in these classes are located in the entering toneEntering toneA checked tone, commonly known by its Chinese calque entering tone , is one of four syllable types in the phonology in Middle Chinese which are commonly translated as tone. However, it is not a tone in the phonetic sense, but rather describes a syllable that ends in a stop consonant, such as p, t,...
section, in the same table as the corresponding finals ending in /m/, /n/ or /ŋ/ would be placed in the sections for the other tones. The assignment of the remaining 64 rhyme classes to tables is done in one of two ways. One way is by combining cases where two rhyme classes differ only their medial; note that in many cases the Qieyun rhyme classes already group finals by medial. The other way is by grouping rhyme classes with similar main vowels (e.g. /ɑ/, /a/, /ɛ/) that do not co-occur with the same initials, so that homophone conflation does not occur. (Such cases often reflect situations where a single Old ChineseOld ChineseThe earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
vowel later split.) Note also that rhyme classes that differ in the presence or absence of medial lip rounding (e.g. /w/ vs. no /w/, or /y/ vs. /i/) are never combined into the same table. - Grade (děng 等 "class", "grade" or "group"), either I, II, III or IV, corresponding to the row. The category is related to differences in palatalizationPalatalizationIn linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
of the syllable's initial (e.g. retroflex vs. palatal vs. alveolar) or medial (e.g. /i/, /j/, /ji/ or none, according to Edwin Pulleyblank). The exact significance of this category is difficult to interpret, however, and is strongly debated; see below. - Initial (shēngmǔ 聲母 "sound mother"), corresponding to the column. Note that the Yunjing distinguishes 36 initials but uses only 23 columns; it does this by combining palatals, retroflexes, and dentals under the same column. This does not lead to cases where two homophone classes are conflated, as the grades (rows) are arranged so that all would-be minimal pairs distinguished only by the retroflex vs. palatal vs. alveolar character of the initial end up in different rows.
Each initial is further classified as follows:
- Place of articulationPlace of articulationIn articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location...
: labialsLabial consonantLabial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals...
(chún 脣 "lip"), alveolarsAlveolar consonantAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
(shé 舌 "tongue"), velarsVelar consonantVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
(yá 牙 "back tooth"), affricatesAffricate consonantAffricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
and sibilantsSibilant consonantA sibilant is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words sip, zip, ship, chip,...
(chǐ 齒 "front tooth"), and gutturals (hóu 喉 "throat") - PhonationPhonationPhonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...
: voiceless (qīng 清 "clear"), voiceless aspirated (cìqīng 次清 "secondary clear"), voiced (zhuó 濁 "muddy") or nasalNasal consonantA nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
or liquidLiquid consonantIn phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...
(qīngzhuó 清濁 "clear muddy")
Each of the 43 tables is further classified as follows:
- One of 16 shè classes. These appear to correspond to LMC rhyme classes.
- "inner" (nèi ) or "outer" (wài ). The meaning of this is debated but it has been suggested that it refers to the height of the main vowel, with "outer" finals having a low vowel (/ɑ/ or /a,æ/) and "inner" finals having a non-low vowel.
- "open mouth" (kāikǒu 開口) or "closed mouth" (hékǒu 合口), indicating whether lip rounding is present. "Closed" finals either have a rounded vowel (e.g. /u/) or rounded glide.
Initials
Early Middle Chinese (EMC) had three types of stops: voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated. Syllables could end with stops. EMC had more vowels than its descendants, such as /æ/, which merged into similar phonemes later on. There were eight series of coronalCoronal consonant
Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such...
obstruent
Obstruent
An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....
s, including a three-way distinction between dental (or alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
), retroflex
Retroflex consonant
A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...
and palatal
Palatal consonant
Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
among fricatives and affricates, and a two-way dental/retroflex distinction among stop consonant
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
s. Old Chinese
Old Chinese
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
had a simpler system with no palatal or retroflex consonants; the more complex system of EMC is thought to have arisen from a combination of Old Chinese obstruents with a following /r/ and/or /j/ (Baxter, 1992). By LMC, the palatal consonants had merged with the retroflex consonants; the current set of palatal consonants in modern Mandarin Chinese is a later development, unconnected with the earlier palatal consonants.
Early Middle Chinese
The following table shows the consonants of Early Middle Chinese (EMC), according to current consensus. All of these consonants can appear at the beginning of a syllable, but only /p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ and arguably /j//w/ can occur at the end of a syllable.| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... / Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... / Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
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| Tenuis Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... |
Aspirate Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
Tenuis Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... |
Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
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| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
p | 3.40% | pʰ | 2.58% | b | 4.41% | m | 4.38% | ||||||
| Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
t | 2.42% | tʰ | 2.13% | d | 4.04% | n | 1.20% | l | 6.85% | ||||
| Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... |
ʈ | 1.59% | ʈʰ | 1.22% | ɖ | 1.90% | ɳ | 0.87% | |||||||
| Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
ɲ | 1.59% | j | 3.81% | |||||||||||
| Sibilant |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
ts | 3.06% | tsʰ | 2.30% | dz | 2.16% | s | 3.67% | z | 0.88% | ||||
| Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... |
tʂ | 0.92% | tʂʰ | 0.97% | dʐ | 0.94% | ʂ | 1.76% | ʐ | 0.03% | |||||
| Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
tɕ | 2.33% | tɕʰ | 0.95% | dʑ | 1.40% | ɕ | 1.28% | ʑ | 0.31% | |||||
| Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
k | 8.01% | kʰ | 4.23% | ɡ | 2.83% | ŋ | 3.28% | x | 4.39% | ɣ | 5.18% | |||
| Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
ʔ | 5.39% | (ɦ) | 1.32% | |||||||||||
[ɦ] is not a separate phoneme, but an allophone of /ɣ/ before /j/. However, because [ɦ]) was later lost, causing syllables with this initial to be interpreted in the rime tables as having an initial /j/, a separate rime-table initial is usually assigned for [ɦ].
晓, 匣, 喻, 云 and 影 are considered as '喉音'.
来 is considered as '半舌音'
Bernhard Karlgren
Bernhard Karlgren
Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods...
, who developed the first modern reconstruction of Middle Chinese, reconstructed a somewhat different system. The following table shows Karlgren's equivalents of the above sounds, along with the "ASCII-friendly" notation used by William H. Baxter
William H. Baxter
William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D...
, for sounds where either Karlgren's version or Baxter's ASCII version differs noticeably from the IPA version. Note that ȶ and ȡ are non-IPA symbols that indicate alveopalatal stops. Using IPA, they would likely be notated as palatal stops /c/ /ɟ/ or palatalized alveolar or dental stops /tʲ/ /dʲ/.
The main differences between Karlgren and current reconstructions are:
- The reversal of /ʑ/ and /dʑ/. Karlgren based his reconstruction on the Song DynastySong DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
rime tableRime tableA rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the fǎnqiè analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries...
s. However, because of mergers between these two sounds between Early and Late Middle Chinese, the Chinese phonologists who created the rime tables could rely only on tradition to tell what the respective values of these two consonants were; evidently they were accidentally reversed at one stage. - Karlgren also assumed that the EMC retroflexRetroflex consonantA retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...
stops were actually palatalPalatal consonantPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
stops based on their tendency to co-occur with front vowels and /j/, but this was later shown to be incorrect. - Karlgren assumed that voiced consonants were actually breathy voiced. This is now assumed only for LMC, not EMC.
| initial | William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... , "ASCII-friendly" notation | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
|---|---|---|
| b | b | bʱ |
| d | d | dʱ |
| ʈ | tr | ȶ |
| ʈʰ | trh | ȶʰ |
| ɖ | dr | ȡʱ |
| ɳ | nr | n |
| dz | dz | dzʱ |
| tʂ | tsr | tʂ |
| tʂʰ | tsrh | tʂʰ |
| dʐ | dzr | dʐʱ |
| ʂ | sr | ʂ |
| ʐ | zr | dʐʱ |
| tɕ | tsy | tɕ |
| tɕʰ | tsyh | tɕʰ |
| dʑ | dzy | ʑ |
| ɕ | sy | ɕ |
| ʑ | zy | dʑʱ |
| ɲ | ny | ȵʑ |
| ɡ | g | ɡʱ |
| ŋ | ng | ŋ |
| ʔ | ' | ʔ |
| x | x | x |
| ɣ | h | ɣ |
| [ɦ] | h | (none) |
| j | y | (none) |
Late Middle Chinese
The following table shows the consonants of Late Middle Chinese (LMC), according to current consensus. As with Early Middle Chinese, all can appear at the beginning of a syllable, but only /p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ and arguably /j//w/ can occur at the end of a syllable. The changes were:- Palatal sibilants merged with retroflex sibilants.
- /ʐ/ merges with /dʐ/ (hence /dʐ/ ends up reflecting four separate EMC phonemes).
- Palatal nasal /ɲ/ also becomes retroflex, but turns into a new phoneme /ɻ/ rather than merging with any existing phoneme.
- A new series of labiodentals emerges from labials in certain environments, typically where both fronting and rounding occurs (e.g. /j/ plus a back vowel in William Baxter's reconstruction, or a front rounded vowelFront rounded vowelA front rounded vowel is a particular type of vowel that is both front and rounded.The front rounded vowels defined by the IPA include:, a close front rounded vowel , a near-close near-front rounded vowel , a close-mid front rounded vowel , a mid front rounded vowel, an open-mid front rounded vowel...
in Chan's reconstruction). - Voiced obstruentObstruentAn obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....
s gain phonetic breathy voiceBreathy voiceBreathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise...
(still reflected in the Wu Chinese varieties). - [ɦ] (allophoneAllophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
of /ɣ/ before /j/) lost.
| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... / Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenuis Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... |
Aspirate Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
Breathy voiced |
Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
Tenuis Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... |
Breathy voiced |
Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
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| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
p | pʰ | b | m | |||||
| (p)f | (p)fʰ | (b)v | mv | ||||||
| Coronal Coronal consonant Coronal consonants are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Only the coronal consonants can be divided into apical , laminal , domed , or subapical , as well as a few rarer orientations, because only the front of the tongue has such... |
t | tʰ | d | n | l | ||||
| ʈ | ʈʰ | ɖ | ɳ | ɻ | |||||
| j | |||||||||
| Sibilant |
ts | tsʰ | dz | s | z | ||||
| tʂ | tʂʰ | dʐ | ʂ | (ʐ) | |||||
| Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
k | kʰ | ɡ | ŋ | x | ɣ | |||
| Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
ʔ | ||||||||
Theoretical form corresponding to EMC syllables with /pʰ/; not synchronically distinct from /(p)f/.
An unusual initial. Different scholars have variously speculated on the actual pronunciation of this segment, e.g. [ɱ], [w̃] or [ʋ]. (As noted by various authors, however, according to Peter Ladefoged
Peter Ladefoged
Peter Nielsen Ladefoged was an English-American linguist and phonetician who traveled the world to document the distinct sounds of endangered languages and pioneered ways to collect and study data . He was active at the universities of Edinburgh, Scotland and Ibadan, Nigeria 1953–61...
and Ian Maddieson
Ian Maddieson
Ian Maddieson is a linguist at UC Berkeley, an Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, Vice-President of the International Phonetic Association, and Secretary of the Association for Laboratory Phonology...
, the sound [ɱ] rarely if ever occurs as a phoneme.) It shows up today in various varieties as either [w], [v]/[ʋ] or [m].
Theoretical form that attempts to preserve the EMC distinction between voiced affricate and voiced fricative. In reality, both sounds merged into LMC /dʐ/.
Finals
Reconstruction of the pronunciation of finals is much more difficult than initials due to the combination of multiple phonemes into a single class. There is no consensus on the reconstruction of finals, although there are a number of points on which there is general agreement, and the reconstructions of certain scholars, such as William H. BaxterWilliam H. Baxter
William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D...
, are widely used in practice. Because of this lack of consensus, understanding of the reconstruction of finals requires delving into the details of rime tables and rime dictionaries; see the discussion above for an introduction.
Grade vs. division
When two or more Qieyun rhyme classes are combined into a single table, different rhyme classes usually end up on different rows (grades). Three situations have been identified in which a single rhyme class is split over more than one row.- Five rhyme classes appear to be split according to the absence or presence of medial /j/: 戈(closed) –wa –jwa (grades 1 and 3); 麻 –æ, -jæ (grades 2 and 3); 庚 –æng, -jæng (grades 2 and 3); 东 –uwng, -juwng (grade 1 and 3); 屋 –uwk, juwk (grade 1 and 3). In this case, the different grades correspond to different EMC finals.
- Some so-called chóngniǔChongniuChóngniǔ or rime doublets are pairs of Middle Chinese homophone groups within the same rime group in rime dictionaries such as the Qieyun and Guangyun that are divided between the third and fourth divisions of rime tables such as the Yunjing but not distinguished in any other way.The name comes...
重纽 "repeated button" rhyme classes that combine two EMC finals have the finals split so that one final is placed in grade 3 and the other in grade 4. In all such cases, the paired finals have identical outcomes in all modern Chinese dialects as well as in Sino-JapaneseSino-JapaneseSino-Japanese, or Kango in Japanese, refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the Chinese language or has been created from elements borrowed from Chinese. Some grammatical or sentence patterns can also be identified with Sino-Japanese. Sino-Japanese vocabulary is...
and Sino-KoreanSino-KoreanSino-Korean or Hanja-eo refers to the set of words in the Korean language vocabulary that originated from or were influenced by hanja. The Sino-Korean lexicon consists of both words loaned from Chinese and words coined in the Korean language using hanja.Sino-Korean words are one of the three main...
borrowings; however, they are reflected differently in Sino-VietnameseSino-VietnameseSino-Vietnamese are the elements in the Vietnamese language derived from Chinese. They account for between 30% to 60% of the Vietnamese vocabulary, not including naturalized word borrowings from China...
borrowings. The outcomes in the modern Chinese dialects are generally palatalized; however, in Sino-VietnameseSino-VietnameseSino-Vietnamese are the elements in the Vietnamese language derived from Chinese. They account for between 30% to 60% of the Vietnamese vocabulary, not including naturalized word borrowings from China...
only the grade-4 finals have such palatalization. Karlgren ignored the difference, but all modern linguists consider distinction important. Modern reconstructions generally include a higher degree of palatalization in the grade-4 finals than the grade-3 finals (e.g. medial /j/ vs. /i/, /ji/ vs. /j/, or /ji/ vs. /i/). - It was noted above that palatal, retroflex and alveolar affricates are combined into the same column. When a particular final occurs with more than one of these initials, the final is split across rows so that retroflex initials go into row 2, palatal initials in row 3, and alveolar initials in row 4. Note that in this case, not only a single Qieyun rhyme class but in fact a single EMC final has been split in three.
In the last case mentioned, the split into different rows is clearly artificial. In addition, in the case of chóngniǔ pairs, both finals appear to have palatalization, which in general is a characteristic of grade 3 but not grade 4. As a result, linguists generally assume that all of the finals involved "should" be in grade 3 and have been placed elsewhere simply to make the tables more compressed; otherwise, additional columns or tables would need to be created to avoid homophone conflation.
To handle these cases, a distinction is made between the "grade" (the actual row that the homophone class is placed in) and the "division" (the row that the class properly belongs in). This article distinguishes grades by Arabic numerals 1 2 3 4 and divisions by Roman numerals I II III IV. In addition, chóngniǔ finals in division III but grade 4 are notated in the table of final outcomes below as III/4.
Co-occurrence relationships between initials and divisions
The following table lists the co-occurrence relationships between initial consonants of various classes and the various divisions.Note:
- Finals that appear as chongniu doublets are identified as either III-chongniu (if they appear in grade 3) or III/4-chongniu (if they appear in grade 4).
- III-mixed finals are those finals that do not appear in chongniu pairs but are split across different grades with a sibilant initial, according to the quality of the initial (retroflex, palatal or alveolar).
- III-indep finals, so-called "independent" finals, are all others.
| Division | P | T | Tr | K | TS | TSr | TSy | l | y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | yes | yes | – | yes | yes (not /z/) | – | – | yes | -- |
| II | yes | – | yes | yes | – | – | – | marginally | -- |
| III-indep | yes | – | – | yes | – | – | – | – | -- |
| III-mixed, III-chongniu | yes | – | yes | yes | yes (grade 4) | yes (grade 2) | yes (grade 3) | yes | -- |
| III/4-chongniu | yes | – | – | yes | – | – | – | – | -- |
| IV | yes | yes | – | yes | yes | – | – | yes | yes |
Significance of the division
There are correspondences between certain divisions and the presence or absence of medial glides in later dialects, in ways that differ depending on the class of the initial (e.g. velar, labial, retroflex, etc.). There are also clear co-occurrence restrictions between initials and divisions, in that initials from certain of these same classes can occur with finals only from certain divisions. The LMC authors of this system appear to have been aware of these classes of initials, and seem to have determined the separation into divisions partly on the basis of the co-occurrence relationships and partly on the medial glides, although it is debated how the exact classification was made. It is important to remember that the authors of this system were attempting to use LMC phonology to reconstruct EMC phonology (although they probably thought of it more in terms of trying to harmonize the way that words were normally pronounced with the rather different system of rhymes and homophones as laid out in the Qieyun).The clearest difference is between division III and other divisions, with division III generally corresponding to palatal initials and/or finals with palatal (i.e. high-front) vowels or glides. In addition, divisions I and IV allow exactly the same set of initials in EMC, suggesting that the distinction between the two postdates the EMC period. Division-IV syllables are commonly thought to reflect a diphthong containing a vocalic glide /i/ in LMC, corresponding to an EMC mid-front monophthong, variously reconstructed as /ɛ/, /e/ or ɪ. Beyond this, there is no consensus.
Karlgren, and many authors following him, suggest that neither divisions I nor II had any medial other than /w/ or /u/, with division I corresponding to back vowels and division II to front vowels. Some authors have suggested that division II corresponded not so much to front vowels as to centralized vowels. Many authors have recently suggested that division-II syllables consistently had a medial /r/ in Old Chinese
Old Chinese
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
, although this appeared to have already disappeared by EMC, so it's unclear exactly how this would have been carried forward into LMC. (Some have suggested that the system of divisions dates back at least to the time of the Qieyun
Qieyun
The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor...
(c. 600 AD), and reflects a medial /ɣ/ present very early on in the EMC period.)
Table of Early Middle Chinese finals
The following table lists Early Middle Chinese (EMC) reconstructed "finals" (i.e. all of the syllable other than the initial consonant), according to different authors. It also lists the corresponding Late Middle Chinese (LMC) outcomes according to Pulleyblank, and the Standard Mandarin outcomes using PinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
spelling. The table does not explicitly list finals ending in /p/, /t/ or /k/ (the so-called "entering tone" syllables), but these can easily be derived by substituting /p/ for /m/, /t/ for /n/, and /k/ for /ŋ/. Note also that some columns are not strictly in IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
.
Late Middle Chinese (LMC) outcomes
Codes for initial classes:
- G = guttural (velar or laryngeal, i.e. a back consonant)
- P = labial (includes labiodental)
- PG = labial or guttural (i.e. a grave consonant)
- A = acute consonant (anything not in PG)
- SR = EMC retroflex sibilant
- ST = alveolar sibilant
- M = /m/
- RXLʔ = EMC retroflex, EMC palatal sibilant, /l/ or /ʔ/
Standard Mandarin outcomes
The modern outcomes are listed using the following codes:
- P = bilabial stops (p, b)
- PM = bilabials (p, b, m)
- F = labiovelars (f, w < /m-/)
- T = alveolar stops (t, d)
- S = alveolar sibilants (c, z, s)
- Š = retroflex sibilants (ch, zh, sh)
- ŠR = retroflex (ch, zh, sh, r)
- K = velars (k, g, h)
- Q = palatal sibilants (q, j, x); they occur in place of either velars or alveolar sibilants when i or ü follows
- G = gutturals (velars or no initial; in the latter case, stemming from MC ʔ- or ŋ-/ng- and sometimes written w- or y- in Pinyin)
- J = "jutturals" (same as gutturals but with palatal sibilants in place of velars; occurs before i or ü)
The outcomes are written either as individual outcomes in Pinyin, or combined outcomes in "pseudo-Pinyin" (when the outcome begins with a "-" or uppercase letter). "Pseudo-Pinyin" uses Pinyin conventions but without any of the abbreviations normally in use in Pinyin. Examples:
- "-uei" indicates the pronunciation /uei/, normally spelled -ui or wei
- "-üe" indicates the pronunciation /ye/ [ɥɛ], normally spelled -ue (after q-, j-, x-); -üe (after l-, n-); or yue
- "-i" indicates the pronunciation /i/ (usually [i], but [ɨ] after alveolar or retroflex sibilants); normally spelled -i or yi
When not indicated, the choice of whether a velar or palatal occurs is determined by the following vowel: palatals before -i or -ü, velars elsewhere.
Example: A listed outcome like -uo, Ge, PMo; also Ta, occ. wo means that the outcome is -e for a guttural (i.e. ge, ke, he, e); -o for a labial (i.e. po, bo, mo); -uo elsewhere; but for alveolar stops, -a also appears (i.e. either tuo, duo or ta, da), and wo occasionally appears instead of e as the outcome of MC ʔ- or ŋ- (the outcome of both is a "null initial", which is counted as a "guttural" in the modern outcomes).
These outcomes assume the normal correspondences between EMC initials and Standard Mandarin initials:
- EMC voiced stops and fricatives become unvoiced in Mandarin; stops in syllables with tone 1 become aspirated, otherwise unaspirated.
- EMC palatal sibilants and retroflex stops become Mandarin retroflex sibilants.
- EMC nasal changes: nr- becomes Mandarin n-; ny- becomes Mandarin r-, or sometimes the syllable er; ng- is dropped.
- EMC guttural /ʔ-/ is dropped, and h- is dropped in the sequence hj-.
- EMC velars and alveolar sibilants become Mandarin palatal sibilants before Early Mandarin -i- or -ü- (/y/).
- With certain finals, EMC labial stops become Mandarin f-, and EMC m- usually becomes Mandarin w-; this is indicated by F-. Lowercase f- appears in finals where EMC labial stops become Mandarin f-, but either there are no known examples of EMC m- with the same final, or EMC m- with that final becomes Mandarin m- rather than w-.
In a couple of situations where two different EMC initials have merged, the modern outcome is nonetheless different depending on the EMC initial:
- EMC retroflex and palatal sibilants merged in LMC, but sometimes the modern outcomes are different. For example, under -ip, the notation -i, Še < SR- means that EMC syip > shi but EMC srip > she.
- EMC ng- and ʔ- both disappear, but sometimes with different results. For example, -ai, ya < ʔ-, Qie means that the modern result is ya when the EMC syllable began with ʔ- but ai when the EMC syllable began with ng- /ŋ-/. On the other hand, -ao, ao < ʔ-, Jiao means that the modern result is ao when the EMC syllable began with ʔ- but yao when the EMC syllable began with ng- /ŋ-/ (since J- includes original velars); likewise for -uo, wo < ʔ-, Jüe, indicating wo vs. yue.
| Yunjing Yunjing The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .... rhyme class |
Qieyun Qieyun The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor... rhyme class |
division | rounding | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
Li Rong | Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia... |
William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... |
Abraham Y.S. Chan | Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... pronunciation |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMC | LMC | Jinling | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... | normal | Final -p/t/k | |||||||
| 果 (outer) | 歌 | I | open | ɑ | ɑ | a [ɑ] | a [ɑ], Pua [ɑ] | a | ɑ | ɐ | -uo, Ge, PMo; also Ta, occ. wo | |
| 戈 | I | closed | uɑ | uɑ | wa [wɑ] | ua [uɑ] | wa | wɑ | wɐ | -uo; also Ge | ||
| 戈 | III-mixed | open | i̯ɑ | iɑ | ɨa [ɨɑ] | ia [iɑ] | ja | ɑ | œ | Qie | ||
| 戈 | III-mixed | closed | i̯wɑ | iuɑ | ua [uɑ] | ya [yɑ] | jwa | wɑ | wœ | Qüe | ||
| 假 (outer) | 麻 | II | open | a | a | aɨ (ɛɨ) | aː [ɑː], Gjaː [Gjɑː] | æ | æ | ɛ | -a, Jia | |
| 麻 | II | closed | wa | ua | waɨ (wɛɨ) | waː [wɑː] | wæ | wæ | wɛ | -ua | ||
| 麻 | III-mixed | open | i̯a | ia | ia [iɑ] | ia [iɑ] | jæ | jæ | jɛ | Jie, ŠRe | ||
| 遇 (inner) | 模 | I | closed | uo | o | ɔ | uǝ̆ [uɔ] | u | u | ə | -u | |
| 魚 | III-mixed | closed | i̯wo | iɔ | ɨǝ̆ | iǝ̆ [iɛ], SRəǝ̆ [SRɤ] (yǝ̆ [yɛ], SRuǝ̆ [SRuɔ]) | jo | œ | ø | -ü, Fu, ŠRu | ||
| 虞 | III-mixed | closed | i̯u | io | uǝ̆ | yǝ̆ [yɛ], SRuǝ̆ [SRuɔ] | ju | ø | ø | |||
| Yunjing Yunjing The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .... rhyme class |
Qieyun Qieyun The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor... rhyme class |
division | rounding | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
Li Rong | Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia... |
William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... |
Abraham Y.S. Chan | Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... pronunciation |
|||
| EMC | LMC | Jinling | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... | normal | Final -p/t/k | |||||||
| 蟹 (outer) | 咍 | I | open | ɑ̌i | ɒi | əj | aj | oj | əj | əj | -ai, Pei | |
| 灰 | I | closed | uɑ̌i | uɒi | wəj | uaj | woj | ʏj | ʏj | -uei, PMei, lei, nei | ||
| 泰 | I | open | ɑi | ɑi | aj | aj | aj | ɑj | ɐj | -ai, Pei | ||
| 泰 | I | closed | wɑi | uɑi | waj | uaj | waj | wɑj | wɐj | -uei | ||
| 皆 | II | open | ǝ̆i | ɛi | əɨj | aːj, Gjaːj | ɛj | ɑj | ɛj | -ai, Qie; also Pei | ||
| 皆 | II | closed | wǝ̆i | uɛi | wəɨj | waːj | wɛj | wɑj | wɛj | Kuai | ||
| 佳 | II | open | ai | ɛ | aɨj | aːj, Gjaːj | ɛ (ɛɨ) | ɛ | ɛj | -ai, ya < ʔ-, Qie; also Pa | ||
| 佳 | II | closed | wai | uɛ | waɨj | waːj | wɛ (wɛɨ) | wɛ | wɛj | -ua; also wai | ||
| 夬 | II | open | ai | ai | aɨj(s) | aːj, Gjaːj | æjH | æj | ɛj | -ai, Qie | ||
| 夬 | II | closed | wai | uai | waɨj(s) | waːj | wæjH | wæj | wɛj | Kuai | ||
| 祭 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ɛi | iɛi | iaj | iaj | jej | ej | ej | -i | ||
| 祭 | III/4-chongniu | open | jɛi | jiaj | PGjiaj | jiej | jej | jej | ||||
| 祭 | III-chongniu | closed | i̯wɛi | iuɛi | wiaj | yaj | jwej | wej | wej | -uei | ||
| 祭 | III/4-chongniu | closed | juɛi | jwiaj | PGjyaj | jwiej | wjej | wjej | ||||
| 廢 | III-indep | open | i̯æi | iɐi | ɨaj | iaj | joj | øj | øj | fei, yi | ||
| 廢 | III-indep | closed | i̯wæi | iuɐi | uaj | yaj | jwoj | wøj | wøj | Kuei | ||
| 齊 | IV | open | iei | ei | ɛj | PGjiaj, Aiaj | ej | ɐj | ɪj | -i | ||
| 齊 | IV | closed | iwei | uei | wɛj | Gjyaj | wej | wɐj | wɪj | Kuei | ||
| 止 (inner) | 支 | III-chongniu | open | iě | ie | iǝ̆ | i, SRṛ, STẓ | je | e | i | -i, er < ny-; occ. Pei | |
| 支 | III/4-chongniu | open | je | jiǝ̆ | PGji | jie | je | ji | ||||
| 支 | III-chongniu | closed | wiě | iue | wiǝ̆ | yj, SRuj | jwe | we | wi | -uei, lei | ||
| 支 | III/4-chongniu | closed | jue | jwiǝ̆ | PGjyj | jwie | wje | wji | ||||
| 脂 | III-chongniu | open | i | i | i | i, SRṛ, STẓ | ij | i | i | -i, er < ny-; occ. PMei | ||
| 脂 | III/4-chongniu | open | ji | ji | PGji | jij | ji | ji | ||||
| 脂 | III-chongniu | closed | wi | ui | wi | yj, SRuj | wij | wi | wi | -uei, lei, yi? | ||
| 脂 | III/4-chongniu | closed | jui | jwi | PGjyj | jwij | wji | wji | ||||
| 之 | III-mixed | open | i | iə | ɨ | i, SRṛ, STẓ | i | i | e | -i, er < ny- | ||
| 微 | III-indep | open | ěi | iəi | ɨj | i | jɨj | yj | yj | Ji, Fei | ||
| 微 | III-indep | closed | wěi | iuəi | uj | yj | jwɨj | wyj | wyj | Guei | ||
| Yunjing Yunjing The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .... rhyme class |
Qieyun Qieyun The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor... rhyme class |
division | rounding | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
Li Rong | Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia... |
William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... |
Abraham Y.S. Chan | Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... pronunciation |
|||
| EMC | LMC | Jinling | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... | normal | Final -p/t/k | |||||||
| 效 (outer) | 豪 | I | open | ɑu | ɑu | aw | (u)aw | aw | ɑw | ɐw | -ao | |
| 肴 | II | open | au | au | aɨw | aːw, Gjaːw | æw | ɛw | ɛw | -ao, ao < ʔ-, Jiao | ||
| 宵 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ɛu | iɛu | iaw | iaw | jew | ew | ew | -iao, ŠRao | ||
| 宵 | III/4-chongniu | open | jɛu | jiaw | PGjiaw | jiew | jew | jew | ||||
| 蕭 | IV | open | ieu | eu | ɛw | PGjiaw, Aiaw | ew | ɪw | ɪw | |||
| 流 (inner) | 侯 | I | open | ə̆u | u | əw | əw | uw | ʉ | u | -ou; also mu | |
| 尤 | III-mixed | open | iə̆u | iu | uw | iw, SRəw, Məw | juw | y | y | -iou, fou, mou, ŠRou; also Sou < Š- | ||
| 幽 | III/4-chongniu | open | i̯ĕu | iĕu | jiw | jiw | jiw | iw | iw | -iou | ||
| Yunjing Yunjing The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .... rhyme class |
Qieyun Qieyun The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor... rhyme class |
division | rounding | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
Li Rong | Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia... |
William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... |
Abraham Y.S. Chan | Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... pronunciation |
|||
| EMC | LMC | Jinling | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... | normal | Final -p/t/k | |||||||
| 咸 (outer) | 覃 | I | open | ɑ̌m | ɒm | əm | am | om | ɔm | ɔm | -an | -a, Ke |
| 談 | I | open | ɑm | ɑm | am | am | am | ɑm | ɐm | |||
| 咸 | II | open | ǝ̆m | ɐm | əɨm | aːm, Gjaːm | ɛm | ɛm | ɛm | -an, Jian | Jia, Ša | |
| 銜 | II | open | am | am | aɨm | aːm, Gjaːm | æm | æm | ɛm | |||
| 鹽 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ɛm | iɛm | iam | iam | jem | øm | øm | -ian, ŠRan | -ie, Še | |
| 鹽 | III/4-chongniu | open | jɛm | jiam | PGjiam | jiem | jøm? | jøm? | ||||
| 嚴 | III-indep | open | i̯æm | iɐm | ɨam | iam | jæm | em | em | -ian, fan | -ie, fa | |
| 凡 | III-indep | closed | i̯wæm | iuɐm | uam | iam | jom/jwom? | œm | øm | |||
| 添 | IV | open | iem | em | ɛm | PGjiam, Aiam | em | ɪm | ɪm | -ian | Qie | |
| 深 (inner) | 侵 | III-chongniu | open | i̯əm | iəm | im | im, SRəm | im | im | im | -in, ŠRen; also Sen < Š- | -i, Še < SR- |
| 侵 | III/4-chongniu | open | jəm | jim | PGjim | jim | jim | jim | ||||
| Yunjing Yunjing The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .... rhyme class |
Qieyun Qieyun The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor... rhyme class |
division | rounding | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
Li Rong | Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia... |
William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... |
Abraham Y.S. Chan | Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... pronunciation |
|||
| EMC | LMC | Jinling | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... | normal | Final -p/t/k | |||||||
| 山 (outer) | 寒 | I | open | ɑn | ɑn | an | an | an | ɑn | ɐn | -an | |
| 桓 | I | closed | uɑn | uɑn | wan | uan | wan | wɑn | wɐn | -uan | ||
| 刪 | II | open | an | an | aɨn | aːn, Gjaːn | æn | æn | æn | -an, Jian | ||
| 刪 | II | closed | wan | uan | waɨn | waːn | wæn | wæn | wæn | -uan | Kua | |
| 山 | II | open | ǝ̆n | ɛn | əɨn | aːn, Gjaːn | ɛn | ɛn | ɛ | -an, Jian | ||
| 山 | II | closed | wǝ̆n | uɛn | wəɨn | waːn | wɛn | wɛn | wɛn | Kuan | Gua | |
| 仙 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ɛn | iɛn | ian | ian | jen | en | en | -ian, ŠRan | -ie, ŠRe | |
| 仙 | III/4-chongniu | open | jɛn | jian | PGjian | jien | jen | jen | ||||
| 仙 | III-chongniu | closed | i̯wɛn | iuɛn | wian | yan | jwen | wen | wen | -uan, Jüan; also lian | Jüe, lie, Šuo | |
| 仙 | III/4-chongniu | closed | juɛn | jwian | PGjyan | jwien | wjen | wjen | ||||
| 元 | III-indep | open | i̯æn | iɐn | ɨan | ian | jon | øn | øn | Jian, Fan | Jie, fa | |
| 元 | III-indep | closed | i̯wæn | iuɐn | uan | yan | jwon | wøn | wøn | Jüan, fan | Jüe | |
| 先 | IV | open | ien | en | ɛn | PGjian, Aian | en | ɪn | ɪn | -ian | ||
| 先 | IV | closed | iwen | uen | wɛn | jyan | wen | wɪn | wɪn | Jüan | Qüe | |
| 臻 (inner) | 痕 | I | open | ən | ən | ən | ən | on | ən | ən | Gen | Ke |
| 魂 | I | closed | u̯ən | uən | wən | un | won | ʏn | ʏn | -uen, PMen | ||
| 臻 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ɛn | iɛn | in | SRən | in | in | in | -in, ŠRen; also Sen < Š- | -i, Še < SR- | |
| 眞 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ēn | iēn | in | in, SRən | in | in | in | |||
| 眞 | III/4-chongniu | open | jēn | jin | PGjin | jin | jin | jin | ||||
| 眞 | III-chongniu | closed | i̯wēn | iuēn | win | yn | win | win | win | -uen, Jün | -ü | |
| 諄 | III-chongniu | closed | i̯uēn | iuēn | win | yn | win | win | win | |||
| 諄 | III/4-chongniu | closed | juēn | jwin | PGjyn | jwin | jwin | jwin | ||||
| 欣(殷?) | III-indep | open | i̯ən | iən | ɨn | in | jɨn | in | yn | Jin | Ji | |
| 文 | III-indep | closed | i̯uən | iuən | un | yn, yt, SRut | jun | yn | yn | Jün, Fen | Jü, Fu | |
| Yunjing Yunjing The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese rime table. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi .... rhyme class |
Qieyun Qieyun The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor... rhyme class |
division | rounding | Bernhard Karlgren Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods... |
Li Rong | Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin G. Pulleyblank Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia... |
William H. Baxter William H. Baxter William H. Baxter is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. His specialty is the historical study of the Chinese language. He earned his Ph.D... |
Abraham Y.S. Chan | Standard Mandarin Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... pronunciation |
|||
| EMC | LMC | Jinling | Luoyang Luoyang Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of... | normal | Final -p/t/k | |||||||
| 宕 (outer) | 唐 | I | open | ɑŋ | ɑŋ | aŋ [ɑŋ] | aŋ [ɑŋ] | aŋ | ɑŋ | ɐŋ | -ang | |
| 唐 | I | closed | wɑŋ | uɑŋ | waŋ [wɑŋ] | uaŋ [uɑŋ] | waŋ | wɑŋ | wɐŋ | Kuang | Kuo | |
| 陽 | III-mixed | open | i̯aŋ | iaŋ | ɨaŋ [ɨɑŋ] | iaŋ [iɑŋ], SRaːŋ [SRɑːŋ] | jaŋ | œŋ | œŋ | -iang, Fang, ŠRang; also Šuang < SR- | ||
| 陽 | III-mixed | closed | i̯waŋ | iuaŋ | uaŋ [uɑŋ] | yaŋ [yɑŋ] | jwaŋ | wœŋ | wœŋ | Kuang | Qüe | |
| 江 (outer) | 江 | II | open | ɔŋ | ɔŋ | aɨwŋ | aːwŋ, RXLʔwaːwŋ, Gjaːwŋ | æwŋ | ɔŋ | ɔŋ | Qiang, Pang, Šuang < TR- | |
| 曾 (inner) | 登 | I | open | əŋ | əŋ | əŋ | əǝ̆ŋ [ɤŋ] | oŋ | oŋ | oŋ | -eng | |
| 登 | I | closed | wəŋ | uəŋ | wəŋ | uǝ̆ŋ [uɔŋ] | woŋ | woŋ | woŋ | Kong | Kuo | |
| 蒸 | III-mixed | open | i̯əŋ | iəŋ | iŋ | iǝ̆ŋ [iɛŋ], iǝ̆k [iɛk], SRəǝ̆k [SRɤk] | iŋ | iŋ | iŋ | -ing, ŠReng | ||
| 蒸 | III-mixed | closed | i̯wəŋ | iuəŋ | wiŋ | yǝ̆ŋ [yɛŋ] | wiŋ | wiŋ | wiŋ | unobserved | Jü | |
| 梗 (outer) | 庚 | II | open | æŋ | ɐŋ | aɨjŋ | aːjŋ, Gjaːjŋ | æŋ | æŋ | ɛŋ | Jing, -eng; also Keng | |
| 庚 | II | closed | wæŋ | uɐŋ | waɨjŋ | waːjŋ | wæŋ | wæŋ | wɛŋ | Keng | unobserved | |
| 耕 | II | open | ɛŋ | ɛŋ | əɨjŋ | aːjŋ, Gjaːjŋ | ɛŋ | ɛŋ | ɛŋ | Jing, -eng; also Keng | ||
| 耕 | II | closed | wɛŋ | uɛŋ | wəɨjŋ | waːjŋ | wɛŋ | wɛŋ | wɛŋ | Kong | Kuo | |
| 庚 | III-chongniu | open | i̯æŋ | iɐŋ | iajŋ | iajŋ | jæŋ | eŋ | jɛŋ | -ing, Šeng | ||
| 庚 | III-chongniu | closed | i̯wæŋ | iuɐŋ | wiajŋ | yajŋ | jwæŋ | weŋ | wjɛŋ | Qiong | unobserved | |
| 清 | III-chongniu | open | i̯ɛŋ | iɛŋ | iajŋ | iajŋ | jeŋ | eŋ | eŋ | -ing, Šeng | -i | |
| 清 | III/4-chongniu | open | jɛŋ | jiajŋ | PGjiajŋ | jieŋ | jeŋ | jeŋ | ||||
| 清 | III-chongniu | closed | i̯wɛŋ | iuɛŋ | wiajŋ | yajŋ | jweŋ | weŋ | weŋ | Qiong, ying | yi | |
| 清 | III/4-chongniu | closed | juɛŋ | jwiajŋ | jyajŋ | jwieŋ | wjeŋ | wjeŋ | ||||
| 青 | IV | open | ieŋ | eŋ | ɛjŋ | PGjiajŋ, Aiajŋ | eŋ | ɪŋ | ɪŋ | -ing | ||
| 青 | IV | closed | iweŋ | ueŋ | Kwɛjŋ | jyajŋ | weŋ | wɪŋ | wɪŋ | Qiong | unobserved | |
| 通 (inner) | 東 | I | closed | uŋ | uŋ | əwŋ | əwŋ | uwŋ | ʉŋ | uwŋ | -ong, weng, PMeng; occ. Seng | -u; also wo |
| 冬 | I | closed | uoŋ | oŋ | awŋ | əwŋ | owŋ | uŋ | uŋ | |||
| 東 | III-mixed | closed | iuŋ | iuŋ | uwŋ | iwŋ, SRəwŋ, Məwŋ | juwŋ | yŋ | yŋ | -ong, Jiong, feng; also Kong | -u, Jü; also liu, ŠRou | |
| 鍾 | III-mixed | closed | i̯woŋ | ioŋ | uawŋ | ywŋ | jowŋ | øŋ | øŋ | |||
The table uses the notation in (Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation), which differs in some ways from (Middle Chinese), as indicated:
| Middle Chinese | Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| aă | a |
| aaă | aː |
| iă | iǝ̆ |
| ɨă | ɨǝ̆ |
| uă | uǝ̆ |
| yă | yǝ̆ |
| ǝă | ǝǝ̆ |
In , these finals are indicated as ɛɨ and wɛɨ, but in , they have changed to simply ɛ and wɛ.
These finals occur only in tone 3 (the "departing tone"). This is because they come from Old Chinese
Old Chinese
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
finals in -ts > -js, while the corresponding Old Chinese finals in -j lost the /j/. As a result, they often appear in as e.g. aɨj(s) and in as e.g. æjH, where the s and H are the respective notations for tone 3.
Tones
QieyunQieyun
The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor...
classified characters in four parts according to their tone: even tone (平聲), rising tone (上聲), departing tone (去聲), and entering tone (入聲). The first three are often notated as tones 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in modern publications. The "entering tone", also known as a "checked tone", actually refers to syllables characterized by a final stop consonant
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
(/p/, /t/, or /k/) rather than a distinct pitch.
It is difficult to determine the exact contours of the other tones, although the names themselves suggest level, rising and falling pitches, respectively. In 《元和韻譜》 is written 「平聲哀而安，上聲厲而舉，去聲清而遠，入聲直而促」, which approximately translates (somewhat cryptically) as "Level tone, sad but safe; rising tone, vigorous and moving; departing tone, clear and far; entering tone, straight and promoting."
Changes from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese to modern varieties
Middle Chinese had a structure much like many modern varieties (especially conservative ones such as CantoneseCantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
), with largely monosyllabic words, little or no derivational morphology, three tones, and a syllable structure consisting of initial consonant, glide, main vowel and final consonant, with a large number of initial consonants and a fairly small number of final consonants. Not counting the glide, no clusters could occur at the beginning or end of a syllable.
Old Chinese
Old Chinese
The earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at a site near modern Anyang identified as Yin, the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1200 BC....
, on the other hand, had a significantly different structure. There were no tones, a lesser imbalance between possible initial and final consonants, and a significant number of initial and final clusters. There was a well-developed system of derivational and possibly inflectional morphology, formed using consonants added onto the beginning or end of a syllable. This system is similar to the system reconstructed for Proto-Sino-Tibetan and still visible, for example, in the written Tibetan language
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
; it is also largely similar to the system that occurs in the more conservative Mon–Khmer languages, such as modern Khmer
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
(Cambodian).
The main changes leading to the modern varieties have been a reduction in the number of consonants and vowels and a corresponding increase in the number of tones (typically through a pan-East-Asiatic tone split that doubled the number of tones while eliminating the distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants). This has led to a gradual decrease in the number of possible syllables. In Standard Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
, this has progressed to a farther extent than elsewhere, with only about 1,200 possible syllables. The result, in Mandarin especially, has been the proliferation of the number of two-syllable compound words, which have steadily replaced former monosyllabic words, to the extent that the majority of words in Standard Mandarin are now composed of two syllables.
For more specifics, see historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. As Chinese is written with logographic characters, not alphabetic or syllabary, the methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in, for example, Indo-European...
.
External links
- An Etymological Dictionary of Common Chinese Characters, William H. Baxter
- Introduction to Chinese Historical Phonology, Guillaume JacquesGuillaume JacquesGuillaume Jacques is a French linguist of Breton descent who specializes in the study of Tibeto-Burman languages, in particular Old Chinese, Tangut and Tibetan...
- Historical Chinese Phonology/Philology at Technical Notes on the Chinese Language Dialects Dylan W.H. Sung
- Russian website reconstructing Middle Chinese and Old Chinese as well as intermediate forms
- Site for looking up characters in Middle Chinese