Central Chinese

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Central Chinese
中古 漢語
Period Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589)

Sui Dynasty (581–618)
Tang Dynasty (618–907)
Song Dynasty (960–1279)

Formerly spoken in

Medieval China
speaker extinct
Linguistic
classification

Sino-Tibetan
* Sinitic
** Chinese

  • Central Chinese
Official status
Official language in Fonts: seal script , clerical script , Kaishu , italics , cursive script , Phagspa , Hangul
Language codes
ISO 639-3

ltc

Middle Chinese ( Chinese  中古 漢語  /  中古 汉语 , Pinyin zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ , English Middle Chinese, formerly: Ancient Chinese ) is the historical Chinese dialect as it is in Qieyun ( 切韻  /  切韵 , Qièyùn , Ch'ieh 4 -yün 4 ), a rhyming dictionary , first published in 601, followed by a number of revised and expanded editions.

The Fanqie method ( 反切 , fǎnqiè ) used to reproduce pronunciation in these dictionaries, however, proved unsuitable in practice, although it was an improvement on earlier methods.

The Yunjing ( 韻鏡  /  韵镜 , Jingyun  - "rhyme mirror") from the 12th century, and others. Reim panels include a more upscale and more appropriate analysis of the Qieyun -Phonologie.

The rhyming tablets confirm a number of sound shifts that had taken place over the centuries after the Qieyun was published . Linguists refer to the Qieyun sometimes system as early Chinese means (English: Early Middle Chinese; EMC), and variants, which are revealed by Reim panels, as late Middle Chinese (English: Late Middle Chinese, LMC).

The dictionaries and tables (tables) describe the relative pronunciation, but do not reflect their actual phonetic value.

The Swedish linguist Bernhard Karlgren believed that the dictionaries represented the language standard of the capital Chang'an of the Sui and Tang dynasties and made a reconstruction of Central Chinese . However, most scholars today assume that, based on the recently rediscovered preface of the Qieyun , it is a compromise between northern and southern reading and the poetic traditions of the late southern and northern dynasties .

This composite system contains important information for the reconstruction of the previous system of Ancient Chinese Phonology (1st millennium BC).

The Central Chinese system is often used as a framework for studying and describing various modern varieties of Chinese . Branches of the Chinese language family such as B. Mandarin Chinese (including Mandarin Chinese , based on the Beijing language), Yue Chinese, and Wu Chinese can, by and large, be treated as divergent developments using the Qieyun system.

The study of Middle Chinese also provides a better understanding and analysis of classical Chinese poetry such as: B. studying the poetry of the Tang period .

swell

The reconstruction of Central Chinese phonology is largely dependent on detailed descriptions in a few original sources. The most important of these sources is the Qieyun - rhyming dictionary (. 601 AD.) And its revisions. The Qieyun is often used along with interpretations in the Song Dynasty rhyming tables such as B. the Yunjing , the Qiyinlüe ( 七音 略 , Qīyīn lüè , Chi-yin lüeh  - "overview of the seven sounds") and the later Qieyun zhizhangtu and Sisheng dengzi . The documentary sources are supplemented by a comparison with modern varieties of Chinese , pronunciation of Chinese loanwords in other languages ​​(especially Japanese , Korean and Vietnamese ), transcription with Chinese characters of foreign names, transcription of Chinese names in alphabet scripts (e.g. Brahmi , Tibetan and Uyghur script ) as well as evidence regarding rhyme and tone patterns from classical Chinese literature .

Rhyming dictionaries

Two pages of a Chinese dictionary that includes the end of the index and the beginning of the entries
Beginning of the first class of rhymes in Guangyun (東dōng "east")

Medieval Chinese scholars devoted much of their efforts to describing the sounds of their language, particularly to help read the classics aloud and to correctly compose poetry. Chinese poetry in the Tang era was sometimes exuberant with a rigid verse structure based on the notes within the lines of verse and with rhyme in the closing words. The rhyming dictionaries (English: Rime dictionary as opposed to Rhyming dictionary ) were the first aid for authors in the composition of this poetry or for readers who rated it.

The Qieyun (601 BC) is the oldest of these rhyming dictionaries and the main source for the pronunciation of Chinese characters in Early Middle Chinese (EMC). At the time of Bernhard Karlgren's groundbreaking work on Central Chinese in the early 20th century. only fragments of the Qieyun were known and the scholars relied on the Guangyun (1008), a greatly expanded edition from the Song Dynasty. However, significant sections of a version of the Qieyun itself were gradually found in the Dunhuang Caves , and in 1947 a complete copy of Wang Renxus Kanmiu buque qieyun (706) from the palace library.

The Qieyun organizes Chinese characters according to their pronunciation according to a hierarchy of (word) tone, rhyme and homophony. Characters with identical pronunciation are divided into homophonic classes, the pronunciation of which is described by using two Fanqie characters, the first has the initial sound of the character in the homophonic class and the second has the same sound as the rest of the syllable (the final ). The use of Fanqie was an important innovation of Qieyun and allowed the pronunciation of all characters to be accurately described; earlier dictionaries described the pronunciation of unusual characters using the most similar-sounding known character.

The Qieyun uses multiple equivalent Fanqie characters to represent each individual initial sound as well as the final / final syllables. Determining the number of categories of initials and finals that are actually mapped therefore took much careful work by Chinese linguists. This was done by equating two fanqie sounds (or finals) whenever one is used for the fanqie spelling of the other's pronunciation and then following chains of such equivalences in order to form larger groups (e.g. if If the pronunciation of a particular character is defined by the Fanqie spelling AB and the pronunciation of the character A is defined by the Fanqie spelling CD and the pronunciation of the character C is defined by the fanqie spelling EF, then the characters A, C and E are all equivalent Fanqie characters for the same initial sound).

The Qieyun classifies homonyms among 193 rhyme classes, each of which is assigned to one of the four tones. A single class of rhymes can contain multiple finals, which are generally only distinguished by the intro (especially if it is / w /) or in so-called Chongniu doublets (see below).

Rhyme tables

Board with 23 columns and 16 lines with Chinese characters in some cells
The first table of Yunjing with the Guangyun rhyme class 東dōng , 董dǒng , 送sòng and 屋wū (-k in Central Chinese)

The Yunjing (~ 1150 AD) is the oldest of the so-called rhyming tables , which offers a more detailed phonological analysis of the Qieyun system. The Yunjing was created centuries after the Qieyun , and the authors of the Yunjing attempted to interpret a phonological system that differed significantly from their own dialect of Late Middle Chinese (LMC). They were aware of this and tried to reconstruct the Qieyun phonology as well as possible through a thorough analysis of the regularities of the system as well as the relationships of simultaneous occurrences between ins and outs as indicated by the Fanqie characters. Be that as it may, the analysis inevitably shows some influences from the LMC (Late Middle Chinese), which must be taken into account when interpreting tricky aspects of the system.

The Yunjing consists of 43 tables (tables), each of which covers several Qieyun rhyme classes, which are divided as follows:

  • One of the 16 shè ( 攝 ), the comprehensive rhyme class of the LMC. Each shè is either “inside” ( 內 , nèi ) or “outside” ( 外 , wài ). The significance of this is controversial but it is believed that it is related to the height of the main vowel, where "outer" final positions have a low vowel ( / ⁠ ɑ ⁠ / or / a, æ / ) and "inner" end of a word a non-low vowel.
  • “Open mouth” ( 開口  /  开口 , kāikǒu ) or “closed mouth” ( 合口 , hékǒu ), indicates whether the lips are rounded . "Closed" endings have either a rounded vowel (eg / u /) or a rounded glide.

Each board has 23 columns, one for each initial ( 聲母  /  声母 , shēngmǔ  - "sound mother"). Although the Yunjing distinguishes between 36 initial sounds, these are placed in 23 columns with palatals, retroflexes and dental in the same column. This does not lead to cases where two homophonic classes merge, since the degrees (lines) are arranged in such a way that all possible minimal pairs are only distinguished by the retroflex vs. palatal vs. alveolar character of the initial sound land in different lines.

Each initial sound is further classified as follows:

Each board also has 16 lines with groups of 4 rows for each of the 4 tones ( 聲調  /  声调 , shēngdiào , "lute intonation") of the traditional system with the ending on / p /, / t / or / k / rather than the initial tone - Variants of the finals on / m /, / n / or / ŋ / are then viewed as separate, independent finals. The meaning of the 4 rows ( 等 , děng , “class”, “grade” or “group”) within each tone is difficult to interpret and highly controversial. These series are usually labeled 'I', 'II', 'III', and 'IV' and are believed to be intended to address differences in palatalization or retroflexion that occur in syllable initials or intros, or differences in the quality of similar main vowels ( z. B. / ⁠ ɑ ⁠ / , / ⁠ a ⁠ / , / ⁠ ɛ ⁠ / ). Other scholars do not see them as phonetic categories, but as a formal instrument to exploit distribution patterns in Qieyun in order to achieve a compact representation.

Each square on a tablet contains a character, which corresponds to a certain homophonic class in Qieyun , provided it exists. This arrangement allows each homophonic class to be assigned to one of the above categories.

Modern dialects and Sino-Xenian pronunciations

The rhyming dictionaries and tables identify categories of phonetic distinctions, but do not indicate the actual pronunciations of those categories. The varying pronunciations of words in today's varieties of Chinese can help, but most of these varieties are derived from a late Middle Chinese koine and cannot readily be used to determine the pronunciation of early Middle Chinese .

During the early Middle Chinese period, a large number of Chinese vocabulary was systematically borrowed from the Vietnamese, Koreans, and Japanese (collectively known as Sino -xenic vocabularies), but many distinctions are irretrievable for mapping Chinese phonology to foreigners phonological systems lost.

As an example, the following table shows the pronunciation of numerals in three modern Chinese varieties alongside borrowed forms in Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese (each in a romanization that reflects the modern and historical pronunciation):

Modern Chinese varieties Sino-
Vietnam. 		Sino-
Korean. 		Sino Japan. Central
Chinese
Beijing Suzhou Guangzhou Go-on Canon
1 一 yī iɤʔ 7 jat 1 nhất il ichi / iti itsu / itu ʔjit
2 二 he l 6 ji 6 nhị i ni ji / zi nyijH
3 三 sān sɛ 1 saam 1 tam sam san sam
4th 四 sì sɿ 5 be 3 tứ sa shi / si sijH
5 五 wǔ ŋ 6 ng 5 ngũ O go nguX
6th 六 liù loʔ 8 luk 6 lục ryuk roku riku ljuwk
7th 七 qī tsʰiɤʔ 7 chat 1 thất chil shichi / siti shitsu / situ tshit
8th 八 bā poʔ 7 baat 3 bát pal hachi / * pati hatsu / * patu peat
9 九 jiǔ tɕiøy 3 gau 2 cửu gu ku kyū / kiu kjuwX
10 十 shí zɤʔ 8 sap 6 thập sip jū <jiɸu / * zipu dzyip

Transcription receipts

Although the evidence from Chinese transcriptions of foreign words is more limited and is concealed by the mapping of foreign pronunciations to Chinese phonology in a similar way, these still serve as direct evidence with an advantage that the other types of data lack: the pronunciation of the foreign languages, especially the Sanskrit is known in almost every detail. For example, the Sanskrit word Drawida was translated by religious scribes into the character sequence 達羅 毗 荼  /  达罗 毗 荼 , which is now pronounced as Dáluópítú in modern standard Chinese in the 20th century . This suggests that the Mandarin -uo the modern image of an old / ⁠ a ⁠ / -like sound and that the second sound is a reflection of an ancient voiced consonants.

The nasal initial sounds / ⁠ m ⁠ / , / ⁠ n ⁠ / and / ⁠ ŋ ⁠ / were used in the early Tang period to transcribe Sanskrit Nasal, but later for non-aspirated voiced onsets of Sanskrit, which suggests that in some dialects they have become prenasalized consonants (nasal + obstruent or + non-nasal sonorant).

methodology

The rhyming dictionaries and tables of rhymes give phonological categories, but only with sparse references to the sounds they represent.

At the end of the 19th century European students of Chinese tried to solve this problem by applying the methods of historical linguistics that had been used to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European . Volpicelli (1896) and Schaank (1897) compared the rhyme tables at the beginning of the Kangxi dictionary with modern pronunciation in various varieties, but had little knowledge of linguistics.

Karlgren, well versed in the transcription of Swedish dialects, conducted the first systematic study of the varieties of Chinese. He used the oldest rhyming table known at the time to describe the sounds of the rhyming dictionaries and also studied the Guangyun , the oldest known rhyming dictionary of its time. Unaware of Li’s work, he repeats the analysis of the fanqie that were required to identify the initial and final sounds of the dictionary. He believed that the resulting categories reflected the language standard of the Chang'an capital of the Sui and Tang dynasties . He interpreted the many distinctions as a tight transcription of the precise sounds of this language, which he sought to reconstruct by treating the Sino-xenic and modern dialectal pronunciations as reflections of the Qieyun categories. A small number of the qieyun categories were not distinguished in any of the surviving pronunciations and Karlgren assigned them identical reconstructions.

Karlgren's transcription includes a large number of consonants and vowels, many of which are fairly unevenly distributed. Chao Yuen Ren and Samuel E. Martin accepted Karlgren's reconstruction as a description of medieval language and analyzed its contrasts in order to obtain a phonemic description. Hugh M. Stimson simplified Martin's system into an approximate pronunciation indication of Tang poetry. Karlgren himself thought phonemic analysis was a detrimental “obsession”.

Older versions of the rhyming dictionaries and tables of rhymes appeared during the first half of the 20th century. and were used by such linguists as Wang Li , Dong Tonghe and Li Rong in their own reconstructions. Edwin Pulleyblank argued that the Qieyun system and the rhyme tables should be reconstructed as two different (but related) systems, which he called Early and Late Middle Chinese, respectively. He also believed that his Late Middle Chinese was the standard language of the late Tang Dynasty.

The Qieyun's introduction , discovered in 1947, suggests that its record is a compromise between northern and southern reading and poetic traditions from the late Southern and Northern Dynasties (a slide system ). Most linguists now (2013) believe that no single dialect contained all of the distinctions recorded, but that each distinction occurred somewhere. A number of scholars have compared the Qieyun system to cross-dialectal descriptions of English pronunciations, such as: B. John C. Wellss lexical sets, or the notation used in some dictionaries. For example, the words "trap", "bath", "palm", "lot", "cloth" and "thought" contain four different vowels in Received Pronunciation and three (vowels) in General American (English); Both of these pronunciation modes (and many others) can be specified (what is probably meant here: in English) with the help of these six cases.

Although the Qieyun system is no longer considered to be a description of a singular form of speech (speech form), linguists argue that it even adds value in reconstructing early forms of Chinese, much like a cross-dialect description of English pronunciations provides more information about earlier forms of English contains as any single modern form. The emphasis has shifted from precise sounds ( phonetics ) to the structure of the phonological system.

So Li Fang-Kuei made a revision of Karlgren's notation before proceeding to reconstruct Old Chinese by introducing new notations for the few categories that Karlgren had not distinguished, and not assigning pronunciations to them. This notation is still widely used, but its symbols, based on Johan August Lundell's Swedish dialect alphabet , differ from the International Phonetic Alphabet we are used to . To remedy this, William H. Baxter created his own notation for the categories of Qieyun and the rhyme tables and then used them to reconstruct the ancient Chinese.

The approach to reconstructing Middle Chinese that Karlgren and his successors took was to use dialect (s) and Sino-xenic dates as tools to populate the phonetic values ​​for the categories extracted from the rhyming dictionaries and tables, rather than the comparatives Method fully deployed. All reconstructions of Middle Chinese since Karlgren have followed this approach, starting with the categories extracted from the rhyming dictionaries and tables, and using data from the dialects and Sino-xenic transcriptions to supplement their phonetic values ​​accordingly. Jerry Norman and Weldon South Coblin have criticized this approach, arguing that viewing the dialect data through the rhyming dictionaries and tables skews the evidence. They advocate the full application of the comparative method to modern varieties supplemented by the systematic use of transcription data .

Phonology

The traditional analysis of the Chinese syllable , derived from the Fanqie method, consists of the initial (consonant) ( 聲母  /  声母 , shēngmǔ ) and the final ( 韻母  /  韵母 , yùnmǔ ). Modern linguists further subdivide the final sound into inlaids: an optional “middle” sliding sound ( 韻 頭  /  韵 头 , yùntóu ), a main vowel or “nucleus” ( 韻 腹  /  韵母 , yùnfù  - “core vowel”) and an optional final consonant or “ Coda ” ( 韻 尾  /  韵 尾 , yùnwěi ). Most reconstructions of Middle Chinese include gliding sounds (half vowels) / j / and / w / as well as a / jw / combination, but many also refer to the vowel "gliding sounds" such as B. / i / in a diphthong / ie / with a. The consonants / j /, / w /, / m /, / n /, / ⁠ ŋ ⁠ / , / p /, / t / and / k / are widely accepted, sometimes with additional Codas such. B. / wk / or / wŋ /. Rhyming syllables in Qieyun - as assumed - have the same core vowel and coda, but often different introuts.

Central Chinese reconstructions by various modern linguists vary. These differences are insignificant and hardly disputed with regard to the consonants; however, there are more significant differences here than with the vowels. The most common transcriptions are Li Fang-Kuei's modification of Karlgren's reconstruction and William Baxter's (keyboard) writable notation .

Initial sounds

The preface to the Yunjing identifies a traditional set of 36 initials , each named with a sample character. An earlier version, which includes 30 initials, is known from fragments among the Dunhuang manuscripts . In contrast to this the was to identify the initial sounds Qieyun a head-scratching analysis of Fanqie -relationships required throughout the dictionary, a task which was first undertaken by the Cantonese scholar Chen Li in 1842 and has since been refined by others. This analysis revealed a slightly different set of sounds from the traditional sentence. In addition, most scholars believe that some distinctions between the 36 initials were no longer common at the time of the rhyme tables, but were retained under the influence of earlier dictionaries.

Early Middle Chinese (EMC) had three types of plosives: voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated. There were five series of coronal obstruents with a three-fold distinction between dental (or alveolar ), retroflexes and palatals under the fricatives and affricates , and a twofold dental / retroflex distinction under the plosives . The following table shows the early Middle Chinese sounds with their traditional names and nutritional values:

Early Middle Chinese chimes
Plosives and Affricates Nasals Fricatives Approximants
Tenuis Aspirates Voiced Tenuis Voiced
Labials 幫 , bāng p
​​ 		滂 , pāng
pʰ 		並 , bìng b
​​ 		明 , míng m
​​
Dental
 端 , duān t
​​ 		透 , tòu
tʰ 		定 , dìng d
​​ 		泥 , ní n
​​
Retroflex plosives
 知 , zhī ʈ
​​ 		徹 , chè
ʈʰ 		澄 , chéng ɖ
​​ 		娘 , niáng ɳ
​​
Lateral 來 , lái l
​​
Dental sibilants 精 , jīng ts
​​ 		清 , qīng
tsʰ 		從 , cóng dz
​​ 		心 , xīn s
​​ 		邪 , xié z
​​
Retroflex sibilants 莊 , zhuāng
tʂ 		初 , chū
tʂʰ 		崇 , Chong
dʐ 		生 , shēng ʂ
​​ 		俟 , sì ʐ
​​
Palatal
 章
tɕ 		昌
tɕʰ 		禪
dʑ
 日ɲ
​​ 		書ɕ
​​ 		船ʑ
​​
 以j
​​
Velare 見 , jiàn k
​​ 		溪 , xī
kʰ 		群 , qún ɡ
​​ 		疑 , yí ŋ
​​
Laryngals
 影 , yǐng ʔ
​​ 		曉 , xiǎo x
​​ 		匣 , xiá / 云ɣ
​​

The ancient Chinese had a simpler system without palatal or retroflex consonants; the more complex system of the EMC probably originated from a combination of old Chinese obstruents with the following / r / and / or / j /.

Bernhard Karlgren developed the first modern reconstruction of Central Chinese . The main differences between Karlgren and more recent reconstructions of the initials are:

  • The conversion / loss / cancellation of / ⁠ ʑ ⁠ / and / dʑ / . Karlgren based his reconstruction on rhyming tablets from the Song Dynasty . Due to the mixtures / transitions of these two sounds between early and late Middle Chinese, the Chinese phonologist who created the rhyming tables could only rely on tradition (oral tradition) to determine the respective (sound) values ​​of these two consonants; apparently they were accidentally reversed at one stage.
  • Karlgren also assumed that the EMC retroflexes were indeed palatals due to their tendency to appear simultaneously with anterior vowels and / j /, but this view is no longer held.
  • Karlgren assumed that voiced consonants were indeed aspirated . Today this is only assumed for the LMC, not for the EMC.

Various changes occurred between the time of qieyun and the rhyme tables:

  • Palatal sibilants mingled with retroflex sibilants.
  • / ⁠ ʐ ⁠ / merged with / dʐ / (thus forming four separate EMC phoneme ab).
  • The palatal nasal / ⁠ ɲ ⁠ / was also retroflex, but was rather a new phoneme / ⁠ r ⁠ / mixing with an existing phoneme since.
  • The palatal allophone of / ⁠ ɣ ⁠ / (云) united with / ⁠ j ⁠ / (以) into a single laryngeal initial sound / ⁠ j ⁠ / (喻).
  • A number of new labiodental emerged from the labials in a certain environment, typically where both centralization and rounding occurred (eg. As / ⁠ j ⁠ / plus back vowel (William Baxter's reconstruction), or plus a rounded front vowel (Chan's reconstruction )). Modern Min dialects, however, retain bilabial initials in such words, while modern Hakka dialects retain them in some common words.
  • Voiced obstruents were aspirated (still present in the Wu (speech) varieties).

The following table shows a representative summary of late Middle Chinese initials.

Late Middle Chinese chimes
Plosives and Affricates Sonorants
清濁 , qīngzhuó 		Fricatives Approximants
清濁 , qīngzhuó
Tenuis
全 清 (清) , quánqīng (qīng) 		Aspirates
次 清 , cìqīng 		Voiced aspirated
全 濁 (濁) , quánzhuó (zhuó) 		Tenuis
全 清 (清) , quánqīng (qīng) 		Voiced aspirated
全 濁 (濁) , quánzhuó (zhuó)
Labials 重 唇 , zhòngchún
"heavy lip" 		幫 , bāng
p		 滂
pʰ		 並 , bìng
pɦ ~ bʰ		 明 , míng
m
輕 唇 , qīngchún
"light lip" 		非 , fēi
f		 敷 , fū
f
 奉 , fèng
fɦ ~ vʰ		 微 , wēi
ʋ
Coronal 舌頭 , shétóu
"tip of the tongue" 		端 , duān
t		 透 , tòu
tʰ		 定 , dìng
tɦ ~ dʰ		 泥 , ní
n
舌上 , shéshàng
"tongue up" 		知 , zhī
ʈ		 徹 , chè
ʈʰ		 澄 , chéng
ʈɦ ~ ɖʰ		 娘 , niáng
ɳ
Lateral 半 舌 , bànshé
"half tongue" 		來 , lái
l
Sibilants 齒 頭 , chǐtóu
"tooth tip" 		精 , jīng
ts		 清 , qīng
tsʰ		 從 , cóng
tsɦ ~ dzʰ		 心 , xīn
s		 邪 , xié
sɦ ~ zʰ
正 齒 , zhèngchǐ
"real front tooth" 		照 , zhào
tʂ		 穿 , chuān
tʂʰ		 牀 , chuáng
(t) ʂɦ
 ~ (d) ʐʰ
 審 , shěn
ʂ		 禪 , shàn
ʂɦ ~ ʐʰ
半 齒 , bànchǐ
"half front tooth" 		日 , rì
r
Velare 牙 , yá
"molar" 		見 , jiàn
k		 溪 , xī
kʰ		 群 , qún
kɦ ~ gʰ		 疑 , yí
ŋ
Gutturals 喉 , hóu
"throat" 		影 , yǐng
ʔ		 曉 , xiǎo
x		 匣 , xiá
xɦ ~ ɣʰ		 喻 , yù
ʜ ~ ∅

The distinction according to voiced (voiced / unvoiced) is retained in modern Wu dialects , but has disappeared from other varieties. In Min dialects, the retroflex dentals are fused with the dentals, whereas elsewhere they merged with the retroflex sibilants. In the south they also coincide with the dental sibilants, but are retained in most Mandarin dialects. The palatal series of modern Mandarin dialects, which arose from a mixture of palatal allophones from dental sibilants and velars, is a much more recent development that has nothing to do with the earlier palatal consonants.

Finals

The remainder of a syllable after the initial (consonant) is the final (the final syllable), which is represented in Qieyun by several equivalent auxiliary fanqie . Each finale is assigned to a singular rhyme class, but a rhyme class can contain between one and four finals. Finals are usually decomposed to consist of an optional internal vowel (either half vowel , reduced vowel, or a combination of these), a vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. Their reconstruction is much more difficult than with the initial sounds due to the combination of multiple phonemes in a singular class.

The generally accepted final consonants are: the semi-vowels / j / and / w /, the nasals / m /, / n / and / ŋ / as well as the plosives / p /, / t / and / k /. Some authors also suggest the codas / wŋ / and / wk / based on the separate treatment of different rhyme classes in the dictionaries. End vowels with vowel and nasal codas can have one of three tones , namely flat tone, rising tone, and falling tone. Finals with plosive codas are distributed in the same way as the corresponding nasal finals and are described as their "entering tone" counterparts (7th and 8th tone, 90% of which became the 4th tone in modern Chinese).

There is less agreement on the intro and vowels. It is widely believed that "closed" finals had a rounded sliding / w / or vowel / u / and that the vowel in "outer" finals was more open than that in "inner" finals. The interpretation of the "departments" (English: "divisions") is more controversial. Three classes of Qieyun lutes appear exclusively in the respective first, second and fourth rows of the rhyme tables and have therefore been designated as the finals of sections I, II and IV. The remaining endings were called Division III endings because they appear in the third row; however, they can also appear in the second and fourth rows with some endings. Most linguists agree that the Division III finals contained an initial / j / and that the Division I finals did not have such an initial, but had other properties that vary depending on the reconstruction. In order to do justice to the many rhyme classes that the Qieyun differentiates, Karlgren suggested 16 vowels and 4 introuts. Later scholars have suggested numerous variations.

Sounds

The Qieyun classified characters into four components according to their tone: flat tone ( 平聲  /  平声 , píngshēng ), rising tone ( 上聲  /  上声 , shǎngshēng ), leaving tone ( 去聲  /  去声 , qùshēng ) and entering tone ( 入聲  /  入声 , rùshēng ). It should be noted, however, that only three of the many tones are phonemic. Open syllables or those that end in a nasal sound differentiate between the first three tones. The "entering tone", however, occurs only in the syllables that a plosive ( / ⁠ p ⁠ / , / ⁠ t ⁠ / or / ⁠ k ⁠ / end). As a rule, however, the syllables ending in a plosive can be assigned a corresponding ending in a nasal sound, so that the tones can alternatively be viewed as phonemic and the distinction between plosives and nasals in the syllable end as allophonic.

The incoming tone is then characterized by a distinct tone of voice. It is difficult to determine the exact outlines of the other notes. Karlgren interpreted the names literally and assumed a flat, a rising and a falling tone course. The oldest known description of the tones was found in a quote from the Song dynasty (early 9th century) 元 和 韻 譜  /  元 和 韵 谱 , Yuánhé Yùnpǔ  - “An and Auslauttafel” (no longer available): “The plane Sound is sad and stable. The rising tone is shrill and rising. The breaking tone is clear and distant. The incoming tone is straight and abrupt. "

Structural comparison with the old Chinese as well as with the modern Chinese varieties

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The syllable structure of Middle Chinese is similar to that of many modern varieties (especially more conservative such as Cantonese ), with predominantly monosyllabic words, little or no derivative morphology, three tones and a syllable structure consisting of an initial consonant, sliding sound, main vowel and final consonant, with a large number of initial consonants and a fairly small number of final consonants. If you do not include the sliding sounds, no clusters appear at the beginning or the end of a syllable.

In contrast, Old Chinese has significantly greater deviations in structure. There were no tones, less imbalance between possible initial and final consonants, and a significant number of initial and final clusters. There was a well-developed system of derivative and inflection morphology formed using consonants appended before or after a syllable. This system is similar to the system that was reconstructed for Proto-Sino-Tibetan and is still visible, e.g. B. in the written Tibetan language ; it is also largely similar to the system found in the more conservative Mon Khmer languages , such as modern Khmer (Cambodian).

The main changes that led to the modern varieties were a reduction in the number of consonants and vowels and a corresponding increase in the number of tones (typically by a Pan-East Asian split that doubled the number of tones while eliminating the distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants has been). This led to a gradual decline in the number of possible syllables. In Mandarin Chinese this decay is much more advanced than anywhere else, with only about 1,200 possible syllables. The result, particularly in standard Chinese, has been the proliferation of the number of two-syllable compound words that have steadily replaced the earlier monosyllabic words, such that the majority of words in standard Chinese today (2013) are two-syllable.

further reading

  • Chen Chung-yu: Tonal evolution from pre-Middle Chinese to modern Pekingese: three tiers of changes and their intricacies . Project on Linguistic Analysis, University of California, Berkeley, CA 2001, OCLC 248994047 .
  • Bernhard Karlgren: Grammata Serica Recensa . Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm 1957, OCLC 1999753 .
  • Mei Tsu-lin: Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone . In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . No. 30 , 1970, pp. 86-110 , JSTOR : 2718766 .
  • J. Newman, AV Raman: Chinese historical phonology: a compendium of Beijing and Cantonese pronunciations of characters and their derivations from Middle Chinese . In: LINCOM studies in Asian linguistics . No. 27 . LINCOM Europa, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89586-543-5 .

Footnotes

Remarks

  1. ↑ Baxter's transcription was used here for the Middle Chinese forms . Here are -X and H used to characterize the rising or the falling tone. The level and the entering tone can be distinguished by the rhyme and remain unmarked.
  2. ↑ It is unclear whether these had an alveolar or a dental articulation. They are predominantly alveolar in modern Chinese varieties. See Baxter 1992 p. 49.
  3. ↑ Karlgren reconstructed these as palatals, but most scholars today (2013) believe that they were retroflexes. See Baxter 1992 p. 50.
  4. ↑ The initial ʐ occurs only in the two words 俟 and 漦 of Qieyun and mixes with dʐ of Guangyun . It is omitted in many reconstructions and has no standard Chinese name. See Baxter 1992 pp. 56-57, 206.​​
  5. ↑ The retroflex and palatal sibilants were treated as a single series in the rhyme tables. Chen Li was the first to notice (1842) that they were differentiated in the Qieyun . See Baxter 1992 pp. 54-55.
  6. ↑ a b The initials 禪 and 船 were converted from their positions in the rhyming tables, as it is assumed that they were mixed up. See Baxter 1992 pp. 52-54.
  7. ↑ a b In the rhyming tables the palatal allophone of ɣ (云) is connected with j (以) to form a single laryngeal initial laut. In the Qieyun system, however , j is assigned to the palatal pattern / palatals. See Baxter 1992 55-56, 59.​​​​​​
  8. ↑ The place of articulation of the fricatives is unclear and varies between modern varieties. See Baxter 1992 p. 58.
  9. ↑ This initial sound was presumably indistinguishable from 非, but was retained in order to document its origin from another Qieyun initial sound. See Pulleyblank 1984 p. 69.
  10. ↑ An unusual sound; emerges today as either [⁠ w ⁠] , [⁠ v ⁠] (or [⁠ ʋ ⁠] ) or [⁠ m ⁠] on.
  11. ↑ This initial sound was not included in the lists of the 30 initial sounds of the Dunhuang fragments and was probably phonemically differentiated ("distinct") from 禪 ʂɦ at that time. See Pulleyblank 1970 pp. 222-223.
  12. ↑ Originally a palatal nasal; immersed in general today as [⁠ ʐ ⁠] (or [⁠ ɻ ⁠] ), [⁠ ʑ ⁠] , [⁠ j ⁠] , [⁠ for ⁠] , or [ ⁠ ɲ ⁠] on.
  13. ↑ 「平聲 哀 而 安 ， 上聲 厲 而 舉 ， 去聲 清 而 遠 ， 入聲 直 而 促」, translated in Ting 1996 p. 152

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 24-41
  2. ↑ a b Norman 1988 pp. 24-25
  3. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 33-35
  4. ↑ Pulleyblank 1984 pp. 142-143
  5. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 29-30
  6. ↑ a b Norman 1988 pp. 31-32
  7. ↑ Baxter 1992 p. 43
  8. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 30-31
  9. ↑ Branner 2006 pp. 15, 32-34
  10. ↑ Norman 1988 p. 28
  11. ↑ a b Norman 1988 pp. 34-37
  12. ↑ Miller 1967 p. 336
  13. ↑ Malmqvist 2010 p. 300
  14. ↑ Pulleyblank 1984 p. 163
  15. ↑ a b Stimson 1976 p. 1
  16. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 32, 34
  17. ↑ Ramsey 1989 pp. 126-131
  18. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 34-39
  19. ↑ a b Norman 1988 p. 39
  20. ↑ Ramsey 1989 p. 132
  21. ↑ Pulley Blank (1970); Pulley Blank (1971); Pulley Blank (1984).
  22. ↑ a b Baxter 1992 p. 37
  23. ↑ Li 1974-75 p. 224
  24. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 27-32
  25. ↑ Norman Coblin 1995
  26. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 27-28
  27. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 34, 814
  28. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 43, 45-59
  29. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 45-59
  30. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 177-179
  31. ↑ Baxter 1992 p. 53
  32. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 55-56, 59
  33. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 46-48
  34. ↑ Pulleyblank 1991 p. 10
  35. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 45-46, 49-55
  36. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 36-38
  37. ↑ Baxter 1992 pp. 61-63
  38. ↑ Norman 1988 pp. 31-32, 37-39
  39. ↑ a b Norman 1988 p. 52

Works cited

  • William H. Baxter: A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-012324-X .
  • David Prager Branner: The Chinese Rime Tables: Linguistic Philosophy and Historical-Comparative Phonology . John Benjamin, Amsterdam 2006, ISBN 90-272-4785-4 , What are rime tables and what do they mean ?, p. 1–34 , doi : 10.1075 / cilt.271 ( List of Corrigenda ( Memento of July 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 61 kB ]).
  • Li Fang-Kuei: Studies on Archaic Chinese . In: Monumenta Serica . tape 31 , 1974, p. 219–287 , doi : 10.1080 / 02549948.1974.11731100 , JSTOR : 40726172 (English, Chinese: 上古音 硏 究 Shang gu yin yan jiu . Translated by Gilbert L. Mattos).
  • Göran Malmqvist : Bernhard Karlgren: Portrait of a Scholar . Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, ISBN 978-1-61146-001-8 .
  • Roy Andrew Miller: The Japanese Language . University of Chicago Press, 1967, ISBN 0-226-52717-4 .
  • Jerry Norman: Chinese . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988, ISBN 0-521-29653-6 .
  • Jerry L. Norman, W. South Coblin: A New Approach to Chinese Historical Linguistics . In: Journal of the American Oriental Society . tape 115 , no. 4 , 1995, p. 576-584 , JSTOR : 604728 .
  • Edwin G. Pulleyblank: Late Middle Chinese, Part I . In: Asia Major . tape 15 , 1970, pp. 197–239 ( ihp.sinica.edu.tw ( Memento from March 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF]).
  • Edwin G. Pulleyblank: Late Middle Chinese, Part II . In: Asia Major . tape 16 , 1971, p. 121–166 ( ihp.sinica.edu.tw ( Memento from March 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF]).
  • Edwin G. Pulleyblank: Middle Chinese: a study in historical phonology . University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver 1984, ISBN 0-7748-0192-1 .
  • Edwin G. Pulleyblank: Lexicon of reconstructed pronunciation in early Middle Chinese, late Middle Chinese, and early Mandarin . University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver 1991, ISBN 0-7748-0366-5 .
  • S. Robert Ramsey: The Languages ​​of China . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1989, ISBN 0-691-01468-X .
  • Hugh McBirney Stimson: Fifty-five T'ang Poems . Yale University, 1976, ISBN 0-88710-026-0 .
  • Pang-Hsin Ting: New Horizons in Chinese Linguistics . Ed .: Huang Cheng-Teh James, Li Yen-Hui Audrey. Kluwer, 1996, ISBN 0-7923-3867-7 , Tonal evolution and tonal reconstruction in Chinese, p. 141-159 .

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