|
Middle Chinese (), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). The term "Middle 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, and a later period, Late Middle Chinese. The transition point between Early and Later Middle Chinese is thought to be during the Mid-Tang Dynasty and is indicated by the phonological developments. For example, in the rime book Qieyun, bilabial initials characters are shown, but there were no labiodental initials like f and v, which could be found in Jiyun. This indicates that a sound change in the pronunciation of Chinese had occurred.
Reconstruction (Middle) Chinese is not written using an alphabetic script, therefore, sounds cannot be derived directly from writing. The sounds of Middle Chinese must therefore be inferred from a number of sources: The reconstruction between modern linguists may vary slightly, but they are minor differences, and fairly uncontroversial, so we could say the Middle Chinese phonology is fairly well understood and accepted. Phonetic translations Chinese phonetic translations of foreign words often provide clues. For example, "Dravida" was translated by religious scribes into a series of characters 達羅毗荼 that are now read in Mandarin as /ta35 lwo35 phi35 thu35/ (Pinyin: Dáluópítú). This suggests that Mandarin /wo/ (Pinyin -uo) is the modern reflex of an ancient /a/-like sound, and that the Mandarin tone /35/ is a reflex of ancient voiced consonants. Both of these can in fact be confirmed through comparison among modern Chinese dialects. Rime dictionaries There was a profuse output of Chinese poetry during the Tang era, with a rigid verse structure that relied on the rime and tone of the final characters in lines of poetry. Middle Chinese as embodied in rime dictionaries (or rime books) were a primary aid to authors in composing rhyming poetry. The 601 AD Qieyun rime dictionary is our earliest fixed record of the phonology of Chinese pronunciation, albeit without the aid of phonetic letters, but entries that are indexed under a rigorous hierarchy of tone, rime, and onset. Only fragments or incomplete copies have survived until a chance discovery of a version of it from the Tang Dynasty in the caves of Dunhuang. Later expanded rime dictionaries such as the eleventh-century Song Dynasty Guangyun and Jiyun survive to the present day. The latter being essentially extended versions of the Qieyun, and until the Dunhuang discovery, the Guangyun was the base from which Middle Chinese was reconstructed. Links | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |