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Historical Chinese phonology

Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of historical varieties of Chinese. Since Chinese is written with logographic characters rather than alphabetically or with a syllabary, the methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in other language families such as the Indo-European…

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Modern methods of reconstruction

SwedishBernhard KarlgrenHistorical linguisticsShanghaiFuzhou
30 related topics

Periodization of Chinese

Oracle bone scriptWestern ZhouWeldon South CoblinGansuShaanxi
18 related topics

Chinese native phonological traditions

HomophoneFanqieSanskrit grammarPhoneticsDistinctive features
14 related topics

Overview

ChineseChineseLogographic charactersAlphabeticallySyllabary
41 related topics

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Overview

Periodization of Chinese

Chinese native phonological traditions

Modern methods of reconstruction

Old Chinese phonology

From Old Chinese to Early Middle Chinese

  • Tones Four tones (Middle Chinese)

From Early Middle Chinese to Late Middle Chinese

From Late Middle Chinese to Standard Mandarin

Branching off of the modern varieties

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Map overview Semantic statistics

Historical Chinese phonology

Nodes143
Edges142
Triples30
Avg. degree1.99
Density0.013986
Components1

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Important terminology Word statistics

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Important terminology

chinese middle old emc voiced consonants mandarin varieties ad min early modern vowel main system syllables changes words lmc consonant

Entity relationships Subject–Predicate–Object triples

SubjectPredicateObjectConfidenceSrc
the Indo-European languagesinstance ofthe methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in other language families0.80text
due to the lack of recorded pronunciations.Chinese is documented over a long period of timeinstance ofthe methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in other language families0.80text
with the earliest oracle bone writings dated to cinstance ofthe methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in other language families0.80text
the Shijinginstance ofis based on the rhymes of early poetry0.80text
the phonological components of Chinese charactersinstance ofis based on the rhymes of early poetry0.80text
and is assumed to represent the language of cinstance ofis based on the rhymes of early poetry0.80text
the Shiminginstance ofIt is attested from texts0.80text
the Shuowen Jieziinstance ofIt is attested from texts0.80text
commentaries on the Chinese classicsinstance ofIt is attested from texts0.80text
and Buddhist works transcribedinstance ofIt is attested from texts0.80text
translated and/or glossed into Chinese.Middle Chineseinstance ofIt is attested from texts0.80text
broadly from about the 5th century ADinstance ofIt is attested from texts0.80text

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