What is Middle Chinese, and by what other name was it formerly known?

Middle Chinese, also previously referred to as Ancient Chinese, represents a historical stage of the Chinese language. It is primarily documented in the *Qieyun*, a significant rime dictionary first published in 601 AD, which serves as a foundational text for its study.

What is the *Qieyun* system, and when was its first edition published?

The *Qieyun* system, also known as Middle Chinese, refers to the Chinese pronunciation system recorded in the *Qieyun* rime dictionary. This dictionary was initially published in 601 AD, providing a standardized reference for pronunciations during that era.

What was Bernhard Karlgren's initial belief regarding the speech standard recorded in the *Qieyun* dictionary?

The Swedish linguist Bernhard Karlgren initially believed that the *Qieyun* dictionary documented the speech standard of Chang'an, the capital city during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Chang'an was a major cultural and political center, making its dialect potentially influential.

What is the current scholarly consensus on what the *Qieyun* dictionary records, based on its preface?

Based on the preface of the *Qieyun*, most scholars now believe that the dictionary records a compromise between northern and southern reading and poetic traditions from the late Northern and Southern dynasties period. This suggests it was a composite system rather than a single spoken dialect.

Why is the *Qieyun* system considered important for the reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology?

The *Qieyun* system is considered important because this composite system contains crucial information for the reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology, which predates Middle Chinese by over a millennium. Understanding Middle Chinese helps linguists trace the evolution of sounds in the Chinese language.

What method was used to indicate pronunciation in the *Qieyun* and other early Chinese dictionaries, and what was its practical limitation?

The *fanqie* method was used to indicate pronunciation in these dictionaries, which involved using two characters to describe the pronunciation of a third. While an improvement over earlier methods, it proved awkward in practical application due to its indirect nature.

How did rime tables, such as the *Yunjing*, improve upon the *fanqie* method for analyzing *Qieyun* phonology?

Rime tables, like the mid-12th-century *Yunjing*, incorporated a more sophisticated and convenient analysis of the *Qieyun* phonology. These tables provided a structured way to categorize and understand the sound system, making it easier to interpret than the character-by-character *fanqie* method.

What distinction do linguists sometimes make between the *Qieyun* system and the variant revealed by rime tables?

Linguists sometimes refer to the system of the *Qieyun* as Early Middle Chinese (EMC) and the variant revealed by the rime tables as Late Middle Chinese (LMC). This distinction acknowledges the sound changes that occurred over the centuries between the publication of the *Qieyun* and the creation of the rime tables.

Who was the first linguist to attempt a reconstruction of the actual sounds of Middle Chinese, and what methods did he employ?

Bernhard Karlgren was the first to attempt a reconstruction of the actual sounds of Middle Chinese. He achieved this by comparing its categories with modern varieties of Chinese and the Sino-Xenic pronunciations found in the reading traditions of neighboring countries like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

How is the *Qieyun* system utilized in Chinese dialectology?

The *Qieyun* system is often used as a framework for Chinese dialectology. With the exception of Min varieties, which developed independently from Eastern Han Chinese, most modern Chinese varieties can be largely understood as divergent developments stemming from Middle Chinese.

Beyond dialectology, what other area of study benefits from the study of Middle Chinese?

The study of Middle Chinese also provides a better understanding and analysis of Classical Chinese poetry, particularly Tang poetry. Knowledge of Middle Chinese phonology helps scholars appreciate the rhyme and tone patterns intended by the poets.

What are the most important original sources for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese phonology?

The most important original sources for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese phonology are the *Qieyun* rime dictionary, first published in 601 AD, and its subsequent revisions. These dictionaries provide detailed descriptions of the language's sounds.

Which Song dynasty rime tables are commonly used in conjunction with the *Qieyun* for phonological reconstruction?

The *Qieyun* is often used together with interpretations found in Song dynasty rime tables such as the *Yunjing*, *Qiyin lüe*, *Qieyun zhizhangtu*, and *Sisheng dengzi*. These later tables offer a more structured analysis of the *Qieyun*'s phonology.

What supplementary sources are used to aid in the reconstruction of Middle Chinese phonology, besides dictionaries and rime tables?

Documentary sources are supplemented by comparing modern Chinese varieties, analyzing Chinese words borrowed by other languages (like Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese), examining transcriptions of foreign names into Chinese characters, and studying rhyme and tone patterns in classical Chinese poetry. These diverse sources provide additional clues to the sounds of Middle Chinese.

What was the primary concern of Chinese scholars during the Northern and Southern dynasties period that led to the creation of rime dictionaries?

Chinese scholars during the Northern and Southern dynasties period were primarily concerned with the correct recitation of the classics. This concern led various schools to produce dictionaries to codify reading pronunciations and the associated rhyme conventions used in regulated verse.

What happened to the six earlier dictionaries that the *Qieyun* attempted to merge?

The six earlier dictionaries that the *Qieyun* attempted to merge were eclipsed by its success and are no longer extant. The *Qieyun*'s comprehensive nature and widespread acceptance rendered its predecessors obsolete.

What is the significance of the *Guangyun* in the study of Middle Chinese, especially before the discovery of complete *Qieyun* copies?

The *Guangyun*, an expanded edition of the *Qieyun* from the Song dynasty (1008), was a crucial resource for scholars like Bernhard Karlgren in the early 20th century because only fragments of the original *Qieyun* were known at that time. It provided a more complete, though later, version of the *Qieyun* system.

Where were significant sections of the *Qieyun* discovered, and when was a complete copy of Wang Renxu's 706 edition found?

Significant sections of a version of the *Qieyun* were discovered in the caves of Dunhuang. A complete copy of Wang Renxu's 706 edition, originating from the Palace Library, was found in 1947, providing an invaluable resource for linguists.

How do rhyme dictionaries organize Chinese characters, and what was the innovation of the *fanqie* method?

Rhyme dictionaries organize Chinese characters by their pronunciation, following a hierarchy of tone, rhyme, and homophony. The *fanqie* method was an important innovation of the *Qieyun* because it allowed the pronunciation of all characters to be described exactly by using two other characters: one for the initial sound and one for the rest of the syllable (the final).

Who first systematically identified the categories of initials and finals represented in the *fanqie* system, and what was his method?

The Cantonese scholar Chen Li was the first to systematically identify the categories of initials and finals represented in the *fanqie* system through his *Qieyun kao* (1842). His method involved equating *fanqie* initials or finals when one was used to spell the other, and then following chains of such equivalences to group spellers for each initial or final.

How many rhyme classes did the *Qieyun* classify homonyms under, and how were these classes further organized?

The *Qieyun* classified homonyms under 193 rhyme classes, each of which was placed within one of the four tones. A single rhyme class could contain multiple finals, often differing only in the medial sound or in *chongniu* doublets.

What is the *Yunjing*, and what is its approximate date of creation?

The *Yunjing* is the oldest of the rime tables, which are phonological analyses of the *Qieyun* system. It was created around 1150 AD, centuries after the *Qieyun* itself.

What challenge did the authors of the *Yunjing* face when interpreting *Qieyun* phonology?

The authors of the *Yunjing* faced the challenge of interpreting a phonological system (Early Middle Chinese) that differed significantly from their own Late Middle Chinese dialect. They attempted to reconstruct *Qieyun* phonology through careful analysis, but their interpretation inevitably showed some influence from their contemporary LMC dialect.

How is the *Yunjing* organized in terms of rhyme classes and 'mouth' classifications?

The *Yunjing* is organized into 43 tables, each covering several *Qieyun* rhyme classes. These classes are further categorized as one of 16 broad rhyme classes, described as either 'inner' or 'outer' (possibly referring to vowel height), and as 'open mouth' or 'closed mouth' (indicating the presence of lip rounding). The image shows the first table of the *Yunjing*, covering specific *Guangyun* rhyme classes.

How many columns and rows does each *Yunjing* table have, and what do they represent?

Each *Yunjing* table has 23 columns, representing each initial consonant, and 16 rows, with a group of 4 rows for each of the four tones. The columns combine certain initial types (palatals, retroflexes, dentals) to avoid conflating homophone classes, while the significance of the 4 rows within each tone is debated, possibly relating to palatalization, retroflexion, or vowel quality.

How are initials further classified in the *Yunjing*?

In the *Yunjing*, each initial is further classified by its place of articulation (labials, alveolars, velars, affricates, sibilants, and laryngeals) and by its phonation (voiceless, voiceless aspirated, voiced, nasal, or liquid). This detailed classification helps in understanding the phonetic properties of the initial consonants.

What is the purpose of each square in a *Yunjing* table?

Each square in a *Yunjing* table contains a character that corresponds to a particular homophone class in the *Qieyun*, if such a character exists. This arrangement allows each homophone class to be categorized according to the table's classifications of initials, finals, and tones.

Why are modern varieties of Chinese and Sino-Xenic pronunciations useful but limited in reconstructing Early Middle Chinese?

Modern varieties of Chinese and Sino-Xenic pronunciations (borrowed Chinese words in Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese) are useful because they are reflexes of earlier Chinese sounds. However, they are limited because most modern varieties descend from a Late Middle Chinese *koiné*, and many phonetic distinctions were lost when Chinese phonology was mapped onto foreign phonological systems. The table illustrates the pronunciation of numerals in various modern Chinese and Sino-Xenic forms, alongside their Middle Chinese reconstructions.

What unique advantage does transcription evidence offer in reconstructing Middle Chinese phonology?

Transcription evidence, though limited, offers direct evidence that is lacking in other data types, as the pronunciation of the foreign languages borrowed from (such as Sanskrit and Gandhari) is known in great detail. This allows for a more precise understanding of how Chinese sounds were perceived and represented by speakers of other languages.

How did the transcription of Sanskrit nasals into Chinese characters evolve during the early Tang dynasty, and what does this suggest about Chinese dialects?

In the early Tang dynasty, Sanskrit nasals were transcribed using Chinese nasal initials like /m n ŋ/. Later, these same Chinese initials were used for Sanskrit unaspirated voiced initials /b d ɡ/, suggesting that in some northwestern Chinese dialects, the nasal initials had evolved into prenasalized stops like [ᵐb], [ⁿd], [ᵑɡ].

What was the initial approach of European students of Chinese in reconstructing Middle Chinese phonology at the end of the 19th century?

At the end of the 19th century, European students of Chinese initially sought to reconstruct Middle Chinese phonology by applying the methods of historical linguistics used for Proto-Indo-European. Early attempts, like those by Volpicelli and Schaank, compared rime tables with modern pronunciations, but lacked deep linguistic knowledge.

What was Bernhard Karlgren's systematic approach to reconstructing Middle Chinese, and what did he believe the *Qieyun* categories represented?

Bernhard Karlgren conducted the first systematic survey of modern Chinese varieties, using the oldest known rime tables and the *Guangyun* dictionary. He believed the *Qieyun* categories represented a narrow transcription of the precise sounds of the Chang'an capital speech standard during the Sui and Tang dynasties, which he reconstructed by analyzing Sino-Xenic and modern dialect pronunciations.

How did Chao Yuen Ren and Samuel E. Martin contribute to the analysis of Karlgren's Middle Chinese reconstruction?

Accepting Karlgren's reconstruction as a description of medieval speech, Chao Yuen Ren and Samuel E. Martin analyzed its contrasts to extract a phonemic description. This involved identifying the smallest units of sound that distinguish meaning in the language.

What was Edwin Pulleyblank's argument regarding the reconstruction of the *Qieyun* and rime table systems?

Edwin Pulleyblank argued that the systems of the *Qieyun* and the rime tables should be reconstructed as two separate but related systems, which he named Early Middle Chinese and Late Middle Chinese, respectively. He also proposed that his Late Middle Chinese reflected the standard language of the late Tang dynasty.

What is the current understanding among linguists regarding whether the *Qieyun* system describes a single dialect?

Most linguists now believe that no single dialect contained all the distinctions recorded in the *Qieyun* system, but rather that each distinction did occur somewhere across different dialects. The preface of the *Qieyun* itself, recovered in 1947, indicates it records a compromise between northern and southern reading and poetic traditions, functioning as a diasystem.

Why do linguists argue that the *Qieyun* system's composite nature enhances its value for reconstructing earlier forms of Chinese?

Linguists argue that the *Qieyun* system's composite nature, reflecting distinctions from various dialects, enhances its value for reconstructing earlier forms of Chinese. This is because a cross-dialectal description contains more information about the historical language than any single modern form, much like lexical sets in English provide insight into older English pronunciations.

How do modern linguists subdivide the Chinese syllable, and what glides and final consonants are commonly included in Middle Chinese reconstructions?

Modern linguists subdivide the syllable's final into an optional 'medial' glide, a main vowel or 'nucleus', and an optional final consonant or 'coda'. Most Middle Chinese reconstructions include glides like /j/, /w/, and /jw/, and final consonants such as /j/, /w/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /p/, /t/, and /k/, sometimes with additional codas like /wŋ/ or /wk/. The image shows a traditional Chinese syllable structure tree.

What are the main areas of variation among different modern linguists' reconstructions of Middle Chinese phonology?

Reconstructions of Middle Chinese phonology by different modern linguists vary, with minor and fairly uncontroversial differences in consonants. However, there is a more significant difference in the reconstruction of vowels, indicating less consensus on their precise sounds.

What were the three types of stops in Early Middle Chinese (EMC), and what distinctions existed among coronal obstruents?

Early Middle Chinese (EMC) had three types of stops: voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated. Among coronal obstruents, there was a three-way distinction between dental (or alveolar), retroflex, and palatal for fricatives and affricates, and a two-way dental/retroflex distinction for stop consonants. The table provides a detailed list of Early Middle Chinese initials with their traditional names and approximate phonetic values.

How is the more complex system of Early Middle Chinese consonants thought to have originated from Old Chinese?

Old Chinese had a simpler consonant system without palatal or retroflex consonants. The more complex system of Early Middle Chinese is thought to have arisen from a combination of Old Chinese obstruents with a following /r/ and/or /j/, indicating a process of sound change and phonological development.

What were the main differences between Bernhard Karlgren's initial reconstruction of Middle Chinese initials and newer reconstructions?

The main differences include Karlgren's reversal of /ɣ/ and /dʑ/ (due to mergers in Late Middle Chinese), his assumption that EMC retroflex stops were actually palatal stops (a view no longer held), and his assumption that voiced consonants were breathy voiced (now only assumed for LMC, not EMC).

What changes occurred in the initial consonant system between Early Middle Chinese (Qieyun) and Late Middle Chinese (rime tables)?

Several changes occurred: palatal sibilants merged with retroflex sibilants; /ɣ/ merged with /dʑ/; the palatal nasal /ɲ/ became retroflex, turning into a new phoneme /r/; the palatal allophone of /ɡ/ merged with /j/ into a single laryngeal initial /j/; a new series of labiodentals emerged from labials in specific environments; and voiced obstruents gained phonetic breathy voice.

How are the voicing distinctions of Middle Chinese initials reflected in modern Chinese dialects?

The voicing distinction of Middle Chinese initials is retained in modern Wu and Old Xiang dialects, but it has disappeared from most other varieties. This means that sounds that were once distinguished by voicing are now often pronounced the same in many modern Chinese dialects.

What happens to retroflex dentals and sibilants in modern Min and Mandarin dialects?

In Min dialects, retroflex dentals are represented with dentals, while in other dialects, they have merged with retroflex sibilants. In southern dialects, these have further merged with dental sibilants, but the distinction is retained in most Mandarin dialects. The table provides a representative account of Late Middle Chinese initials.

What is the 'final' in a Chinese syllable, and what components is it usually analyzed as consisting of?

The 'final' is the remainder of a syllable after the initial consonant, represented in the *Qieyun* by several equivalent *fanqie* spellers. It is usually analyzed as consisting of an optional medial (semivowel or reduced vowel), a main vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. The reconstruction of finals is more complex than initials due to the combination of multiple phonemes into a single class.

What are the generally accepted final consonants in Middle Chinese, and how are finals with stop codas related to those with nasal codas?

The generally accepted final consonants in Middle Chinese are semivowels /j/ and /w/, nasals /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/, and stops /p/, /t/, and /k/. Finals with stop codas are considered 'entering tone' counterparts of finals ending in corresponding nasals, meaning they share similar phonetic characteristics but differ in their tonal category.

What is known about the medials and vowels in Middle Chinese finals, particularly regarding 'closed' vs. 'outer' finals and the 'divisions'?

It is generally agreed that 'closed' finals had a rounded glide /w/ or vowel /u/, and 'outer' finals had more open vowels. The interpretation of the 'divisions' (I, II, III, IV) is more controversial, though most linguists agree that division-III finals contained a /j/ medial and division-I finals did not. Karlgren proposed 16 vowels and 4 medials to account for the many rhyme classes.

Who first listed the four tones of Middle Chinese, and approximately when?

The four tones of Middle Chinese were first listed by Shen Yue around 500 AD. These tones are fundamental to the phonological structure of Middle Chinese.

What were the names of the four Middle Chinese tones, and how were they distributed across different syllable types?

The four Middle Chinese tones were named 'even' or 'level', 'rising', 'departing', and 'entering'. The first three occurred in open syllables and syllables ending with nasal consonants, while the 'entering' tone syllables ended in stop consonants and were considered counterparts to syllables ending with corresponding nasals.

Why have linguists struggled to establish the probable Middle Chinese pitch contours using the comparative method?

Linguists have struggled to establish the probable Middle Chinese pitch contours using the comparative method because the pitch contours of modern reflexes of the four Middle Chinese tones vary so widely. This divergence makes it difficult to trace them back to a single, consistent set of original pitches.

Middle Chinese Wiki: Echoes of Antiquity: Decoding Middle Chinese Phonology and Its Enduring Legacy

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What is Middle Chinese?

A Historical Linguistic Epoch

Middle Chinese, historically referred to as Ancient Chinese, or more precisely, the Qieyun system (QYS), represents a pivotal historical stage of the Chinese language. Its primary documentation is found in the Qieyun, a rime dictionary first published in 601 CE, which subsequently underwent several revisions and expansions. This linguistic system spans a significant period from the 4th to the 12th centuries, encompassing the Northern and Southern dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and the Song dynasty.^[1]

A Synthesized Standard

Initially, the Swedish linguist Bernhard Karlgren posited that the Qieyun dictionary codified a speech standard of Chang'an, the capital during the Sui and Tang dynasties. However, contemporary scholarly consensus, informed by the Qieyun's preface, suggests it embodies a sophisticated compromise. This compromise integrated northern and southern reading and poetic traditions prevalent during the late Northern and Southern dynasties period. This composite system is invaluable for the reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology, which predates it by over a millennium.^[7]

Foundation for Dialectology

The Qieyun system serves as a fundamental framework for Chinese dialectology. With the notable exception of Min varieties, which exhibit independent evolutionary paths from Eastern Han Chinese, most modern Chinese varieties can be largely understood as divergent developments stemming from Middle Chinese. Furthermore, the rigorous study of Middle Chinese significantly enhances our comprehension and analytical capabilities concerning Classical Chinese poetry, particularly the rich tradition of Tang poetry.

Primary Sources

Rime Dictionaries: The Qieyun

The reconstruction of Middle Chinese phonology relies heavily on detailed descriptions found in a select few original sources. Foremost among these is the Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE) and its subsequent revisions. This dictionary was a monumental effort by scholars of the Northern and Southern dynasties to standardize reading pronunciations and rhyme conventions for classical texts and regulated verse. Its success led to it eclipsing six earlier dictionaries, which are now lost.^[3]^[5]

The Qieyun organizes Chinese characters by pronunciation, employing a hierarchical structure of tone, rhyme, and homophony. Characters with identical pronunciations are grouped into homophone classes, with their pronunciation indicated by two fanqie characters. The first fanqie character provides the initial sound, while the second indicates the rest of the syllable (the final). This innovative fanqie method allowed for precise pronunciation descriptions, a significant advancement over earlier dictionaries that merely described unfamiliar characters by comparison to similar-sounding familiar ones.^[7]

While early 20th-century scholars like Bernhard Karlgren relied on the expanded Guangyun (1008 CE), later discoveries of Qieyun fragments in Dunhuang caves and a complete 706 CE edition in 1947 provided direct access to this foundational text.^[6]

Rime Tables: Yunjing and Beyond

Centuries after the Qieyun, the Yunjing (circa 1150 CE) emerged as the oldest of the rime tables, offering a more granular phonological analysis of the Qieyun system. These tables were created by scholars attempting to interpret a phonological system that had already diverged from their own Late Middle Chinese (LMC) dialects. Despite this temporal gap, the authors meticulously reconstructed Qieyun phonology by analyzing systemic regularities and co-occurrence patterns of fanqie characters, though some LMC influence is discernible.^[13]

The Yunjing is structured into 43 tables, each covering multiple Qieyun rhyme classes. These are categorized by:

16 broad rhyme classes (shè): Described as "inner" or "outer," possibly referring to vowel height (open vs. mid/close).
"Open mouth" or "closed mouth": Indicating the presence or absence of lip rounding.

Each table features 23 columns for initial consonants, consolidating some palatals, retroflexes, and dentals. Initials are further classified by place of articulation (labials, alveolars, velars, affricates/sibilants, laryngeals) and phonation (voiceless, aspirated, voiced, nasal, liquid). The 16 rows within each table correspond to the four traditional tones, with four rows per tone. The precise phonetic significance of these four rows (I, II, III, IV) remains a subject of scholarly debate, often linked to palatalization, retroflexion, or subtle vowel quality distinctions.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Comparative Evidence

While dictionaries and tables provide categorical distinctions, they do not directly reveal actual pronunciations. To bridge this gap, linguists draw upon comparative evidence:

Modern Chinese Varieties: Though most descend from Late Middle Chinese, they offer valuable insights into sound changes.
Sino-Xenic Pronunciations: Extensive Chinese vocabulary borrowed into Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese during the Early Middle Chinese period provides crucial, albeit filtered, phonetic data.^[19]
Transcription Evidence: Chinese transcriptions of foreign names (e.g., Sanskrit, Gandhari) and foreign transcriptions of Chinese names (e.g., Brahmi, Tibetan, Uyghur) offer direct, detailed phonetic clues.^[22]
Classical Poetry: Rhyme and tone patterns in classical Chinese poetry also contribute to understanding Middle Chinese phonology.^[2]

Reconstruction Methodology

Karlgren's Pioneering Approach

The rime dictionaries and tables delineate phonological categories without explicitly stating their phonetic realizations.^[25] Bernhard Karlgren, a Swedish linguist, initiated the first systematic reconstruction of Middle Chinese in the early 20th century. Applying historical linguistic methods, he meticulously surveyed modern Chinese varieties and studied the Guangyun. He believed the categories derived from his analysis reflected the precise speech standard of Chang'an during the Sui and Tang dynasties, treating Sino-Xenic and modern dialect pronunciations as direct reflexes of Qieyun categories.^[27]^[28]

Evolving Interpretations

Subsequent discoveries of older Qieyun versions led to new reconstructions by scholars like Wang Li, Dong Tonghe, and Li Rong.^[29] Edwin Pulleyblank proposed reconstructing the Qieyun and rime table systems as distinct, yet related, entities: Early and Late Middle Chinese, with the latter reflecting the late Tang dynasty standard.^[31]^[32]^[33]

The 1947 recovery of the Qieyun preface revealed it to be a "diasystem"—a compromise between northern and southern traditions—rather than a single dialect.^[34] This shifted the focus from precise phones to the underlying phonological system's structure, enhancing its value for reconstructing Old Chinese.^[35]

Notational Systems

Li Fang-Kuei refined Karlgren's notation, adding symbols for previously undistinguished categories without assigning specific pronunciations.^[37] William H. Baxter later developed his own typeable notation for Qieyun and rime table categories, aligning with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for his Old Chinese reconstruction.^[38] While most reconstructions continue Karlgren's approach of using dialect and Sino-Xenic data subsidiarily, scholars like Jerry Norman and W. South Coblin advocate for a full application of the comparative method to modern varieties, complemented by systematic transcription data, to avoid distorting evidence.^[19]^[40]

Syllable Phonology

Traditional Syllable Structure

The traditional analysis of the Chinese syllable, derived from the fanqie method, divides it into an initial consonant (shēngmǔ 聲母) and a final (yùnmǔ 韻母). Modern linguistic analysis further subdivides the final into:

An optional "medial" glide (yùntóu 韻頭).
A main vowel or "nucleus" (yùnfù 韻腹).
An optional final consonant or "coda" (yùnwěi 韻尾).

Most reconstructions of Middle Chinese incorporate glides such as /j/ and /w/, and sometimes /jw/, along with vocalic "glides" like /i̯/ in diphthongs. Widely accepted final consonants include semivowels /j/ and /w/, nasals /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/, and stops /p/, /t/, and /k/. Some scholars also propose additional codas like /wŋ/ and /wk/.^[41]

Complexities of Reconstruction

Reconstructions of Middle Chinese by various linguists exhibit minor, generally uncontroversial differences regarding consonants. However, more significant divergences arise concerning vowels. The most commonly employed transcriptions are Li Fang-Kuei's adaptation of Karlgren's reconstruction and William Baxter's typeable notation.^[43] Rhyming syllables in the Qieyun are presumed to share the same nuclear vowel and coda, but frequently differ in their medials.^[42] This complexity underscores the challenges inherent in precisely mapping historical phonetic categories.

Initial Consonants

Early Middle Chinese (EMC)

The Yunjing preface identifies a traditional set of 36 initials, each exemplified by a character. Earlier fragments from Dunhuang manuscripts suggest a system of 30 initials. However, a detailed fanqie analysis of the Qieyun, pioneered by Chen Li in 1842, revealed a slightly different set. Many scholars believe that some distinctions among the 36 initials were archaic by the time of the rime tables, preserved due to the influence of earlier dictionaries.^[44]

EMC featured three types of stops: voiced, voiceless, and voiceless aspirated. It also had five series of coronal obstruents, distinguishing dental (or alveolar), retroflex, and palatal fricatives and affricates, and a two-way dental/retroflex distinction among stop consonants. Old Chinese had a simpler system without palatal or retroflex consonants; the more complex EMC system likely evolved from Old Chinese obstruents combined with a following /r/ and/or /j/.^[53]

Early Middle Chinese Initials^[45]

	Stops and Affricates			Nasals	Fricatives		Approximants
	Tenuis	Aspirate	Voiced	Nasals	Tenuis	Voiced	Approximants
Labials	幫 p	滂 pʰ	並 b	明 m
Dentals^[46]	端 t	透 tʰ	定 d	泥 n
Retroflex stops^[47]	知 ʈ	徹 ʈʰ	澄 ɖ	娘 ɳ
Lateral							來 l
Dental sibilants	精 ts	清 tsʰ	從 dz		心 s	邪 z
Retroflex sibilants	莊 ʈʂ	初 ʈʂʰ	崇 ɖʐ		生 ʂ	俟 ʐ^[48]
Palatals^[49]	章 tɕ	昌 tɕʰ	禪 dʑ^[50]	日 ɲ	書 ɕ	船 ʑ^[50]	以 j^[51]
Velars	見 k	溪 kʰ	群 ɡ	疑 ŋ
Laryngeals^[52]	影 ʔ				曉 x	匣/云 ɣ^[51]

Late Middle Chinese (LMC) Evolution

Several significant phonological shifts occurred between the Early Middle Chinese period of the Qieyun and the Late Middle Chinese reflected in the rime tables:

Palatal sibilants merged with retroflex sibilants.^[55]
The initial /ʑ/ merged with /dʑ/.
The palatal nasal /ɲ/ evolved into a new phoneme /r/, typically retroflex.
The palatal allophone of /ɣ/ (云) merged with /j/ (以) to form a single laryngeal initial /j/ (喻).^[51]
A new series of labiodentals emerged from labials in specific environments, often involving fronting and rounding.^[56]
Voiced obstruents acquired phonetic breathy voice, a feature still preserved in Wu Chinese varieties.

Late Middle Chinese Initials^[57]

	Stops and Affricates			Sonorants	Fricatives		Approximants
	Tenuis	Aspirate	Breathy voiced	Sonorants	Tenuis	Breathy	Approximants
Labial stops	幫 p	滂 pʰ	並 bʱ	明 m
Labial fricatives	非 f	敷 f^[58]	奉 fʱ	微 ʋ^[60]
Dental stops	端 t	透 tʰ	定 tʱ	泥 n
Retroflex stops	知 ʈ	徹 ʈʰ	澄 ʈʱ	娘 ɳ^[59]
Lateral							來 l
Dental sibilants	精 ts	清 tsʰ	從 tsʱ		心 s	邪 sʱ
Retroflex sibilants	照 ʈʂ	穿 ʈʂʰ	牀 (ʈ)ʂʱ^[61]	日 r^[62]	審 ʂ	禪 ʂʱ
Velars	見 k	溪 kʰ	群 kʱ	疑 ŋ
Laryngeals	影 ʔ				曉 x	匣 xʱ	喻 j

Final Consonants

Structure and Codas

The final, encompassing the syllable portion after the initial consonant, is represented in the Qieyun by several equivalent fanqie spellers. Each final belongs to a single rhyme class, though a rhyme class may contain one to four distinct finals. Finals are typically analyzed as comprising an optional medial (semivowel, reduced vowel, or combination), a main vowel, an optional final consonant, and a tone. Their reconstruction presents greater challenges than initials due to the aggregation of multiple phonemes into single classes.^[65]

The generally accepted final consonants include semivowels /j/ and /w/, nasals /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/, and stops /p/, /t/, and /k/. Some scholars also propose codas like /wŋ/ and /wk/, based on the distinct treatment of certain rhyme classes in the dictionaries.^[66]

Medials and Vowels: A Debated Domain

Considerably less consensus exists regarding the precise nature of medials and vowels. It is broadly agreed that "closed" finals incorporated a rounded glide /w/ or vowel /u/, and that vowels in "outer" finals were more open than those in "inner" finals. The interpretation of the "divisions" (I, II, III, IV) remains highly controversial.

Division-III finals, for instance, are generally understood to have contained a /j/ medial, while Division-I finals lacked such a medial. However, the specific phonetic details vary significantly across different reconstructions. Karlgren, to account for the numerous rhyme classes in the Qieyun, proposed a system of 16 vowels and 4 medials, with subsequent scholars offering numerous alternative variations.^[67] This ongoing scholarly discourse highlights the intricate nature of reconstructing the vocalic and medial systems of Middle Chinese.

Tonal System

The Four Tones of Middle Chinese

The four tones of Middle Chinese were first systematically documented by Shen Yue around 500 CE.^[68] These comprised the "even" or "level" (平), "rising" (上), and "departing" (去) tones, which occurred in open syllables and those ending in nasal consonants. Syllables concluding with stop consonants were categorized as "entering" (入) tone counterparts to syllables ending with corresponding nasals.^[69] The Qieyun and its successors were structured around these categories, dedicating two volumes to the even tone due to its prevalence, and one each to the other tones.^[70]

Pitch Contours and Historical Descriptions

The precise pitch contours of Middle Chinese tones are challenging to establish through the comparative method alone, given the wide variation in their modern reflexes.^[71] Karlgren interpreted the tone names literally as level, rising, and falling pitch contours, an interpretation that largely persists.^[72]^[73] For instance, Pan and Zhang reconstruct the level tone as mid (33), the rising tone as mid-rising (35), the departing tone as high-falling (51), and the entering tone as a mid-stopped tone (3ʔ).^[74]

However, historical descriptions offer alternative perspectives. An early 9th-century quotation from the Yuanhe Yunpu describes the level tone as "sad and stable," the rising tone as "strident and rising," the departing tone as "clear and distant," and the entering tone as "straight and abrupt."^[75] Similarly, the Japanese monk Annen, citing an early 8th-century account, stated that the level tone was "straight and low," the rising tone "straight and high," the departing tone "slightly drawn out," and the entering tone "stops abruptly."^[76] Based on such accounts, Mei Tsu-lin concluded that the level tone was long, level, and low; the rising tone short, level, and high; the departing tone somewhat long, likely high and rising; and the entering tone short and probably high.^[77]

Tonogenesis and Splits

The Middle Chinese tonal system bears a striking resemblance to those of neighboring Mainland Southeast Asian languages (Proto-Hmong–Mien, Proto-Tai, early Vietnamese), despite no genetic relation. This regularity in tonal correspondences across early loan strata led André-Georges Haudricourt in 1954 to propose "tonogenesis"—the development of tones from conditioning final consonants that subsequently disappeared. This theory suggests that Old Chinese was originally atonal, a view now widely accepted by many linguists.^[78]

Around the turn of the first millennium CE, Middle Chinese and Southeast Asian languages experienced a phonemic split in their tone categories. Syllables with voiced initials tended to be pronounced with a lower pitch, leading to the development of "upper" and "lower" registers for each tone by the late Tang dynasty. When voicing was lost in most varieties (except Wu and Old Xiang), this distinction became phonemic, yielding up to eight tonal categories. Cantonese, for example, maintains these tones and has an additional distinction in checked syllables, resulting in nine tonal categories. Conversely, most Mandarin dialects have fewer distinctions, with final stop consonants disappearing and syllables being reassigned to other tones.^[79]

Evolution to Modern Chinese

Phonological Reduction

Middle Chinese exhibited a structure akin to many modern, more conservative varieties like Cantonese, characterized by largely monosyllabic words, minimal derivational morphology, three tones, and a syllable structure comprising an initial consonant, glide, main vowel, and final consonant. There were numerous initial consonants but a relatively small number of final consonants, with no clusters at the beginning or end of a syllable (excluding glides).

In contrast, Old Chinese possessed a significantly different structure: it was atonal, had a more balanced distribution of initial and final consonants, and featured many initial and final clusters. It also had a well-developed system of derivational and possibly inflectional morphology, formed by adding consonants to the beginning or end of a syllable. This system is comparable to the reconstructed Proto-Sino-Tibetan and is still evident in Classical Tibetan, as well as in more conservative Austroasiatic languages like modern Khmer.

Tonal Expansion and Syllable Contraction

The primary transformations leading to modern Chinese varieties involve a reduction in the number of consonants and vowels, coupled with a corresponding increase in the number of tones. This tonal expansion typically occurred through a Pan-East-Asiatic tone split, which effectively doubled the number of tones and eliminated the distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants.

This process has resulted in a gradual decrease in the total number of possible syllables. Standard Mandarin, for instance, now has only approximately 1,300 possible syllables, with some other Chinese varieties possessing even fewer (e.g., modern Shanghainese reportedly has around 700 syllables). Consequently, in Mandarin, there has been a proliferation of two-syllable compound words, which have steadily replaced former monosyllabic words, making most words in Standard Mandarin disyllabic.

Grammatical Insights

Analyzing Structure and Meaning

The extensive corpus of surviving Middle Chinese (MC) literature, encompassing various genres, provides a rich foundation for the study of MC grammar. Given the notable absence of significant morphological development in Middle Chinese, grammatical analysis tends to concentrate on two primary areas:

The inherent nature and semantic nuances of individual words.
The syntactic rules governing their arrangement within sentences to convey meaning effectively.^[80]

This approach allows scholars to unravel how meaning was constructed and communicated in a language system where word order and lexical choice played paramount roles, rather than inflectional changes.

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Echoes of Antiquity

💡 Dive in with Flashcard Learning! 💡

What is Middle Chinese? ℹ️

🕰️ A Historical Linguistic Epoch

🤝 A Synthesized Standard

📚 Foundation for Dialectology

Primary Sources 📖

📜 Rime Dictionaries: The Qieyun

📊 Rime Tables: Yunjing and Beyond

🗣️ Comparative Evidence

Reconstruction Methodology 🔬

👨‍🏫 Karlgren's Pioneering Approach

🔄 Evolving Interpretations

📝 Notational Systems

Syllable Phonology 🗣️

🌳 Traditional Syllable Structure

🧩 Complexities of Reconstruction

Initial Consonants 🔠

📜 Early Middle Chinese (EMC)

Early Middle Chinese Initials[45]

📈 Late Middle Chinese (LMC) Evolution

Late Middle Chinese Initials[57]

Final Consonants 🎵

🎼 Structure and Codas

🤔 Medials and Vowels: A Debated Domain

Tonal System 🎶

🔊 The Four Tones of Middle Chinese

📈 Pitch Contours and Historical Descriptions

🌍 Tonogenesis and Splits

Evolution to Modern Chinese ➡️

📉 Phonological Reduction

📈 Tonal Expansion and Syllable Contraction

Grammatical Insights ✍️

📖 Analyzing Structure and Meaning

Teacher's Corner 🧑‍🏫

Edit and Print this course in the Wiki2Web Teacher Studio

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❓ Test Your Knowledge! ❓

Gamer's Corner 🎮

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References

📜 References

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Disclaimer ⚠️

📜 Important Notice

Dive in with Flashcard Learning!

What is Middle Chinese?

A Historical Linguistic Epoch

A Synthesized Standard

Foundation for Dialectology

Primary Sources

Rime Dictionaries: The Qieyun

Rime Tables: Yunjing and Beyond

Comparative Evidence

Reconstruction Methodology

Karlgren's Pioneering Approach

Evolving Interpretations

Notational Systems

Syllable Phonology

Traditional Syllable Structure

Complexities of Reconstruction

Initial Consonants

Early Middle Chinese (EMC)

Early Middle Chinese Initials^[45]

Late Middle Chinese (LMC) Evolution

Late Middle Chinese Initials^[57]

Final Consonants

Structure and Codas

Medials and Vowels: A Debated Domain

Tonal System

The Four Tones of Middle Chinese

Pitch Contours and Historical Descriptions

Tonogenesis and Splits

Evolution to Modern Chinese

Phonological Reduction

Tonal Expansion and Syllable Contraction

Grammatical Insights

Analyzing Structure and Meaning

Teacher's Corner

True or False?

Test Your Knowledge!

Gamer's Corner

Discover other topics to study!

References

Feedback & Support

Disclaimer

Important Notice