Middle Chinese (中古漢語, pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), 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. Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the... Bernhard Karlgren (1889 - 1978) was a Swedish sinologist. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... This article is about China. ... The Sui Dynasty (隋朝 Hanyu Pinyin: Suí, 581-618) followed the Southern and Northern Dynasties and preceded the Tang Dynasty in China. ... Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618-907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. ... Alternative meaning: Song Dynasty (420-479) The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ... (5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the Scots, began migrating to Caledonia (later known as Scotland) Glendalough monastery, Wicklow Ireland founded by St. ... ( 9th century - 10th century - 11th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... Historical Chinese Phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. ...

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 [p pʰ b m] characters are shown, but there were no labiodental initials like f and v, but which could be found in Jiyun. This indicates that a sound change in the pronunciation of Chinese had occurred. Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618-907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. ... A rime dictionary or a rime book is a type of Chinese dictionary that was used in ancient times. ... Qieyun (Chinese 切韻) is a Chinese character rime dictionary, published in 601 AD during the Sui Dynasty. ... In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... This article discusses the unit of speech. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Jiyun (Chinese: 集韻) is a Chinese rime book published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. ... Sound change or phonetic change is a historical process of language change consisting in the replacement of one speech sound or, more generally, one phonetic feature by another in a given phonological environment. ...

Reconstruction

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: An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters—basic written symbols—each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ...

• Modern dialects. Just as Proto-Indo-European can be reconstructed from modern Indo-European languages, so can Middle Chinese be reconstructed (tentatively) from modern dialects.
• Preserved pronunciation of Chinese characters in borrowed Chinese vocabulary surviving in non-Chinese languages such as Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese
• Classical Chinese poetry from the Middle Chinese period
• Rime books. Ancient Chinese philologists devoted great amount of effort in summarizing the Chinese phonetic system through rime books.
• Chinese phonetic translations of foreign words

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. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The Japanese language is a spoken and written language used mainly in Japan. ... The Korean language is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. ... Vietnamese can mean: Vietnamese people - the majority ethnic group residing in Vietnam, also known as Kinh or Gin. ... Chinese poetry can be divided into three main periods: the early period, characterised by folk songs in simple, repetitive forms; the classical period from the Han dynasty to the fall of the Qing dynasty, in which a number of different forms were developed; and the modern period of Westernised free... A rime dictionary or a rime book is a type of Chinese dictionary that was used in ancient times. ...

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 reflexes 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. This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ... Tone refers to the use of pitch in language to distinguish words. ...

Rime dictionaries

The profuse output of Chinese poetry during the Tang era with its rigid verse structures relies on the rhyming and tone of the end characters of a line of poetry. Middle Chinese as embodied in rime dictionaries (or rime books) were a primary aid to authors in composing rhyming poetry. Chinese poetry can be divided into three main periods: the early period, characterised by folk songs in simple, repetitive forms; the classical period from the Han dynasty to the fall of the Qing dynasty, in which a number of different forms were developed; and the modern period of Westernised free...

The 切韻 'Qieyun' rime dictionary (A.D. 601) (by Lu Fayan et al.) 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 廣韻 'Guangyun' and 'Jiyun' rime dictionaries survive to the present day. The latter being essentially extended versions of Qieyun, and until the Dunhuang discovery, Guangyun was the base from which Middle Chinese was reconstructed. Qieyun (Chinese 切韻) is a Chinese character rime dictionary, published in 601 AD during the Sui Dynasty. ... Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618-907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. ... Dunhuang (Chinese: 敦煌) is a city located in an oasis in the Gansu province, China. ... Guangyun (Chinese: 廣韻) is a rime dictionary. ...