Book contents
- A Phonological History of Chinese
- A Phonological History of Chinese
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Foreword by William S-Y. Wang 王士元
- Preface
- Major Periods of Chinese History
- Locations of Ancient Capitals of China
- Part I The Keys to Traditional Phonology
- Part II Old Chinese
- Part III Middle Chinese
- Part IV The Beginnings of Mandarin
- Part V A New Standard
- 6 Old Mandarin: The Ménggǔ Zìyùn 蒙古字韻
- 7 Old Mandarin: The Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻
- 8 Old Mandarin: The Persian Transcriptions
- Part VI Toward Modern Mandarin
- References
- Index
7 - Old Mandarin: The Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻
from Part V - A New Standard
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2020
- A Phonological History of Chinese
- A Phonological History of Chinese
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Foreword by William S-Y. Wang 王士元
- Preface
- Major Periods of Chinese History
- Locations of Ancient Capitals of China
- Part I The Keys to Traditional Phonology
- Part II Old Chinese
- Part III Middle Chinese
- Part IV The Beginnings of Mandarin
- Part V A New Standard
- 6 Old Mandarin: The Ménggǔ Zìyùn 蒙古字韻
- 7 Old Mandarin: The Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻
- 8 Old Mandarin: The Persian Transcriptions
- Part VI Toward Modern Mandarin
- References
- Index
Summary
In 1324, about fifty years after the establishment of the Yuan dynasty, a rhyming book entitled Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻 ‘Rhymes of the Central Plain’ was published. The phonological system seen in this book is completely different from the Qièyùn system, but it shares many basic phonological characteristics with Modern Mandarin. Therefore, in the study of historical phonology, the Chinese of the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn is referred to as Old Mandarin. The Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn documents a phonological system that had already existed in the north of China for centuries. Like the Qièyùn, it was not based on the phonology of any single dialect; the phonological distinctions could be from a variety of prestigious forms of Mandarin dialects at the time. This new standard represented an important turning point in the phonological history of Chinese. The Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn provides a complete phonology of the standard language based on the Zhongyuan dialect as indicated by the title of the book; however, the well-established phonological characteristics of the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn suggest that the origin of Mandarin phonology should have been from a much earlier time.
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- A Phonological History of Chinese , pp. 262 - 293Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020