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The antiquated Chinese () is the Langue spoken in China before the Dynastie Han. As the Chinese writing does not indicate the pronunciation directly, it is necessary to rebuild it to carry out a specific research. The first to have tried to reconstitute these old states of the Chinese language is the Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren.

Antiquated Chinese is a language nearer typologiquement to the RGyalrong or Tibetan that modern Chinese dialects. This language had a verbal morphology and complicated groups of consonants which disappeared in the modern dialects.

The rebuilding of antiquated Chinese is a branch of the Phonétique history applied to the Chinese. It is first of all advisable to rebuild the medieval Chinese of the time of the Dynastie Sui, for which we have more documents. On the basis of this pronunciation, one rebuilds antiquated Chinese with four different data sources:

Phonetic series

One compares the medieval Chinese pronunciation of all the characters having the same phonetic part. For example:
  • 兑
    • Mandarin: dui4
      • Chinese
    • medieval: dwajH
  • 说
    • Mandarin: shuo1, shui4
      • Chinese
    • medieval: sywet, sywejH
  • 悦
    • Mandarin: yue4
      • Chinese
    • medieval: ywet
  • 脱
    • Mandarin: tuo1
      • Chinese
    • medieval: thwat
  • 锐
    • Mandarin: rui4
      • Chinese
    • medieval: ywejH
  • 税
    • Mandarin: shui4
      • Chinese
    • medieval: sywejH

The antiquated Chinese rebuilding will give an account of this diversity by showing that all these characters had a similar pronunciation formerly.

For example, here the antiquated Chinese recontruction for the character above (the asterisk indicates that it is about a rebuilding):

  • 兑 *lots
  • 说 *lhjot, *lhjots
  • 悦 *ljot
  • 脱 *hlot
  • 锐 *ljots
  • 税 *hljots

The Rhyme S

There exists a quantity large of texts rhymes in antiquated Chinese, especially the Shijing 诗经 but also the Chuci 楚词 and the Daodejing 道德经. However, which struck the Chinese scholars as of the period of the Dynasties of North and the South, it is that the rhymes of Shijing are often imperfect. As people of this time did not realize that the pronunciation of Chinese had changed since antiquity, some thought simply that the poetic standards of old were looser. At the time Song, in the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi 朱熹, one makes rimer artificially the old poems by the principle of the xiéyin 叶音.

It is only during the Dynastie Ming that Chén Dì 陈第 proposes for the first time that the poems riment not because of a change in the pronunciation. The systematic study of this problem starts at the beginning of the Dynastie Qing with Gu Yanwu 顾炎武, which establishes the first classes of rhymes ( yunbu 韵部) of antiquated Chinese, by projecting the categories of medieval Chinese. However, its division of the categories of rhymes is still very coarse: it distinguishes only 10 from them. Other linguists thereafter will take the changing and will refine its work on the rhymes:

  • Jiang Yong 江永 distinguishes 13 categories.
  • Duan Yucai 段玉裁 distinguishes 17 from them (he discovers the opposition between 支 *e 脂 **ij and 之 * there like that between 文 **yn and 真 *in), even if the phonetic reality of these oppositions escaped to him. In a famous letter with Jiang Yougao, he complains never to be able to know the nature of the distinction between these rhymes. In addition, he discovers a basic principle: the categories of rhymes of Shijing correspond to the phonetic series (同声必同部), i.e. words having same phonetics owed antiquated Chinese rimer, even if it riment more in medieval Chinese or with stronger reason in the modern dialects.
  • Dai Zhen 戴震 raises of Jiang Yong and Master of Duan Yucai, distinguishes 25 from them (it publishes after his pupil). It is the first scientist to regard the rhymes with occlusive finales as independent rhymes.
  • Kong Guangsen 孔广森 distinguishes 18 from them (he discovers division between the rhymes 东 **ong and 冬 **ung). He puts forth the incorrect assumption that the occlusive finales of the Rusheng did not exist in antiquated Chinese to explain the rhymes between occlusive finales and syllables open in Shijing (see low for the modern explanation of this phenomenon).
  • Wang Niansun 王念孙 student of Dai Zhen, manages to distinguish 21 rhymes.　
  • Jiang Yougao 江有诰 distinguishes 21 rhymes.
  • Wang Li 王力 discovers the distinction between the rhymes 脂 **ij and 微 **yj. It is last overdraft of distinction of antiquated Chinese carried out within the traditional framework of research.

References

  • William Baxter, has off Handbook Old Chinese Phonology , 1992;
  • 潘悟云/Pān Wùyún, 汉语历史音韵学 (Hàn yǔ lì shǐ yīn yùn xué) , 2000;
  • Laurent Sagart, The Roots off Old Chinese , 1999;
  • Sergej Starostin, Rekonstrukcija drevnekitajskoj fonologicheskoj sistemy , 1989.

Count of the correspondences between medieval and Chinese Chinese antiquated

The first column indicates medieval Chinese in the transcription of Baxter (1992), the second the rebuilding of Starostin (1989) in antiquated Chinese, the third the rebuilding of Baxter (1992). V indicates that the rebuilding can be carried out only in front of a velar Consonant, has in front of an acute consonant, LV in front of a Labio-vélaire, L in front of a Labiale.

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