Old Chinese phonology

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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the phonology of Old Chinese from

documentary evidence. Although the writing system does not describe sounds
directly, shared phonetic components of the most ancient Chinese characters are
believed to link words that were pronounced similarly at that time. The oldest
surviving Chinese verse, in the Classic of Poetry (Shijing), shows which words
rhymed in that period. Scholars have compared these bodies of contemporary
evidence with the much later Middle Chinese reading pronunciations listed in the
Qieyun rime dictionary published in 601 AD, though this falls short of a phonemic
analysis. Supplementary evidence has been drawn from cognates in other Sino-
Tibetan languages and in Min Chinese, which split off before the Middle Chinese
period, Chinese transcriptions of foreign names, and early borrowings from and by
neighbouring languages such as Hmong–Mien, Tai and Tocharian languages.

Although many details are disputed, most recent reconstructions agree on the basic
structure. It is generally agreed that Old Chinese differed from Middle Chinese in
lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some
sort, and in having voiceless sonorants. Most recent reconstructions also posit
consonant clusters at the end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in
Middle Chinese.

Contents
 1 Syllable structure
 2 Initials
o 2.1 Middle Chinese initials
o 2.2 Evidence from phonetic series
o 2.3 Back initials
o 2.4 Evidence from Min Chinese
 3 Medials
o 3.1 Type A and B syllables
 4 Vowels
 5 Tones and final consonants
 6 See also
 7 Notes
 8 References
 9 Further reading
 10 External links
Syllable structure
See also: Reconstructions of Old Chinese

Although many details are still disputed, recent formulations are in substantial
agreement on the core issues.[1] For example, the Old Chinese initial consonants
recognized by Li Fang-Kuei and William Baxter are given below, with Baxter's
(mostly tentative) additions given in parentheses:[2][3][4][a]

Dental Velar Laryngeal

Palatal
Labial [b]

plain sibilant plain labialized plain labialized

voiceless *p *t *ts *k *kʷ *ʔ *ʔʷ

Stop or
aspirate *pʰ *tʰ *tsʰ *kʰ *kʷʰ
affricate

voiced *b *d *dz *ɡ *ɡʷ

voiceless *m̥ *n̥ *ŋ̊ *ŋ̊ ʷ

Nasal
voiced *m *n *ŋ *ŋʷ

voiceless *l ̥
Lateral
voiced *l

voiceless (*r̥) *s (*j ̊) *h *hʷ

Fricative or
approximant
voiced *r (*z) (*j) (*ɦ) (*w)

Most scholars reconstruct clusters of *s- with other consonants, and possibly other
clusters as well, but this area remains unsettled.[7]

In recent reconstructions, such as the widely accepted system of Baxter (1992), the
rest of the Old Chinese syllable consists of
  an optional medial *-r-,
 an optional medial *-j- or (in some reconstructions) some other representation of a
distinction between "type-A" and "type-B" syllables,
 one of six vowels:

*i *ə *u

*e *a *o

 an optional coda, which could be a glide *-j or *-w, a nasal *-m, *-n or *-ŋ, or a stop
*-p, *-t, *-k or *-kʷ,
 an optional post-coda *-ʔ or *-s.

In such systems, Old Chinese has no tones; the rising and departing tones of Middle
Chinese are treated as reflexes of the Old Chinese post-codas.[8]

Initials
The primary sources of evidence for the reconstruction of the Old Chinese initials are
medieval rhyme dictionaries and phonetic clues in the Chinese script.

Middle Chinese initials

The reconstruction of Old Chinese often starts from "Early Middle Chinese", the
phonological system of the Qieyun, a rhyme dictionary published in 601, with many
revisions and expansions over the following centuries. According to its preface, the
Qieyun did not record a single contemporary dialect, but set out to codify the
pronunciations of characters to be used when reading the classics, incorporating
distinctions made in different parts of China at the time (a diasystem). These
dictionaries indicated pronunciation using the fanqie method, dividing a syllable into
an initial consonant and the rest, called the final. Rhyme tables from the Song dynasty
contain a sophisticated feature analysis of the Qieyun initials and finals, though not a
full phonemic analysis. Moreover, they were influenced by the different
pronunciations of that later period. Scholars have attempted to determine the phonetic
content of the various distinctions by examining pronunciations in modern varieties
and loans in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese (the Sinoxenic materials), but many
details regarding the finals are still disputed.[9][10]

The Qieyun distinguishes the following initials, each traditionally named with an
exemplary word and classified according to the rhyme table analysis:[11][12]

Initials of Early Middle Chinese

Tenuis Aspirate Voiced Nasal Tenuis Voiced Approximant

 全清 次清 全濁 次濁 清 濁 次濁

脣 Labials[c] 幫p 滂 pʰ 並b 明m

Dentals[d] 端t 透 tʰ 定d 泥n 來l
舌
Retroflex stops 知 ʈ 徹 ʈʰ 澄ɖ 娘ɳ

Dental sibilants 精 ts 清 tsʰ 從 dz 心s 邪z

齒 Retroflex sibilants 莊 ʈʂ 初 ʈʂʰ 崇 ɖʐ 生ʂ     ʐ[e]

Palatals[f] 章 tɕ 昌 tɕʰ 禪 dʑ[g] 日 ɲ 書 ɕ 船 ʑ[g] 以 j[h]

牙 Velars 見k 溪 kʰ 群ɡ 疑ŋ

喉 Laryngeals[i] 影ʔ 曉 x~h 匣/云 ɣ~ɦ[h]

By studying sound glosses given by Eastern Han authors, the Qing philologist Qian
Daxin discovered that the Middle Chinese dental and retroflex stop series were not
distinguished at that time.[20][21] The resulting inventory of 32 initials (omitting the rare
initial /ʐ/) is still used by some scholars within China, such as He Jiuying.[22] Early in
the 20th century, Huang Kan identified 19 Middle Chinese initials that occurred with
a wide range of finals, calling them the "original ancient initials", from which the
other initials were secondary developments:[23][12]

Huang Kan's "original ancient initials"

Tenuis Aspirate Voiced Nasal Tenuis Voiced Approximant

Labials p pʰ b m

Dentals t tʰ d n l
Dental sibilants ts tsʰ dz s

Velars k kʰ ŋ

Laryngeals ʔ x~h ɣ~ɦ

Evidence from phonetic series

Page from a copy of a Song dynasty edition of the Shuowen Jiezi, an early source on the
structure of characters, showing characters with the 言 element

Although the Chinese writing system is not alphabetic, comparison of words whose
characters share a phonetic element (a phonetic series) yields much information about
pronunciation. Often the characters in a phonetic series are still pronounced alike, as
in the character 中 (zhōng, 'middle'), which was adapted to write the words chōng
('pour', 沖) and zhōng ('loyal', 忠).[24] In other cases the words in a phonetic series
have very different sounds in any known variety of Chinese, but are assumed to have
been similar at the time the characters were chosen.[25]

A key principle, first proposed by the Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren, holds
that the initials of words written with the same phonetic component had a common
point of articulation in Old Chinese. For example, since Middle Chinese dentals and
retroflex stops occur together in phonetic series, they are traced to a single Old
Chinese dental series, with the retroflex stops conditioned by an Old Chinese medial
*-r-. The Middle Chinese dental sibilants and retroflex sibilants also occur
interchangeably in phonetic series, and are similarly traced to a single Old Chinese
sibilant series, with the retroflex sibilants conditioned by the Old Chinese medial *-r-.
[26][27][j]
However, there are several cases where quite different Middle Chinese initials appear
together in a phonetic series. Karlgren and subsequent workers have proposed either
additional Old Chinese consonants or initial consonant clusters in such cases. For
example, the Middle Chinese palatal sibilants appear in two distinct kinds of series,
with dentals and with velars:[k]

 周 tśjəu (< *tj-) 'cycle; Zhou dynasty', 彫 tieu (< *t-) 'carve' and 調 dieu (< *d-)
'adjust'[30][31]
 制 tśjäi- (< *kj-) 'cut out' and 猘 kjäi- (< *krj-) 'mad dog'[32][33]

It is believed that the palatals arose from dentals and velars followed by an Old
Chinese medial *-j-, unless the medial *-r- was also present. While all such dentals
were palatalized, the conditions for palatalization of velars are only partly understood
(see Medials below).[34]

Similarly, it is proposed that the *-r- medial could occur after labials and velars,
complementing the instances proposed as sources of Middle Chinese retroflex dentals
and sibilants, to account for such connections as:[35][36][l]

 筆 pjet (< *pr-) 'writing pencil' and 律 ljwet (< *br-) 'law; rule'[38][39]
 監 kam (< *kr-) 'look at' and 藍 lâm (< *ɡr-) 'indigo'[40][41]

Thus the Middle Chinese lateral l- is believed to reflect Old Chinese *-r-. Old Chinese
voiced and voiceless laterals *l- and *l̥ - are proposed to account for a different group
of series such as

 脫 dwât (< *l-) and thwât (< *l ̥-) 'peel off', 悅 jwät (< *lj-) 'pleased' and 說 śjwät (<
OC *l ̥j-) 'speak'[42][43][m]

This treatment of the Old Chinese liquids is further supported by Tibeto-Burman

cognates and by transcription evidence. For example, the name of a city (Alexandria
Ariana or Alexandria Arachosia) was transcribed in the Book of Han chapter 96 as ⟨烏
弋山離⟩, which is reconstructed as *ʔa-ljək-srjan-rjaj.[44][45] Traces of the earlier
liquids are also found in the divergent Waxiang dialect of western Hunan.[46]

Voiceless nasal initials *m̥-, *n̥- and *ŋ̊- are proposed (following Dong Tonghe and
Edwin Pulleyblank) in series such as:[47]

 墨 mək 'ink' and 黑 xək (< *m̥ -) 'black'[48][49]

 難 nân 'difficult' and 灘 thân (< *n̥ -) 'foreshore'[50][51]
 虐 ngjak 'cruel' and 謔 xjak (< *ŋ̊ -) 'to ridicule'[52][53]

Clusters *sn- and so on are proposed (following Karlgren) for alternations of Middle
Chinese nasals and s- such as

 如 ńźjwo (< *nj-) 'resemble' and 絮 sjwo- (< *snj-) 'raw silk'[54][55]

Other cluster initials, including *s with stops or stops with *l, have been suggested but
their existence and nature remains an open question.[56][57]
Back initials

The Song dynasty rhyme tables classified Qieyun syllables as either "open" (開 kāi) or
"closed" (合 hé), with the latter believed to indicate a medial -w- or lip rounding.[58]
This medial was unevenly distributed, being distinctive only after velar and laryngeal
initials or before -ai, -an or -at. This is taken (following André-Georges Haudricourt
and Sergei Yakhontov) to indicate that Old Chinese had labiovelar and labiolaryngeal
initials but no labiovelar medial.[59] The remaining occurrences of Middle Chinese -w-
are believed to result from breaking of a back vowel before these codas (see Vowels
below).[60][61]

As Middle Chinese g- occurs only in palatal environments, Li attempted to derive

both g- and ɣ- from Old Chinese *ɡ-, but had to assume irregular developments in
some cases. Li Rong showed that several words with Middle Chinese initial ɣ- were
distinguished in modern Min dialects. For example, 厚 'thick' and 後 'after' were both
ɣəu: in Middle Chinese, but have velar and zero initials respectively in several Min
dialects. Most authors now assume both *ɡ- and *ɦ-, with subsequent lenition of *ɡ-
in non-palatal environments. Similarly *w- is assumed as the labialized counterpart of
*ɦ-.[62][63][64]

Pan Wuyun has proposed a revision of the above scheme to account for the fact that
Middle Chinese glottal stop and laryngeal fricatives occurred together in phonetic
series, unlike dental stops and fricatives, which were usually separated. Instead of the
glottal stop initial *ʔ- and fricatives *h- and *ɦ-, he proposed uvular stops *q-, *qʰ-
and *ɢ-, and similarly labio-uvular stops *qʷ-, *qʷʰ- and *ɢʷ- in place of *ʔʷ-, *hʷ-
and *w-.[65][66]

Evidence from Min Chinese

Modern Min dialects, particularly those of northwest Fujian, show reflexes of

distinctions not reflected in Middle Chinese. For example, the following dental initials
have been identified in reconstructed proto-Min:[67][68]

Voiceless stops Voiced stops Nasals Laterals

Example word 單 轉 炭 直 長 頭 南 年 來 老

Proto-Min initial *t *-t *th *d *-d *dh *n *nh *l *lh

Middle Chinese initial t th d n l

Other points of articulation show similar distinctions within stops and nasals. Proto-
Min voicing is inferred from the development of Min tones, but the phonetic values of
the initials are otherwise uncertain. The sounds indicated as *-t, *-d, etc. are known as
"softened stops" due to their reflexes in Jianyang and nearby Min varieties in
northwestern Fujian, where they appear as fricatives or approximants (e.g. [v l h] < *-
p *-t *-k in Jianyang) or are missing entirely, while the non-softened variants appear
as stops. Evidence from early loans into Yao languages suggests that the softened
stops were prenasalized.[69]

These distinctions are assumed by most workers to date from the Old Chinese period,
but they are not reflected in the widely accepted inventory of Old Chinese initials
given above. For example, although Old Chinese is believed to have had both voiced
and voiceless nasals, only the voiced ones yield Middle Chinese nasals, corresponding
to both sorts of proto-Min nasal. The Old Chinese antecedents of these distinctions are
not yet agreed, with researchers proposing a variety of consonant clusters.[70][n]

Medials
The most contentious aspect of the rhyme tables is their classification of the Qieyun
finals into four divisions (等 děng).[o] Most scholars believe that finals of divisions I
and IV contained back and front vowels respectively. Division II is believed to
represent retroflexion, and is traced back to the Old Chinese *-r- medial discussed
above, while division III is usually taken as indicating a -j- medial.[73][74] Since
Karlgren, many scholars have projected this medial (but not -w-) back onto Old
Chinese. The following table shows Baxter's account of the Old Chinese initials and
medials leading to the combinations of initial and final types found in Early Middle
Chinese.[75][76]

EMC final type

EMC initial type III

I II IV
3 4

Labials *P- *Pr- *Prj- *Pj- *P-

Dentals *T- *T-

Retroflex stops *Tr- *Trj-

Dental sibilants *TS- *TSj- *TS-

Retroflex sibilants *TSr- *TSrj-

 Palatals *Tj-, *Kj-

*K- *Kr- *Krj- *Kj- *K-

Velars, laryngeals
*Kʷ- *Kʷr- *Kʷrj- *Kʷj- *Kʷ-

Here *P, *T, *TS, *K and *Kʷ stand for consonant classes in Old Chinese. Columns
III-3 and III-4 represent the chóngniǔ distinction among some syllables with division-
III finals, which are placed in rows 3 or 4 of the Song dynasty rhyme tables. The two
are generally identical in modern Chinese varieties, but Sinoxenic forms often have a
palatal element for III-4 but not III-3.[77][p]

Baxter's account departs from the earlier reconstruction of Li Fang-Kuei in its

treatment of *-j- and *-rj- after labial and guttural initials. Li proposed *Krj- as the
source of palatal initials occurring in phonetic series with velars or laryngeals, found
no evidence for *Prj-, and attributed the chongniu distinction to the vowel. Following
proposals by Pulleyblank, Baxter explains chongniu using *-rj- and postulates that
plain velars and laryngeals were palatalized when followed by both *-j- (but not *-rj-)
and a front vowel. However a significant number of palatalizations are not explained
by this rule.[75][80][81]

Type A and B syllables

A fundamental distinction within Middle Chinese is between syllables with division-

III finals and the rest, labelled types B and A respectively by Pulleyblank. Most
scholars believe that type B syllables were characterized by a palatal medial -j- in
Middle Chinese. Although many authors have projected this medial back to a medial
*-j- in Old Chinese, others have suggested that the Middle Chinese medial was a
secondary development not present in Old Chinese. Evidence includes the use of type
B syllables to transcribe foreign words lacking any such medial, the lack of the medial
in Tibeto-Burman cognates and modern Min reflexes, and the fact that it is ignored in
phonetic series.[82][83] Nonetheless, scholars agree that the difference reflects a real
phonological distinction of some sort, often described noncommittally as a distinction
between type A and B syllables using a variety of notations.[84][85][86] The distinction
has been variously ascribed to:

 the presence or absence of a prefix. Jakhontov held that type B reflected a prefix
*d-,[85][87] while Ferlus suggested that type A arose from an unstressed prefix *Cə- (a
minor syllable), which conditioned syllabic tenseness contrasting with laxness in type
B syllables.[88]
 a length distinction of the main vowel. Pulleyblank initially proposed that type B
syllables had longer vowels.[89] Later, citing cognates in other Sino-Tibetan languages,
Starostin and Zhengzhang independently proposed long vowels for type A and short
vowels for type B.[90][91][92] The latter proposal might explain the description in some
Eastern Han commentaries of type A and B syllables as huǎnqì 緩氣 'slow breath'
and jíqì 急氣 'fast breath' respectively.[93]
  a prosodic stress-based distinction, as later proposed by Pulleyblank, [89] in which
type B syllables were stressed in the first mora, while type A syllables were stressed
on the second[94]
 pharyngealization of the initial consonant. Norman suggested that type B syllables
(his class C), which comprised over half of the syllables of the Qieyun, were in fact
unmarked in Old Chinese. Instead, he proposed that the remaining syllables were
marked by retroflexion (the *-r- medial) or pharyngealization, either of which
prevented palatalization in Middle Chinese. [95] Baxter and Sagart have adopted a
variant of this proposal, reconstructing pharyngealized initials in all type A syllables.
[96]

Vowels

Gu Yanwu, who began the systematic study of Shijing rhymes

A reconstruction of Old Chinese finals must explain the rhyming practice of the
Shijing, a collection of songs and poetry from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. Again
some of these songs still rhyme in modern varieties of Chinese, but many do not. This
was attributed to lax rhyming practice until the late-Ming dynasty scholar Chen Di
argued that a former consistency had been obscured by sound change.[97][98] The
systematic study of Old Chinese rhymes began in the 17th century, when Gu Yanwu
divided the rhyming words of the Shijing into ten rhyme groups (yùnbù 韻部).[99]
These groups were subsequently refined by other scholars, culminating in a standard
set of 31 in the 1930s. One of these scholars, Duan Yucai, stated the important
principle that characters in the same phonetic series would be in the same rhyme
group,[q] making it possible to assign almost all words to rhyme groups.[101][25]

Assuming that rhyming syllables had the same main vowel, Li Fang-Kuei proposed a
system of four vowels *i, *u, *ə and *a. He also included three diphthongs *iə, *ia
and *ua to account for syllables that were placed in rhyme groups reconstructed with
*ə or *a but were distinguished in Middle Chinese.[102] In the late 1980s, Zhengzhang
Shangfang, Sergei Starostin and William Baxter (following Nicholas Bodman)
independently argued that these rhyme groups should be split, refining the 31
traditional rhyme groups into more than 50 groups corresponding to a six-vowel
system.[103][104][105][106][107] Baxter supported this thesis with a statistical analysis of the
rhymes of the Shijing, though there were too few rhymes with codas *-p, *-m and *-
kʷ to produce statistically significant results.[108]

The following table illustrates these analyses, listing the names of the 31 traditional
rhyme groups with their Middle Chinese reflexes and their postulated Old Chinese
vowels in the systems of Li and Baxter. Following the traditional analysis, the rhyme
groups are organized into three parallel sets, depending on the corresponding type of
coda in Middle Chinese. For simplicity, only Middle Chinese finals of divisions I and
IV are listed, as the complex vocalism of divisions II and III is believed to reflect the
influence of Old Chinese medials *-r- and *-j- (see previous section).[109][r]

Shijing rhyme groups and Middle Chinese reflexes in divisions I and IV OC vowels

MC vocalic coda MC stop coda MC nasal coda

Li Baxter
陰聲 入聲 陽聲

-ep -em *-iə- *-i-

緝 侵
-əp -əm *-ə- *-ə-, *-u-

-ep -em *-ia- *-e-

葉/盍 談
-âp -âm *-a- *-a-, *-o-

脂 -ei 質 -et 真 -en *-i- *-i-

-ei -et -en *-iə- *-ə-

微 物/術 文/諄
-əi -ət -ən *-ə- *-u-

-ei -et -en *-ia- *-e-

歌 -â 祭[s] -âi 月 -ât 元 -ân *-a- *-a-

-wâ -wâi -wât -wân *-ua- *-o-

支/佳 -ei 錫 -ek 耕 -eng *-i- *-e-

之 -əi 職 -ək 蒸 -əng *-ə- *-ə-

魚 -o 鐸 -âk 陽 -âng *-a- *-a-

侯 -əu 屋 -uk 東 -ung *-u- *-o-

幽 -âu 覺/沃 -ok 冬/中 -ong *-ə-ʷ *-u-

-eu -ek *-iə-ʷ *-i-ʷ

-âu -âk, -ok, -uk *-a-ʷ *-a-ʷ

宵 藥
-eu -ek *-ia-ʷ *-e-ʷ

-ʷ: Old Chinese finals reconstructed with labiovelar codas

Tones and final consonants

There has been much controversy over the relationship between final consonants and
tones, and indeed whether Old Chinese lacked the tones characteristic of later periods,
as first suggested by the Ming dynasty scholar Chen Di.[t]

The four tones of Middle Chinese were first described by Shen Yue around AD 500.
They were the "level" (平 píng), "rising" (上 shǎng), "departing" (去 qù), and
"entering" (入 rù) tones, with the last category consisting of the syllables ending in
stops (-p, -t or -k).[112] Although rhymes in the Shijing usually respect these tone
categories, there are many cases of characters that are now pronounced with different
tones rhyming together in the songs, mostly between the departing and entering tones.
This led Duan Yucai to suggest that Old Chinese lacked the departing tone. Wang
Niansun (1744–1832) and Jiang Yougao (d.1851) decided that the language had the
same tones as Middle Chinese, but some words had later shifted between tones, a
view that is still widely held among linguists in China.[113][114]

Karlgren also noted many cases where words in the departing and entering tones
shared a phonetic element within their respective characters, e.g.

 賴 lâi- 'depend on' and 剌 lât 'wicked'[115]

 欬 khəi- 'cough' and 刻 khək 'cut; engrave'[116]
He suggested that the departing tone words in such pairs had ended with a final
voiced stop (*-d or *-ɡ) in Old Chinese.[117] Being unwilling to split rhyme groups,
Dong Tonghe and Li Fang-Kuei extended these final voiced stops to whole rhyme
groups. The only exceptions were the 歌 and 祭 groups (Li's *-ar and *-ad), in which
the traditional analysis already distinguished the syllables with entering tone contacts.
The resulting scarcity of open syllables has been criticized on typological grounds.[118]
Wang Li preferred to reallocate words with connections to the entering tone to the
corresponding entering tone group, proposing that the final stop was lost after a long
vowel.[119]

Another perspective is provided by Haudricourt's demonstration that the tones of

Vietnamese, which have a very similar structure to those of Middle Chinese, were
derived from earlier final consonants. The Vietnamese counterparts of the rising and
departing tones derived from a final glottal stop and *-s respectively, the latter
developing to a glottal fricative *-h. These glottal post-codas respectively conditioned
rising and falling pitch contours, which became distinctive when the post-codas were
lost.[120] Haudricourt also suggested that the Chinese departing tone reflected an Old
Chinese derivational suffix *-s. The connection with stop finals would then be
explained as syllables ending with *-ts or *-ks, with the stops later disappearing,
allowing rhymes with open syllables.[121] The absence of a corresponding labial final
could be attributed to early assimilation of *-ps to *-ts. Pulleyblank supported the
theory with several examples of syllables in the departing tone being used to
transcribe foreign words ending in -s into Chinese.[122][123][124]

Pulleyblank took Haudricourt's suggestion to its logical conclusion, proposing that the
Chinese rising tone had also arisen from a final glottal stop.[125] Mei Tsu-lin supported
this theory with evidence from early transcriptions of Sanskrit words, and pointed out
that rising tone words end in a glottal stop in some modern Chinese dialects, e.g.
Wenzhounese and some Min dialects.[126] In addition, most of the entering tone words
that rhyme with rising tone words in the Shijing end in -k.[127]

Together, these hypotheses lead to the following set of Old Chinese syllable codas:[128]

MC vocalic coda MC stop coda MC nasal coda

平 上 去 入 平 上 去

*-p *-m *-mʔ *-ms

*-j *-jʔ *-js *-ts *-t *-n *-nʔ *-ns

*-∅ *-ʔ *-s *-ks *-k *-ŋ *-ŋʔ *-ŋs

*-w *-wʔ *-ws *-kʷs *-kʷ

Baxter also speculated on the possibility of a glottal stop occurring after oral stop
finals. The evidence is limited, and consists mainly of contacts between rising tone
syllables and -k finals, which could alternatively be explained as phonetic similarity.
[129]

To account for phonetic series and rhymes in which MC -j alternates with -n, Sergei
Starostin proposed that MC -n in such cases derived from Old Chinese *-r.[130] Other
scholars have suggested that such contacts are due to dialectal mixture, citing
evidence that *-n had disappeared from eastern dialects by the Eastern Han period.[131]

See also
 Historical Chinese phonology

Notes
1.

 Reconstructed Old Chinese forms are starred and follow Baxter (1992) with some
graphical substitutions from his more recent work: *ə for *ɨ[5] and consonants rendered
according to IPA conventions.
  Baxter describes his reconstruction of the palatal initials as "especially tentative, being
based largely on scanty graphic evidence". [6]

  The rhyme tables describe a later stage in which labiodental fricatives were also
distinguished.[13]

  It is not clear whether these had an alveolar or dental articulation. They are mostly
alveolar in modern Chinese varieties.[14]

  The /ʐ/ initial occurs in only two words 俟 and 漦 in the Qieyun, and is merged with /dʐ/
in the later Guangyun. It is omitted in many reconstructions, and has no standard Chinese
name.[15]

  The retroflex and palatal sibilants were treated as a single series in the later rhyme
tables.[16]

  The initials 禪 and 船 are reversed from their positions in the rhyme tables, which are
believed to have confused them.[17]

  In the rhyme tables, the palatal allophone of /ɣ/ (云) is combined with /j/ (以) as a
single initial 喻.[18]

  The point of articulation of the fricatives is not clear, and varies between the modern
varieties.[19]
  In 1940, Karlgren published the first complete reconstruction of Old Chinese in a
dictionary called the Grammata Serica, in which characters are arranged by phonetic series
within rhyme groups. The 1957 revision Grammata Serica Recensa (GSR) remains a standard
reference, even though Karlgren's reconstructions have been superseded by the work of
later scholars such as Wang Li, E. G. Pulleyblank, Li Fang-Kuei and William Baxter.[28]

  Middle Chinese forms are given in Li Fang-Kuei's revision of Karlgren's notation,[29] with
minor simplifications suggested by Coblin (1986), p. 9.

  Karlgren originally postulated Old Chinese consonant clusters with *-l- in such cases.[37]

  Originally proposed as voiced and voiceless fricative initials in Pulleyblank (1962a),

pp. 114–119.

  Baxter and Sagart derive the additional aspirated initials from consonant clusters and
the softened stops from minor syllables.[71]

  Finals of divisions I, II and IV occurred only in rows 1, 2 and 4 of the rhyme tables
respectively, while division III finals occurred in rows 2, 3 or 4 depending on the initial. [72]

  The precise nature of the chóngniǔ distinction in Middle Chinese is disputed. In their
Middle Chinese reconstructions, Li and Baxter distinguish them by using -ji- as a purely
notational device for III-4.[78][79]

  同聲必同部 Tóng shēng bì tóng bù.[100]

  Each rhyme group was named after one of the corresponding Guangyun rhymes, with
the choice sometimes varying between authors. [110]

  The 祭 group included departing tone words only. [111]

20.  Chinese: "四聲之辯，古人未有。" in Chen Di (1541–1617), Máo Shī Gǔ Yīn Kǎo

《毛詩古音考》, quoted in Wang (1985), p. 72.

References
1.

 Schuessler (2009), p. x.

  Li (1974–1975), p. 237.

  Norman (1988), p. 46.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 188–215.

  Schuessler (2007), p. 122.

  Baxter (1992), p. 203.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 222–232.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 178–185.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 32–44.

  Norman (1988), pp. 24–42.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 45–59.

  Zhengzhang (2000), pp. 12–13.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 46–49.

  Baxter (1992), p. 49.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 56–57, 206.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 54–55.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 52–54.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 55–56, 59.

  Baxter (1992), p. 58.

  Norman (1988), p. 44.

  Dong (2014), pp. 33–35.

  He (1991), pp. 69–75.

  Baxter (1992), p. 837.

  GSR 1007a,p,k.

  Norman (1988), pp. 43–44.

  Li (1974–1975), pp. 228–232.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 191–196, 203–206.

  Schuessler (2009), p. ix.

  Li (1974–1975), pp. 224–227.

  GSR 1083a,p,x.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 192–193.

  GSR 335a,5.

  Baxter (1992), p. 211.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 193–194, 210–214, 569–570.

  Li (1974–1975), pp. 240–241.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 199–202.

  Pulleyblank (1962a), pp. 110–111.

  GSR 502d,c.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 280, 775.

  GSR 609a,k.

  Baxter (1992), p. 201.

  GSR 324a,o,m,q.

  Baxter (1992), p. 197.

  Zhengzhang (2000), p. 15.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 795, 802, 785, 773.

  Baxter & Sagart (2014), pp. 109–110.

  Pulleyblank (1962a), p. 92.

  GSR 904c,a.

  Baxter (1992), p. 189.

  GSR 152d,m.

  Baxter (1992), p. 193.

  GSR 1118a,d.

  Baxter (1992), p. 208.

  GSR 94g,u.

  Baxter (1992), p. 222.

  Li (1974–1975), pp. 241–243.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 227–234.

  Norman (1988), p. 32.

  Haudricourt (1954b), p. 359.

  Li (1974–1975), pp. 233–234.

  Baxter (1992), p. 180.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 209–210.

  Zhengzhang (2000), pp. 13–14.

  GSR 114a, 115a.

  Zhengzhang (2000), pp. 14–15.

  Sagart (2007).

  Norman (1973), pp. 227, 230, 233, 235.

  Norman (1988), pp. 228–229.

  Norman (1986), p. 381.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 187, 219–220.

  Baxter & Sagart (2014), pp. 91–93.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 64, 66, 67, 69.

  Norman (1988), pp. 32, 36–38.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 64–81.

  Handel (2003), p. 555.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 235–290.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 63, 75–79, 282–287.

  Li (1974–1975), p. 224.

  Baxter (1992), p. 63.

  Pulleyblank (1962a), pp. 98–107.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 210–214, 280.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 287–290.

  Norman (1994), pp. 400–402.

  Pulleyblank (1977–1978), pp. 183–185.

  Norman (1994), p. 400.

  Schuessler (2007), p. 95.

  Baxter (1992), p. 288.

  Ferlus (2001), pp. 305–307.

  Pulleyblank (1992), p. 379.

  Handel (2003), p. 550.

  Zhengzhang (1991), pp. 160–161.

  Zhengzhang (2000), pp. 48–57.

  Starostin (2015), p. 388.

  Sagart 1999, p. 43.

  Norman (1994).

  Baxter & Sagart (2014), pp. 43, 68–76.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 150–155.

  Norman (1988), p. 42.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 155–157.

  Baxter (1992), p. 831.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 157–170.

  Li (1974–1975), pp. 243–247.

  Zhengzhang (2000), pp. 42–43.

  Starostin (1989), pp. 343–429.

  Bodman (1980), p. 47.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 180, 253–254, 813.

  Baxter (2006).

  Baxter (1992), pp. 560–562.

  Tabulation of rhyme groups from Pulleyblank (1977–1978), p. 181 and Norman (1988),
p. 48. Data from Baxter (1992), pp. 141–150, 170, 243–246, 254–255, 298–302 and Li (1974–
1975), pp. 252–279.

  Baxter (1992), p. 141.

  Baxter (1992), p. 389.

  Baxter (1992), p. 303.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 304–305.

  Wang (1985), pp. 72–77.

  GSR 272e,a.

  GSR 937s,v.

  Karlgren (1923), pp. 27–30.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 331–333.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 340–342.

  Haudricourt (1954a).

  Haudricourt (1954b), pp. 363–364.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 308–317.

  Norman (1988), pp. 54–57.

  Pulleyblank (1962b), pp. 216–225.

  Pulleyblank (1962b), pp. 225–227.

  Mei (1970).

  Baxter (1992), p. 322.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 181–183.

  Baxter (1992), pp. 323–324.

  Baxter (1992), p. 843.

131.  Baxter (1992), pp. 294–297.

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Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-012324-1.
 ——— (2006), "Eulogy: Sergej Anatol'evič Starostin" (PDF), Journal of Chinese
Linguistics, 34 (1): 164–166.
 Baxter, William; Sagart, Laurent (2014), Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction, Oxford
University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-994537-5.
 Bodman, Nicholas C. (1980), "Proto-Chinese and Sino-Tibetan: data towards
establishing the nature of the relationship", in van Coetsem, Frans; Waugh, Linda R.
(eds.), Contributions to historical linguistics: issues and materials, Leiden: E. J. Brill,
pp. 34–199, ISBN 978-90-04-06130-9.
 Coblin, W. South (1986), A Sinologist's Handlist of Sino-Tibetan Lexical Comparisons,
Monumenta Serica monograph series, vol. 18, Steyler Verlag, ISBN 978-3-87787-208-
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317-74389-7.
 Ferlus, Michel (2001), "The Origin of Tones in Viet–Muong" (PDF), in Burusphat,
Somsonge (ed.), Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society,
Arizona State University, pp. 297–313, ISBN 978-1-881044-34-5.
 Haudricourt, André-Georges (1954a), "De l'origine des tons en vietnamien" [The
origin of tones in Vietnamese], Journal Asiatique, 242: 69–82. (English translation by
Marc Brunelle)
 ——— (1954b), "Comment reconstruire le chinois archaïque" [How to reconstruct
Old Chinese], Word, 10 (2–3): 351–364, doi:10.1080/00437956.1954.11659532.
(English translation by Guillaume Jacques)
 Handel, Zev J. (2003), "Appendix A: A Concise Introduction to Old Chinese
Phonology", in Matisoff, James (ed.), Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and
Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction, Berkeley: University of California Press,
pp. 543–576, ISBN 978-0-520-09843-5.
 He, Jiuying (1991), Shànggǔ Yīn 上古音, Hànyǔ Zhīshì Cóngshū 《汉语知识丛书》
(in Chinese), Beijing: Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn Chūbǎn, ISBN 978-7-100-00072-7.
 Karlgren, Bernhard (1923), Analytic dictionary of Chinese and Sino-Japanese, Paris:
Paul Geuthner, ISBN 978-0-486-21887-8.
 ——— (1957), Grammata Serica Recensa, Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern
Antiquities, OCLC 1999753.
 Li, Fang-Kuei (1974–1975), translated by Gilbert L. Mattos, "Studies on Archaic
Chinese", Monumenta Serica, 31: 219–287, doi:10.1080/02549948.1974.11731100,
JSTOR 40726172.
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tone" (PDF), Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766,
JSTOR 2718766.
 Norman, Jerry (1973), "Tonal development in Min", Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 1
(2): 222–238, JSTOR 23749795.
 ——— (1986), "The origin of Proto-Min softened stops", in McCoy, John; Light,
Timothy (eds.), Contributions to Sino-Tibetan studies, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 375–384,
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 ——— (1994), "Pharyngealization in Early Chinese", Journal of the American Oriental
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Major, 9: 58–144.
 ——— (1962b), "The Consonantal System of Old Chinese, part 2" (PDF), Asia Major,
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180–206, doi:10.1080/02549948.1977.11745046, JSTOR 40726239.
 ——— (1992), "How do we reconstruct Old Chinese?", Journal of the American
Oriental Society, 112 (3): 365–382, doi:10.2307/603076, JSTOR 603076.
 Sagart, Laurent (1999), The Roots of Old Chinese, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN 1-55619-961-9.
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(PDF), 40th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics.
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3264-3.
  Starostin, George (2015), "William H. Baxter, Laurent Sagart. Old Chinese. A New
Reconstruction" (PDF), Book reviews, Journal of Language Relationship, 13 (4): 383–
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 Starostin, Sergei A. (1989), Rekonstrukcija drevnekitajskoj fonologičeskoj sistemy
[Reconstruction of the Phonological System of Old Chinese] (PDF) (in Russian),
Moscow: Nauka, ISBN 978-5-02-016986-9.
 Wang, Li (1985), Hànyǔ Yǔyīn Shǐ 汉语语音史 [History of Chinese Phonetics] (in
Chinese), Beijing: China Social Sciences Press. Reprinted by Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn
Chūbǎn, Beijing in 2008, ISBN 978-7-100-05390-7.
 Zhengzhang, Shangfang (1991), "Decipherment of Yue-Ren-Ge (Song of the Yue
boatman)", Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 20 (2): 159–168,
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 ——— (2000), The Phonological system of Old Chinese, translated by Laurent Sagart,
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Further reading
 Sagart, Laurent (1999), The Roots of Old Chinese, Amsterdam: John Benjamins,
ISBN 978-90-272-3690-6.
 Yakhontov, S.E. (1965), Drevnekitajskij jazyk [Old Chinese] (PDF) (in Russian),
Moscow: Nauka.
 ——— (1978–79), translated by Jerry Norman, "Old Chinese Phonology" (PDF), Early
China, 5: 37–40, doi:10.1017/S0362502800005873, S2CID 162162850, archived from
the original (PDF) on 31 December 2013, retrieved 29 December 2013. Translation of
Chapter 2 (Phonetics) of Yakhontov (1965).
 Zhengzhang, Shangfang (2003), Shànggǔ Yīnxì 上古音系 [Old Chinese Phonology] (in
Chinese), Shanghai: Shànghǎi Jiàoyù Chūbǎn Shè, ISBN 978-7-5320-9244-4.

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Character List for Karlgren's GSR

Tutorials

 "Introduction to Chinese Historical Phonology" , Guillaume Jacques, European

Association of Chinese Linguistics Spring School in Chinese Linguistics, International
Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, March 2006.
 "Summer School on Old Chinese Phonology" (videos), William Baxter and Laurent
Sagart, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, July 2007.

Databases of reconstructions

 StarLing database, by Georgiy Starostin.

 The Baxter-Sagart reconstruction of Old Chinese .
 上古音系- 韻典網
 小學堂上古音 - 中央研究院
 李方桂上古音韻表