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The earliest historical linguistic evidence of the spoken Chinese language dates back approximately 4,500 years,[1] while examples of the writing system that would become written Chinese are attested in a body of inscriptions made on bronze vessels and oracle bones during the Late Shang period (c. 1250 – 1050 BCE),[2][3] with the very oldest dated to c. 1200BCE.[4][5]: 108
^Norman 1988, p. 4.
^Kern 2010, p. 1.
^Keightley 1978, p. xvi.
^Bagley, Robert (2004). "Anyang writing and the origin of the Chinese writing system". In Houston, Stephen (ed.). The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process. Cambridge University Press. pp. 190–249. ISBN 978-0-521-83861-0.
^Boltz, William G. (1999). "Language and Writing". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC. Cambridge University Press. pp. 74–123. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521470308.004. ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
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