Part of the Tangyun, an 8th-century edition of the Qieyun dictionary
Native to
China
Era
4th–12th centuries CE[1] Northern and Southern dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Song
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
Chinese
Middle Chinese
Early forms
Old Chinese
Eastern Han Chinese
Writing system
Chinese characters
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ltc
Linguist List
ltc
Glottolog
midd1344
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
中古漢語
Simplified Chinese
中古汉语
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
Zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ
Wade–Giles
chung1-ku3 Han4-yü3
IPA
[ʈʂʊ́ŋkù xânỳ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
Jūnggú Honyúh
Jyutping
Zung1gu2 Hon3jyu5
IPA
[tsóŋkǔːhɔ̄ːny̬ː]
Southern Min
Tâi-lô
tiong-kóo Hàn-gú
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the Qieyun, a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The Swedish linguist Bernhard Karlgren believed that the dictionary recorded a speech standard of the capital Chang'an of the Sui and Tang dynasties. However, based on the preface of the Qieyun, most scholars now believe that it records a compromise between northern and southern reading and poetic traditions from the late Northern and Southern dynasties period. This composite system contains important information for the reconstruction of the preceding system of Old Chinese phonology (early 1st millennium BC).
The fanqie method used to indicate pronunciation in these dictionaries, though an improvement on earlier methods, proved awkward in practice. The mid-12th-century Yunjing and other rime tables incorporate a more sophisticated and convenient analysis of the Qieyun phonology. The rime tables attest to a number of sound changes that had occurred over the centuries following the publication of the Qieyun. Linguists sometimes refer to the system of the Qieyun as Early Middle Chinese and the variant revealed by the rime tables as Late Middle Chinese.
The dictionaries and tables describe pronunciations in relative terms, but do not give their actual sounds. Karlgren was the first to attempt a reconstruction of the sounds of Middle Chinese, comparing its categories with modern varieties of Chinese and the Sino-Xenic pronunciations used in the reading traditions of neighbouring countries. Several other scholars have produced their own reconstructions using similar methods.
The Qieyun system is often used as a framework for Chinese dialectology. With the exception of Min varieties, which show independent developments from Old Chinese, modern Chinese varieties can be largely treated as divergent developments from it. The study of Middle Chinese also provides for a better understanding and analysis of Classical Chinese poetry, such as the study of Tang poetry.
^"A Brief History of the Chinese Language II: From Old Chinese to Middle Chinese Phonetic System". Routledge & CRC Press.
MiddleChinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the Qieyun, a rime dictionary...
In MiddleChinese, the phonological system of medieval rime dictionaries and rime tables, the final is the rest of the syllable after the initial consonant...
Chinese (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語; pinyin: Hànyǔ; lit. 'Han language' or 中文; Zhōngwén; 'Chinese writing') is a group of languages...
MAN-dər-in; simplified Chinese: 官话; traditional Chinese: 官話; pinyin: Guānhuà; lit. 'officials' speech') is a group of Chinese language dialects that are...
in Old Chinese also exist in MiddleChinese. Examples of homographs in MiddleChinese are: Many homographs in Old Chinese and MiddleChinese also exist...
the Singapore Women’s Association (SWA) and the Chinese Musical Gong Society. The Singapore ChineseMiddle School Students Union (SCMSSU) was also dissolved...
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The...
transcription delimiters. Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. As Chinese is written with logographic characters...
$10 and $50 per day, nearly 40% of the Chinese population were considered middle class as of 2017. China'smiddle class represents a significant market...
the spoken Chinese language dates back approximately 4,500 years, while examples of the writing system that would become written Chinese are attested...
intelligibility, but reflect common phonological developments from MiddleChinese. Chinese varieties have the greatest differences in their phonology, and...
in other Sino-Tibetan languages and in Min Chinese, which split off before the MiddleChinese period, Chinese transcriptions of foreign names, and early...
tonal categories of MiddleChinese, but have lost several distinctions in the initial consonants and medial glides that other Chinese varieties have retained...
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from c. the 5th century BCE. For millennia thereafter, the...
Zhōngguó; 'Central state', 'Middle kingdom' in Standard Chinese, a form based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The English name "China" was borrowed from Portuguese...
Min (simplified Chinese: 闽语; traditional Chinese: 閩語; pinyin: Mǐnyǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bân-gú / Bân-gír / Bân-gí / Mân-ú; BUC: Mìng-ngṳ̄) is a broad group of...
Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Chinese characters...
involving MiddleChinese. The four periods of Chinese rule in Vietnam: History portal Vietnam portal China portal China–Vietnam relations Chinese expansionism...
The Chinese Dragon, also known as the loong, long or lung (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng), is a legendary creature in Chinese...
Tang Chinese or Tangren and variants may refer to the following: The people of the Tang dynasty of medieval ChinaMiddleChinese, the reconstructed prestige...
(Chinese: 客家话; pinyin: Kèjiāhuà; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Hak-kâ-va / Hak-kâ-fa, Chinese: 客家语; pinyin: Kèjiāyǔ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken...
sounds of Old Chinese, covering most of the lexicon, are the sound system of MiddleChinese (7th century AD), the structure of Chinese characters, and...
close to MiddleChinese pronunciation, is it actually pronounced lạp trường. However, the Cantonese term is the more well known name for Chinese sausage...
of Chinese names (especially in postal romanization) contain ⟨ki-⟩, ⟨hi-⟩, ⟨tsi-⟩, ⟨si-⟩ where an alveolo-palatal might be expected in modern Chinese. Examples...
Eastern Han Chinese, Later Han Chinese or Late Old Chinese is the stage of the Chinese language revealed by poetry and glosses from the Eastern Han period...
written in Classical Chinese. Before the 15th century, the little writing in Korean was done using cumbersome adaptations of Chinese characters such as...