Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction

Abstract

Abstract This book introduces a new linguistic reconstruction of the phonology, morphology, and lexicon of Old Chinese, the first Sino-Tibetan language to be reduced to writing. It is the language of the earliest Chinese classical texts (1st millennium BCE) and the ancestor of later varieties of Chinese, including all modern Chinese dialects. Although the reconstruction has its basis in earlier research, it moves beyond earlier reconstructions by taking into account important new evidence that has recently become available: better documentation of Chinese dialects that preserve archaic features, like the Mĭn and Wăxiāng dialects; better documentation of languages with very early loanwords from Chinese, like the Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai and Vietnamese languages; and a flood of previously unknown Chinese manuscripts from the first millennium BCE, excavated or discovered in the last several decades. The book also relies on, and extends, recent advances in our understanding of the derivational processes that connected different words coming from the same root. By making systematic use of evidence from archaic Chinese dialects and layers of loanwords into languages in contact, it brings Old Chinese reconstruction more in line with standard reconstruction practice. In addition, the book expands our knowledge of Chinese etymoloy and for the first time identifies phonological markers of pre-Han dialects, such as the development of *r to -j in a group of east coast dialects, but to -n elsewhere.