Historical Phonology of Chinese

As an important introduction to the phonological history of Chinese, this title explores the phonological systems of the Chinese language and explains basic concepts, materials, and methodologies.

Dong Tonghe (1911-1963) was a leading linguist and historical Chinese phonologist of China. In 1932, he was enrolled in the Department of Chinese of Tsinghua University and learned historical Chinese phonology from Wang Li. In 1937, he was admitted to the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica, working as assistant to the eminent Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao. In 1949, he was appointed as professor at the Department of Chinese Literature of Taiwan University. Dong Tonghe had outstanding achievements in his main fields of research, including Old Chinese phonology, Middle Chinese phonology, modern Chinese dialects (with special focus on Min) and Austronesian languages.

1. Introduction 2. Standard Mandarin Phonology 3. Modern Dialects 4. Early Mandarin 5. Qièyùn-based Rhyme Dictionaries 6. Graded Rhyme Charts 7. Middle Chinese Phonology 8. Simplification of Middle Chinese Initials and Finals 9. From Middle Chinese to Modern Chinese 10. Classification of Old Chinese Rhymes 11. Reconstruction of Old Chinese Finals 12. Old Chinese Initials 13. Issues of Old Chinese Tones