 Middle Chinese ( 中古汉语 ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui ( 隋 ), Tang ( 唐 ), and Song ( 宋 ) dynasties (6th century - 10th century). The term "Middle Chinese" is usually used in the context of historical Chinese phonology, which seeks to reconstruct the pronunciation of Chinese used during these times.
Middle Chinese can be divided into an early period, generally called Early Middle Chinese, and a later period, Late Middle Chinese. The transition point between Early and Later Middle Chinese is thought to be during the Mid-Tang Dynasty and is indicated by the phonological developments. For example, in the rime book Qieyun, bilabial initials [p pʰ b m] characters are shown, but there were no labiodental initials like f and v, but which could be found in Jiyun. This indicates that a sound change in the pronunciation of Chinese had occurred.
Chinese is not written using an alphabetic script, therefore, sounds cannot be derived directly from writing. The sounds of Middle Chinese must therefore be inferred from a number of sources:
 Modern dialects. Just as Proto-Indo-European can be reconstructed from modern Indo-European languages, so can Middle Chinese be reconstructed (tentatively) from modern dialects.
Preserved pronunciation of Chinese characters in borrowed Chinese vocabulary surviving in non-Chinese languages such as Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
Classical Chinese poetry from the Middle Chinese period Rime books. Ancient Chinese philologists devoted great amount of effort in summarizing the Chinese phonetic system through rime books. The reconstruction between modern linguists may vary slightly, but they are minor differences, and fairly uncontroversial, so we could say the Middle Chinese phonology is fairly well understood and accepted. |
