William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199945375
- eISBN:
- 9780199369812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945375.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter offers a systematic treatment of Old Chinese word onsets. Following a definition of the notion of onset within Old Chinese word structure and a presentation of the consonant system, it ...
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This chapter offers a systematic treatment of Old Chinese word onsets. Following a definition of the notion of onset within Old Chinese word structure and a presentation of the consonant system, it reviews general processes that affected the history of Chinese: pharyngealization, palatalization, retroflexion, and secondary voicing. The comparative evidence about Old Chinese phonology coming from archaic dialects and contact languages is discussed. A new account of Proto-Mĭn initial consonants and of their evolution to modern dialects is presented, which assumes two separate episodes of initial devoicing. A general scheme showing what inferences can be drawn from the combined evidence of archaic dialects and contact languages is laid out. Then the different types of onsets are discussed: singleton onsets, onsets with tightly attached preinitials, and onsets with loosely attached preinitials. Onsets are classified according to their preinitial material and their manner of articulation. Examples for each reconstructed onset are presented. The sound correspondences between Old Chinese onsets and their Middle Chinese, Proto-Mĭn, Proto-Hmong-Mien, and Vietnamese reflexes are tabulated according to onset type.Less
This chapter offers a systematic treatment of Old Chinese word onsets. Following a definition of the notion of onset within Old Chinese word structure and a presentation of the consonant system, it reviews general processes that affected the history of Chinese: pharyngealization, palatalization, retroflexion, and secondary voicing. The comparative evidence about Old Chinese phonology coming from archaic dialects and contact languages is discussed. A new account of Proto-Mĭn initial consonants and of their evolution to modern dialects is presented, which assumes two separate episodes of initial devoicing. A general scheme showing what inferences can be drawn from the combined evidence of archaic dialects and contact languages is laid out. Then the different types of onsets are discussed: singleton onsets, onsets with tightly attached preinitials, and onsets with loosely attached preinitials. Onsets are classified according to their preinitial material and their manner of articulation. Examples for each reconstructed onset are presented. The sound correspondences between Old Chinese onsets and their Middle Chinese, Proto-Mĭn, Proto-Hmong-Mien, and Vietnamese reflexes are tabulated according to onset type.
