lingvoj.orgLinked Languages ResourcesA contribution to the Web of Databy Bernard Vatant, Mondeca |
Old Chinese |
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Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, refers to the form of Chinese spoken from the beginning of written
records (around 1200 BC) until the 3rd century BC. The earliest inscriptions are undoubtedly Chinese, but are limited in scope
and not fully understood. Within historical Chinese phonology, the term refers to the language reflected by the rhymes of
the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic components of Chinese characters, corresponding to the earlier half of the 1st millennium
BC. Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the sounds of this language by comparing this data with what is known of Middle
Chinese. Many details are still disputed, but most recent reconstructions agree on the basic structure. It is widely agreed
that unlike later forms of the language, Old Chinese allowed consonant clusters at the beginning and end of the syllable,
but lacked tones. The tone distinctions of Middle Chinese are believed to reflect earlier final consonants. Simple derivational
morphology has also been identified. The latter part of the Old Chinese period saw a flowering of literature, including classical
works such as the Analects of Confucius, the Mencius, and the Tao Te Ching. As a result, Old Chinese was preserved for the
following two millennia in the form of Classical Chinese, a style of written Chinese that sought to emulate the grammar and
vocabulary of those works. |
Names (more)[de] Altchinesische Sprache[en] Chinese, Old [fr] Chinois archaïque [sh] Starokineski jezik [id] Bahasa Tionghoa Kuno [it] Cinese antico [ja] 上古音 [ms] Bahasa Cina Lama [pl] Język starochiński [pt] Chinês antigo [ru] Древнекитайский язык [sr] Старокинески језик [sv] Fornkinesiska [zh] 上古汉语 |
Language type : Ancient
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Old Chinese. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : ochLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/ochhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:och More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: ochFreebase ISO 639-3 : och GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |