Proto Chinese Phonology
Table of Contents
Proto-Chinese is the earliest stage of Chinese that can be reconstructed. All modern dialects of Chinese descend from Proto-Chinese.
In reconstructing historical Chinese, one can use:
- evidence from the pronunciation of modern spoken languages;
- evidence from ancient Chinese dictionaries; and
- evidence from the Chinese writing system.
As it turns out, the Chinese writing system provides insights about Proto-Chinese (such as the existence of aspirated nasals) that cannot be discerned from studying modern spoken dialects alone. Thus, the Chinese writing system appears to pre-date the diversification of Chinese into the numerous modern dialects.
Syllable Structure #
The Proto-Chinese syllable had the following structure.
(C1)C2(C3)(C4)V(C5)(C6)(C7)
Pre-initial Consonant (C1) #
The pre-initial consonant was an optional consonant that could be either s, n, or m. (s was pretty common. n and m were not very common, at least as far as I can reconstruct.)
Initial Consonant (C2) #
The initial consonant had to be one of the following 26 consonants.
| Plain | Aspirated | Voiced | Nasal | Aspirated Nasal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial stops | p | pʰ | b | m | mʰ |
| Alveolar stops | t | tʰ | d | n | nʰ |
| Palatal stops | c | cʰ | ɟ | ɲ | |
| Velar stops | k | kʰ | g | ŋ | ŋʰ |
| Glottal stop | ʔ | ||||
| Alveolar sibilants | s | sʰ | z | ||
| Alveolar rhotic liquid | r | ||||
| Alveolar lateral liquid | l | ||||
| Labial-velar approximant | w |
First Medial Consonant (C3) #
The first medial consonant was an optional r or l.
Second Medial Consonant (C4) #
The second medial consonant was an optional w.
Vowel (V) #
The vowel had to be one of the following eight vowels (four short, four long).
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i, iː | u, uː |
| Mid~Low | e, eː | o, oː |
Final Consonant (C5) #
The final consonant was an optional consonant that could be one of the following 11 consonants.
| Plain | Nasal | |
|---|---|---|
| Labial stop | p | m |
| Palatal stop | c | ɟ |
| Dental stop | t | n |
| Velar stop | k | ŋ |
| Alveolar rhotic liquid | r | |
| Alveolar lateral liquid | l | |
| Labial-velar approximant | w |
First Post-Final Consonant (C6) #
The first post-final consonant was an optional ʔ. It could not occur after an oral stop (p, c, t, k).
Second Post-Final Consonant (C7) #
The second post-final consonant was an optional s.
Observations #
I would like the reader to note that Proto-Chinese did not have an unusually large number of vowels or consonants. Unlike other authors, I do not reconstruct dozens of vowels or scores of consonants at any stage of Chinese.
Note that Proto-Chinese was not a tonal language.
One unusual thing about Proto-Chinese is that it was a monosyllabic language. That is, words were almost always consisted of a single syllable, to the point where the word is often equated with the syllable in Chinese scholarship.