Middle Chinese (Tang Dynasty, Chang'an dialect)
Middle Chinese (Mid-Tang Dynasty, Chang'an Dialect) 中古漢語(盛中唐長安方言) | |
---|---|
Language family | Sino-Tibetan Sinitic |
Era | ~720 to 780 CE |
Writing system | Chinese |
Official status | |
Spoken in | Islands of Ximh Gwynh |
Regulated by | Government of Islands of Ximh Gwynh |
Speaker | |
Number of speakers | 1 |
Technical information | |
Usage | Official language for communication and documentation |
The Mid-Tang Chang'an dialect of Middle Chinese is a reconstructed Middle Chinese dialect spoken in Chang'an during the Mid-Tang dynasty.
As the native dialect to the capital of the Tang dynasty, the Chang'an dialect was the most influential dialect at the time, with a lot of its innovations spreading to other northern varieties of Middle Chinese as Chang'an was the economic and political centre of the dynasty. Its influence was not restricted to Sinitic internally, with tons of external Sino-Xenic pronunciations documenting its phonology: Japanese Kan-on, Sino-Korean, Tibetan transcriptions, etc.
Phonology
Initials
Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Retroflex | (Alveolo-)Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prenasalised | ᵐb | ᶬʋ | ⁿd | ᶯɖ | ᶮʑ | ᵑɡ | ||
Plosive | Tenuis | p | t | ʈ | k | ʔ | ||
Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | kʰ | ||||
Voiced | b | d | ɖ | ɡ | ||||
Affricate | Tenuis | p͡f | t͡s | ʈ͡ʂ | t͡ɕ | |||
Aspirated | p͡fʰ | t͡sʰ | ʈ͡ʂʰ | t͡ɕʰ | ||||
Voiced | b͡v | d͡z | ɖ͡ʐ | |||||
Fricative | Voiceless | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | |||
Voiced | z | ʑ | ɣ | |||||
Approximant | l | j | ɰ~∅ |
-/ʑ/ is allophonically [d͡ʑ] under low falling tone condition.
-/ɰ/ is [w] or [ɥ̈] under most conditions, there are a few instances of it being unrounded but they are very rare occurrences. Thus, it is acceptable to analyse /ɰ/ as a null onset /∅/ instead since [w] can analysed as /∅w/ and [ɥ̈] as /∅j̈w/.
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɨ | o > u |
Mid | (ɛ) | ǝ | |
Open | a | ɜ | ɑ (ɒ)
-[ɛ] is an allophone of /ɜ/ when proceeding /j(w)/ and /j̈(w)/. |