Old Chinese

E175085

Sino-Tibetan language historical language stage of the Chinese language

Old Chinese is the earliest attested stage of the Chinese language, spoken during the Shang and Zhou dynasties and reconstructed from ancient texts and inscriptions.

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All labels observed (2)

Label	Occurrences
Old Chinese canonical	40
Old Chinese (hypothesized)	1

Statements (54)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Sino-Tibetan language ⓘ historical language ⓘ stage of the Chinese language ⓘ
coreText	Analects ⓘ Mencius ⓘ Book of Songs ⓘ surface form: Shijing Shujing ⓘ Yijing ⓘ Spring and Autumn Annals ⓘ surface form: Zuo Zhuan
followedBy	Middle Chinese ⓘ
follows	Proto-Sino-Tibetan ⓘ
hasFeature	abundant word-initial r- and l- ⓘ complex initial clusters ⓘ derivational morphology ⓘ distinction between voiceless and voiced obstruents ⓘ final nasals -m -n -ŋ ⓘ final stops -p -t -k ⓘ lack of modern Mandarin tones as phonemic pitch ⓘ largely monosyllabic morphemes ⓘ morphological prefixes ⓘ morphological suffixes ⓘ rich consonant inventory ⓘ tonogenesis from consonantal features ⓘ
influenced	Classical Chinese ⓘ Middle Chinese ⓘ surface form: Middle Chinese phonology modern Sinitic languages ⓘ
reconstructedBy	Bernhard Karlgren ⓘ Laurent Sagart ⓘ Li Fang-Kuei ⓘ Pan Wuyun ⓘ William H. Baxter NERFINISHED ⓘ Zhengzhang Shangfang ⓘ
reconstructedFrom	Middle Chinese ⓘ surface form: Middle Chinese phonology phonetic loans in inscriptions ⓘ phonetic series in Chinese characters ⓘ rhyming in the Shijing ⓘ transcriptions of foreign names ⓘ
spokenIn	Eastern Zhou ⓘ surface form: Eastern Zhou dynasty Qin dynasty ⓘ Shang dynasty ⓘ Spring and Autumn period ⓘ Warring States period ⓘ Western Zhou period ⓘ surface form: Western Zhou dynasty early Han dynasty ⓘ
studiedInField	Chinese philology ⓘ comparative Sino-Tibetan linguistics ⓘ historical linguistics ⓘ
subclassOf	Chinese language ⓘ
timePeriod	approximately 13th century BCE to 3rd century BCE ⓘ
usedIn	Warring States bamboo manuscripts ⓘ bronze inscriptions ⓘ early transmitted classical texts ⓘ oracle bone inscriptions ⓘ
writingSystem	Chinese characters ⓘ

Referenced by (41)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Ma → originatesFrom → Old Chinese ⓘ

Han dynasty → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

State of Chu → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Shang dynasty → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Zhou dynasty → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Chinese language → historicalAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

Wu Chinese → hasLinguisticAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

Wu dialects → developedFrom → Old Chinese ⓘ

Middle Chinese → follows → Old Chinese ⓘ

Classical Chinese → hasAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

State of Qi → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

State of Lu → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Former Han → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Ying → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

Danyang → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

Jiangling → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Xiong clan → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

Spring and Autumn period → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

state of Zhao → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

subject surface form: State of Zhao

State of Han → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Heyuan Hakka → hasAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

Yin → languageOfInscriptions → Old Chinese ⓘ

King Zhou of Shang → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

state of Yan → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

subject surface form: State of Yan

Zhou state → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Southern Min → derivedFrom → Old Chinese ⓘ

Xia dynasty → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

this entity surface form: Old Chinese (hypothesized)

ancient State of Sui → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

Minnan language → developedFrom → Old Chinese ⓘ

Zhangzhou dialect → hasAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

He Zun → inscriptionLanguage → Old Chinese ⓘ

Luoyi → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

Eastern Zhou → languageUsed → Old Chinese ⓘ

state of Qin → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

subject surface form: State of Qin

King Wu of Zhou → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Hoklo language → developedFrom → Old Chinese ⓘ

King You of Zhou → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

Jin State → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

subject surface form: Jin (state)

Taizhou Wu → hasAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

Wuzhou Wu → hasAncestor → Old Chinese ⓘ

ancient State of Chen → language → Old Chinese ⓘ

subject surface form: State of Chen