Abstract
Modern Chinese is a tone language. Traditionally, tonality has also been considered to be a characteristic of Archaic Chinese, a view that has been challenged recently by some scholars. If indeed there were no tones in Archaic Chinese, the origin and evolution of modern tones would present a problem deserving further investigation. In the rich literature of Chinese phonology, we have found tonal classifications and descriptions relevant to the reality of tones of different periods. If there were tones in Archaic Chinese, it would be important to trace the regular path of tonal change throughout the long history of the Chinese language.
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Ting, PH. (1996). Tonal Evolution and Tonal Reconstruction in Chinese. In: Huang, CT.J., Li, Yh.A. (eds) New Horizons in Chinese Linguistics. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1608-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1608-1_5
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