Old Chinese

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This book presents the latest reconstruction of Old Chinese, utilizing newly available evidence from various sources. It draws on improved documentation of Chinese dialects that retain archaic features, such as Min and Waxiang, and languages with early loanwords from Chinese, including Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, and Vietnamese. Additionally, a wealth of manuscripts from the first millennium BCE has been recently excavated or discovered. The authors, William Baxter and Laurent Sagart, introduce a comprehensive linguistic reconstruction of Old Chinese, the earliest written Sino-Tibetan language and the precursor to all modern Chinese dialects. Their work surpasses previous reconstructions by integrating this new evidence and advances in understanding the derivational processes linking words with the same root. They enhance our knowledge of Chinese etymology and identify phonological markers of pre-Han dialects, such as the transformation of *r to -j in certain east coast dialects and to -n in others. This reconstruction aligns the methodology of Old Chinese with comparative reconstructions used in other language families, making it essential reading for those seeking an advanced understanding of Old Chinese.