History of the Chinese language

aspect of history

common spoken language of administration of the Chinese empire during the Ming and Qing dynasties, later developing into Standard Chinese

form of Chinese spoken in the Eastern Han period

Proto-Min (pMǐn) is a comparative reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Min group of Chinese languages. Min varieties developed in the relative isolation of the Chinese province of Fujian and eastern Guangdong, and have since spread to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world. They contain reflexes of distinctions not found in Middle Chinese or most other modern varieties, and thus provide additional data for the reconstruction of Old Chinese.

academic discipline

classification of Mandarin Chinese rimes, based on different glides before the central vowel of the final: kāikǒu, finals without a medial; qíchǐ, finals beginning with [i]; hékǒu, finals beginning with [u]; cuōkǒu, finals beginning with [y]