Origin and Development of the Middle Chinese Rising Tone
Abstract:Pulleyblank and Mei Tsu-lin(梅祖麟)believed that the rising tone derived from the ending-?.We conducted a comparative study of Sino-Tibetan and Sino-Burmese cognates,and came to the con-clusion that the rising tone evolved from the original voiced plosive consonant endings.The materials of Shijing(诗经)rhyme system and Xiesheng(谐声)system show that in Western Zhou(西周)Chinese,the Shangsheng(上声)syllables of the Yin-sheng(阴声)rhymes not ended with the liquid had the ending-g(few numbers had ending-d),the Shangsheng syllables ended with the liquid*1 and nasal consonant had the compound consonant endings-ld,-nd,-mb and-ŋg.These voiced plosive endings had fallen off at some point before the Western Han(西汉)dynasty and at least since the Western Han(西汉)dynasty,the rising tone had come into existence as an independent tone category.The ending-g once affected the evolution of some vowels before it fell off.
origin of the rising tonethe voiced plosive consonant endingscomparison of cognatesdevelopment of rising tone in Western Zhou(西周)Chinesemethods of comparison
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