The Chinese Rime Tables: Linguistic philosophy and historical-comparative phonology(271 Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

This book, the first in its field in a Western language, examines China’s native phonological tool with regard to reconstruction, theory, and linguistic philosophy. After an introductory essay on the nature of the tables and the history of their interpretation, the book concentrates on three areas: application of rime table theory to reconstruction, the history of rime table theory, and the application of the tables to descriptive linguistics. An appendix details a number of 20th century systems for transcribing their phonology into Roman letters. Major topics include Altaic contact-influence on Chinese, early native understanding of the tables’ meaning, the phonological work of Yuen Ren Chao, and Stammbaumtheorie/diasystemic thinking about Chinese. New reconstructions of Han and “Common Dialectal” phonology appear here, as do complete texts and translations of the Shouwen fragments and Yunjing preface.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: What Are Rime Tables and What Do They Mean? (by Branner, David Prager); 2. Part I: Rime-Tables in Chinese Reconstruction; 3. On the Principle of the Four Grades (by Chan, Abraham); 4. The Four Grades: An Interpretation from the perspective of Sino-altaic language contact (by Li, Chris Wen-Chao); 5. On Old Turkic Consonanticism and Vocalic Divisions of Acute Consonants in Medieval Han Phonology (by Lim, An-King); 6. The Qieyun System 'Divisions' as the Result of Vowel Warping (by Schuessler, Axel); 7. Part II: The History of Rime Table Texts and Reconstruction; 8. Reflections on the Shouwen Fragments (by Coblin, W. South); 9. Zhang Linzhi on the Yunjing (by Coblin, W. South); 10. Simon Schaank and the Evolution of Western Beliefs About Traditional Chinese Phonology (by Branner, David Prager); 11. Part III: Rime Tables as Descriptive Tools; 12. How Rime-Book Based Analyses Can Lead Us Astray (by Simmons, Richard VanNess); 13. Modern Chinese and the Rime Tables (by Norman, Jerry); 14. Common Dialect Phonology in Practice.: Y.R. Chao's Field Methodology (by Simmons, Richard VanNess); 15. Some Composite Phonological Systems in Chinese (by Branner, David Prager); 16. Common Dialectal Chinese (by Norman, Jerry); 17. Appendix I: Pronunciation Guide to Boodberg's Alternative Grammatonomic Notation (by Ledyard, Gari K.); 18. Appendix II: Comparative Transcriptions of Rime Table Phonology (by Branner, David Prager); 19. Bibliography; 20. Index of Biographical Names; 21. General Index