Four tonesancient ChineseFour categories of tones to indicate syllable changes, includingFlat voice, Shangshengthe falling toneandthe entering tone。Pingsheng, Shangsheng and QushengShushengAnd the entering sound is the accelerating sound.ShushengRhyme tailIn vowels ornasal consonantAt the end, the accelerating rhyme ends withStopeending.In addition to being a tone, the entering tone is a general name for a series of finals ending with stops.Modern Mandarin has lost its entering tone.Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, Chinese has distinguished the yin and yang tones corresponding to the clear and turbid initial consonants on the basis of the four tones, forming eight tones, that isFour tones and eight tones。[1]
Four tones, referring toAncient ChineseThe four tones of the voice: flat, upward, downward and inward.In the Southern and Northern Dynasties,Emperor Liang WuOnce asked Zhou She what is "four tones", Zhou She replied that it is "ti n) zi (z ǐ) sheng (sh è ng) zhe (zh é)";These four words just represent the four different tones of "flat up into".According to the Japanese "Xitanzang" Volume V:“Flat voiceStraight low, light and heavy.The upper voice is straight, light and weightless.the falling toneSlightly lead, no light, no heavy.the entering toneRadial, no inside, no outside.Anger in peace is no different from heaviness. "modernWu dialectInShaoxing dialectandMinnanOfChaozhou Dialect Distinguish between yin and yang tones. Yin tones correspond to voiceless tones and yang tones correspond to voiceless tonesDullness。
In order not to confuse the order of the four different tones of "going up and entering", we can also think of the modified version of the four character formula that modern people must use to go out, "extend (sh ǒ u) hand (sh ǒ u) to (y à o) ji (j í)"="body（ID）Hand (mobile phone) key (key) Ji (Geely) ".
(1) . Chinese phonetictone.The tones of ancient Chinese characters areFlat voice, Shangsheng, Qushengthe entering toneFour, collectively called "four tones".
If we want to know the four tones, we must first know how the tones are formed.So let's start with tone.
tone
Tone, which is the characteristic of Chinese (and some other languages).Ancient ChineseThere are also four tones, but they are not exactly the same type as Mandarin.The ancient four tones are:
(1) Flat sound.This tone is divided into Yin Ping and Yang Ping in offspring.
(2) On voice.Some of the tones become voiceless in future generations.
(3) Qusheng.This tone is still dead to future generations.
(4) Ru Sheng.This tone is a short tone.
Rusheng is still preserved in modern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places.There are also many places in the north (such as ShanxiInner Mongolia）The Ru Sheng is preserved.The Ru tone in Hunan is not short any more, but it also preserves the Ru toneTune。Ru tone has disappeared in most spoken languages in the north and southwest.NortherlyEntering tone characterSome become Yin Ping, some become Yang Ping, some become Shangsheng, and some become Qusheng.As far as Putonghua is concerned, the entering tone is the most frequently changed into the falling tone.The second is Yangping;The least of them become upper voices.Southwest dialectMost of the entering tone characters (from Hubei to Yunnan) have become Yangping;butSouthwestern Mandarin Minjiang, Changhe, Lichuan andQiannanSome points of the film, Kungui film and Cenjiang film still have independent entry tones, while most of the Minjiang film still has loose glottisglottal stopending.《Kangxi Dictionary》There is a song rhyme in front of it, called "Fen Si Sheng Fa": Don't be low when the voice is flat, shout loudly and forcefully, go to the sound clearly sad and far away, enter the sound quickly and quickly.This kind of narration is not scientific enough, but it also gives us an idea of the ancient four tones.
adapt rhymes to match those of another poem
The relationship between four tones and rhyme is very close.stayRhyme bookMedium.Words with different tones cannot be regarded as homonymous.In poetry.Words with different tones generally cannot rhyme.
It is clear in the rhyme book what words belong to what tones.It is still preserved todaythe entering toneOfchineseIn dialects, it is also quite clear that a word belongs to a certain sound.What we should pay special attention to is the situation of two pronunciations of one word. Sometimes, a word has two meanings (often different parts of speech), and also has two pronunciations.For example, the word "wei" is interpreted as "do" when it is used as a verbFlat voice（the rising tone）；When used as a preposition, it is interpreted as "because", "for", readthe falling tone。In ancient Chinese, this kind of situationModern ChineseMuch more.Give some examples:
Ride, flat voice, verb, ride a horse;Qusheng, noun, mount.
Some words were originally readFlat voiceLater becamethe falling toneBut the meaning and part of speech remain unchanged."Look", "sigh" and "look" all belong to this category.The words "look" and "sigh" have already been read in Tang poetry, and the word "look" was often read in the flat tone (read like a magazine) until modern poetry.stayModern ChineseThe word "kan" is always pronounced out of tone, except for the "guard".There are also more complex situations: for example, when the word "guo" is used as a verb, it has two pronunciations, and when it is used as a noun, it has only one pronunciation.
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The Relationship between the Four Tones of the Middle Ages and Putonghua
In Mandarin, the Middle AgesDullnessIt is voiceless, so it is mediaeval voicelessFlat voiceIn Mandarin, it becomesthe high and level tone(The first tone of Putonghua), the mediaeval voiced flat tone becomesthe rising tone(the second tone of Putonghua), medievalaspirated voiced stops and voiced affricatesShangsheng changes into Shangsheng (the third tone of Putonghua) in Putonghua.meanwhilethe entering toneIt disappears in Putonghua, and the mid ancient full voiced entering tone becomes Yangping (the second tone of Putonghua), and the mid ancient sub voiced entering tone becomes the last tone of Putonghua (the fourth tone of Putonghua).
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Proposition of the concept of four tones
Four tones may beOld SiniticAlready exists in, but as a conceptSouthern Dynasty LiangOfauthor of an epochmaking work in phonology；The Book of Liang recorded that he wrote a book called "Four Tone Score" to discuss this issue;The same book also contains Emperor Wu of LiangXiao YanWhen asked what the four tones were, Zhou She replied, "The Son of Heaven is a sage." LaterSui DynastyWritten by Lu Fayan《rhyme classification of characters》, mark the four tones as "flat upward entry".In fact, "The Sage of the Son of Heaven" and "Ping Shangru" have different words and the same connotation: "Tian" and "Ping" are the sameFlat voice"Zi" and "Shang" are the same voice, and "Sheng" and "Go" are the same voicethe falling tone"Zhe" and "Ru" are the samethe entering tone。However, once Qieyun was published, it spread widely, and "Pingsheng", "Shangsheng", "Qusheng", and "Rusheng" became the general names of the four tones.
《rhyme classification of characters》It has been lost for a long time, but according to theRemnant copyAnd the book'sAddendum《Song rhyming dictionary》You can see its outline.PressRhymeThe rhyme is arranged according to the sound, so《rhyme classification of characters》, can be divided into four parts: flat, upward, downward and inward.With reference to modern dialect materials, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion,Ancient ChineseThere are four tones.As for the specific value adjustment, it is now difficult to determine.Modern scholarsinternationally known sinologistIn the book "Four Voices and Three Questions", it is concluded that "flat, upward, and downward" are based on and imitate the three tones of the Buddhist scriptures read on the same day in China ".In particular, it should be pointed out that some scholars question whether ru tone should be classified as tone or a series ofStope(p, t, k) The general name of the ending vowel.Because only this kind of vowel sounds, relatively, with vowel ornasal consonantThe final vowel only sounds flat, up and down.thereforeRhyme bookTake plosives and nasal sounds of the same part to match to form a complete system.For example, the cold rhyme receives the nasal soundRhyme tailThere are only three tones (cold, dry, and Han), and the rhyme book is equipped with the same part of the entering voice and the horn rhyme, so that the four tones are complete.
The Evolution of Four Tones
Four tones have undergone tremendous changes in the development of Chinese, mainly including Yin and Yang, QuanTurbidity goes up, Ru Sheng disappears.
Divide Yin and Yang
Four tone basisinitials(Initial consonant) is divided into two tones, one is yin, the other is yang.The Japanese "Xitanzang" in the Tang Dynasty in the s said: "At the end of the succession, the right mage came... The momentum was too strange, and each of the four tones had its own weight." It can be seen that the four tones had split up at that time.But the degree of differentiation varies in different modern dialectsCantoneseCantonese speech。South FujianThe crane guy's words are flat to divide yin and yang, and the upper voice is indistinguishable.Urban area of Yimeizhou (includingMeijiang District、Meixian District）MeichengHakka with accentMeizhou dialectIt is equal to Yin and Yang, and not equal to Yang.mandarinBeijing dialectonlyFlat voiceDivide Yin and Yang.Yantai dialectThere is no distinction between yin and yang.Some dialects, such as Guangzhou dialect and Pinghua dialect, willthe entering toneFurther subdivision leads to such tones as high yin, low yin, high yang and low yang (in essence, no matter Cantonese, Pinghuahakka dialectstillMinnan dialectIn fact, the number of adjustments is often less thannominalBecause some ru tones are the same as other tones, onlyRhyme tailIt's just different).liftCantonese speechTake for example.Altar《Song rhyming dictionary》When the disciples cut, both the altar and the trunk were in the same tone.But Tanjin Readingthe rising tone(Adjust | 11 |), do today's readingthe high and level tone(Adjust the value | 55 |), which is the result of differentiation.
Total turbidity goes up
aspirated voiced stops and voiced affricatesSound refers toAncient ChineseTurbidity inStope, turbidFricative, voiced affricate.The whole turbid upwardness refers to the uptone characters starting with these consonants, such as Dan and Dao, turning intothe falling tone。There are few exceptions in national dialects.This oneSound changeAccording to the textual research, it also took place in the late Tang Dynasty.
Entering sound disappears
Some dialects, such as CantoneseMinnan、Guest languageWhich completely preserved the ancient Chinese languagethe entering toneSystem.But for most dialects,Stop codaThere were different degrees of shedding.The original p, t, k stops in medieval chineseRhyme tailSome dialects, such as some sub dialects of Fujian and Hakka, merge into one or two, and some develop a glottal stop ending ʔ at the same time.Some areWu dialect、Jin Only the rhyme ending is reserved.Some areHunan dialectThe stop rhyme is completely dropped, and the entering tone only exists as a tone.Finally, in most Mandarin dialects, Ru tone has even been incorporated into other dialectsTune。asSouthwestern Mandarin The Ru Sheng ofthe rising toneTune,North China MandarinThe entering tone of is assigned to the other three tones.
Dialectsthe entering toneThe process of disappearance is not consistent, but on the whole, it is merging first, and then becomingglottal stopLater, the laryngeal plosives fell off and were finally incorporated into other tones.In the Central Plains, this process began in the Song Dynasty or earlier, and was completed by the Yuan Dynasty.
