Joseph Edkins and the 'Discovery' of Early Chinese: the linguistic ideas behind the first (partial) reconstruction of the sound system of Early Chinese
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Giorgio Orlandi
- Source
- Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 29:519-541
- Subject
- Cultural Studies
030507 speech-language pathology & audiology
050101 languages & linguistics
03 medical and health sciences
History
General Arts and Humanities
05 social sciences
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Chinese language
Sound system
0305 other medical science
Linguistics
Ancestor
- Language
- ISSN
- 1474-0591
1356-1863
The ‘discovery’ of early Chinese, and its subsequent reconstruction, have allowed the modern linguist to reach a wide range of firm conclusions about the Chinese language and its position within the Tibeto-Burman family. Reverend Joseph Edkins (1823–1905) should be credited with initial work on early Chinese as the ancestor language of the various Sinitic languages, and with its first partial reconstruction. This article is an attempt to supply at least a first historical guide for those interested in obtaining a better understanding of the implicit discovery of Sinitic and the first reconstructions of early Chinese.