Zhongwei Shen is a Full Professor of Chinese Linguistics in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has served as a co-editor of the Journal of Chinese Linguistics, and the co-editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics.

'This volume presents a balanced account of what is currently known about the phonological history of Chinese and opens a window for future work in the area with an emphasis on language contact. Much fruitful fundamental research lies ahead! Very few languages in the world offer the kind of time depth and rich cultural history that is presented in this volume. It is a great pleasure for me to highly recommend the volume, not only to readers in linguistics, but to all readers who are interested in a fascinating chapter of human history.' William S-Y. Wang, Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Part I. The Keys to Traditional Phonology: 1. An introduction to Chinese historical phonology; Part II. Old Chinese: 2. Old Chinese; Part III. Middle Chinese: 3. Middle Chinese: the Tang and Song Dynasties; 4. Middle Chinese: the Tang and Song Dynasties; Part IV. The Beginnings of Mandarin: 5. Chinese of the Liao, Jun, and Xixia Dynasties; Part V. A New Standard: 6. Old Mandarin: the Ménggǔ Zìyùn 蒙古字韻; 7. Old Mandarin: the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻; 8. Old Mandarin: the Persian transcriptions; Part VI. Towards Modern Mandarin: 9. The Mandarin of the Ming Dynasty; 10. The Mandarin of the Qing Dynasty and the modern era.

Zhongwei Shen is a Full Professor of Chinese Linguistics in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has served as a co-editor of the Journal of Chinese Linguistics, and the co-editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics.

'This volume presents a balanced account of what is currently known about the phonological history of Chinese and opens a window for future work in the area with an emphasis on language contact. Much fruitful fundamental research lies ahead! Very few languages in the world offer the kind of time depth and rich cultural history that is presented in this volume. It is a great pleasure for me to highly recommend the volume, not only to readers in linguistics, but to all readers who are interested in a fascinating chapter of human history.' William S-Y. Wang, Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Part I. The Keys to Traditional Phonology: 1. An introduction to Chinese historical phonology; Part II. Old Chinese: 2. Old Chinese; Part III. Middle Chinese: 3. Middle Chinese: the Tang and Song Dynasties; 4. Middle Chinese: the Tang and Song Dynasties; Part IV. The Beginnings of Mandarin: 5. Chinese of the Liao, Jun, and Xixia Dynasties; Part V. A New Standard: 6. Old Mandarin: the Ménggǔ Zìyùn 蒙古字韻; 7. Old Mandarin: the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻; 8. Old Mandarin: the Persian transcriptions; Part VI. Towards Modern Mandarin: 9. The Mandarin of the Ming Dynasty; 10. The Mandarin of the Qing Dynasty and the modern era.

Zhongwei Shen is a Full Professor of Chinese Linguistics in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has served as a co-editor of the Journal of Chinese Linguistics, and the co-editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics.

'This volume presents a balanced account of what is currently known about the phonological history of Chinese and opens a window for future work in the area with an emphasis on language contact. Much fruitful fundamental research lies ahead! Very few languages in the world offer the kind of time depth and rich cultural history that is presented in this volume. It is a great pleasure for me to highly recommend the volume, not only to readers in linguistics, but to all readers who are interested in a fascinating chapter of human history.' William S-Y. Wang, Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Part I. The Keys to Traditional Phonology: 1. An introduction to Chinese historical phonology; Part II. Old Chinese: 2. Old Chinese; Part III. Middle Chinese: 3. Middle Chinese: the Tang and Song Dynasties; 4. Middle Chinese: the Tang and Song Dynasties; Part IV. The Beginnings of Mandarin: 5. Chinese of the Liao, Jun, and Xixia Dynasties; Part V. A New Standard: 6. Old Mandarin: the Ménggǔ Zìyùn 蒙古字韻; 7. Old Mandarin: the Zhōngyuán Yīnyùn 中原音韻; 8. Old Mandarin: the Persian transcriptions; Part VI. Towards Modern Mandarin: 9. The Mandarin of the Ming Dynasty; 10. The Mandarin of the Qing Dynasty and the modern era.