Dunhuang Mao Tone "sound Cut

The Tang Dynasty occupies an important place in Chinese phonetic history.And this period is the transition period of Chinese phonetic.It has very special significance and has obtained very great achievement at present.We research the Tang Dynasty pronunciation precisely according to Dunhuang manuscripts.Dunhuang MaoShiYin(usually entitled MaoShiYin)is the valuable literature about Tang Dynasty pronunciation,which reflects the phonetic features of Tang Dynasty from lots of Fanqie.At first,We made overall systemic description and classification of MaoShiYin Fanqie,and summarized 41 initialas and 81 rimes same as Guangyun(广韵).The conclusions are as follows:Labio-dentals had already distinguished themselves from the bilabials,and the initials Fei(非)Fu(敷)and Feng(奉)had began to converge;two groups of initial consonants of tongue and upper tongue became divided completely;the initials of Ni(泥)Niang(娘)are different;the second and third division of Zhao(照)initials had shown the tendency to converge;the initials of CongXie(从邪)are different;the initials of Chuan(船)and Shan(禅)are different;Ying(影)and Yun(云)Yi(以)mixed accidentally,Yun(云)and Yi(以)had converged in some extent;the complete voiced initials are in the course of devoicing.The rime categories of MaoShiYin had reduced.The first,the second and the third division of ChongYun,the first and the third division of TongShe,the third and the fourth division had shown the tendency of convergence.Such as:The final Dong(东) mixed with Zhong(�'�),Zhi(支)Zhi(脂)mixed with Zhi(之),Hai(�'�)mixed with Hui (灰),Geng(庚)Qing(清)mixed with Qing(�'),Geng(庚)mixed with Geng(耕), Yan(Ft)mixed with Fan(凡),Yuan(元)Han(�')mixed with Huan(桓),You (尤)mixed with You(幽)and so on.The rimes of different She had begun to mix,such as:Zhi(止)She mixed with Xie(蟹)She,Jiang(江)She mixed with Tong(通)She and Zhen(臻)She.The entering rime ending[-k]had begun to weaken.The features of the tones is that some words changes from the rising tone of stressed consonant to the departing tone.We inferred that there existed two sound arrangements of MaoShiYin Fanqie at least:on the one hand,there is phonetics for standard language of Tang Dynasty in the North,on the other hand,there is the innovative from spoken language of Tang Dynasty in the Northwest.