Abstract:

In the Pre-Middle Ages, a phenomenon of back high vowels fronting occurred in the history of the phonology of the common Chinese language, involving the rhyme groups Zhi, Wei₁ and Wei₂. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the merging of the rhyme groups Wei₁ and Wei₂, the vowel of the rhyme group Wei began to front influenced by the ending with [+anterior] feature. Later, the ending disappeared and the vowel of the rhyme group Zhi also began to front. The vowel fronting started earlier than the vowel raising shift. The relationship between the fronting rule and the lengthening rule was incorporating. The vowel fronting, together with the vowel raising shift, led to a series of rephonologization, which directly affected the forming of the rhymes Hai, Hui, Hou, Jie, Zhi, Zhi, Wei, You and Qi. The rhyme groups Zhi and Wei evolved independently, only merging later to form the structure reflected in the Qieyun. There was no chain shift during the vowel fronting.

Key words: sound change, back high vowels, fronting, rephonologization, phonology in the Pre-Middle ages