Langenesis

Sino-Tibetan family

Middle Chinese

25 CE – 1000 CE Extinct

Middle Chinese (25 CE – 1000 CE) is an extinct Sino-Tibetan language. It has 8 descendant languages and stages on the map. Lineage: Proto-Sino-Tibetan → Proto-Sinitic → Old Chinese → Middle Chinese.

See Middle Chinese on the interactive map
ISO 639-3
ltc
Glottocode
midd1344

Standard reconstructed form for the Sui-Tang-Song period. The Qieyun (601 CE) rhyme dictionary anchors the reconstruction. Ancestral to all modern Sinitic varieties.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Sino-Tibetanc. 4,000 BCE – 2,500 BCE
  2. Proto-Siniticc. 1,500 BCE – 1,250 BCE
  3. Old Chinese1,250 BCE – 25 CE
  4. Middle Chinese25 CE – 1000 CE

Descendants 7

Sister languages 2

Also descended from Old Chinese.

Sources