The Main Phonetic Methods in China's Traditional Linguistics Stage

The main phonetic notation method in the traditional linguistic stage of our country is anti-tangent method.

The backcutting method is the most influential and long-lasting phonetic notation in ancient China. Backcutting is to combine the initials of the first word with the finals and tones of the second word to make phonetic notation, so that it is possible to combine all Chinese pronunciations. For example, the pronunciation of "Lian" is the combination of the initial of "Lang" and the vowel and tone of "Dian".

Before the backcutting method, the earliest phonetic notation methods were reading and direct memorization.

The so-called pronunciation method is to use words with similar pronunciation. Xu Shen's Shuowen Jiezi adopts this phonetic notation method, such as "Yan, Zhun, Zhun", which means that the pronunciation of "Yan" and "Zhun" is similar; Direct notation is to use another Chinese character to express the pronunciation of this Chinese character.

Both of the above methods are inherently imperfect. Some words have no homophones or homophones are so uncommon that it is difficult to play the role of phonetic notation, such as "socks". In this case, the backcutting method came into being. The essence of this method is pinyin.

The emergence of anti-tangency is to make up for the shortcomings of the phonetic notation methods of reading if and direct tone. Compared with reading if and direct tone, arc tangent is undoubtedly a great progress. From the perspective of phonology history, the appearance of anti-tangent marks the beginning of phonetics of Han nationality-from then on, I learned to analyze Chinese syllables from the perspective of phonology and divide a syllable into two parts: sound and rhyme.