Middle Chinese


Middle Chinese

n. The Chinese language as used in the Tang dynasty (618-907), whose pronunciation is known from systematic descriptions in dictionaries and scholarly works from the Tang, Song, and later dynasties, and from the comparison of modern varieties of Chinese. Middle Chinese is the source of loanwords in Korean and Vietnamese and the largest group of Chinese loanwords in Japanese.

Mid′dle Chinese′


n. the Chinese language of the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. Abbr.: MChin