New book: Chinese historical phonology

[LINCOM EUROPA]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
CHINESE HISTORICAL PHONOLOGY
A Compendium of Beijing and Cantonese Pronunciations of Characters and
their Derivations from Middle Chinese

John Newman & Anand V. Raman; Massey University; John Hopkins University

This volume is an explicit summary of the phonological histories of
Beijing and Cantonese dialects, based on earlier accounts proposed by
Matthew Chen and John Newman and which appeared in the Journal of
Chinese Linguistics (1976, 1984/1985). Approximately 2,700 characters
appear here with their Middle Chinese reconstructions (the 'Simplified
Middle Chinese' reconstructions proposed by Chen) and arranged by their
Middle Chinese rime, initial, and tone class. For each character, the
complete derivations (as sequences of rule labels) from Middle Chinese
to Beijing pronunciation and from Middle Chinese to Cantonese
pronunciation are given, including indications of exceptional
application or non-application of rules. A full statement of the regular
phonological rules referred to in the derivations is provided. The
meanings of the characters (in English) are also included. A Hanyu
Pinyin-Middle Chinese index enables the reader to determine the Middle
Chinese reconstruction from the Hanyu Pinyin representation. The detail
of Beijing and Cantonese phonological histories is here made accessible
to linguists outside the specialist field of Sinology. The material is
explicit, comprehensive, and transparent in a way which will be
appreciated by Sinologists and non-Sinologists alike.
The enclosed disk contains the data relevant to Part 3 of Newman and
Raman's "Chinese Historical Phonology".  In particular, it contains
approximately 2,700 Chinese characters (as encapsulated Postscript
files), Simplified Middle Chinese reconstructions, the modern reflexes
of these reconstructions in Beijing and Cantonese dialects, and the
sequences of phonological rules to derive each of the modern reflexes.
The material allows one to carry out original computational linguistic
tasks on the data, such as searches for phonetic forms, rules, sequences
of rules, and exceptions to rules.
The data has been compiled for LaTeX (a free and easily downloadable
software application) and users should have this software to enjoy the
full benefit of the diskette. However, the files can also be opened and
edited using ordinary text editors.  The fonts are transcribed for
processing with wsuipa, the Washington State University's IPA font for
LaTeX. Characters and phonetic transcriptions do not appear as such on
screen, but can be printed out as in Newman and Raman's book. Available
for both PC and Mac.

ISBN 3 89586 543 3.
LINCOM Studies in Asian Linguistics 27.
Ca. 240 pp. USD 70 / DM 107 / pound sterling 38. July 1999.

CD-ROM ISBN 3 89586 588 5. USD 28 / DM 42 / # 16.40. July 1999.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is
available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

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