目次

Preface. List of tables List of figures 1. A Walk Through Time: General Introduction 2. A Tale of Two Tribes: Prehistory 3. Thus Spake Confucius: Sounds of Old Chinese 4. Poetically they dwelt: Sounds of Middle Chinese 5. Marco Polo’s Phrasebook: Sounds of Early Modern Chinese 6. Philosophy and History: Classical Chinese 7. Literature and Religion: Vernacular Writing 8. In Other Words: vocabulary change 9. One for all: Modern Standard Chinese 10. Celebration of Diversity: Modern Chinese Dialects 11. The Legend of Cangjie: Chinese characters References Appendices I-V Index