Old Chinese Medials and their Sino-Tibetan Origins: A Comparative Study

This study is a comprehensive investigation of Old Chinese medial elements and related issues in the reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology.  Building on recent advances in the fields of historical Chinese phonology and Tibeto-Burman comparative studies, Professor Handel uses comparative evidence from Tibeto-Burman to propose a number of significant revisions to our understanding of the pronunciation of Old Chinese.

All the major medial elements that have been proposed in previous literature are explored, and their developments are traced back from Old Chinese to its ancestor language Proto-Sino-Tibetan.  The work is accompanied by comprehensive indices of all the linguistic forms that appear in the main text.