中 古 音

Middle Chinese IPA

Inspect Classical Chinese poetry through reconstructed IPA

A Qieyun-based reconstruction, not a definitive historical recording

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Tang Poetry Examples

Explore reconstructed readings for familiar poems

Reading Tang Poetry Through IPA

Middle Chinese (中古漢語) is the reconstructed phonological stage commonly used to discuss Sui, Tang, and early Song rhyme traditions.

The sounds behind Tang poetry differed dramatically from modern Mandarin. This tool exposes one reconstruction as inspectable IPA and labels audio as an approximation.

How It Works

This system keeps reconstructed IPA as the source of truth and treats speech synthesis as an optional listening aid:

1

Phonological Reconstruction

Converts Chinese characters to Middle Chinese IPA using the ToMiddleChinese library, based on unt's scholarly reconstruction of the Qieyun system (601 CE). This exposes the distinctions represented by that reconstruction in IPA form.

2

Phonetic Synthesis

Maps Middle Chinese IPA to eSpeak-NG phoneme notation through custom mappings. Features like uvular stops, retroflex consonants, and pharyngealization are approximated for synthesis.

3

Voice Enhancement (Optional)

Uses ElevenLabs Speech-to-Speech API with the multilingual model to smooth robotic eSpeak-NG output. This is optional voice enhancement, not scholarly evidence.

Phonological Features

Middle Chinese reconstructions model a rich consonant inventory and syllable-final contrasts reflected in rhyme-book categories. The Qieyun tradition records categories that modern reconstructions interpret as IPA values.

[tɕʰ] Aspirated alveolo-palatal affricate used by this reconstruction for distinctions associated with the 精莊章 (jing-zhuang-zhang) consonant series. Modern Mandarin does not preserve many of these contrasts.
[q] Uvular stop value used in the selected reconstruction for categories such as 喻母四等 (yu mother grade IV). Other reconstruction systems may assign different phonetic values.
[ʈ] Retroflex stop used for the 知母 (zhi mother) series in this IPA output, making the reconstruction's dental and retroflex contrasts visible.
[-m] Bilabial nasal coda (咸攝 xian division), one of three nasal endings preserved in Middle Chinese. Mandarin lost this distinction, merging -m with -n, but it survives in Cantonese and other southern dialects.
[-k] Velar stop coda associated with 入聲 (entering-tone) categories. These codas matter for reading rhyme and tonal categories, even though modern Mandarin no longer keeps them as final stops.
[ˤ] Pharyngealization marking the 重紐 (chongniu) A/B distinction, a subtle but systematic contrast in vowel quality. This feature distinguishes minimal pairs that modern reconstructions rely on Qieyun evidence to identify.

How accurate is this?

The IPA comes from one reconstruction system through ToMiddleChinese. It is useful for exploration and comparison, but it is not a definitive recording of how any individual poet spoke.

The Qieyun tradition records phonological categories rather than microphone-like sound. Later rhyme books such as Guangyun preserve and expand that tradition, but any IPA output is still a modern reconstruction.

Audio is generated by mapping reconstructed IPA into modern speech synthesis tools, so it should be heard as an approximation of the notation rather than independent historical evidence.

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