上古漢語 Old Chinese
Old Chinese covers the earliest stages of Chinese attested in inscriptions and classical texts. It’s the foundation for historical phonology and for reading early sources in their linguistic context.
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Dictionaries
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An overview of Chinese dictionaries
- Notes: Chinese has a very long history of dictionaries; if you’re interested in the language, it will be useful to get a feel for what is actually out there, both print sources and otherwise.
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- Notes: Lots of words with information about the character and derivation from older forms of Chinese.
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ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese
- Format: PDF
- Notes: A book available in PDF form by chapter.
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- Notes: Kind of an older site, but it has some useful information about word histories.
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- Notes: Includes a dictionary, texts, and resources to learn the language as well.
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Digital Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese
- Notes: Guest access is free—the learning curve on this one is a bit steeper than some of the other dictionaries on this page, though.
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Old Chinese Basic Vocabulary Database
- Notes: Has a small list of common or useful words.
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- Notes: The strokes needed to create a character, or “radicals,” are an important measure for classifying the pieces of the written language.
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Chinese Text Project Character Lookup
- Notes: By radicals here as well.
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- Notes: Will only be useful if you already know Chinese, although it does show you how to draw the characters.
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- Notes: Also search by radical here; has information about ancient forms and variants, plus other stuff.
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- Notes: Shows information about the etymology as well.
Grammars
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Introduction to Literary Chinese
- Format: PDF
- Notes: A very nice PDF file with exercises and other useful tools.
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Introduction to Classical Chinese
- Notes: A website with various grammatical topics.
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- Notes: Information about the older ways that it was written.
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A Concise Grammar of Classical Chinese
- Notes: All on a single webpage.
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- Notes: Like the language it describes, this book is quite ancient.
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- Format: PDF
- Notes: For the modern version, but it’s free.
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- Notes: Includes a dictionary, texts, and resources to learn the language as well.
Charts & Aids
(Nothing here.)
Texts
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- Notes: Many classical texts al in a single place, divided into schools of thought and other ways as well.
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- Notes: Includes a dictionary, texts, and resources to learn the language as well.
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- Notes: Some of the oldest inscriptions in Chinese.
Other Resources
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