Graded Rhyme Charts
Dong Tonghe · 2023
Chapter 6 focuses on the topic of ‘graded rhyme charts’. It begins with discussion of ‘initials’ and ‘graded rhyme’ that emerged after the middle of the Tang Dynasty ushered in systematic study of phonology in China. Each initial is represented by a Chinese character; all the initials are arranged according to their place of articulation and voicing pattern. Grade rhyme refers to the classification of rhymes into four grades. Based on the co-occurrence patterns between the four grades and the four tones, some syllable finals are put together as one table, technically known as ‘turn’. Since initials, finals and tones are all systematically studied, tables are drawn with rows representing grades and columns divided by initials. Characters from rhyme dictionaries can be filled in the tables, and all the sound patterns can be thus shown. This kind of tabular representation is called ‘graded rhyme charts’.