Studies in Colloquial Chinese and Its History

An extensive history of Chinese dialects. Studies in Colloquial Chinese and Its History presents cutting-edge research into issues regarding prestige colloquial languages in China in their spoken forms and as well as their relationship to written and colloquial literary forms. These include the influence of historical forms of spoken Chinese on written Chinese, the history of guanhuà and the history of báihuà, proto-dialects, and supra-regional common languages, as well as their relationship to spoken dialects. The various studies in this collection focus on the dialect groups with the most substantial written traditions, including Mandarin, Wu, Min, and Cantonese. The contributors explore the histories of these dialects in their written and spoken forms, presenting a variegated view of their history and development. This volume expands our understanding of the underlying factors in the formation of supra-regional common languages in China and the written forms to which they gave rise.