We can study ancient sounds from the words used in The Book of Songs. In the Book of Songs, some words are special syllables or initials used to express a certain pronunciation, which can provide us with clues to ancient sounds. For example, in the Book of Songs, the word "Xi" is often used to indicate an initial that is easy to read. This initial has disappeared in modern Chinese, but it may exist in ancient sounds.
We can also study the ancient sound through the rhyme in The Book of Songs. In ancient poetry, rhyme is a very important part, which requires not only rhyme, but also coordination between syllables. By analyzing the rhyme in the Book of Songs, we can understand the rhyme ending and rhyme belly of the ancient sound. For example, the rhymes of "Yu" and "Ju" in The Book of Songs indicate that they have the same rhyme ending, both of which are-U.
In addition, we can also study ancient sounds through the syllable structure in The Book of Songs. In ancient Chinese, the syllable structure is relatively simple, usually consisting of initials, finals and tones. By analyzing the syllables in the Book of Songs, we can understand the initials, finals and tones of ancient sounds. For example, the syllable structure of "Zi" is zhι, which consists of the initial zh and the final ι. This syllable structure is very common in ancient sounds.
Characteristics of ancient sounds:
1. In terms of initials, there were some initials with heavy lip sounds in ancient times, for example, there was no light lip sound in ancient times, and there was no light lip sound in ancient times, for example, in modern Chinese, the lip teeth were lightly rubbed with silver sound F. In addition, there are some complicated initials in ancient Chinese, that is, a word has two initials, which is rare in modern Chinese.
2. In terms of vowels, the vowels of ancient sounds are very different from those of modern Chinese. First of all, some tones in ancient Chinese have disappeared or changed in modern Chinese. Secondly, there are abundant ancient rhymes, including nasal rhymes such as -m, -n, -ng, and stop rhymes such as -p, -t, and-k. In addition, there are some special vowels in the pronunciation of ancient Chinese, such as the vowels in "Yu San Gui Xiang" and "Yu Si Gui Ding", which were all pronounced as box vowels and fixed vowels in ancient times.
3. In terms of tones, there are also great differences between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese. First of all, there are some tone differentiation phenomena in ancient sounds, that is, the same word will have different tones in different situations. Secondly, the tones of ancient Chinese are quite different from those of modern Chinese in tone values and tone categories, which brings great difficulties for modern people to understand ancient Chinese.