The Chinese texts in Tibetan script discovered at Dunhuang_??_are recognized as basic materials for studying the Middle Chinese Hexi_??_dialect of about the ninth and tenth Centuries. Miller 1967 pointed out various instances in this material where the M.C. rime-ending/-i/is transcribed by the Tibetan symbol -'u. He also noted in photographs of the famous‘Qianziwen_??_’text that there are two kinds of style representing the Tibetan symbol u, used to transcribe Chinese rimeendings. But the distinction is very subtle.
In the new Tibetan transcription material P.T. 1228, the Tibetan vowel sign u which transcribes Chinese rime-endings also has two styles that are easily distinguishable. u
1 is only used for transcribing the main vowel of a Chinese syllable, and this style is the same as is usual in other materials. On the other hand, u
2 is only used for transcribing the rimeendings of the four rime groups Liu_??_, Xiaoi_??_, Xie_??_, and Geng_??_and its style is unique. In representing the sounds of Xie_??_and Geng_??_rimes, Div. I and II rimes are transcribed with a rime-ending in-'u
2, but Div. III and IV rimes lack any transcription for rime-endings, perhaps because they had already disappeared. From the fact that M.C. rimeendings */-i/, */-u/and */-η/are all transcribed by -u
2, we can understand that in the M.C. dialect which is the basis of this material, these rime-endings had common features, that is, they were front and lax.
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