The Menggu-Ziyun (蒙古字韻abbr. MZ) has not been regarded as more important material for the phonological study of Old Mandarin than the Zhongyuan-Yinyun (中原音韻), although it is actually worthwhile. The reason is that the voiced initials seem to be preserved in the MZ and that it would be possible to consider the MZ to be reflection of the Southern dialect, not of the Old Mandarin.
With regard to the problem, a different point of view will be given in this paper, especially by reference to the Wuyin-Jiyun (五音集韻abbr. WJ). We have sufficient reason to assert that the WJ played an important role when the MZ was compiled. Between the MZ and the WJ, there are striking similarities as follows:
i) Syllables are arranged in erder of their initials, starting with the jianmu (見母) initial and ending with the rimu (日母) initial.
ii) The characters “夢,目,謀etc.” have the weimu (微母) initial.
iii) The arrangement of characters is very similar to each other.
If the explanation is convincing that the MZ inherited many things from the WJ, it would be possible that the category of the voiced initials in the MZ is also a part of the inheritance from the WJ.
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