Ba–Shu Chinese

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Ba–Shu Chinese (Chinese: 巴蜀語; pinyin: Bāshǔyǔ; Wade–Giles: Ba¹ Shu³ Yü³; Sichuanese Pinyin: Ba¹su²yu³; IPA: [pa˥su˨˩y˥˧]), or simply Shu Chinese (Chinese: 蜀語), also known as Old Sichuanese, is an extinct Chinese language formerly spoken in what is now Sichuan and Chongqing, China.

Ba–Shu Chinese was first described in the book Fangyan from the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE) and represented one of the earliest splits from Old Chinese.^[1][2] This makes Ba-Shu Chinese similar to Min Chinese, which also diverged from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.

Ba-Shu Chinese started to disappear during the late Southern Song dynasty period due to the Mongol conquest of China, which resulted in a massacre throughout the Sichuan Basin. The language was supplanted by Southwestern Mandarin after settlement by people from other parts of China, mostly from present-day Hubei and Hunan.^[3]

Phonological aspects of Ba–Shu Chinese are preserved in the Minjiang dialect of Sichuanese Mandarin, which caused debate on whether the dialect is a variant of Southwestern Mandarin or a modern-day descendant of Ba–Shu.^[4][5]

Although the Ba–Shu language is extinct, some phonology features of rhymes can be found by researching the local literati and poets' use of rhymes in their works. Liu Xiaonan (2014) assumed that they wrote verses in Standard Chinese of the Song dynasty, but because their mother tongue was Ba–Shu, their verses rhymed in the Ba–Shu accent.^[3]

According to Liu's research, there is enough evidence to assume a significant number of coda mergers had taken place or were taking place in the Ba–Shu language during the Song dynasty:^[3]

• *i(ə)m and *i(ə)n often merged as *-n (真侵部合併).
• *i(ə)n and *i(ə)ŋ often merged as *-n (真青部合併), this progress can be abbreviated as /*im/ > /*in/ < /*iŋ/.
• *an and *aŋ sometimes merged as *-n.
• *am and *an sometimes merged as *-n.
  • Ditto, which can be abbreviated as /*am/ > /*an/ < /*aŋ/.
• *-t, *-k, and *-p probably all merged as *-ʔ, and sometimes are dropped entirely (especially in the west of the Sichuan Basin).

Ba–Shu language had some unique words that scholars identified as possibly being influenced by the Old Shu language.

Notable speakers of the Ba–Shu language include the "Three Sūs": (三蘇, sān sū):

• Sū Shì (蘇軾), who was from Meízhōu (眉州), Chéngdū circuit (成都府路).
• Sū Zhé (蘇轍), Sū Shì's younger brother.
• Sū Xún (蘇洵), Sū Shì and Sū Zhé's father.

• Ba–Shu culture
• Ancient Kingdom of Ba
• Ancient Kingdom of Shu
• Second Kingdom of Shu
• Third Kingdom of Shu
• Fourth Kingdom of Shu