MultiTree:

Name: Old Chinese Type: Language Alternate Names: Ancient Chinese; Archaic Chinese Code: och Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: LINGUIST List Families: Sino-Tibetan Parent Subgroup: Chinese; Chinesische; Sinitic; Chinese Dialects in China; Sinitic Division (chin) Child Language: Classical Chinese; Literary Chinese (lzh) Brief Description: A language once spoken in China. The ancestor of modern Chinese. Most of the extant material dates to the period between the 10th century - 3rd century BC, but fragmentary texts are found on what are called "Oracle bones" or "jiaguwen", which date to the late Shang dynasty (ca 1400-- 1150 BC). Most of these have been found in the vicinity of the last Shang capital, Anyang, in the modern Henan province. Old Chinese is very well attested in an extensive literature, though the phonological reconstruction is contested. The language seems fairly similar to Classical Chinese.

Endangerment Status

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Linguist List Status: Extinct