Tags: Language.
Old Mandarin (Chinese: 古官話; pinyin: Gǔ guānhuà) or Early Mandarin (Chinese: 早期官話; pinyin: zǎoqí guānhuà) was the speech of northern China during the time of the Jin and Yuan dynasties (12th to 14th centuries).New genres of vernacular literature were based on this language including verse drama and story forms such as the qu and sanqu.Its pronunciation has been inferred from the ‘Phags-pa script used in the Mongol empire and two rhyme dictionaries the Menggu Ziyun (1308) and the Zhongyuan Yinyun (1324).
