| Shiming | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 釋名 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 释名 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Explanation of names | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Yiya | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 逸雅 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Lost Erya | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Shiming, also known as the Yiya, is a Chinese dictionary that employed phonological glosses, and is believed have been composed c. 200 CE.[1] Because it records the pronunciation of an Eastern Han Chinese dialect, sinologists have used the Shiming to estimate the dates of sound shifts, such as the loss of consonant clusters that took place between the Old Chinese and Middle Chinese stages.