Experimental translator of Chinese input to Old Chinese, cleaned up from a Baxter-Sagart 2015 list. Currently only works with a select number of characters, TRADITIONAL script only.
Notational things:
"[C]" = unknown consonant
"r" = trilled r
"-" = syllable boundary (fun fact, unlike in Middle Chinese and Modern Chinese, not every character in Old Chinese is a single syllable! A lot of the time, they are sesquisyllabic, i.e. one and a half syllables)
"ʔ" = glottal stop, something like an unvoiced k
"ʰ" = aspiration, a puff of air goes with its accompanying consonant (like English pa, ka, ta, or the "th" in "lighthouse")
"ˤ" = pharyngealization, kind of like pronouncing the consonant from the back of your throat
"ə" = schwa, like English "uh" or German "e"
"m̥, n̥, l̥, r̥ with the ring under it" = unvoiced, kind of like saying the letter really quickly, muting vibration from your throat or lips
"q, ɢ" = uvular, voiceless and voiced respectively. q is like a heavy k, from the throat, and ɢ is the voiced version of that.
"ng" = meant to be pronounced as one phoneme, like the "ng" of "thing"
"[Zz]" = not Baxter-Sagart, but Zhengzhang
"?" = my own best guess reconstruction, as NOT A linguist or phonologist
If this ends up sounding like a strange combination of Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, and Tibetan, well you kinda hit the nail on the head.
For words that do not translate, you can do one of two things.
1) Search for it on Wiktionary. There is usually info from the Zhengzhang reconstruction of Old Chinese. Failing that, search for it here:
https://ytenx.org/dciangx/dzih/. I have a couple reconstructions from Zhengzhang here, marked as [Zz]
2) Do your own Baxter-Sagart reconstruction. Start with Wiktionary, get the rime data (initial and final sounds), compare it to the Baxter-Sagart list, and find a similar word that has been reconstructed. Usually you will find something. Ctext dictionary (
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en) often has the Song dynasty recompilation of the Qieyun (called the Guangyun). Failing that, there are more recent rime dictionaries on
https://ytenx.org, but good luck. Couple of things to note is that the
N- prefix and -s suffix are usually tied to some semantic meaning, so just proceed with some caution.
It should also be noted that there are different pronunciations for many of these characters depending on its context/gloss. Sometimes, I pick the one that doesn't have the *-s suffix, sometimes I list them and include their gloss in parentheses. Other times, you just have to figure it out. Yes, I know, very not scientific. That's not the point of this translator.
Basically for the "cleaning," I deleted all morpheme boundaries, brackets, and parentheses, except the [C]s, which I added to show the presence of a consonant whose identity is unknown. I also converted all "j's" to "i's," for simplicity of reading.
DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be a scholarly way of doing translation into Old Chinese, it's just for fun and serves as a good starting point if you want to read the Shijing in its maybe-intended pronunciation. If you want all the actual scholarly stuff, in which there exist comments and notation to show where they are sure and aren't sure, you will have to find the original data lists here:
http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/Additional info: The reconstruction of Old Chinese by Baxter-Sagart is based on Middle Chinese reconstructions of the Qieyun, and then compared with all the other Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, Tibetan, Hmong, etc. languages to form a common ancestor with reasonable certainty and doubts. Their research also builds upon the recent research of other scholars, especially in the field of early loan words, reconstructions of other proto-languages (e.g. proto-Min), and recent discoveries e.g. bamboo slips.
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