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). The rhyme books differ in some details, but overall show many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects, such as the reduction and disappearance of final plosives and the reorganization of the Middle Chinese tones.
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