From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Fanqie (反切) spellings are to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters. The character, of which pronunciation is needed is basically a syllable. The syllable includes the onset, rime and tone.
Basically, the fanqie method is to use two characters to represent the pronunciation of the syllable. The onset is represented by another character with the same onset. The rime and tone are combined and represented with a character which has a matching rime and tone. Thus
(Onset) + (Rime & tone) = (Pronunciation of Character)
For example, the character 東 is represented by 德紅切, the latter character indicates a fanqie spelling.
Thus dong 東 = {德 de}{紅 hong in the Middle Chinese ping tone]}切 = d + ong in the Middle Chinese ping tone.
It is necessary to stress the Middle Chinese tone, because since the beginning of fanqie use, the tones have developed over more than one and a half millenia.
