From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Rime tables, as used in Chinese character dictionaries, show characters listed by their onsets, grade of rime, rimes and tones, but not necessarily in that order.
The onset is the beginning of a sound, and usually this is a consonant, but where it begins with a vowel, it is said to have a zero initial.
The rime itself is composed of the medial, main vowel, then ending and associated tone.
In traditional Chinese phonology, there are various interpretations for the grade of rime, with some scholars thinking it has something to do with the properties of the vowel, since within a rime class, various distinct rimes can be grouped together if they are complementary. There are also inner and outer zhuan, thought to be related to the vowel heights of vowel in the rime.
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