Chinese roots in other languages

[Mark Yong]

I would really love to listen to how the 道德經 sounds in the various Chinese dialects and other East Asian languages (Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese), as transcribed by Shibo77 above (really good work!). It really serves to illustrate how Literary Chinese 文言文 served as the written lingua franca of these nations once upon a time.

I wrote a separate thread on this at:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/9426-literary-chinese-bridging-the-east-asian-nations

Does anyone know of any websites where I could grab audio files of sample Literary Chinese 文言文 texts being read in these various pronunciations?

I have access to the Korean reading of the Hunmin Jeongeum 訓民正音 written by Korea's King Sejong 世宗王. It's really amazing how close the pronuncations are to Chinese.

[Mark Yong]

Another very good source is 大漢和辭典

Just curious... which is better - 大漢和辭典 or 漢語大字典? I was given to understand that 大漢和辭典 was the best, until 漢語大字典 came along and superceded it. Anyway, I think 漢語大字典 is partially written using 簡體字 Simplifed Characters, which I personally do not prefer.

[sjcma]

漢語大字典 has traditional versions published in Taiwan. You can go to www.sanmin.com.tw and order it online.