1. What are some characteristics of classical Chinese that
differ from modern Mandarin?
2. Why is it easier to have palindromes in Chinese
(especially classical) than in English?
3. Give some words written the same but with different
meanings in different dialects.
4. Give some words written the same but have wider/narrow
meanings in different dialects.
5. Give some objects that are referred to by different words
in different dialects.
6. What are some ways in which Mandarin and Cantonese differ
in word order?
7. What is the middle Chinese tonal system like?
8. What do we know about the middle Chinese tonal
system? What don’t we know?
9. Why do we say that the entering tone is not purely a
matter of tone?
10. Which dialect has no entering tones?
11. Which dialect has the most entering tones?
12. Which dialect’s entering tone syllables do not end with
p/t/k?
13. What are some ways the modern dialectal tonal systems were
derived from middle Chinese?