现代人没哪个曾经听过“古人”说话，特别是古人的语音，因为汉语没有注音的特点，我们也很难找到史料来推断古汉语。可实际上，语言学家们却总是能告诉你这个字古代怎么读，那个字古代怎么读。那么，到底是怎么回事呢，一起来涨姿势吧~
China has a long linguistic tradition.
Did you know Chinese scholars were digging into old pronunciations centuries before Europeans were reconstructing proto-languages?
This is the tale of how they uncovered their ancient imperial language.
I struggle with Chinese pronunciation.
I have ever since the dictionary and cassettes my Grandad once gave me for my birthday.
But lately I've been burying myself in hundreds of pages of Chinese linguistic history, and you know what?
I'm in good company!
Chinese pronunciation puzzled experts in China for a long, long time.
Like this fellow, a scholar reconstructing a language in the 1840s.
You know the story by now, I've told it before: compare a group of related languages, classify them into a family tree, then reconstruct their common ancestor.
