I find it very interesting about how Old Chinese is very unlike any of the modern varieties of Chinese.
First and foremost, the tones are very different. Second, unlike Old Chinese, none of the modern varieties of Chinese have a trilled "r" sound. Third, Old Chinese has complex consonantal clusters (including those that end a syllable).
What do you think?
Whether a thrilled R existed or not is highly controversial since these are extremely limited pronunciation guide on these and the entire Old Chinese pronunciation system is reconstructed despite the abundance of surviving texts. But it’s certain that a non-thrilled R did not until late Middle Chinese or even early mandarine.
Your second point isn’t quite right, some D- sound in Middle Chinese evolved into a thrilled R in some Chinese dialects(or you can call them separate languages)
I recently read an research paper about 1st person nominative/accusative case in Old Chinese which I found interesting. Chinese has jettisoned all sorts of declension/conjugation as early as then.
Consonantal clusters that are not an ending can be explained as either the limitation of reconstruction(e.g. one of the early reconstruction for 生（to give birth to) is *srjaeng which looks blizzard to pronounce,) or the fragments of the ancestor of Chinese language — Proto Sino-Tibetan which is a multisyllabic language.
Consonantal clusters endings(-p, -k, -t, -m, etc.) have more usages than just an ending. A character that have -p, -k or -t consonantal ending indicates its accent is on the last vowel. Some linguists reconstruct then as -b, -g, and -d in Old Chinese and claim them to be devocalized in Middle Chinese into -p, -k, -t.
They became silent as it moves into late Middle Chinese and entirely disappear circa 1200 AD.
Example:
立（to stand）*lip (Exactly how you would pronounce the word “lip” in English, pronounce it rapidly so that it doesn’t sounds like “leap.”)
捌（eight）*paet
The opposite of -p, -k, and -t would be -X. -X is never pronounced, but the difference is that when a -X appears, you should pronounce it slower with a higher tone. Accents no longer matter since there are essentially none.
Example
也（coda for a declarative sentence/statement.) *yæX (Try to “sing” this character at the tone “la” in music WITHOUT pronouncing the X)
In addition there are -D and -H. You bring the town down as you pronounce it, very similar to the -p, -t, and -k but 1) They are never pronounced, 2) Don’t deliberately try to pronounce them rapidly
Examples:
自（self）*tsijH
雉（an unit for length）*tsyejH
Look terrible to pronounce, aren’t they? That’s why I can barely count from 1-10 in Old Chinese
Feel free to take a look at the second picture, a incomplete part of an article written in circa 2700 years ago. Please spare my hand writing.
“Originally, 郑武公(the emperor of “郑”) married a woman called “武姜) in a place named “申.”
They had two children, one called “庄公” while another one is called “共叔段.”
庄公 was born with his head out of her mother’s body first(in Old Chinese they called it *ngu *srjaeng or “寤生” in Mandarine).
This phenomenon scared 武姜 resulting in her disliking 庄公 and prefering 公叔段 instead.
She even gave 庄公 a name called “寤生.”
武姜 wanted to crown 共叔段 (they are the family of the emperors) but 郑武公 refused.
The time that 庄公 became the emperor, her mother 武姜 asked her to assign the land of “制邑” to 共叔段.
庄公 refused, he said that 制邑 was a critical location in terms of military. Previously another leader whose name was “虢叔” has died there. But he would agree to assign any other land to his brother
His mother then asked 庄公 to give the land of 京邑 to his brother. 庄公 agreed and gave him a title called ”京城太叔(looks very ostentatious to me.”)”
