1. Introduction

From the 17th to the 20th century, it was generally assumed that Chinese was a monosyllabic language. Ineichen (1987:268) traces the origin of this idea back to the 17th century, to the works of Jesuits Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare (1666-1736). In the following centuries, linguists, sinologists, and missionaries all referred to Chinese as mo…