Hanyu Pinyin
汉语拼音; 漢語拼音
Script type romanization
Created1950s
Time period
LanguagesStandard Chinese
Pinyin
Chinese拼音
Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
Simplified Chinese汉语拼音方案
Traditional Chinese漢語拼音方案

Hanyu Pinyin,[note 1] or simply pinyin, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese.[lower-alpha 1] In official documents, it is referred to as the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet.[1][2] It is the official system used in China and Singapore, and by the United Nations. Its use has become common when transliterating Standard Chinese mostly regardless of region, though it is less ubiquitous in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Chinese, normally written with Chinese characters, to students already familiar with the Latin alphabet. The system makes use of diacritics to indicate the four tones found in Standard Chinese, though these are often omitted in various contexts, such as when spelling Chinese names in non-Chinese texts, or when writing non-Chinese words in Chinese-language texts. Pinyin is also used by various input methods on computers and to categorize entries in some Chinese dictionaries. The word Hànyǔ (汉语; 漢語) literally means 'Han language'—meaning, the Chinese language—while pīnyīn (拼音) literally means 'spelled sounds'.[3]

Hanyu Pinyin was developed in the 1950s by a group led by Chinese linguists including Wang Li, Lu Zhiwei, Li Jinxi, Luo Changpei[4] and Zhou Youguang,[5] who based their work in part on earlier romanization systems. The system was originally promulgated at the Fifth Session of the First National People's Congress in 1958, and has seen several rounds of revisions since.[6] The International Organization for Standardization propagated Hanyu Pinyin as ISO 7098 in 1982,[7] and the United Nations began using it in 1986.[5] Attempts to make Hanyu Pinyin the standard in Taiwan occurred in 2002 and 2009, and while the system has been official since the latter attempt,[8][9] [10] Taiwan largely has no standardized spelling system.

The pronunciations and spellings of Chinese words are generally given in terms of initials and finals, which represent the language's segmental phonemic portion, rather than letter by letter. Initials are initial consonants, whereas finals are all possible combinations of medials (semivowels coming before the vowel), a nucleus vowel, and coda (final vowel or consonant).

History

On the facade of this kindergarten in Zhengzhou, Henan, both simplified characters and Hanyu Pinyin are used.
On this sign for Taichung Port railway station in Taiwan, text appears in traditional Han characters, English, Wade–Giles (Taichung), and Hanyu Pinyin.

Background

Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in China, wrote the first book that used the Latin alphabet to write Chinese, entitled Xizi Qiji (西字奇蹟; 'Miracle of Western Letters'), published in Beijing in 1605.[11] Twenty years later, fellow Jesuit Nicolas Trigault published 西儒耳目資; Xīrú ěrmù zī; 'Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati') in Hangzhou.[12] Neither book had any influence among the contemporary Chinese literati, and the romanizations they introduced primarily were useful for Westerners.[13]

During the late Qing, the reformer Song Shu (1862–1910) proposed that China adopt a phonetic writing system. A student of the scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had observed the effect of the kana syllabaries and Western learning during his visits to Japan. While Song did not himself propose a transliteration system for Chinese, his discussion ultimately led to a proliferation of proposed schemes.[13] The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and further improved by Herbert Giles, presented in the 1892 Chinese–English Dictionary. It was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979.[14] In 1943, the US military tapped Yale University to develop another romanization system for Mandarin Chinese intended for pilots flying over China—much more than previous systems, the result appears very similar to modern Hanyu Pinyin.

Development

Hanyu Pinyin was designed by a group of mostly Chinese linguists, including Wang Li, Lu Zhiwei, Li Jinxi, Luo Changpei,[4] as well as Zhou Youguang who was an economist,[5] as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou, often called "the father of pinyin",[5][15][16][17] worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the People's Republic was established. Initially, Mao Zedong considered the development of a new writing system for Chinese that only used the Latin alphabet, but during his first official visit to the Soviet Union in 1949, Joseph Stalin convinced him to maintain the existing system.[18] Zhou became an economics professor in Shanghai, and when the Ministry of Education created a "Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language" in 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned him the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he was not a linguist by trade.[5]

Hanyu Pinyin incorporated different aspects from existing systems, including Gwoyeu Romatzyh from 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz from 1931, and the diacritics from bopomofo.[19] "I'm not the father of pinyin", Zhou said years later; "I'm the son of pinyin. It's [the result of] a long tradition from the later years of the Qing dynasty down to today. But we restudied the problem and revisited it and made it more perfect."[20]

An initial draft was authored in January 1956 by Ye Laishi, Lu Zhiwei and Zhou Youguang.[21] A revised Pinyin scheme was proposed by Wang Li, Lu Zhiwei and Li Jinxi, and became the main focus of discussion among the group of Chinese linguists in June 1956, forming the basis of Pinyin standard later after incorporating a wide-range of feedback and further revisions.[4][21][22] The first edition of Hanyu Pinyin was approved and officially adopted at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress on February 11, 1958. It was then introduced to primary schools as a way to teach Standard Chinese pronunciation and used to improve the literacy rate among adults.[23]

During the height of the Cold War the use of pinyin system over the Yale romanization outside of China was regarded as a political statement or identification with the communist Chinese regime.[24] Beginning in the early 1980s, Western publications addressing Mainland China began using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system instead of earlier romanization systems;[25] this change followed the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC in 1979.[26][27] In 2001, the PRC Government issued the National Common Language Law, providing a legal basis for applying pinyin.[23] The current specification of the orthographic rules is laid down in the National Standard GB/T 16159–2012.[28]

Syllables

Unlike European languages, clusters of letters —initials (声母; 聲母; shēngmǔ) and finals (韵母; 韻母; yùnmǔ)— and not consonant and vowel letters, form the fundamental elements in pinyin (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Han language). Every Mandarin syllable can be spelled with exactly one initial followed by one final, except for the special syllable er or when a trailing -r is considered part of a syllable (a phenomenon known as erhua). The latter case, though a common practice in some sub-dialects, is rarely used in official publications.

Even though most initials contain a consonant, finals are not always simple vowels, especially in compound finals (复韵母; 複韻母; fùyùnmǔ), i.e. when a "medial" is placed in front of the final. For example, the medials [i] and [u] are pronounced with such tight openings at the beginning of a final that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing) pronounce yī (衣, clothes, officially pronounced /í/) as /jí/ and wéi (围; 圍, to enclose, officially pronounced /uěi/) as /wěi/ or /wuěi/. Often these medials are treated as separate from the finals rather than as part of them; this convention is followed in the chart of finals below.

Initials

The conventional lexicographical order derived from bopomofo is:

b  p  m  f   d  t  n  l   g  k h   j  q  x   zh  ch  sh  r   z  c  s

In each cell below, the pinyin letters assigned to each initial are accompanied by their phonetic realizations in brackets, notated according to the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Alveolo-palatal Velar
Plosive unaspirated b [p] d [t] g [k]
aspirated p [pʰ] t [tʰ] k [kʰ]
Nasal m [m] n [n]
Affricate unaspirated z [ts] zh [ʈʂ] j [tɕ]
aspirated c [tsʰ] ch [ʈʂʰ] q [tɕʰ]
Fricative f [f] s [s] sh [ʂ] x [ɕ] h [x]
Liquid l [l] r [ɻ]~[ʐ]
Semivowel y [j], [ɥ] and w [w]
PinyinIPADescription[29]
b[p]Unaspirated p, like in English spark.
p[pʰ]Strongly aspirated p, like in English pay.
m[m]Like the m in English may.
f[f]Like the f in English fair.
d[t]Unaspirated t, like in English stop.
t[tʰ]Strongly aspirated t, like in English take.
n[n]Like the n in English nay.
l[l]Like the l in English lay.
g[k]Unaspirated k, like in English skill.
k[kʰ]Strongly aspirated k, like in English kiss.
h[x], [h]Varies between the h in English hat, and the ch in Scottish English loch.
j[tɕ]Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English churchyard.
q[tɕʰ]Alveolo-palatal, aspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English punchy.
x[ɕ]Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the sh in English push.
zh[ʈʂ]Retroflex, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the t in English nurture.
ch[ʈʂʰ]Retroflex, aspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English church.
sh[ʂ]Retroflex, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the sh in shirt.
r[ɻ~ʐ]Retroflex. No direct equivalent in English, but varies between the r in English reduce and the s in English measure.
z[ts]Unaspirated. Like the zz in English pizza.
c[tsʰ]Aspirated. Like the ts in English cats.
s[s]Like the s in English say.
w[lower-alpha 2][w]Like the w in English water.
y[lower-alpha 2][j], [ɥ]Either like the y in English yes—or when followed by a u, see below.

Finals

Front Central Back
Close
i ⟨i⟩ • y ⟨ü⟩
ɨ ⟨i⟩
u ⟨u⟩


ɤ ⟨e⟩ • o ⟨o⟩
e̞ ⟨ê⟩
ɚ ⟨er⟩



a ⟨a⟩
Close-mid
Open-mid
Open

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an -r, which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals.

The only syllable-final consonants in Standard Chinese are -n, -ng, and -r, the last of which is attached as a grammatical suffix. A Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant either is from a non-Mandarin language (a southern Chinese language such as Cantonese, reflecting final consonants in Old Chinese), or indicates the use of a non-pinyin romanization system, such as one that uses final consonants to indicate tones.

Rime
∅-⁠e/-⁠o-⁠a-⁠ei-⁠ai-⁠ou-⁠ao-⁠en-⁠an-⁠eng-⁠anger
Medial ∅ [ɨ]

-⁠i		[ɤ]
e
-⁠e		[a]
a
-⁠a		 [ei̯]
ei
-⁠ei		[ai̯]
ai
-⁠ai		 [ou̯]
ou
-⁠ou		[au̯]
ao
-⁠ao		 [ən]
en
-⁠en		[an]
an
-⁠an		 [əŋ]
eng
-⁠eng		[aŋ]
ang
-⁠ang		 [ɚ]
er
 
y⁠-
-⁠i⁠-		 [i]
yi
-⁠i		[je]
ye
-⁠ie		[ja]
ya
-⁠ia		 [jou̯]
you
-⁠iu		[jau̯]
yao
-⁠iao		 [in]
yin
-⁠in		[jɛn]
yan
-⁠ian		 [iŋ]
ying
-⁠ing		[jaŋ]
yang
-⁠iang
w⁠-
-⁠u⁠-		 [u]
wu
-⁠u		[wo]
wo
-⁠uo		[wa]
wa
-⁠ua		 [wei̯]
wei
-⁠ui		[wai̯]
wai
-⁠uai		 [wən]
wen
-⁠un		[wan]
wan
-⁠uan		 [wəŋ~ʊŋ]
weng
-⁠ong		[waŋ]
wang
-⁠uang
yu⁠-
-⁠ü⁠-		 [y]
yu
-⁠ü		[ɥe]
yue
-⁠üe		 [yn]
yun
-⁠ün		[ɥɛn]
yuan
-⁠üan		 [jʊŋ]
yong
-⁠iong

Technically, i, u, ü without a following vowel are finals, not medials, and therefore take the tone marks, but they are more concisely displayed as above. In addition, ê [ɛ] (欸; 誒) and syllabic nasals m (呒, 呣), n (嗯, 唔), ng (嗯, 𠮾) are used as interjections.

According to Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, ng can be abbreviated with a shorthand of ŋ. However, this shorthand is rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers.

PinyinIPAForm with zero initialExplanation
-i[ɹ̩~z̩], [ɻ̩~ʐ̩](N/A)-i is a buzzed continuation of the consonant following z-, c-, s-, zh-, ch-, sh- or r-.

(In all other cases, -i has the sound of bee; this is listed below.)

a[a]alike English father, but a bit more fronted
e[ɤ] ⓘea back, unrounded vowel (similar to English duh, but not as open). Pronounced as a sequence [ɰɤ].
ai[ai̯]ailike English eye, but a bit lighter
ei[ei̯]eias in hey
ao[au̯]aoapproximately as in cow; the a is much more audible than the o
ou[ou̯]ouas in North American English so
an[an]anlike British English ban, but more central
en[ən]enas in taken
ang[aŋ]angas in German Angst.

(Starts with the vowel sound in father and ends in the velar nasal; like song in some dialects of American English)

eng[əŋ]englike e in en above but with ng appended
ong[ʊŋ](weng)starts with the vowel sound in book and ends with the velar nasal sound in sing. Varies between [oŋ] and [uŋ] depending on the speaker.
er[aɚ̯]erSimilar to the sound in bar in English. Can also be pronounced [ɚ] depending on the speaker.
Finals beginning with i- (y-)
i[i]yilike English bee
ia[ja]yaas i + a; like English yard
ie[je]yeas i + ê where the e (compare with the ê interjection) is pronounced shorter and lighter
iao[jau̯]yaoas i + ao
iu[jou̯]youas i + ou
ian[jɛn]yanas i + an; like English yen. Varies between [jen] and [jan] depending on the speaker.
in[in]yinas i + n
iang[jaŋ]yangas i + ang
ing[iŋ]yingas i + ng
iong[jʊŋ]yongas i + ong. Varies between [joŋ] and [juŋ] depending on the speaker.
Finals beginning with u- (w-)
u[u]wulike English oo
ua[wa]waas u + a
uo/o[wo]woas u + o where the o (compare with the o interjection) is pronounced shorter and lighter (spelled as o after b, p, m or f)
uai[wai̯]waias u + ai, as in English why
ui[wei̯]weias u + ei, as in English way
uan[wan]wanas u + an
un[wən]wenas u + en; as in English won
uang[waŋ]wangas u + ang
(ong)[wəŋ]wengas u + eng
Finals beginning with ü- (yu-)
ü[y] ⓘyuas in German über or French lune (pronounced as English ee with rounded lips; spelled as u after j, q or x)
üe[ɥe]yueas ü + ê where the e (compare with the ê interjection) is pronounced shorter and lighter (spelled as ue after j, q or x)
üan[ɥɛn]yuanas ü + an. Varies between [ɥen] and [ɥan] depending on the speaker (spelled as uan after j, q or x)
ün[yn]yunas ü + n (spelled as un after j, q or x)
Interjections
ê[ɛ](N/A)as in bet
o[ɔ](N/A)approximately as in British English office; the lips are much more rounded
io[jɔ]yoas i + o

The ⟨ü⟩ sound

An umlaut is added to ⟨u⟩ when it occurs after the initials ⟨l⟩ and ⟨n⟩ when necessary in order to represent the sound [y]. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in lü (e.g. 驴; 驢; 'donkey') from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. 炉; 爐; 'oven'). Tonal markers are placed above the umlaut, as in lǘ.

However, the ü is not used in the other contexts where it could represent a front high rounded vowel, namely after the letters j, q, x, and y. For example, the sound of the word 鱼/魚 (fish) is transcribed in pinyin simply as yú, not as yǘ. This practice is opposed to Wade–Giles, which always uses ü, and Tongyong Pinyin, which always uses yu. Whereas Wade–Giles needs the umlaut to distinguish between chü (pinyin ju) and chu (pinyin zhu), this ambiguity does not arise with pinyin, so the more convenient form ju is used instead of jü. Genuine ambiguities only happen with nu/nü and lu/lü, which are then distinguished by an umlaut.

Many fonts or output methods do not support an umlaut for ü or cannot place tone marks on top of ü. Likewise, using ü in input methods is difficult because it is not present as a simple key on many keyboard layouts. For these reasons v is sometimes used instead by convention. For example, it is common for cellphones to use v instead of ü. Additionally, some stores in China use v instead of ü in the transliteration of their names. The drawback is that there are no tone marks for the letter v.

This also presents a problem in transcribing names for use on passports, affecting people with names that consist of the sound lü or nü, particularly people with the surname 吕 (Lǚ), a fairly common surname, particularly compared to the surnames 陆 (Lù), 鲁 (Lǔ), 卢 (Lú) and 路 (Lù). Previously, the practice varied among different passport issuing offices, with some transcribing as "LV" and "NV" while others used "LU" and "NU". On 10 July 2012, the Ministry of Public Security standardized the practice to use "LYU" and "NYU" in passports.[30][31]

Although nüe written as nue, and lüe written as lue are not ambiguous, nue or lue are not correct according to the rules; nüe and lüe should be used instead. However, some Chinese input methods support both nve/lve (typing v for ü) and nue/lue.

Tones

Relative pitch changes of the four tones

The pinyin system also uses diacritics to mark the four tones of Mandarin (or it could be five tones when considering the neutral tone).[32] In the pinyinn system, four main tones of Mandarin are shown by diacritics: ā, á, ǎ, and à.[33] And there is no symbol or diacritic for the neutral tone, a. The diacritic is placed over the letter that represents the syllable nucleus, unless that letter is missing. Tones are used in Hanyu Pinyin symbols, and they do not appear in Chinese characters.

Tones are written on the finals of Chinese pinyin. If the tone mark is written over an i, then macron would be used to replace it, as in yī.

  1. The first tone (flat or high-level tone) is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel:
    ā ē ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū Ǖ
  2. The second tone (rising or high-rising tone) is denoted by an acute accent (ˊ):
    á é í ó ú ǘ Á É Í Ó Ú Ǘ
  3. The third tone (falling-rising or low tone) is marked by a caron/háček (ˇ):
    ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ
  4. The fourth tone (falling or high-falling tone) is represented by a grave accent (ˋ):
    à è ì ò ù ǜ À È Ì Ò Ù Ǜ
  5. The fifth tone (neutral tone) is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:
    a e i o u ü A E I O U Ü
In dictionaries, neutral tone may be indicated by a dot preceding the syllable; for example, ·ma. When a neutral tone syllable has an alternative pronunciation in another tone, a combination of tone marks may be used: zhī·dào (知道) may be pronounced either zhīdào or zhīdao.[34]

Tone numbers

Before the advent of computers, many typewriter fonts did not contain vowels with macron or caron diacritics. Tones were thus represented by placing a tone number at the end of individual syllables. For example, tóng is written tong2. The number used for each tone is as the order listed above, except the neutral tone either lacks a number, or is given the number 0 or 5.

ToneDiacriticNumberExampleIPA
Firstmacron ( ◌̄ )1māma1ma˥
Secondacute accent ( ◌́ )2máma2ma˧˥
Thirdcaron ( ◌̌ )3mǎma3ma˨˩˦
Fourthgrave accent ( ◌̀ )4màma4ma˥˩
Neutralnone
or middle dot before syllable ( ·◌ )
5
0		ma
·ma		ma
ma5
ma0		ma

Placement and omission

Briefly, the tone mark should always be placed by the order—a, o, e, i, u, ü, with the only exception being iu, where the tone mark is placed on the u instead. Pinyin tone marks appear primarily above the nucleus of the syllable, for example as in kuài, where k is the initial, u the medial, a the nucleus, and i the coda. The exception is syllabic nasals like /m/, where the nucleus of the syllable is a consonant, the diacritic will be carried by a written dummy vowel.

When the nucleus is /ə/ (written e or o), and there is both a medial and a coda, the nucleus may be dropped from writing. In this case, when the coda is a consonant n or ng, the only vowel left is the medial i, u, or ü, and so this takes the diacritic. However, when the coda is a vowel, it is the coda rather than the medial which takes the diacritic in the absence of a written nucleus. This occurs with syllables ending in -ui (from wei: wèi → -uì) and in -iu (from you: yòu → -iù). That is, in the absence of a written nucleus the finals have priority for receiving the tone marker, as long as they are vowels: if not, the medial takes the diacritic.

An algorithm to find the correct vowel letter (when there is more than one) is as follows:

  1. If there is an a or an e, it will take the tone mark
  2. If there is an ou, then the o takes the tone mark
  3. Otherwise, the second vowel takes the tone mark

Worded differently,

  1. If there is an a, e, or o, it will take the tone mark; in the case of ao, the mark goes on the a
  2. Otherwise, the vowels are -iu or -ui, in which case the second vowel takes the tone mark

The above can be summarized as the following table. The vowel letter taking the tone mark is indicated by the fourth-tone mark.

Placement of the tone mark in Pinyin
-a-e-i-o-u
a- àiào
e- èi
i- ià, iàoièiòiù
o- òu
u- uà, uàiuèuìuò
ü- (üà)üè

Tone colors

In addition to numbers and diacritics, color has been suggested as a means to carry tone information, mostly as a visual aid for learning. There are a number of different color schemes in use, with that by Dummitt being one of the first.

Tone color schemes
SchemeTone 1Tone 2Tone 3Tone 4Neutral tone
Dummitt[35]redorangegreenbluenone/black
MDBGredorangegreenblueblack
Unimelb[lower-alpha 3]bluegreenpurpleredgrey
Hanping[36]bluegreenorangeredgrey
Plecoredgreenbluepurplegrey
Thomas[lower-alpha 3]greenblueredblackgrey
  1. ↑ Based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin.
  2. 1 2 Y and w are equivalent to the semivowel medials i, u, and ü (see below). They are spelled differently when there is no initial consonant in order to mark a new syllable: fanguan is fan-guan, while fangwan is fang-wan (and equivalent to *fang-uan). With this convention, an apostrophe only needs to be used to mark an initial a, e, or o: Xi'an (two syllables: [ɕi.an]) vs. xian (one syllable: [ɕi̯ɛn]). In addition, y and w are added to fully vocalic i, u, and ü when these occur without an initial consonant, so that they are written yi, wu, and yu. Some Mandarin speakers do pronounce a [j] or [w] sound at the beginning of such words—that is, yi [i] or [ji], wu [u] or [wu], yu [y] or [ɥy],—so this is an intuitive convention. See below for a few finals which are abbreviated after a consonant plus w/u or y/i medial: wen → C+un, wei → C+ui, weng → C+ong, and you → Q+iu.
  3. 1 2 These colors are only approximate. The precise color values used by Dummitt, the MDBG Chinese Online Dictionary, Hanping, and Pleco are taken from Laowai's blog Tone Colors and What Pleco Did with Them.

Tone sandhi

Tone sandhi is not ordinarily reflected in pinyin spelling.

    Spacing, capitalization, and punctuation

    Standard Chinese has many polysyllabic words. Like in other writing systems using the Latin alphabet, spacing in pinyin is usually based on word boundaries. However, there are often ambiguities in partitioning a word. The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational and National Language commissions.[37] These rules became a GB recommendation in 1996,[37][38] and were last updated in 2012.[39]

    Comparison with other orthographies

    Pinyin superseded older romanization systems such as Wade–Giles and postal romanization, and replaced bopomofo as the method of Chinese phonetic instruction in mainland China. The ISO adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese in 1982 (ISO 7098:1982, superseded by ISO 7098:2015). The United Nations followed suit in 1986.[5][40] It has also been accepted by the government of Singapore, the United States's Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and many other international institutions.[41] Pinyin is now used by foreign students learning Chinese as a second language, as well as Bopomofo.

    Pinyin assigns some Latin letters sound values which are quite different from those of most languages. This has drawn some criticism as it may lead to confusion when uninformed speakers apply either native or English assumed pronunciations to words. However, this problem is not limited only to pinyin, since many languages that use the Latin alphabet natively also assign different values to the same letters. A recent study on Chinese writing and literacy concluded, "By and large, pinyin represents the Chinese sounds better than the Wade–Giles system, and does so with fewer extra marks."[42]

    As Pinyin is a phonetic writing system for modern Standard Chinese, it is not designed to replace Chinese characters for writing Literary Chinese, the standard written language prior to the early 1900s. In particular, Chinese characters retain semantic cues that help distinguish differently pronounced words in the ancient classical language that are now homophones in Mandarin. Thus, Chinese characters remain indispensable for recording and transmitting the corpus of Chinese writing from the past.

    Pinyin is also not designed to transcribe Chinese language varieties other than Standard Chinese, which is based on the phonological system of Beijing Mandarin. Other romanization schemes have been devised to transcribe those other Chinese varieties, such as Jyutping for Cantonese and Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Hokkien.

    Comparison charts

    Vowels a, e, o
    IPA a ɔ ɛ ɤ ai ei au ou an ən aŋ əŋ ʊŋ aɹ
    Pinyin aoêeaieiaoouanenangengonger
    Tongyong Pinyin e
    Wade–Giles ehê/oênêngungêrh
    Bopomofo ㄚㄛㄝㄜㄞㄟㄠㄡㄢㄣㄤㄥㄨㄥㄦ
    example 阿喔誒俄艾黑凹偶安恩昂冷中二
    Vowels i, u, y
    IPA i je jou jɛn in iŋ jʊŋ u wo wei wən wəŋ y ɥe ɥɛn yn
    Pinyin yiyeyouyanyinyingyongwuwo/oweiwenwengyuyueyuanyun
    Tongyong Pinyin wunwong
    Wade–Giles i/yiyehyuyenyungwênwêngyüyüehyüanyün
    Bopomofo ㄧㄧㄝㄧㄡㄧㄢㄧㄣㄧㄥㄩㄥㄨㄨㄛ/ㄛㄨㄟㄨㄣㄨㄥㄩㄩㄝㄩㄢㄩㄣ
    example 一也又言音英用五我位文翁玉月元雲
    Non-sibilant consonants
    IPA p pʰ m fəŋ tjou twei twən tʰɤ ny ly kɤɹ kʰɤ xɤ
    Pinyin bpmfengdiuduiduntenülügekehe
    Tongyong Pinyin fongdioudueinyulyu
    Wade–Giles ppʻfêngtiutuituntʻênülükokʻoho
    Bopomofo ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄥㄉㄧㄡㄉㄨㄟㄉㄨㄣㄊㄜㄋㄩㄌㄩㄍㄜㄎㄜㄏㄜ
    example 玻婆末封丟兌頓特女旅歌可何
    Sibilant consonants
    IPA tɕjɛn tɕjʊŋ tɕʰin ɕɥɛn ʈʂɤ ʈʂɨ ʈʂʰɤ ʈʂʰɨ ʂɤ ʂɨ ɻɤ ɻɨ tsɤ tswo tsɨ tsʰɤ tsʰɨ sɤ sɨ
    Pinyin jianjiongqinxuanzhezhichechisheshirerizezuozicecisesi
    Tongyong Pinyin jyongcinsyuanjhejhihchihshihrihzihcihsih
    Wade–Giles chienchiungchʻinshüanchêchihchʻêchʻihshêshihjêjihtsêtsotzŭtsʻêtzʻŭsêssŭ
    Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄢㄐㄩㄥㄑㄧㄣㄒㄩㄢㄓㄜㄓㄔㄜㄔㄕㄜㄕㄖㄜㄖㄗㄜㄗㄨㄛㄗㄘㄜㄘㄙㄜㄙ
    example 件窘秦宣哲之扯赤社是惹日仄左字策次色斯
    Tones
    IPA ma˥˥ ma˧˥ ma˨˩˦ ma˥˩ ma
    Pinyin māmámǎmàma
    Tongyong Pinyin mamȧ
    Wade–Giles ma1ma2ma3ma4ma
    Bopomofo ㄇㄚㄇㄚˊㄇㄚˇㄇㄚˋ˙ㄇㄚ
    example (Chinese characters) 媽麻馬罵嗎

    Typography and encoding

    Many books printed in China use a mix of fonts, with vowels and tone marks rendered in a different font from the surrounding text, tending to give such pinyin texts a typographically ungainly appearance. The rules of Hanyu Pinyin specify no such practice.[43]: 3.3.4.1:8 

    Based on the "Chinese Romanization" section of ISO 7098:2015, pinyin tone marks should use the symbols from Combining Diacritical Marks, as opposed by the use of Spacing Modifier Letters in Bopomofo. Lowercase letters with tone marks are included in GB/T 2312 and their uppercase counterparts are included in JIS X 0212;[44] thus Unicode includes all the common accented characters from pinyin.[45] Other punctuation mark and symbols in Chinese are to use the equivalent symbol in English noted in to GB/T 15834.

    Due to GB/T 16159 The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography, all accented letters are required to have both uppercase and lowercase characters as per their normal counterparts.[1][2]

    LetterFirst toneSecond toneThird toneFourth tone
    Combining Diacritical Marks̄ (U+0304)́ (U+0301)̌ (U+030C)̀ (U+0300)
    Common letters
    UppercaseAĀ (U+0100)Á (U+00C1)Ǎ (U+01CD)À (U+00C0)
    EĒ (U+0112)É (U+00C9)Ě (U+011A)È (U+00C8)
    IĪ (U+012A)Í (U+00CD)Ǐ (U+01CF)Ì (U+00CC)
    OŌ (U+014C)Ó (U+00D3)Ǒ (U+01D1)Ò (U+00D2)
    UŪ (U+016A)Ú (U+00DA)Ǔ (U+01D3)Ù (U+00D9)
    Ü (U+00DC)Ǖ (U+01D5)Ǘ (U+01D7)Ǚ (U+01D9)Ǜ (U+01DB)
    Lowercaseaā (U+0101)á (U+00E1)ǎ (U+01CE)à (U+00E0)
    eē (U+0113)é (U+00E9)ě (U+011B)è (U+00E8)
    iī (U+012B)í (U+00ED)ǐ (U+01D0)ì (U+00EC)
    oō (U+014D)ó (U+00F3)ǒ (U+01D2)ò (U+00F2)
    uū (U+016B)ú (U+00FA)ǔ (U+01D4)ù (U+00F9)
    ü (U+00FC)ǖ (U+01D6)ǘ (U+01D8)ǚ (U+01DA)ǜ (U+01DC)
    Rare letters
    UppercaseÊ (U+00CA)Ê̄ (U+00CA U+0304)Ế (U+1EBE)Ê̌ (U+00CA U+030C)Ề (U+1EC0)
    MM̄ (U+004D U+0304)Ḿ (U+1E3E)M̌ (U+004D U+030C)M̀ (U+004D U+0300)
    NN̄ (U+004E U+0304)Ń (U+0143)Ň (U+0147)Ǹ (U+01F8)
    Lowercaseê (U+00EA)ê̄ (U+00EA U+0304)ế (U+1EBF)ê̌ (U+00EA U+030C)ề (U+1EC1)
    mm̄ (U+006D U+0304)ḿ (U+1E3F)m̌ (U+006D U+030C)m̀ (U+006D U+0300)
    nn̄ (U+006E U+0304)ń (U+0144)ň (U+0148)ǹ (U+01F9)
    Notes
    1.^ Yellow cells indicate that there are no single Unicode character for that letter; the character shown here uses Combining Diacritical Mark characters to display the letter.[45]
    2.^ Grey cells indicate that Xiandai Hanyu Cidian does not include pinyin with that specific letter.[45][46]
    Microsoft Pinyin IME
    When using pinyin IME, choosing ḿ/ǹ outputs PUA U+E7C7 and U+E7C8.

    GBK has mapped two characters 'ḿ' and 'ǹ' to Private Use Areas in Unicode as U+E7C7 () and U+E7C8 () respectively,[47] thus some Simplified Chinese fonts (e.g. SimSun) that adheres to GBK include both characters in the Private Use Areas, and some input methods (e.g. Sogou Pinyin) also outputs the Private Use Areas code point instead of the original character. As the superset GB 18030 changed the mappings of 'ḿ' and 'ǹ',[46] this has caused an issue where the input methods and font files use different encoding standards, and thus the input and output of both characters are mixed up.[45]

    Shorthand pinyin letters[45]
    UppercaseLowercaseNoteExample[lower-alpha 1]
    Ĉ (U+0108)ĉ (U+0109)Abbreviation of ch长/長 can be spelled as ĉáŋ
    Ŝ (U+015C)ŝ (U+015D)Abbreviation of sh伤/傷 can be spelled as ŝāŋ
    Ẑ (U+1E90)ẑ (U+1E91)Abbreviation of zh张/張 can be spelled as Ẑāŋ
    Ŋ (U+014A)ŋ (U+014B)Abbreviation of ng让/讓 can be spelled as ràŋ, 嗯 can be spelled as ŋ̀
    Notes

    Other symbols that are used in pinyin text are as follows:

    Pinyin symbols
    Symbol in Chinese Symbol in pinyin Usage Example
    。(U+3002) . (U+002E) Marks end of sentence. 你好。 Nǐ hǎo.
    ，(U+FF0C)/、 (U+3001) , (U+002C) Marks connecting sentence. 你，好吗？ Nǐ, hǎo ma?
    —— (U+2014 U+2014) — (U+2014) Indicates breaking of meaning mid-sentence. 枢纽部分——中央大厅 shūniǔ bùfèn — zhōngyāng dàtīng
    …… (U+2026 U+2026) … (U+2026) Used for omitting a word, phrase, line, paragraph, or more from a quoted passage. 我…… Wǒ…
    · (U+00B7) Marks for the neutral tone, can be placed before the neutral-tone syllable. 吗 ·ma
    - (U+002D) Hyphenation between abbreviated compounds. 公关 gōng-guān
    ' (U+0027) Indicates separate syllables. 西安 Xī'ān (compared to 先 xiān)

    Usage

    A slogan written on a school wall featuring pinyin annotations without tonal marks

    The spelling of Chinese geographical or personal names in pinyin has become the most common way to transcribe them in English. Pinyin has also become the dominant method for entering Chinese text into computers in mainland China, in contrast to Taiwan, where bopomofo is most commonly used.

    Families outside of Taiwan who speak Mandarin as a mother tongue use pinyin to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know. Chinese families outside of Taiwan who speak some other language as their mother tongue use the system to teach children Mandarin pronunciation when they learn vocabulary in elementary school.[48][49]

    Since 1958, pinyin has been actively used in adult education as well, making it easier for formerly illiterate people to continue with self-study after a short period of pinyin literacy instruction.[50]

    Pinyin has become a tool for many foreigners to learn Mandarin pronunciation, and is used to explain both the grammar and spoken Mandarin coupled with Chinese characters. Books containing both Chinese characters and pinyin are often used by foreign learners of Chinese. Pinyin's role in teaching pronunciation to foreigners and children is similar in some respects to furigana-based books (with hiragana letters written above or next to kanji, directly analogous to zhuyin) in Japanese or fully vocalised texts in Arabic ("vocalised Arabic").

    The tone-marking diacritics are commonly omitted in popular news stories and even in scholarly works, as well as in the traditional Mainland Chinese Braille system, which is similar to pinyin, but meant for blind readers.[51] This results in some degree of ambiguity as to which words are being represented.

    Computer input systems

    Simple computer systems, sometimes only able to use simple character systems for text, such as the 7-bit ASCII standard—essentially the 26 Latin letters, 10 digits, and punctuation marks—long provided a convincing argument for using unaccented pinyin instead of diacritical pinyin or Chinese characters. Today, however, most computer systems are able to display characters from Chinese and many other writing systems as well, and have them entered with a Latin keyboard using an input method editor. Alternatively, some touchscreen devices allow users to input characters graphically by writing with a stylus, with concurrent online handwriting recognition.

    Pinyin with accents can be entered with the use of special keyboard layouts or various other utilities.

    Sorting techniques

    Chinese text can be sorted by its pinyin representation, which is often useful for looking up words whose pronunciations are known, but not whose character forms are not known.[52] Chinese characters and words can be sorted for convenient lookup by their Pinyin expressions alphabetically,[53] according to their inherited order originating with the ancient Phoenicians. Identical syllables are then further sorted by tone number, ascending, with neutral tones placed last.

    Words of multiple characters can be sorted in two different ways,[54] either per character, as is used in the Xiandai Hanyu Cidianor by the whole word's string, which is only then sorted by tone. This method is used in the ABC Chinese–English Dictionary.

    By region

    Taiwan

    Taiwan used Tongyong Pinyin, a domestic modification of Hanyu Pinyin, as its official romanization system between October 2002 and January 2009. Thereafter, it instead to instead promote the use of Hanyu Pinyin. Tongyong Pinyin ("common phonetic"), a romanization system developed in Taiwan, was designed to romanize languages and dialects spoken on the island in addition to Mandarin Chinese. The Kuomintang (KMT) party resisted its adoption, preferring the system by then used in mainland China and internationally. Romanization preferences quickly became associated with issues of national identity. Preferences split along party lines: the KMT and its affiliated parties in the pan-blue coalition supported the use of Hanyu Pinyin while the Democratic Progressive Party and its affiliated parties in the pan-green coalition favored the use of Tongyong Pinyin.

    Today, many street signs in Taiwan use Tongyong Pinyin or derived romanizations,[55][56] but some, especially in northern Taiwan, display Hanyu Pinyin-derived romanizations. It is not unusual to see spellings on street signs and buildings derived from the older Wade–Giles, MPS2 and other systems. Attempts to make Hanyu Pinyin standard in Taiwan have had uneven success, with most place and proper names remaining unaffected, including all major cities. Personal names on Taiwanese passports honor the choices of Taiwanese citizens, who can choose Wade-Giles, Hakka, Hoklo, Tongyong, aboriginal, or pinyin.[57] Official pinyin use is controversial, as when pinyin use for a metro line in 2017 provoked protests, despite government responses that "The romanization used on road signs and at transportation stations is intended for foreigners... Every foreigner learning Mandarin learns Hanyu pinyin, because it is the international standard...The decision has nothing to do with the nation's self-determination or any ideologies, because the key point is to ensure that foreigners can read signs."[58]

    Singapore

    Singapore implemented Hanyu Pinyin as the official romanization system for Mandarin in the public sector starting in the 1980s, in conjunction with the Speak Mandarin Campaign.[59] Hanyu Pinyin is also used as the romanization system to teach Mandarin Chinese at schools.[60] While the process of Pinyinisation has been mostly successful in government communication, placenames, and businesses established in the 1980s and onward, it continues to be unpopular in some areas, most notably for personal names and vocabulary borrowed from other varieties of Chinese already established in the local vernacular.[59] In these situations, romanization continues to be based on the Chinese language variety it originated from, especially the three largest Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in Singapore (Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese).

    Special names

    In accordance to the Regulation of Phonetic Transcription in Hanyu Pinyin Letters of Place Names in Minority Nationality Languages (少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法; 少數民族語地名漢語拼音字母音譯寫法) promulgated in 1976, place names in non-Han languages like Mongolian, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also officially transcribed using pinyin in a system adopted by the State Administration of Surveying and Mapping and Geographical Names Committee known as SASM/GNC romanization. The pinyin letters (26 Roman letters, plus ü and ê) are used to approximate the non-Han language in question as closely as possible. This results in spellings that are different from both the customary spelling of the place name, and the pinyin spelling of the name in Chinese:

    CustomaryOfficial pinyinChinese character namePinyin for Chinese name
    ShigatseXigazê日喀則日喀则Rìkāzé
    UrumchiÜrümqi烏魯木齊乌鲁木齐Wūlǔmùqí
    LhasaLhasa拉薩拉萨Lāsà
    HohhotHohhot呼和浩特呼和浩特Hūhéhàotè
    GolmudGolmud格爾木格尔木Gé'ěrmù
    QiqiharQiqihar齊齊哈爾齐齐哈尔Qíqíhā'ěr

    Tongyong Pinyin was developed in Taiwan for use in rendering not only Mandarin Chinese, but other languages and dialects spoken on the island such as Taiwanese, Hakka, and aboriginal languages.

    See also

    Notes

    1. ↑ Simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音; pinyin: Hànyǔ pīnyīn
    1. ↑ Example given is the abbreviated/shorthand version according to Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, it is inadvisable to use them for real life usage.

    References

    1. ↑ GF 3006-2001 汉语拼音方案的通用键盘表示规范 (Standard for the Scheme of Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Input with Universal Keyboard). National Language Commission, PRC. 23 February 2001. ISBN 978-7-80126-789-4.
    2. ↑ GB/T 16159 汉语拼音正词法基本原则 (The basic rules of Chinese phonetic alphabet orthography). National Language Commission, PRC. 29 June 2012.
    3. ↑ The online version of the canonical Guoyu Cidian (國語辭典 defines this term as 'a system of symbols for notation of the sounds of words, rather than for their meanings, that is sufficient to accurately record some language'. See this entry online. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
    4. 1 2 3 "The Development of the Hanyu Pinyin System". 人文与社会 (in Chinese). 5 December 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
    5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Margalit Fox (14 January 2017). "Zhou Youguang, Who Made Writing Chinese as Simple as ABC, Dies at 111". The New York Times.
    6. ↑ "Pinyin celebrates 50th birthday". Xinhua News Agency. 11 February 2008. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
    7. ↑ "ISO 7098:1982 – Documentation – Romanization of Chinese". Retrieved 1 March 2009.
    8. ↑ Shih Hsiu-Chuan (18 September 2008). "Hanyu Pinyin to be standard system in 2009". Taipei Times. p. 2.
    9. ↑ "Government to improve English-friendly environment". The China Post. 18 September 2008. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008.
    10. ↑ Copper, John F. (2014). Historical Dictionary of Taiwan (Republic of China). Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-4307-1. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
    11. ↑ Sin, Kiong Wong (2012). Confucianism, Chinese History and Society. World Scientific. p. 72. ISBN 978-9814374477. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
    12. ↑ Brockey, Liam Matthew (2009). Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724. Harvard University Press. p. 261. ISBN 978-0674028814. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
    13. 1 2 Chan, Wing-tsit; Adler, Joseph (2013). Sources of Chinese Tradition. Columbia University Press. pp. 303–304. ISBN 978-0231517997. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
    14. ↑ Ao, Benjamin (1997). "History and Prospect of Chinese Romanization". Chinese Librarianship: An International Electronic Journal. 4.
    15. ↑ "Father of pinyin". China Daily. 26 March 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2009. Reprinted in part as Simon, Alan (21–27 January 2011). "Father of Pinyin". China Daily Asia Weekly. Hong Kong. Xinhua. p. 20.
    16. ↑ Dwyer, Colin (14 January 2017). "Obituary: Zhou Youguang, Architect Of A Bridge Between Languages, Dies At 111". NPR. National Public Radio. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
    17. ↑ Branigan, Tania (21 February 2008). "Sound Principles". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
    18. ↑ Hessler, Peter (8 February 2004). "Oracle Bones". The New Yorker. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
    19. ↑ Rohsenow, John S. 1989. Fifty years of script and written language reform in the PRC: the genesis of the language law of 2001. In Zhou Minglang and Sun Hongkai, eds. Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice Since 1949, p. 23
    20. ↑ Branigan, Tania (21 February 2008). "Sound principles". The Guardian. London.
    21. 1 2 "《汉语拼音方案》研制历程及当代发展——兼谈普通话的推广". 《语文建设》 (7). 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
    22. ↑ 王均 (1995). 当代中國的文字改革 [Writing System Reform in Contemporary China] (in Chinese). 当代中國出版社. ISBN 9787800922985.
    23. 1 2 "Hanyu Pinyin system turns 50". Straits Times. 11 February 2008. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
    24. ↑ Wiedenhof, Jeroen (Leiden University) (2004). "Purpose and effect in the transcription of Mandarin" (PDF). Proceedings of the International Conference on Chinese Studies 2004 (漢學研究國際學術研討會論文集). National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. pp. 387–402. ISBN 9860040117. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2009. In the Cold War era, the use of this system outside China was typically regarded as a political statement, or a deliberate identification with the Chinese communist regime. (p390)
    25. ↑ Terry, Edith. How Asia Got Rich: Japan, China and the Asian Miracle. M.E. Sharpe, 2002. 632. Retrieved from Google Books on August 7, 2011. ISBN 0-7656-0356-X, 9780765603562.
    26. ↑ Terry, Edith. How Asia Got Rich: Japan, China and the Asian Miracle. M.E. Sharpe, 2002. 633. Retrieved from Google Books on August 7, 2011. ISBN 0-7656-0356-X, 9780765603562.
    27. ↑ Times due to revise its Chinese spelling, New York Times February 4 1979 page 10
    28. ↑ "GB/T 16159-2012" (PDF). Retrieved 17 February 2020.
    29. ↑ Shea, Marilyn. "Pinyin / Ting - The Chinese Experience". hua.umf.maine.edu. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
    30. ↑ Huang, Rong. 公安部最新规定 护照上的"ü"规范成"YU". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
    31. ↑ Li, Zhiyan. "吕"拼音到怎么写？ 公安部称应拼写成"LYU". Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
    32. ↑ Wang, Qiuying; Andrews, Jean F. (2021). "Chinese Pinyin: Overview, History and Use in Language Learning for Young Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in China". American Annals of the Deaf. 166 (4): 446–461. doi:10.1353/aad.2021.0038. ISSN 1543-0375. PMID 35185033. S2CID 247010548.
    33. ↑ Chang, Yufen (9 October 2018). "How pinyin tone formats and character orthography influence Chinese learners' tone acquisition". Chinese as a Second Language Research. 7 (2): 195–219. doi:10.1515/caslar-2018-0008. ISSN 2193-2263. S2CID 57998920.
    34. ↑ Section 7.3 of the current standard GB/T 16159-2012.
    35. ↑ Dummitt, Nathan (2008). Chinese Through Tone & Color. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0781812047.
    36. ↑ "Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro 3.2.11 released!". 10 January 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
    37. 1 2 "Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography". Qingdao Vocational and Technical College of Hotel Management (in Chinese). Department of Educational Administration. 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
    38. ↑ 拼音正词法基本规则. pinyin.info.
    39. ↑ "Release of the National Standard Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography". China Education and Research Network (in Chinese). 20 July 2012. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
    40. ↑ Lin Mei-chun (8 October 2000). "Official challenges romanization". Taipei Times.
    41. ↑ Ao, Benjamin (1 December 1997). "History and Prospect of Chinese Romanization". Chinese Librarianship: An International Electronic Journal. Internet Chinese Librarians Club (4). ISSN 1089-4667. Retrieved 20 September 2008.
    42. ↑ Taylor, Insup and Maurice M. Taylor (1995), Writing and literacy in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, Volume 3 of Studies in written language and literacy, John Benjamins, p. 124.
    43. ↑ Tung, Bobby; Chen, Yijun; Liang, Hai; LIU, Eric Q.; Zhang, Aijie; Wu, Xiaoqian; Li, Angel; Ishida, Richard. "Requirements for Chinese Text Layout". W3C. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
    44. ↑ "Chapter 7: Europe-I". Unicode 14.0 Core Specification (PDF) (14.0 ed.). Mountain View, CA: Unicode. 2021. p. 297. ISBN 978-1-936213-29-0.
    45. 1 2 3 4 5 Eric Q. LIU. "The Type — Wǒ ài pīnyīn!". The Type. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
    46. 1 2 奈白不弍. "关于带声调汉语拼音字母的输入". 知乎专栏 (in Chinese). Retrieved 4 June 2020.
    47. ↑ 林卯. "自制像素字体7年后总算升了0.5版本：Ozla 5.5"Mendelev"(钔捷列夫)". bangumi.tv.
    48. ↑ Snowling, Margaret J.; Hulme, Charles (2005). The science of reading: a handbook. Blackwell handbooks of developmental psychology. Vol. 17. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 320–22. ISBN 1-4051-1488-6.
    49. ↑ R.F. Price (2005). Education in Modern China. Volume 23 of "China : history, philosophy, economics" (2, illustrated ed.). Routledge. p. 123. ISBN 0-415-36167-2.
    50. ↑ Price (2005), pp. 206–208
    51. ↑ "Braille's invention still a boon to visually impaired Chinese readers". South China Morning Post. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2022. ... mainland Chinese Braille for standard Mandarin, and Taiwanese Braille for Taiwanese Mandarin are phonetically based... tone (generally omitted for Mandarin systems)
    52. ↑ Wang, Ning (王寧，鄒曉麗) (2003). 工具書 (Reference Books) (in Chinese). Hong Kong: 和平圖書有限公司. p. 27. ISBN 962-238-363-7.
    53. ↑ Wang, Ning (王寧，鄒曉麗) (2003). 工具書 (Reference Books) (in Chinese). Hong Kong: 和平圖書有限公司. pp. 27–28. ISBN 962-238-363-7.
    54. ↑ Su, Peicheng (苏培成) (2014). 现代汉字学纲要 (Essentials of Modern Chinese Characters) (in Chinese) (3rd ed.). Beijing: 商务印书馆 (The Commercial Press, Shangwu). pp. 183–207. ISBN 978-7-100-10440-1.
    55. ↑ 劉婉君 (15 October 2018). 路牌改通用拼音？ 南市府：已採用多年. Liberty Times (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 28 July 2019. 基進黨台南市東區市議員參選人李宗霖今天指出，台南市路名牌拼音未統一、音譯錯誤等，建議統一採用通用拼音。對此，台南市政府交通局回應，南市已實施通用拼音多年，將全面檢視路名牌，依現行音譯方式進行校對改善。
    56. ↑ Eryk Smith (27 November 2017). "OPINION: Hanyu Pinyin Should Not Be Political, Kaohsiung". Retrieved 13 July 2019. why does Kaohsiung City insist on making visitors guess what 'Shihcyuan' is supposed to represent? Especially when a few blocks away, the same road has somehow morphed into 'Shiquan' (十全路) Road? Move away from Kaohsiung's city center and streets, neighborhoods or townships can have several romanized names ... sometimes on the same signage.{...}The refusal to adopt Hanyu in Kaohsiung seems based on nothing more than groundless fear of loss of identity or diminished regional autonomy. Listen, Kaohsiung: we won't lose our identity or our freedom by changing the romanized spelling of Singjhong Road (興中)to Xingzhong.
    57. ↑ Everington, Keoni. "Taiwan passport can now include names in Hoklo, Hakka, indigenous languages". Taiwan News. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
    58. ↑ Lin, Sean (11 January 2017). "Groups protest use of Hanyu pinyin for new MRT line - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
    59. 1 2 Wendy Bockhorst-Heng; Lionel Lee (November 2007), "Language Planning in Singapore: On Pragmatism, Communitarianism and Personal Names", Current Issues in Language Planning, p. 3
    60. ↑ p.485, Chan, Sin-Wai. The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language, Routledge, 2016.

    Further reading

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