Pinyin

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Pinyin (Chinese: 拼音; pinyin: pīnyīn), or more formally Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音 / 漢語拼音), is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin (标准普通话 / 標準普通話). Hànyǔ (汉语 / 漢語) means the Chinese language, and pīnyīn (拼音) means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound".[1] The system is only for Standard Mandarin, not for other Chinese languages, including the ancient official Chinese Guangyun (广韵 / 廣韻). The system is now used in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, parts of Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore to teach Mandarin Chinese[2] and internationally to teach Mandarin as a second language. It is also often used to spell Chinese names in foreign publications and can be used to enter Chinese characters (hanzi) on computers and cellphones.

The romanization system was developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958.[3] The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982,[4] and since then it has been adopted by many other organizations. This romanization system also became the national standard in the Republic of China (ROC, commonly known as Taiwan) on January 1, 2009.[5][6]

• 1 History
• 2 Usage
• 3 Overview
• 4 Initials and finals
  • 4.1 Initials
  • 4.2 Finals
• 5 Rules given in terms of English pronunciation
  • 5.1 Pronunciation of initials
  • 5.2 Pronunciation of finals
• 6 Orthography
  • 6.1 Letters
  • 6.2 Capitalization and word formation
• 7 Tones
  • 7.1 Numerals in place of tone marks
  • 7.2 Rules for placing the tone mark
  • 7.3 Using tone colors
• 8 The character "ü"
• 9 Comparison chart
• 10 Pinyin in Taiwan
• 11 Other languages
• 12 Comparison with other orthographies
• 13 See also
• 14 References
• 15 Further reading
• 16 External links

History

In 1954, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (PRC) created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language. This committee developed Hanyu pinyin based upon several preexisting systems: (Gwoyeu Romatzyh of 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz of 1931, and the diacritic markings from zhuyin).[7] The main force behind pinyin was Zhou Youguang.[8] Zhou was working in a New York bank when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after establishment of the PRC in 1949. He became an economics professor in Shanghai and was assigned to help the development of a new romanization system.

A first draft was published on February 12, 1956. The first edition of Hanyu pinyin was approved and 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 Mandarin pronunciation and used to improve the literacy rate among adults. In 2001, the Chinese Government issued the National Common Language Law, providing a legal basis for applying pinyin.[9]

Usage

Pinyin superseded older romanization systems such as Wade-Giles (1859; modified 1892) and Chinese Postal Map Romanization, and replaced zhuyin as the method of Chinese phonetic instruction in mainland China. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese in 1982 (ISO 7098:1982, superseded by ISO 7098:1991); the United Nations followed suit in 1986.[10] It has also been accepted by the government of Singapore, the United States' Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and many other international institutions.[11]

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 a useful tool for entering Chinese text into computers.

Chinese families who speak Mandarin as a mother tongue use pinyin to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know. Chinese families who speak some other language as their mother tongue use the system to teach children Mandarin pronunciation when they learn vocabulary in elementary school.[2][12]

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.[13]

Pinyin has become a tool for many foreigners to learn the Mandarin pronunciation, and is used to explain the grammar and spoken Mandarin together with hanzi. 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) 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. An unfortunate effect of this is the ambiguity that results about which Chinese characters are being represented.

Overview

The correspondence between Roman letter and sound in the system is sometimes idiosyncratic, though not necessarily more so than the way the Roman alphabet is employed in other languages. For example, the aspiration distinction between b, d, g and p, t, k is similar to that of English (in which the two sets are however also differentiated by voicing), but not to that of French. Z and c also have that distinction; however, they are pronounced as [ts], as in German and Italian, which do not have that distinction. From s, z, c come the digraphs sh, zh, ch by analogy with English sh, ch. Although this introduces the novel combination zh, it is internally consistent in how the two series are related, and reminds the trained reader that many Chinese pronounce sh, zh, ch as s, z, c. In the x, j, q series, the Pinyin use of x is similar to its use in Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Basque and Maltese; and the Pinyin q is akin to its value in Albanian; both Pinyin and Albanian pronunciations may sound similar to the ch to the untrained ear. Pinyin vowels are pronounced in a similar way to vowels in Romance languages. More information on the pronunciation of all pinyin letters in terms of English approximations is given further below.

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

Initials and finals

Unlike in European languages, initials (simplified Chinese: 声母; traditional Chinese: 聲母; pinyin: shēngmǔ) and finals (simplified Chinese: 韵母; traditional Chinese: 韻母; pinyin: yùnmǔ)—and not consonants and vowels—are the fundamental elements in pinyin (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Han language). Nearly each Chinese syllable can be spelled with exactly one initial followed by one final, except in the special syllable er and when a trailing -r is considered part of a syllable (see below). The latter case, though a common practice in some sub-dialects, is rarely used in official publications. One exception is the city Harbin (simplified Chinese: 哈尔滨; traditional Chinese: 哈爾濱), which is from the Manchu language originally.

Even though most initials contain a consonant, finals are not simple vowels, especially in compound finals (simplified Chinese: 复韵母; traditional Chinese: 複韻母; pinyin: fuyunmu), i.e., when one "final" is placed in front of another one. For example, [i] and [u] are pronounced with such tight openings that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing or on stage) pronounce yī (simplified Chinese: 衣; traditional Chinese: 衣, clothes, officially pronounced /i/) as /ji/, wéi (simplified Chinese: 围; traditional Chinese: 圍, to enclose, officially as /uei/) as /wei/ or /wuei/. The concepts of consonant and vowel are not incorporated in pinyin or its predecessors; there is no list of consonants or vowels.

Initials

In each cell below, the first line indicates the IPA, the second indicates pinyin.

Bilabial

Labio- dental

Alveolar

Retroflex

Alveolo- palatal

Palatal

Velar

Plosive

[p] b

[pʰ] p

[t] d

[tʰ] t

[k] g

[kʰ] k

Nasal

[m] m

[n] n

Lateral approximant

[l] l

Affricate

[ts] z

[tsʰ] c

[tʂ] zh

[tʂʰ] ch

[tɕ] j

[tɕʰ] q

Fricative

[f] f

[s] s

[ʂ] sh

[ʐ] 1 r

[ɕ] x

[x] h

Approximant

[ɻ] 1 r

[j]2  or [ɥ]3 y

[w]2 w

1 /ɻ/ may phonetically be /ʐ/ (a voiced retroflex fricative). This pronunciation varies among different speakers, and is not two different phonemes.
2 the letters "w" and "y" are not included in the table of initials in the official pinyin system. They are an orthographic convention for the medials "i", "u" and "ü" when no initial is present. When "i", "u" or "ü" are finals and no initial is present, they are spelled "yi", "wu", and "yu", respectively.
3 "y" is pronounced [ɥ] (a labial-palatal approximant) before "u".

Conventional order (excluding w and y), derived from the zhuyin system, is:

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

Finals

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.1

The only syllable-final consonants in standard Mandarin are -n and -ng, and -r, which is attached as a grammatical suffix. Chinese syllables ending with any other consonant is either from a non-Mandarin language (southern Chinese languages such as Cantonese, or minority languages of China), or it indicates the use of a non-pinyin Romanization system (where final consonants may be used to indicate tones).

Final		Medial
Nucleus	Coda	Ø	i	u	y
a	Ø	[ɑ] a -a	[i̯a] ya -ia	[u̯a] wa -ua
	i	[aɪ̯] ai -ai		[u̯aɪ̯] wai -uai
	u	[ɑʊ̯] ao -ao	[i̯ɑʊ̯] yao -iao
	n	[an] an -an	[i̯ɛn] yan -ian	[u̯an] wan -uan	[y̯ɛn] yuan -üan 2
	ŋ	[ɑŋ] ang -ang	[i̯ɑŋ] yang -iang	[u̯ɑŋ] wang -uang
ə	Ø	[ɤ] e -e	[i̯ɛ] ye -ie	[u̯ɔ] wo -uo/-o 3	[y̯œ] yue -üe 2
	i	[eɪ̯] ei -ei		[u̯eɪ̯] wei -ui
	u	[oʊ̯] ou -ou	[i̯oʊ̯] you -iu
	n	[ən] en -en	[in] yin -in	[u̯ən] wen -un	[yn] yun -ün 2
	ŋ	[əŋ] eng -eng	[iŋ] ying -ing	[u̯əŋ], [ʊŋ] 4 weng -ong	[i̯ʊŋ] yong -iong
Ø		[ɨ] -i	[i] yi -i	[u] wu -u	[y] yu -ü 2

1 [ɑɻ] (而, 二, etc.) is written er. For other finals formed by the suffix -r, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends -r to the final that it is added to, without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way. For information on sound changes related to final -r, please see Standard Mandarin.
2 "ü" is written as "u" after j, q, x, or y.
3 "uo" is written as "o" after b, p, m, or f.
4 It is pronounced [ʊŋ] when it follows an initial, and pinyin reflects this difference.

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.

Rules given in terms of English pronunciation

This section includes inline links to audio files. If you have trouble playing the files, see Wikipedia Media help.

All rules given here in terms of English pronunciation are approximate, as several of these sounds do not correspond directly to sounds in English.

Pronunciation of initials

Pinyin	IPA	Explanation
b	[p]	unaspirated p, as in spit
p	[pʰ]	strongly aspirated p, as in pit
m	[m]	as in English mummy
f	[f]	as in English fun
d	[t]	unaspirated t, as in stop
t	[tʰ]	strongly aspirated t, as in top
n	[n]	as in English nit
l	[l]	as in English love
g	[k]	unaspirated k, as in skill
k	[kʰ]	strongly aspirated k, as in kill
h	[x]	like the English h if followed by "a". It is pronounced roughly like the Scots ch and Russian х (Cyrillic "kha")).
j	[tɕ]	No equivalent in English. Like q, but unaspirated. Not the j in jingle. Not the s in Asia, despite the common English pronunciation of "Beijing". The sequence "ji" is similar to the Japanese pronunciation of ち(チ) chi(when unaspirated).
q	[tɕʰ]	No equivalent in English. Like cheek, with the lips spread wide with ee. Curl the tip of the tongue downwards to stick it at the back of the teeth and strongly aspirate.
x	[ɕ]	No equivalent in English. Like she, with the lips spread and the tip of your tongue curled downwards and stuck to the back of teeth when you say ee. The sequence "xi" is the same as the Japanese pronunciation of し(シ) shi.
zh	[tʂ]	j or dr in English with no aspiration (a sound between joke and drew, tongue tip curled more upwards); similar to merge in American English but not voiced
ch	[tʂʰ]	as in chin, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to nurture in American English, but strongly aspirated
sh	[ʂ]	as in shoe, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to marsh in American English
r	[ʐ]	Similar to the English z in azure and r in reduce, but with the tongue curled upwards, like a cross between English "r" and French "j". In Cyrillised Chinese the sound is rendered with the letter "ж".
z	[ts]	unaspirated c, similar to something between suds and cats
c	[tsʰ]	like the English ts in cats, but strongly aspirated, very similar to the Polish c.
s	[s]	as in sun
w	[w]	as in water.*
y	[j]	as in yes.*
'	[.]	new syllable*

* Note on w, y, and the apostrophe

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 → C+iu.

Pronunciation of finals

The following is a list of finals in Standard Mandarin, excepting most of those ending with a -r.

To find a given final:

1. Remove the initial consonant. Zh, ch, and sh count as initial consonants.
2. Change initial w to u and initial y to i. For weng, wei, you, look under ong, ui, iu.
3. For u after j, q, x, or y, look under ü.

Pinyin	IPA	Form with zero initial	Explanation
-i	[ɨ], [ɨ]	(n/a)	-i is a buzzed continuation of the consonant following z-, c-, s-, zh-, ch-, sh- or r-. (In all other words, -i has the sound of bee; this is listed below.)
a	[ɑ]	a	as in "father"
o	[ɔ]	o	Approximately as in "office" in British accent; the lips are much more rounded.
e	[ɤ] , [ə]	e	a back, unrounded vowel, which can be formed by first pronouncing a plain continental "o" (AuE and NZE law) and then spreading the lips without changing the position of the tongue. That same sound is also similar to English "duh", but not as open. Many unstressed syllables in Chinese use the schwa [ə] (idea), and this is also written as e.
ê	[ɛ]	(n/a)	as in "bet". Only used in certain interjections.
ai	[aɪ̯]	ai	like English "eye", but a bit lighter
ei	[ei̯]	ei	as in "hey"
ao	[ɑʊ̯]	ao	approximately as in "cow"; the a is much more audible than the o
ou	[ou̯]	ou	as in "so"
an	[an]	an	starts with plain continental "a" (AuE and NZE bud) and ends with "n"
en	[ən]	en	as in "taken"
ang	[ɑŋ]	ang	as in German Angst, including the English loan word angst (starts with the vowel sound in father and ends in the velar nasal; like song in American English)
eng	[ɤŋ]	eng	like e above but with ng added to it at the back
ong	[ʊŋ]	(weng)	starts with the vowel sound in book and ends with the velar nasal sound in sing
er	[ɑɻ]	er	as in "teacher" in American English
Finals beginning with i- (y-)
i	[i]	yi	like English bee.
ia	[i̯a]	ya	as i + a; like English "yard"
io	[i̯ɔ]	(n/a)	as i + plain continental "o". Only used in certain interjections.
ie	[i̯ɛ]	ye	as i + ê; but is very short; e (pronounced like ê) is pronounced longer and carries the main stress (similar to the initial sound ye in yet)
iao	[i̯ɑʊ̯]	yao	as i + ao
iu	[i̯ou̯]	you	as i + ou
ian	[i̯ɛn]	yan	as i + ê + n; like English yen
in	[in]	yin	as i + n
iang	[i̯ɑŋ]	yang	as i + ang
ing	[iŋ]	ying	as i but with ng added to it at the back
Finals beginning with u- (w-)
u	[u]	wu	like English "oo"; pronounced as ü [y] after j, q, x and y
ua	[u̯a]	wa	as u + a
uo	[u̯ɔ]	wo	as u + o; the o is pronounced shorter and lighter than in the o final
uai	[u̯aɪ̯]	wai	as u + ai like as in why
ui	[u̯ei̯]	wei	as u + ei; here, the i is pronounced like ei
uan	[u̯an]	wan	as u + an; pronounced as üan [yɛn] after j, q, x and y
un	[u̯ən]	wen	as u + en; like the on in the English won; pronounced as ün [yn] after j, q, x and y
uang	[u̯ɑŋ]	wang	as u + ang; like the ang in English angst or anger
(ong)	[u̯ɤŋ]	weng	as u + eng
Finals beginning with ü- (yu-)
u, ü	[y]	yu	as in German "üben" or French "lune" (To get this sound, say "ee" with rounded lips)
ue, üe	[y̯œ]	yue	as ü + ê; the ü is short and light
uan	[y̯ɛn]	yuan	as ü + ê+ n;
un	[yn]	yun	as ü + n;
iong	[i̯ʊŋ]	yong	as ü + ong

Orthography

Letters

Pinyin differs from other romanizations in several aspects, such as the following:

• Syllables starting with u are written as w in place of u (e.g. ueng is written as weng). Standalone u is written as wu.
• Syllables starting with i are written as y in place of i (e.g. ian is written as yan). Standalone i is written as yi.
• Syllables starting with ü are written as yu in place of ü (e.g. üe is written as yue).
• ü is written as u when there is no ambiguity (such as ju, qu, and xu), but written as ü when there are corresponding u syllables (such as lü and nü). In such situations where there are corresponding u syllables, it is often replaced with v on a computer, making it easier to type on a standard keyboard.
• When preceded by a consonant, iou, uei, and uen are simplified as iu, ui, and un (which do not represent the actual pronunciation).
• As in zhuyin, what are actually pronounced as buo, puo, muo, and fuo are given a separate representation: bo, po, mo, and fo.
• The apostrophe (') is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (a, o, or e) in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word (which is most commonly realized as [ɰ]), unless the syllable immediately follows a hyphen or other dash.[14] This is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as in Xi'an, which consists of the two syllables xi ("西") and an ("安") as opposed to xian for such words as "先". (This ambiguity does not occur when tone marks are used: The two tone marks in "Xīān" unambiguously show that the word consists of two syllables. However, even with tone marks, the city is usually spelled with an apostrophe as "Xī'ān".)
• Eh alone is written as ê; elsewhere as e. Schwa is always written as e.
• zh, ch, and sh can be abbreviated as ẑ, ĉ, and ŝ (z, c, s with a circumflex). However, the shorthands are rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers, and are confined mainly to Esperanto keyboard layouts.
• ng has the uncommon shorthand of ŋ.
• The letter v is unused (except in spelling foreign languages, languages of minority nationalities, and some dialects), despite a conscious effort to distribute letters more evenly than in Western languages. However, sometimes, for ease of typing into a computer, the v is used to replace a ü.

Most of the above are used to avoid ambiguity when writing words of more than one syllable in pinyin. For example uenian is written as wenyan because it is not clear which syllables make up uenian; uen-ian, uen-i-an and u-en-i-an are all possible combinations whereas wenyan is unambiguous because we, nya, etc. do not exist in pinyin. See the pinyin table article for a summary of possible pinyin syllables (not including tones).

Capitalization and word formation

Although Chinese characters represent single syllables, Mandarin Chinese is a polysyllabic language. Spacing in pinyin is based on whole words, not single syllables. However, there are often ambiguities in partitioning a word. Orthographic rules were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational Commission (国家教育委员会, pinyin: Guójiā Jiàoyù Wěiyuánhuì ) and the National Language Commission (国家语言文字工作委员会, pinyin: Guójiā Yǔyán Wénzì Gōngzuò Wěiyuánhuì).

1. General
   1. Single meaning: Words with a single meaning, which are usually set up of two characters (sometimes one, seldom three), are written together and not capitalized: rén (Chinese: 人, person); péngyou (Chinese: 朋友, friend), qiǎokèlì (Chinese: 巧克力, chocolate)
   2. Combined meaning (2 characters): Same goes for words combined of two words to one meaning: hǎifēng (simplified Chinese: 海风; traditional Chinese: 海風, sea breeze); wèndá (simplified Chinese: 问答; traditional Chinese: 問答, Q&A), quánguó (simplified Chinese: 全国; traditional Chinese: 全國, 'pan-national')
   3. Combined meaning (4 or more characters): Words with four or more characters having one meaning are split up with their original meaning if possible: wúfèng gāngguǎn (simplified Chinese: 无缝钢管; traditional Chinese: 無縫鋼管, seamless steel-tube); huánjìng bǎohù guīhuà (simplified Chinese: 环境保护规划; traditional Chinese: 環境保護規劃, environmental protection planning)
2. Duplicated words
   1. AA: Duplicated characters (AA) are written together: rénrén (simplified Chinese: 人人; traditional Chinese: 人人, everybody), kànkàn (simplified Chinese: 看看; traditional Chinese: 看看, to have a look), niánnián (Chinese: 年年, every year)
   2. ABAB: two characters duplicated (ABAB) are written separated: yánjiū yánjiū (simplified Chinese: 研究研究; traditional Chinese: 研究研究, to study, to research), xuěbái xuěbái (Chinese: 雪白雪白, snow-white)
   3. AABB: A hyphen is used with the schema AABB: láilái-wǎngwǎng (simplified Chinese: 来来往往; traditional Chinese: 來來往往, go back and forth), qiānqiān-wànwàn (simplified Chinese: 千千万万; traditional Chinese: 千千萬萬, numerous)
3. Nouns and names (míngcí): Nouns are written in one: zhuōzi (Chinese: 桌子, table), mùtou (simplified Chinese: 木头; traditional Chinese: 木頭, wood)
   1. Even if accompanied by a prefix and suffix: fùbùzhǎng (simplified Chinese: 副部长; traditional Chinese: 副部長, vice minister), chéngwùyuán (simplified Chinese: 乘务员; traditional Chinese: 乘務員, conductor), háizimen (simplified Chinese: 孩子们; traditional Chinese: 孩子們, children)
   2. Words of position are separated: mén wài (simplified Chinese: 门外; traditional Chinese: 門外, outdoor), hé li (simplified Chinese: 河里; traditional Chinese: 河裏, in the river), huǒchē shàngmian (simplified Chinese: 火车上面; traditional Chinese: 火車上面, on the train), Huáng Hé yǐnán (Chinese: 黄河以南, south of the Yellow River)
      1. Exceptions are words traditionally connected: tiānshang (Chinese: 天上, in the sky), dìxia (Chinese: 地下, on the ground), kōngzhōng (Chinese: 空中, in the air), hǎiwài (Chinese: 海外, overseas)
   3. Surnames are separated from the given name: Lǐ Huá, Zhāng Sān. If the given name consists of two syllables, it should be written as one: Wáng Jiàngguó.
   4. Titles following the name are separated and are not capitalized: Wáng bùzhǎng (minister Wang), Lǐ xiānsheng (Mr. Li), Tián zhǔrèn (director Tian), Zhào tóngzhì (comrade Zhao).
   5. The forms of addressing people with Lǎo, Xiǎo, Dà and A are capitalized: Xiǎo Liú ([young] Ms./Mr. Liu), Dà Lǐ ([great;elder] Mr. Li), A Sān (Ah San), Lǎo Qián ([senior] Mr. Qian), Lǎo Wú ([senior] Mr. Wu)
      1. Exceptions are: Kǒngzǐ (Master Confucius), Bāogōng (Judge Bao), Xīshī (a historical person), Mèngchángjūn (a historical person)
   6. Geographical names of China: Běijīng Shì (City of Beijing), Héběi Shěng (Province of Hebei), Yālù Jiāng (Yalu River), Tài Shān (Mt. Taishan), Dòngtíng Hú (Lake Donting), Táiwān Hǎixiá (Taiwan strait)
   7. Non-Chinese names translated back from Chinese will be written by their original writing: Marx, Einstein, London, Tokyo
4. Verbs (dòngcí): Verbs and their suffixes (-zhe, -le and -guo) are written as one: kànzhe/kànle/kànguo (to see/saw/seen), jìngxíngzhe (to implement). Le as it appears in the end of a sentence is separated though: Huǒchē dào le (The train [has] arrived).
   1. Verbs and their objects are separated: kàn xìn (read a letter), chī yú (eat fish), kāi wánxiào (to be kidding).
   2. If verbs and their complements are each monosyllabic, they are written together, if not, separated: gǎohuài ("to make broken"), dǎsǐ (hit to death), huàwéi ("to become damp"), zhěnglǐ hǎo (to straighten out), gǎixiě wéi (rewrite a screenplay)
5. Adjectives (xíngróngcí): A monosyllabic adjective and its reduplication are written as one: mēngmēngliàng (dim), liàngtāngtāng (shining bright)
   1. Complements of size or degree (as xiē, yīxiē, diǎnr, yīdiǎnr) are written separated: dà xiē (a little bigger), kuài yīdiānr (a bit faster)
6. Pronouns (dàicí)
   1. The plural suffix -men directly follows up: wǒmen (we), tāmen (they)
   2. The demonstrative pronoun zhè (this), nà (that) and the question pronoun nǎ (which) are separated: zhè rén (this person), nà cì huìyì (that meeting), nǎ zhāng bàozhǐ (which newspaper)
      1. Exceptions are: nàli (there), zhèbian (over here), zhège (this piece), zhème (so), zhèmeyàng (that way)... and similar ones.
7. Numerals and measure words (shùcí hé liàngcí)
   1. Words like gè/měi (every, each), mǒu (any), běn (that), gāi (that), wǒ (mine, our), are separated from the measure words following them: gè guó (every nation), gè gè (everyone), měi nián (every year), mǒu gōngchǎng (a certain factory), wǒ xiào (our school).

Tones

The pinyin system also uses diacritics to mark the four tones of Mandarin. The diacritic is placed over the letter that represents the syllable nucleus, unless that letter is missing (see below). 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. This style, most likely rooted in early technical limitations, has led many to believe that pinyin's rules call for this practice and also for the use of a Latin alpha ("ɑ") rather than the standard style of the letter ("a") found in most fonts. The official rules of Hanyu Pinyin, however, specify no such practice.

1. The first tone (Flat or High Level Tone) is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel:

   
   ā (ɑ̄) 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 (ɑ́) 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). It is not the rounded breve (˘), though a breve is sometimes substituted due to font limitations.

   
   ǎ (ɑ̌) 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 (ɑ̀) 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 (ɑ) e i o u ü A E I O U Ü

(In some cases, this is also written with a dot before the syllable; for example, ·ma.)[citation needed]

These tone marks normally are only used in Mandarin textbooks or in foreign learning texts, but they are essential for correct pronunciation of Mandarin syllables, as exemplified by the following classic example of five characters whose pronunciations differ only in their tones:

Traditional characters: 媽(mā) 麻(má) 馬(mǎ) 罵(mà) 嗎(·ma) Simplified characters: 妈(mā) 麻(má) 马(mǎ) 骂(mà) 吗(·ma)

mā má mǎ mà A sound sample of the four tones Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The words are "mother", "hemp", "horse", "scold" and a question particle, respectively.

Numerals in place of tone marks

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, which is either not numbered, or given the number 0 or 5, e.g. ma5 for 吗/嗎, an interrogative marker.

Tone	Tone Mark	Number added to end of syllable in place of tone mark	Example using tone mark	Example using number	IPA
First	macron ( ˉ )	1	mā	ma1	mɑ˥˥
Second	acute accent ( ˊ )	2	má	ma2	mɑ˧˥
Third	caron ( ˇ )	3	mǎ	ma3	mɑ˨˩˦
Fourth	grave accent ( ˋ )	4	mà	ma4	mɑ˥˩
"Neutral"	No mark or dot before syllable (·)	no number 5 0	ma ·ma	ma ma5 ma0	mɑ

Rules for placing the tone mark

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 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. 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. This occurs with syllables ending in -ui, from wei, and in -iu, from you (wèi → -uì; yòu → -iù). That is, finals have priority, 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:[15]

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.

If the tone is written over an i, the dot above the i is omitted, as in yī.

Using tone colors

In addition to tone number and mark, tone color has been suggested as a visual aid for learning. Although there are no formal standards, the de facto standard has been to use red (tone 1), orange (tone 2), green (tone 3), blue (tone 4) and black (tone 5).[16]

The character "ü"

An umlaut is placed over the letter u when it occurs after the initials l and n 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 added on top of the trema, as in lǘ.

However, the ü is not used in other contexts where it represents 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 to use the trema to distinguish between chü (pinyin ju) and chu (pinyin zhu), this ambiguity cannot 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 a trema (diacritic).

Many fonts or output methods do not support a trema 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. Occasionally, uu (double u), u: (u followed by a colon) or U (capital u) is used in its place.

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

Comparison chart

IPA

ɑ

ɔ

ɤ

ɛ

aɪ

eɪ

ɑʊ

ɤʊ

an

ən

ɑŋ

ɤŋ

ɑɻ

ʊŋ

i

iɛ

iɤʊ

iɛn

in

iŋ

Pinyin

a

o

e

e

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

en

ang

eng

er

ong

yi

ye

you

yan

yin

ying

Tongyong Pinyin

a

o

e

e

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

en

ang

eng

er

ong

yi

ye

you

yan

yin

ying

Wade-Giles

a

o

o/ê

eh

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

ên

ang

êng

êrh

ung

i

yeh

yu

yen

yin

ying

Zhuyin

ㄚ

ㄛ

ㄜ

ㄝ

ㄞ

ㄟ

ㄠ

ㄡ

ㄢ

ㄣ

ㄤ

ㄥ

ㄦ

ㄨㄥ

ㄧ

ㄧㄝ

ㄧㄡ

ㄧㄢ

ㄧㄣ

ㄧㄥ

example

阿

哦

俄

艾

黑

凹

偶

安

恩

昂

冷

二

中

一

也

又

言

音

英

IPA

u

uɔ

ueɪ

uaɪ

uan

uən

uʊn

uɤŋ

uʊŋ

y

yœ

yɛn

yn

iʊŋ

Pinyin

wu

wo

wei

wai

wan

wen

weng

yu

yue

yuan

yun

yong

Tongyong Pinyin

wu

wo

wei

wai

wan

wun

wong

yu

yue

yuan

yun

yong

Wade-Giles

wu

wo

wei

wai

wan

wên

wêng

yü

yüeh

yüan

yün

yung

Zhuyin

ㄨ

ㄨㄛ

ㄨㄟ

ㄨㄞ

ㄨㄢ

ㄨㄣ

ㄨㄥ

ㄩ

ㄩㄝ

ㄩㄢ

ㄩㄣ

ㄩㄥ

example

五

我

位

外

完

文

翁

玉

月

元

云

用

IPA

p

pʰ

m

fɤŋ

fʊŋ

tiou

tuei

tʰ

ny

ly

kɤɻ

kʰ

xɤ

Pinyin

b

p

m

feng

diu

dui

t

nü

lü

ger

k

he

Tongyong Pinyin

b

p

m

fong

diou

duei

t

nyu

lyu

ger

k

he

Wade-Giles

p

p'

m

fêng

tiu

tui

t'

nü

lü

kêrh

k'

ho

Zhuyin

ㄅ

ㄆ

ㄇ

ㄈㄥ

ㄉㄧㄡ

ㄉㄨㄟ

ㄊ

ㄋㄩ

ㄌㄩ

ㄍㄜㄦ

ㄎ

ㄏㄜ

example

玻

婆

末

封

丟

兌

特

女

旅

歌儿

可

何

IPA

tɕiɛn

tɕiʊŋ

tɕʰin

ɕyɛn

ʈʂɤ

ʈʂɨ

ʈʂʰɤ

ʈʂʰɨ

ʂɤ

ʂɨ

ʐɤ

ʐɨ

tsɤ

tsuɔ

tsɨ

tsʰɤ

tsʰɨ

sɤ

sɨ

Pinyin

jian

jiong

qin

xuan

zhe

zhi

che

chi

she

shi

re

ri

ze

zuo

zi

ce

ci

se

si

Tongyong Pinyin

jian

jyong

cin

syuan

jhe

jhih

che

chih

she

shih

re

rih

ze

zuo

zih

ce

cih

se

sih

Wade-Giles

chien

chiung

ch'in

hsüan

chê

chih

ch'ê

ch'ih

shê

shih

jê

jih

tsê

tso

tzŭ

ts'ê

tz'ŭ

sê

szŭ

Zhuyin

ㄐㄧㄢ

ㄐㄩㄥ

ㄑㄧㄣ

ㄒㄩㄢ

ㄓㄜ

ㄓ

ㄔㄜ

ㄔ

ㄕㄜ

ㄕ

ㄖㄜ

ㄖ

ㄗㄜ

ㄗㄨㄛ

ㄗ

ㄘㄜ

ㄘ

ㄙㄜ

ㄙ

example

件

窘

秦

宣

哲

之

扯

赤

社

是

惹

日

仄

左

字

策

次

色

斯

IPA	ma˥˥	ma˧˥	ma˨˩˦	ma˥˩	ma
Pinyin	mā	má	mǎ	mà	ma
Tongyong Pinyin	ma	má	mǎ	mà	må
Wade-Giles	ma1	ma2	ma3	ma4	ma0
Zhuyin	ㄇㄚ	ㄇㄚˊ	ㄇㄚˇ	ㄇㄚˋ	ㄇㄚ・
example (traditional/simplfied)	媽/妈	麻/麻	馬/马	罵/骂	嗎/吗

Pinyin in Taiwan

Taiwan (Republic of China) adopted Tongyong pinyin, a modification of Hanyu pinyin, as the official romanization system on the national level between October 2002 and January 2009, when it switched to Hanyu pinyin. The romanization system in use became a political issue, much of it centered on issues of national identity, with proponents of Chinese reunification favoring Hanyu pinyin, the official romanization system used in the People's Republic of China as well as internationally, and proponents of Taiwanese independence favoring the use of the locally developed Tongyong pinyin.[citation needed]

The adoption of Tongyong pinyin was an administrative order that could be overruled by local governments. Some localities with governments controlled by the Kuomintang (KMT), most notably Taipei, Hsinchu, and Kinmen County, overrode the order and converted to Hanyu pinyin before the January 1, 2009 national-level switch,[5][6] though with a slightly different capitalization convention than mainland China. Most areas of Taiwan adopted Tongyong Pinyin, consistent with the national policy. As a result, the use of romanization on signage in Taiwan has been inconsistent. Many signs display Tongyong pinyin but some display Hanyu pinyin, and others still display old Wade-Giles or MPS2 signage. This has led to odd situations: for instance, in Taipei there were inconsistent romanizations shown in freeway directions: freeway signs, under the control of the central government, used Tongyong, while surface street signs, under the control of the city government, used, and still use, Hanyu Pinyin.[citation needed]

The adoption of Hanyu pinyin, intended by the government to be a truly national standard in Taiwan, is viewed as an international system. Still, some place names in Taiwan will retain older spellings because of their familiarity. Personal names on passports will honor the choices of Taiwanese citizens, who often prefer the Wade-Giles romanisation of their personal names. Transition to Hanyu pinyin is necessarily gradual, as questions remain about the ability of the national government to enforce the standard island-wide.[17] Xinbei, which is currently Taipei County, will be the first direct-controlled municipality named by Hanyu Pinyin in Taiwan.[18]

Primary education in Taiwan continues to teach pronunciation using zhuyin (MPS or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols).

Other languages

Pinyin-like systems have been devised for other variants of Chinese. Guangdong Romanization is a set of romanizations devised by the government of Guangdong province for Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka (Moiyen dialect), and Hainanese. All of these are designed to use Latin letters in a similar way to pinyin.

In addition, 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) promulgated in 1976, place names in non-Han languages like Mongol, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also officially transcribed using pinyin. The pinyin letters (26 Roman letters, ü, 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:

Customary	Official (pinyin for local name)	Traditional Chinese name	Simplified Chinese name	Pinyin for Chinese name
Shigatse	Xigazê	日喀則	日喀则	Rìkāzé
Urumchi	Ürümqi	烏魯木齊	乌鲁木齐	Wūlǔmùqí
Lhasa	Lhasa	拉薩	拉萨	Lāsà
Hohhot	Hohhot	呼和浩特	呼和浩特	Hūhéhàotè
Golmud	Golmud	格爾木	格尔木	Gé'ěrmù

See also: Tibetan pinyin

Comparison with other orthographies

Pinyin is now used by foreign students learning Chinese as a second language.

Pinyin assigns some Roman letters phonological values which are quite different from that of most languages.

Pinyin is purely a representation of the sounds of Mandarin, therefore it lacks the semantic cues that Chinese characters can provide. It is also unsuitable for transcribing some Chinese spoken languages other than Mandarin.

Simple computer systems, able to display only 7-bit ASCII text (essentially the 26 Latin letters, 10 digits and punctuation marks), long provided a convincing argument in favor of pinyin over hanzi. 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 PDAs, tablet PCs and digitizing tablets allow users to input characters directly by writing with a stylus.

See also

• Bopomofo
• Chinese Postal Map Romanization
• Combining diacritic marks
• Erhua (儿化)
• Jyutping (most similar to IPA)
• Legge romanization
• List of ISO transliterations
• Pinyin method
• Pinyin table
• Tibetan pinyin
• Tone number
• Tongyong pinyin

References

Further reading

• Yin Binyong 尹斌庸 and Mary Felley (1990). Chinese Romanization. Pronunciation and Orthography (Hanyu pinyin he zhengcifa 汉语拼音和正词法). Beijing: Sinolingua. ISBN 7-80052-148-6 / ISBN 0-8351-1930-0.
• Gao, J. K. (2005). Pinyin shorthand: a bilingual handbook = [Pinyin su ji fa]. Dallas, TX: Jack Sun. ISBN 1599712512
• Kimball, R. L. (1988). Quick reference Chinese: a practical guide to Mandarin for beginners and travelers in English, Pinyin romanization, and Chinese characters. San Francisco, CA: China Books & Periodicals. ISBN 0835120368
• Uy, Dr. Tim and Jim Hsia (ed.) (2009). Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary: Advanced Reference Edition. Mountain View, CA: Loqu8 Press. 
• Wu, C.-j. (1979). The Pinyin Chinese-English dictionary. Hong Kong: Commercial Press. ISBN 0471275573

External links

• Standard Mandarin Pinyin Chart
• Popup Chinese-English translator for web browsers and Microsoft Office
• Chinese Pinyin Dictionary for Firefox
• New Edition Hanyu Pinyin Syllable Table
• Basic Rules of Hanyu Pinyin Orthography by Zhou Yougang
• Chinese text annotation
• Pinyin Listening Quiz for 4 Tones
• Free Chinese Pronunciation Online
• Free Hanyu Pinyin course with detailed pronunciation guides
• 猫扑Hi - dingminggan的日志
• 汉字拼音对照表- 虫子的一天- 博客园

Preceded by Gwoyeu Romatzyh	Official romanization adopted by the People's Republic of China 1958-	Succeeded by current
Preceded by Tongyong Pinyin	Official romanization adopted by the Republic of China (Taiwan) 2009-	Succeeded by current

In Yiling, Yichang, Hubei, text on road signs appears both in Hanzi and in Pinyin

This table may be a useful reference for IPA vowel symbols

Relative pitch changes of the four tones