Pinyin

Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use dmy dates Template:CS1 config Template:Use American English Template:Infobox writing system Template:RCL

Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. Hanyu (Template:Zhi) literally means 'Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while pinyin literally means 'spelled sounds'. Pinyin is the official romanization system used in China, Singapore, Taiwan, 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 in mainland China and Singapore. Pinyin is also used by various input methods on computers and to categorize entries in some Chinese dictionaries.

In pinyin, each Chinese syllable is spelled in terms of an optional initial and a final, each of which is represented by one or more letters. 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). Diacritics are used 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.

Hanyu Pinyin was developed in the 1950s by a group of Chinese linguists including Wang Li, Lu Zhiwei, Li Jinxi, Luo Changpei and Zhou Youguang, who has been called the "father of pinyin". They based their work in part on earlier romanization systems. The system was originally promulgated at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress in 1958, and has seen several rounds of revisions since. The International Organization for Standardization propagated Hanyu Pinyin as ISO 7098 in 1982, and the United Nations began using it in 1986. Taiwan adopted Hanyu Pinyin as its official romanization system in 2009, replacing Tongyong Pinyin.

History

File:20220912 The No.6 Kindergarten of Jinshui District.jpg

A facade of a kindergarten in Zhengzhou, Henan, with writing using simplified characters and pinyin

File:Taichung Port Station - station sign.png

A sign for Taichung Port railway station in Taiwan with writing using traditional characters, English, Wade–Giles (Template:Zhi), and pinyin

Background

Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in China, wrote the first book that used the Latin alphabet to write Chinese, entitled Xizi Qiji (Hsi-tzŭ Ch'i-chi; Template:Zhi) and published in Beijing in 1605.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Twenty years later, fellow Jesuit Nicolas Trigault published Template:Zhl) in Hangzhou.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Neither book had any influence among the contemporary Chinese literati, and the romanizations they introduced primarily were useful for Westerners.<ref name="Joseph">Template:Cite book</ref>

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.Template:Which While Song did not himself propose a transliteration system for Chinese, his discussion ultimately led to a proliferation of proposed schemes.<ref name="Joseph" /> The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and further improved by Herbert Giles, presented in Chinese–English Dictionary (1892). It was popular, and was used in English-language publications outside China until 1979.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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, as well as Zhou Youguang (1906–2017), an economist by trade, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou, often called "the father of pinyin",Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite web Reprinted in part as Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfnp 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. Earlier attempts to romanize Chinese writing were mostly abandoned in 1944. Zhou became an economics professor in Shanghai, and when the Ministry of Education created the 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.Template:Sfnp

Hanyu Pinyin incorporated different aspects from existing systems, including Mongolian, Latinxua Sin Wenz (1931), and the diacritics from bopomofo (1918).Template:Sfnp "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."Template:Sfnp

An initial draft was authored in January 1956 by Ye Laishi, Lu Zhiwei and Zhou Youguang. 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.Template:Sfnp The first edition of Hanyu Pinyin was approved and officially adopted at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress on 11 February 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.<ref name="Asiaone">Template:Cite news</ref>

Despite its formal promulgation, pinyin did not become widely used until after the tumult of the Cultural Revolution.<ref name=":Mullaney">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp In the 1980s, students were trained in pinyin from an early age, learning it in tandem with characters or even before.<ref name=":Mullaney" />Template:Rp

During the height of the Cold War the use of pinyin system over Wade–Giles and Yale romanizations outside of China was regarded as a political statement or identification with the mainland Chinese government.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref> Beginning in the early 1980s, Western publications addressing mainland China began using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system instead of earlier romanization systems; this change followed the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the United States and China in 1979.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2001, the Chinese government issued the National Common Language Law, providing a legal basis for applying pinyin.<ref name="Asiaone" /> The current specification of the orthography is GB/T 16159–2012.Template:Sfnp

Syllables

Chinese phonology is generally described in terms of sound pairs of two initials (Template:Zhi) and finals (Template:Zhi). This is distinct from the concept of consonant and vowel sounds as basic units in traditional (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Chinese language). Every syllable in Standard Chinese can be described as a pair of one initial and 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 (Template:Zhi), i.e. when a "medial" is placed in front of the final. For example, the medials Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink are pronounced with such tight openings at the beginning of a final that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing) pronounce Template:Zhp, officially pronounced Template:IPA, as Template:IPA and Template:Zhp, officially pronounced Template:IPA, as Template:IPA or Template:IPA. 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.

colspan="2" Template:Diagonal split header	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar
Plosive	unaspirated	[[Voiceless bilabial plosive\|b Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolar plosive\|d Template:IPA]]			[[Voiceless velar plosive\|g Template:IPA]]
Plosive	aspirated	[[Voiceless bilabial plosive\|p Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolar plosive\|t Template:IPA]]			[[Voiceless velar plosive\|k Template:IPA]]
Nasal		[[Bilabial nasal\|m Template:IPA]]	[[Alveolar nasal\|n Template:IPA]]
Affricate	unaspirated		[[Voiceless alveolar affricate\|z Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless retroflex affricate\|zh Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate\|j Template:IPA]]
Affricate	aspirated		[[Voiceless alveolar affricate\|c Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless retroflex affricate\|ch Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate\|q Template:IPA]]
Fricative		[[Voiceless labiodental fricative\|f Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolar sibilant\|s Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless retroflex sibilant\|sh Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant\|x Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless velar fricative\|h Template:IPA]]
Liquid			[[Alveolar lateral approximant\|l Template:IPA]]	r [[Voiced retroflex approximant\| Template:IPA]]~[[Voiced retroflex fricative\|Template:IPA]]
Semivowel		y[[Palatal approximant\| Template:IPA]], yu[[Labialized palatal approximant\| Template:IPA]] and w [[Labio-velar approximant\|Template:IPA]]

Pinyin	IPA	Description<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
b	Template:IPAblink	Unaspirated p, like in English spark.
p	Template:IPAblink	Strongly aspirated p, like in English pay.
m	Template:IPAblink	Like the m in English may.
f	Template:IPAblink	Like the f in English fair.
d	Template:IPAblink	Unaspirated t, like in English stop.
t	Template:IPAblink	Strongly aspirated t, like in English take.
n	Template:IPAblink	Like the n in English nay.
l	Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink Template:Efn	Like the l in English lay.
g	Template:IPAblink	Unaspirated k, like in English skill.
k	Template:IPAblink	Strongly aspirated k, like in English kiss.
h	Template:IPAblink~Template:IPA blink Template:Efn	Varies between the h in English hat, and the ch in Scottish English loch.
j	Template:IPAblink	Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English churchyard.
q	Template:IPAblink	Alveolo-palatal, aspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English punchy.
x	Template:IPAblink	Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the sh in English push.
zh	Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink Template:Efn	Retroflex, unaspirated. Like j in English jack.
ch	Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink Template:Efn	Retroflex, aspirated. Like ch in English church.
sh	Template:IPAblink~Template:IPAblink Template:Efn	Retroflex, unaspirated. Like sh in shirt.
r	[[[:Template:IPA link]]~Template:IPA link]~Template:IPAblink Template:Efn	Retroflex. No direct equivalent in English, but varies between the r in English reduce and the s in English measure.
z	Template:IPAblink	Unaspirated. Like the zz in English pizza.
c	Template:IPAblink	Aspirated. Like the ts in English bats.
s	Template:IPAblink	Like the s in English say.
wTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAblink	Like the w in English water.
yTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAblink	Like the y in English yes.
yuTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAblink	Like the hu in French huit, see below.

Template:Notelist

Finals

Template:Mandarin vowels In each cell below, the first line indicates the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, 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.

Template:Diagonal split header	∅	-⁠eTemplate:\-⁠oTemplate:\-⁠ê		-⁠a	-⁠ei	-⁠ai	-⁠ou	-⁠ao	-⁠en	-⁠an	-⁠eng	-⁠ang	er
∅	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc
Template:Ubl	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc		Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc			Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc
Template:Ubl	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc		Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc			Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc
Template:Ubl	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc							Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc	Template:IPA Template:Hr Template:Ubc

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 Template:IPA (Template:Zhi) and syllabic nasals m (Template:Zhi, Template:Zhi), n (Template:Zhi, Template:Zhi), ng (Template:Zhi, Template:Zhi) are used as interjections or in neologisms; for example, pinyin defines the names of several pinyin letters using -ê finals.

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

Pinyin	IPA	Form with zero initial	Explanation
-i	[[[:Template:IPA link]]~Template:IPA link], [[[:Template:IPA link]]~Template:IPA link]	(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.
a	Template:IPAblink	a	like English father, but a bit more fronted
e	Template:IPA, Template:IPA Template:Efn	e	a back, unrounded vowel (similar to English duh, but not as open). Pronounced as a sequence Template:IPA.
ai	Template:IPA	ai	like English eye, but a bit lighter
ei	Template:IPA	ei	as in hey
ao	Template:IPA	ao	approximately as in cow; the a is much more audible than the o
ou	Template:IPA	ou	as in North American English so
an	Template:IPA	an	like British English ban, but more central
en	Template:IPA	en	as in taken
ang	Template:IPA	ang	as 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	Template:IPA	eng	like e in en above but with ng appended
ong	Template:IPA~Template:IPA Template:Efn	(weng)	starts with the vowel sound in book and ends with the velar nasal sound in sing. Varies between Template:IPA and Template:IPA depending on the speaker.
er	Template:IPA~Template:IPA Template:Efn	er	Similar to the sound in bar in English. Can also be pronounced Template:IPA depending on the speaker.
Finals beginning with i- (y-)
i	Template:IPAblink	yi	like English bee
ia	Template:IPA	ya	as i + a; like English yard
ie	Template:IPA	ye	as i + ê where the e (compare with the ê interjection) is pronounced shorter and lighter
iao	Template:IPA	yao	as i + ao
iu	Template:IPA	you	as i + ou
ian	Template:IPA	yan	as i + an; like English yen. Varies between Template:IPA and Template:IPA depending on the speaker.
in	Template:IPA	yin	as i + n
iang	Template:IPA	yang	as i + ang
ing	Template:IPA	ying	as i + ng
iong	Template:IPA	yong	as i + ong. Varies between Template:IPA and Template:IPA depending on the speaker.
Finals beginning with u- (w-)
u	Template:IPAblink	wu	like English oo
ua	Template:IPA	wa	as u + a
uo/o	Template:IPA	wo	as 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	Template:IPA	wai	as u + ai, as in English why
ui	Template:IPA	wei	as u + ei, as in English way
uan	Template:IPA	wan	as u + an
un	Template:IPA	wen	as u + en; as in English won
uang	Template:IPA	wang	as u + ang
(ong)	Template:IPA	weng	as u + eng
Finals beginning with ü- (yu-)
ü	Template:IPA	yu	as in German über or French lune (pronounced as English ee with rounded lips; spelled as u after j, q or x)
üe	Template:IPA	yue	as ü + ê where the e (compare with the ê interjection) is pronounced shorter and lighter (spelled as ue after j, q or x)
üan	Template:IPA	yuan	as ü + an. Varies between Template:IPA and Template:IPA depending on the speaker (spelled as uan after j, q or x)
ün	Template:IPA	yun	as ü + n (spelled as un after j, q or x)
Interjections
ê	Template:IPAblink	ê	as in bet
o	Template:IPAblink	o	approximately as in British English office; the lips are much more rounded
io	Template:IPA	yo	as i + o

The Template:Nwr sound

An umlaut is added to Template:Angbr IPA when it occurs after the initials Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA when necessary in order to represent the sound Template:IPA. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in Template:Tlit (e.g. Template:Zhi) from the back high rounded vowel in Template:Tlit (e.g. Template:Zhi). Tonal markers are placed above the umlaut, as in Template:Tlit.

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 for Template:Zhl is transcribed in pinyin simply as Template:Tlit, not as *Template:Tlit. 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 Template:Tlit) and chu (pinyin Template:Tlit), 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 a lack of precomposed characters and limited font support for combining accents on the letter v, (Template:IPA).

This also presents a problem in transcribing names for use on passports, affecting people with names that consist of the sound Template:Tlit or Template:Tlit, particularly people with the surname Template:Zhc, a fairly common surname, particularly compared to the surnames Template:Zhc, Template:Zhc, Template:Zhc and Template:Zhc. 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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

File:Pinyin Tone Chart.svg

Relative pitch changes of the four tones

The pinyin system also uses four diacritics to mark the tones of Mandarin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the pinyin system, four main tones of Mandarin are shown by diacritics: ā, á, ǎ, and à.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 it replaces the tittle, as in Template:Tlit.

The first tone (flat or high-level tone) is represented by a macron Template:Angbr added to the pinyin vowel:
ā ē ê̄ ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ê̄ Ī Ō Ū Ǖ
The second tone (rising or high-rising tone) is denoted by an acute accent Template:Angbr:
á é ế í ó ú ǘ Á É Ế Í Ó Ú Ǘ
The third tone (falling-rising or low tone) is marked by a caron Template:Angbr:
ǎ ě ê̌ ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ê̌ Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ
The fourth tone (falling or high-falling tone) is represented by a grave accent Template:Angbr:
à è ề ì ò ù ǜ À È Ề Ì Ò Ù Ǜ
The fifth tone (neutral tone) is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:
a e ê i o u ü A E Ê I O U Ü

In dictionaries, neutral tone may be indicated by a dot preceding the syllable—e.g. Template:Tlit. When a neutral tone syllable has an alternative pronunciation in another tone, a combination of tone marks may be used: Template:Zhp may be pronounced either Template:Zhp or Template:Zhp.Template:Sfnp

Numbers

Template:Further 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, Template:Tlit is written Template:Tlit. Each tone can be denoted with its numeral the order listed above. The neutral tone can either be denoted with no numeral, with 0, or with 5.

Tone	Examples	IPA
1	Template:Blist	Template:IPA
2	Template:Blist	Template:IPA
3	Template:Blist	Template:IPA
4	Template:Blist	Template:IPA
Neutral	Template:Blist	Template:IPA

Placement and omission

Briefly, tone marks should always be placed in the order Template:Tlit, with the only exception being Template:Tlit where the tone mark is placed on the second vowel instead. Pinyin tone marks appear primarily above the syllable nucleus—e.g. as in Template:Tlit, where k is the initial, u the medial, a the nucleus, and i is the coda. There is an exception for syllabic nasals like Template:IPA, where the nucleus of the syllable is a consonant: there, the diacritic will be carried by a written dummy vowel.

When the nucleus is Template:IPAslink (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 Template:Tlit (from Template:Tlit: Template:Tlit → Template:Tlit) and in Template:Tlit (from Template:Tlit: Template:Tlit → Template:Tlit). 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:

If there is an a or an e, it will take the tone mark
In the combination Template:Tlit, then the o takes the tone mark
Otherwise, the second vowel takes the tone mark

Worded differently,

If there is an a, e, or o, it will take the tone mark; in the case of Template:Tlit, the mark goes on the a
Otherwise, the vowels are Template:Tlit or Template:Tlit, 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.

Template:Nwr
	-a	-e	-o	-i	-u
a-			Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit
e-
o-				èi	Template:Tlit
i-	Template:Tlit, Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit		Template:Tlit
u-	Template:Tlit, Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit
ü-	Template:Tlit	Template:Tlit

Tone sandhi

Tone sandhi is not ordinarily reflected in pinyin spelling.

Template:Notelist

Spacing, capitalization, and punctuation

Standard Chinese has many polysyllabic words. Like in other writing systems using the Latin alphabet, spacing in pinyin is officially 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.<ref name="ortho">Template:Cite web</ref> These rules became a GB recommendation in 1996,<ref name="ortho" /> and were last updated in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In practice, however, published materials in China now often space pinyin syllable by syllable. According to Victor H. Mair, this practice became widespread after the Script Reform Committee, previously under direct control of the State Council, had its power greatly weakened in 1985 when it was renamed the State Language Commission and placed under the Ministry of Education.<ref>Mair, Victor (11 April 2019). "First grade science card: Pinyin degraded". Language Log.</ref> Mair claims that proponents of Chinese characters in the educational bureaucracy "became alarmed that word-based pinyin was becoming a de facto alternative to Chinese characters as a script for writing Mandarin and demanded that all pinyin syllables be written separately."<ref>Mair, Victor (15 August 2012). Comment on "Words in Mandarin: twin kle twin kle lit tle star". Language Log. 15 August 2012.</ref>

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.Template:Sfnp<ref name="lin">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Failed verification 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."Template:Sfnp

As pinyin is a phonetic writing system for modern Standard Chinese, it is not designed to replace characters for writing Literary Chinese, the standard written language prior to the early 20th century. 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 not designed to transcribe 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

Template:Pinyintable

Typography and encoding

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 2312 and their uppercase counterparts are included in JIS X 0212;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> thus Unicode includes all the common accented characters from pinyin.<ref name="thetype-pinyin">Template:Cite web</ref> Other punctuation mark and symbols in Chinese are to use the equivalent symbol in English noted in to GB 15834.

According to GB 16159, all accented letters are required to have both uppercase and lowercase characters as per their normal counterparts.

Accent alphabets in Hanyu Pinyin<ref name="thetype-pinyin"/>Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Letter		First tone	Second tone	Third tone	Fourth tone
Combining Diacritical Marks		◌̄ (U+0304)	◌́ (U+0301)	◌̌ (U+030C)	◌̀ (U+0300)
Common letters
Uppercase	A	Ā (U+0100)	Á (U+00C1)	Ǎ (U+01CD)	À (U+00C0)
	E	Ē (U+0112)	É (U+00C9)	Ě (U+011A)	È (U+00C8)
	I	Ī (U+012A)	Í (U+00CD)	Ǐ (U+01CF)	Ì (U+00CC)
	O	Ō (U+014C)	Ó (U+00D3)	Ǒ (U+01D1)	Ò (U+00D2)
	U	Ū (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)
Lowercase	a	ā (U+0101)	á (U+00E1)	ǎ (U+01CE)	à (U+00E0)
	e	ē (U+0113)	é (U+00E9)	ě (U+011B)	è (U+00E8)
	i	ī (U+012B)	í (U+00ED)	ǐ (U+01D0)	ì (U+00EC)
	o	ō (U+014D)	ó (U+00F3)	ǒ (U+01D2)	ò (U+00F2)
	u	ū (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
Uppercase	Ê (U+00CA)	Ê̄ (U+00CA U+0304)	Ế (U+1EBE)	Ê̌ (U+00CA U+030C)	Ề (U+1EC0)
	M	M̄ (U+004D U+0304)	Ḿ (U+1E3E)	M̌ (U+004D U+030C)	M̀ (U+004D U+0300)
	N	N̄ (U+004E U+0304)	Ń (U+0143)	Ň (U+0147)	Ǹ (U+01F8)
Lowercase	ê (U+00EA)	ê̄ (U+00EA U+0304)	ế (U+1EBF)	ê̌ (U+00EA U+030C)	ề (U+1EC1)
	m	m̄ (U+006D U+0304)	ḿ (U+1E3F)	m̌ (U+006D U+030C)	m̀ (U+006D U+0300)
	n	n̄ (U+006E U+0304)	ń (U+0144)	ň (U+0148)	ǹ (U+01F9)
Notes a.Template:Note 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.<ref name="thetype-pinyin"/> b.Template:Note Grey cells indicate that Xiandai Hanyu Cidian does not include pinyin with that specific letter.<ref name="thetype-pinyin"/>

GBK has mapped two characters Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr to Private Use Areas in Unicode respectively, thus some fonts (e.g. SimSun) that adhere 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 Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, 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.<ref name="thetype-pinyin" />

Shorthand pinyin letters<ref name="thetype-pinyin"/>
Uppercase	Lowercase	Note	Example
Ĉ (U+0108)	ĉ (U+0109)	Abbreviation of ch	Template:Zhi can be spelled as Template:Tlit
Ŝ (U+015C)	ŝ (U+015D)	Abbreviation of sh	Template:Zhi can be spelled as Template:Tlit
Ẑ (U+1E90)	ẑ (U+1E91)	Abbreviation of zh	Template:Zhi can be spelled as Template:Tlit
Ŋ (U+014A)	ŋ (U+014B)	Abbreviation of ng	Template:Ubl

Other symbols are used in pinyin are as follows:

Symbol comparison
Chinese	Pinyin	Usage	Example
Template:Unichar	Template:Unichar	End of sentence	Template:Zhi Template:Nwr
Template:Ubl	Template:Unichar	Connecting clauses	Template:Zhi Template:Nwr
Template:Unichar (×2)	Template:Unichar	Division of clauses mid-sentence	Template:Zhi Template:Nwr
Template:Unichar (×2)	Template:Unichar	Redaction of part of a passage	Template:Typo
rowspan="3" Template:N/a	Template:Unichar	Neutral tone marker placed before the syllable	Template:Zhi Template:Nwr
Template:Unichar	Hyphenation of abbreviated compounds	Template:Zhi Template:Nwr
Template:Unichar	Syllable segmentation	Template:Zhi - Template:Tlit Template:Nwr

Usage

File:Dajia-shuo-Putonghua-2817.jpg

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

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 Chinese input method 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. Children start to learn it in kindergarten, but pinyin disappears from textbooks after primary school.<ref>What is Pinyin?, The Chinese Language Institute.</ref> Chinese families outside of Taiwan who speak some other language as their mother tongue use the system to teach children Mandarin pronunciation when learning vocabulary in elementary school.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp

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 alongside kanji (directly analogous to bopomofo) in Japanese, or fully vocalized texts in 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.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> This results in some degree of ambiguity as to which words are being represented.

Computer input

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

Template:Main 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. Chinese characters and words can be sorted for convenient lookup by their Pinyin expressions alphabetically,Template:Sfnp 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,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> either per character, as is used in the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, or 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

Template:See also Between October 2002 and January 2009, Taiwan used Tongyong Pinyin, a domestic modification of Hanyu Pinyin, as its official romanization system. Thereafter, it began to promote the use of Hanyu Pinyin instead. Tongyong Pinyin was designed to romanize varieties spoken on the island in addition to Standard Chinese. The ruling 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 (DPP) and its allies in the Pan-Green Coalition favored the use of Tongyong Pinyin.

Today, many street signs in Taiwan use Tongyong Pinyin or derived romanizations,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but some use 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Official use of pinyin 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Singapore

Template:See also 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.Template:Sfnp Hanyu Pinyin is also used as the romanization system to teach Mandarin Chinese at schools.Template:Sfnp While adoption 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.Template:Sfnp 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

Template:See also In accordance to the Regulation of Phonetic Transcription in Hanyu Pinyin Letters of Place Names in Minority Nationality Languages (Template:Zhi) 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 Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr) 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	Characters
Shigatse	Xigazê	Template:Zhi
Urumchi	Ürümqi	Template:Zhi
Lhasa	Lhasa	Template:Zhi
Hohhot	Hohhot	Template:Zhi
Golmud	Golmud	Template:Zhi
Qiqihar	Qiqihar	Template:Zhi

References

Citations

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Works cited

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External links

Template:Sister project links Template:Wikibooks Template:Wikibooks

Chinese phonetic alphabet spelling rules for Chinese names—The official standard GB/T 28039–2011 in Chinese. PDF version from the Chinese Ministry of Education Template:In lang
- HTML version Template:In lang

Template:ISO standards Template:Chinese language Template:Authority control

colspan="2" Template:Diagonal split header	Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Velar
Plosive	unaspirated	[[Voiceless bilabial plosive\|b Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolar plosive\|d Template:IPA]]			[[Voiceless velar plosive\|g Template:IPA]]
Plosive	aspirated	[[Voiceless bilabial plosive\|p Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolar plosive\|t Template:IPA]]			[[Voiceless velar plosive\|k Template:IPA]]
Nasal		[[Bilabial nasal\|m Template:IPA]]	[[Alveolar nasal\|n Template:IPA]]
Affricate	unaspirated		[[Voiceless alveolar affricate\|z Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless retroflex affricate\|zh Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate\|j Template:IPA]]
Affricate	aspirated		[[Voiceless alveolar affricate\|c Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless retroflex affricate\|ch Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate\|q Template:IPA]]
Fricative		[[Voiceless labiodental fricative\|f Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolar sibilant\|s Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless retroflex sibilant\|sh Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant\|x Template:IPA]]	[[Voiceless velar fricative\|h Template:IPA]]
Liquid			[[Alveolar lateral approximant\|l Template:IPA]]	r [[Voiced retroflex approximant\| Template:IPA]]~[[Voiced retroflex fricative\|Template:IPA]]
Semivowel		y[[Palatal approximant\| Template:IPA]], yu[[Labialized palatal approximant\| Template:IPA]] and w [[Labio-velar approximant\|Template:IPA]]