Pinyin

Hanyu Pinyin

Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, is the most common way to write Standard Chinese using the letters of the Roman alphabet. It helps people all over the world read and say Chinese words correctly. In China and Singapore, pinyin is used to teach children how to speak and write Chinese characters. It is also used on computers to help type Chinese words and to organize Chinese dictionaries.

Pinyin breaks down each Chinese sound into two parts: an initial consonant and a final vowel sound. Special marks above the letters show the different tones used in Chinese. These marks are often left out when writing Chinese names in English.

Hanyu Pinyin was created in the 1950s by a group of Chinese language experts, led by Zhou Youguang, who is known as the “father of pinyin.” It became the official system in China in 1958 and was later adopted by the United Nations. Today, pinyin is used by learners and teachers of Chinese around the world.

History

Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in China, wrote the first book using the Latin alphabet to write Chinese in 1605. Later, other missionaries also created books to help Westerners understand Chinese sounds.

In the 1950s, Chinese language experts created Hanyu Pinyin. They used the Latin alphabet to write Chinese sounds. They mixed ideas from older systems to make it easier for everyone. Hanyu Pinyin became official in 1958. It is now used in schools to help people learn to read and speak Standard Chinese. Today, it is the most common way to write Chinese with the Latin alphabet.

Syllables

Chinese sounds are split into two parts: initials and finals. Initials are single consonant sounds. Finals are more complex and can include extra sounds.

For example, the sound in the word for "clothes" (衣) can change a little depending on how it is used in a sentence.

One special sound in Chinese is the "ü" sound. It looks like a "u" with an umlaut, like in German. This shows a different way to say a word, like in "donkey" (驴). But because this symbol can be hard to type, sometimes "v" is used instead. This can be confusing, especially with names. But there are rules to help with this in important places like passports.

Tones

The pinyin system uses special marks to show the tones of Mandarin Chinese. These marks help us know how to say a word. There are four main tones, each with its own symbol: a flat line for the first tone, an acute accent for the second, a curved hat for the third, and a grave accent for the fourth. The fifth tone, called the neutral tone, has no special mark.

Before computers, people sometimes used numbers instead of these marks to show tones. For example, the word "tóng" could be written as "tong²". Each number matches one of the five tones.

Spacing, capitalization, and punctuation

Standard Chinese has many words made of several syllables. In pinyin, spaces are used to show where words begin and end, similar to other languages that use the Latin alphabet. Official rules for these spellings were set in 1988.

Today, pinyin is often written syllable by syllable. This change started after the government body overseeing language reforms was reorganized in 1985. Some people liked this method because it kept pinyin from replacing Chinese characters.

Comparison with other orthographies

Pinyin replaced older systems like Wade–Giles and postal romanization. It is now the official way to write Chinese sounds using the Latin alphabet. In 1982, it became the international standard. Many countries and organizations, including the United Nations, adopted it.

Pinyin helps English speakers understand Chinese sounds better than older systems. Some letters are used differently than in English. Chinese characters are still needed because they give meaning to words that sound the same in modern Chinese. Pinyin is mainly used for Standard Chinese based on Beijing Mandarin and is not used for other Chinese languages like Cantonese or Hokkien.

Typography and encoding

Pinyin uses special symbols to show the tones of Chinese sounds. These symbols come from a set called Combining Diacritical Marks. Important Chinese character sets, like GB 2312 and JIS X 0212, include these special letters. This helps them show up correctly on computers using Unicode.

Some special characters, like ⟨ḿ⟩ and ⟨ǹ⟩, can be confusing. Different systems, such as GBK and GB 18030, place them in different parts of the encoding. This means that some fonts and input methods might show these characters differently.

Generally, it is suggested that pinyin use a certain style of letters, like a single-story 'a' and 'g', and a thicker second-tone mark, but there is no strict rule about this.

Usage

The spelling of Chinese place or people names in pinyin is now the most common way to write them in English. Pinyin is the main way to type Chinese words on computers in mainland China. In Taiwan, another system called bopomofo is more common.

Families who speak Mandarin use pinyin to help children connect written characters with the words they know. Children usually start learning it in kindergarten, but it is not used in textbooks after primary school. Families who speak a different language also use pinyin to teach children how to say Mandarin words correctly when they are learning new vocabulary in elementary school.

Since 1958, pinyin has also been used in adult education. It helps people who cannot read Chinese characters to learn to read and write through pinyin.

Pinyin is also helpful for people who are learning Mandarin as a new language. It is used to explain pronunciation and grammar, along with Chinese characters. Books for learners often include both the characters and pinyin.

Computer input

Simple computer systems that could only use basic letters and numbers made it easier to use pinyin without special marks. Today, most computers can show Chinese characters and let people type them using a regular keyboard with special programs. Some tablets also let people write characters by hand, and the computer tries to recognize what was written.

Pinyin with special marks can be typed using special keyboard setups or other tools.

Sorting techniques

Chinese text can be sorted using pinyin, which helps find words when you know how they sound but not how they are written. Characters can be sorted by their pinyin spelling. When syllables are the same, they are sorted by tone, with neutral tones coming last.

Words with more than one character can be sorted in two ways: by each character, as in the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, or by the whole word’s string, then by tone. This method is used in the ABC Chinese–English Dictionary.

By region

Taiwan

See also: Chinese language romanization in Taiwan and Tongyong Pinyin

Between October 2002 and January 2009, Taiwan used Tongyong Pinyin, a version of Hanyu Pinyin made for local use. After that, Taiwan started to use Hanyu Pinyin instead. Tongyong Pinyin was made to write not just Standard Chinese, but also other varieties spoken on the island. The ruling Kuomintang party preferred the system used in mainland China and internationally.

Today, many street signs in Taiwan use Tongyong Pinyin or other older systems. People in Taiwan can choose how their personal names are written on passports, using different systems.

Singapore

See also: Chinese language romanization in Singapore

Singapore adopted Hanyu Pinyin as the official system for Mandarin in public use starting in the 1980s, as part of the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Schools also use Hanyu Pinyin to teach Mandarin. While it has been widely accepted in government use and for place names and newer businesses, some people still prefer older ways of writing personal names and words from other Chinese languages commonly spoken in Singapore, like Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese.

Special names

See also: SASM/GNC romanization, Tibetan pinyin, and Guangdong Romanization

Place names from non-Han languages such as Mongolian, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also written using pinyin. This is done according to rules set in 1976. The pinyin letters are used to try to match the sounds of these languages as closely as possible, which can make the spellings different from both the original name and how it is written in Chinese.