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, which change the meaning of words. 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 and made into an international standard. 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 linguists created Hanyu Pinyin as a way to write Chinese sounds using the Latin alphabet. They combined ideas from older systems to make it easier for everyone to learn and use. Hanyu Pinyin was officially adopted in 1958 and became widely used in schools, helping people learn to read and speak Standard Chinese. Today, it is the most common way to write Chinese using the Latin alphabet.

Syllables

Chinese sounds are described using two parts: initials and finals. Initials are usually single consonant sounds, while finals can be more complex, sometimes including extra sounds called medials. For example, the sound in the word for "clothes" (衣) might change slightly depending on how it is used in a sentence.

One special sound in Chinese is the "ü" sound, which looks like a "u" with an umlaut (like in German). This is used to show a different pronunciation, such as in the word for "donkey" (驴). However, because it can be hard to type or show this symbol, sometimes "v" is used instead. This can cause confusion, especially with names, but rules have been made to help with this in important documents like passports.

Tones

The pinyin system uses special marks called diacritics to show the tones of Mandarin Chinese. These marks help indicate how a word is pronounced. There are four main tones, each shown with a different 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 special marks to show tones. For example, the word "tóng" could be written as "tong²". Each number corresponds to one of the five tones.

Spacing, capitalization, and punctuation

Standard Chinese has many words made of several syllables. In pinyin, spacing is meant to follow word boundaries, much like in other languages that use the Latin alphabet. Official rules for these spellings were set in 1988.

In real usage today, pinyin is often written syllable by syllable, a change that began after the government body overseeing language reforms was reorganized in 1985. Some people preferred this method because it kept pinyin from becoming an alternative way to write Chinese characters.

Comparison with other orthographies

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

Pinyin helps English speakers understand Chinese sounds better than older systems, though 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, instead of another set called Spacing Modifier Letters. Important Chinese character sets, like GB 2312 and JIS X 0212, include these special letters, so they can be shown correctly on computers using Unicode.

Some special characters, like ⟨ḿ⟩ and ⟨ǹ⟩, can cause confusion because 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 geographical or personal names in pinyin has become the most common way to write them in English. Pinyin is the main way to type Chinese words on computers in mainland China, unlike in Taiwan where another system called bopomofo is more common.

Families who speak Mandarin use pinyin to help children connect written characters with the words they already 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. The way pinyin helps learners is somewhat like how extra letters are used in Japanese books to show pronunciation.

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. This led to disagreements about which system to use, with each side connected to different political groups.

Today, many street signs in Taiwan use Tongyong Pinyin or other older systems. Efforts to make Hanyu Pinyin the standard in Taiwan have had mixed results, with most place names still not changed. People in Taiwan can choose how their personal names are written on passports, using different systems. Using Hanyu Pinyin on signs for a metro line in 2017 caused some protests, even though officials said it was to help foreigners.

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.