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For other uses, see Pinyin (disambiguation).
Chinese 拼音
Scheme of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
Simplified Chinese 汉语拼音方案
Traditional Chinese 漢語拼音方案

Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin, is the official phonetic system for transcribing the Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),[1] and Singapore. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese and a pinyin without diacritic markers is often used in foreign publications to spell Chinese names familiar to non-Chinese and may be used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into computers.


The word Hànyǔ (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語) means the spoken language of the Han people and pīnyīn (Chinese: 拼音) literally means "spelled-out sounds".[6]

History before 1949[edit]

In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji (《西字奇蹟》; Xīzì Qíjī; Hsi-tzu Ch'i-chi; "Miracle of Western Letters") in Beijing.[7] This was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, issued his Xi Ru Ermu Zi (《西儒耳目資》; Hsi Ju Erh-mu Tzu; "Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati") at Hangzhou.[8] Neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese.[9]

One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, Fang Yizhi (方以智; Fāng Yǐzhì; Fang I-chih; 1611–1671).[citation needed]


In the early 1930s, Communist Party of China leaders trained in Moscow introduced a phonetic alphabet using Roman letters which had been developed in the Soviet Oriental Institute of Leningrad and originally intended to improve literacy in the Russian Far East.[10] This Sin Wenz or "New Writing"[11] was much more linguistically sophisticated than earlier alphabets, with the major exception that it did not indicate tones.[12]


History after 1949[edit]

Pinyin was developed as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. One of the prominent figures was Zhou Youguang, who is often called "the father of pinyin",[14][15] as he led a government committee in developing the romanization system.[16][17] Zhou was working in a New York bank when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Zhou became an economics professor in Shanghai, and in 1954, when China's Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, Zhou was assigned the task of helping to develop 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 Chinese pronunciation and used to improve the literacy rate among adults.[20]

Beginning in the early 1980s, Western publications addressing Mainland China began using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system instead of earlier romanization systems;[21] this change followed the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC in 1979.[22] In 2001, the PRC Government issued the National Common Language Law, providing a legal basis for applying pinyin.[20] The current specification of the orthographic rules is laid down in the National Standard GB/T 16159-2012.[23]


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 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.[24] 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.[25]

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

A school slogan asking elementary students to speak Putonghua is annotated with pinyin, but without tonal marks.


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.[27]

Pinyin has become a tool for many foreigners to learn the Mandarin pronunciation, and is used to explain both the grammar and spoken Mandarin coupled with Chinese characters (汉字; 漢字; 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, directly analogous to zhuyin) in Japanese or fully vocalised texts in Arabic ("vocalised Arabic").



In Yiling, Yichang, Hubei, text on road signs appears both in Chinese characters and in Hanyu Pinyin


Most native speakers of English find these sounds difficult.



Initials and finals[edit]

Unlike European languages, clusters of letters – initials (声母; 聲母; shēngmǔ) and finals (韵母; 韻母; yùnmǔ) – and not consonant and vowel letters, form the fundamental elements in pinyin (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Han language). Every Mandarin syllable can be spelled with exactly one initial followed by one final, except for the special syllable er or when a trailing -r is considered part of a syllable (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 (哈尔滨; 哈爾濱), whose name comes from the Manchu language.

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



Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Retroflex Alveolo-palatal Velar
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiceless
Nasal m [m] n [n]
Lateral l [l]




Standard Chinese vowels (with IPA and Pinyin)
Front Central Back
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
i • y (ü)
ɨ (i)

ɤ (e) • o
ɚ (er)

ɛ (ê)


The following chart gives the combinations of medials and finals based on an analysis that assumes just two vowel nuclei, /a/ and /ə/;[28] various allophones result depending on phonetic context.



Final Nucleus /a/ /ə/
Medial [ä]

/i/ [i̯ä]
/u/ [u̯ä]
[u̯ɔ] 3
[u̯ɤŋ], [ʊŋ] 4
/y/ [y̯ɛn]
-üan 2
-üe 2
-ün 2


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] (; ) and syllabic nasals m (, ), n (, ), ng (, 𠮾) are used as interjections.

Rules given in terms of English pronunciation[edit]


Pronunciation of initials[edit]

Pinyin IPA English approximation[30] Explanation
b [p] spit unaspirated p, as in spit
p [] pay strongly aspirated p, as in pit
m [m] may as in English mummy
f [f] fair as in English fun
d [t] stop unaspirated t, as in stop
t [] take strongly aspirated t, as in top
n [n] nay as in English nit
l [l] lay as in English love
g [k] skill unaspirated k, as in skill
k [] kay strongly aspirated k, as in kill
sh [ʂ] shirt as in shoe, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to marsh in American English
z [ts] reads unaspirated c, similar to something between suds and cats; as in suds in a toneless syllable
c [tsʰ] hats like the English ts in cats, but strongly aspirated, very similar to the Czech, Polish and Slovak c.
s [s] say as in sun
w [w] way as in water.*
y [j], [ɥ] yea as in yes. Before a u, pronounce it with rounded lips.*
* Note on y and w


** Note on the apostrophe

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.[31] This is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as in Xi'an, which consists of the two syllables xi ("西") an (""), compared to such words as xian (""). (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.)

Pronunciation of finals[edit]

This table may be a useful reference for IPA vowel symbols


To find a given final:

Pinyin IPA Form with zero initial Explanation
-i [ɨ], [ɯ] (n/a) -i is a buzzed continuation of the consonant following z-, c-, s-, zh-, ch-, sh- or r-.


a [ä] a like English "father", but a bit more fronted
ei [eɪ̯] ei as in "hey"
ou [oʊ̯] ou as in "so"
en [ən] en as in "taken"
Finals beginning with i- (y-)
i [i] yi like English bee.
iao [i̯ɑʊ̯] yao as i + ao
iu [i̯oʊ̯] you as i + ou
in [in] yin as i + n
iang [i̯ɑŋ] yang as i + ang
ing [iŋ] ying as i + ng
Finals beginning with u- (w-)
u [u] wu like English "oo"
ua [u̯ä] wa as u + a
ui [u̯eɪ̯] wei as u + ei;
uan [u̯än] wan as u + an;
uang [u̯ɑŋ] wang as u + ang;
Finals beginning with ü- (yu-)
u, ü [y] yu as in German "über" or French "lune" (To pronounce this sound, say "ee" with rounded lips)
uan [y̯ɛn] yuan as ü + ê + n;
un [yn] yun as ü + n;
iong [i̯ʊŋ] yong as i + ong
ê [ɛ] (n/a) as in "bet".
o [ɔ] (n/a) Approximately as in "office" in British accent; the lips are much more rounded.
io [i̯ɔ] yo as i + plain continental[clarification needed] "o".




  • ng has the uncommon shorthand of ŋ.


Word formation, capitalization, initialisms and punctuation[edit]

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. The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography (汉语拼音正词法基本规则; 漢語拼音正詞法基本規則; Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Zhèngcífǎ Jīběn Guīzé) were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational Commission (国家教育委员会; 國家教育委員會; Guójiā Jiàoyù Wěiyuánhuì) and the National Language Commission (国家语言文字工作委员会; 國家語言文字工作委員會; Guójiā Yǔyán Wénzì Gōngzuò Wěiyuánhuì).[32] These rules became a Guobiao standard in 1996[32] and were updated in 2012.[33]

  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 (, person); péngyou (朋友, friend); qiǎokèlì (巧克力, chocolate)
    2. Combined meaning (2 or 3 characters): Same goes for words combined of two words to one meaning: hǎifēng (海风; 海風, sea breeze); wèndá (问答; 問答, question and answer); quánguó (全国; 全國, nationwide); chángyòngcí (常用词; 常用詞)
    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 (无缝钢管; 無縫鋼管, seamless steel-tube); huánjìng bǎohù guīhuà (环境保护规划; 環境保護規劃, environmental protection planning); gāoměngsuānjiǎ (高锰酸钾; 高錳酸鉀, potassium permanganate)
  2. Duplicated words
  3. Prefixes (前附成分; qiánfù chéngfèn) and Suffixes (后附成分; 後附成分; hòufù chéngfèn): Words accompanied by prefixes such as (, vice), zǒng (; , chief), fēi (, non-), fǎn (, anti-), chāo (, ultra-), lǎo (, old), ā (, used before names to indicate familiarity), (, -able), (; , -less) and bàn (, semi-) and suffixes such as zi (, noun suffix), r (; , diminutive suffix), tou (; , noun suffix), xìng (, -ness, -ity), zhě (, -er, -ist), yuán (; , person), jiā (, -er, -ist), shǒu (, person skilled in a field), huà (, -ize) and men (; , plural marker) are written together: fùbùzhǎng (副部长; 副部長, vice minister), chéngwùyuán (乘务员; 乘務員, conductor), háizimen (孩子们; 孩子們, children)
  4. Nouns and names (名词; 名詞; míngcí)
    4. The forms of addressing people with suffixes such as Lǎo (), Xiǎo (), () and Ā () are capitalized: Xiǎo Liú (小刘; 小劉, [young] Ms./Mr. Liu), Dà Lǐ (大李, [great; elder] Mr. Li), Ā Sān (阿三, Ah San), Lǎo Qián (老钱; 老錢, [senior] Mr. Qian), Lǎo Wú (老吴; 老吳, [senior] Mr. Wu)
      1. Monosyllabic prefixes and suffixes are written together with their related part: Dōngsì Shítiáo (东四; 東四, Dongsi 10th Alley)
  5. Verbs (动词; 動詞; dòngcí): Verbs and their suffixes -zhe (; ), -le () or -guo ((; ) are written as one: kànzhe (看着; 看著, seeing), jìnxíngguo (进行过; 進行過, have been implemented). Le as it appears in the end of a sentence is separated though: Huǒchē dào le. (火车到了; 火車到了, The train [has] arrived).
    1. Verbs and their objects are separated: kàn xìn (看信, read a letter), chī yú (吃鱼; 吃魚, eat fish), kāi wánxiào (开玩笑; 開玩笑, to be kidding).
    2. If verbs and their complements are each monosyllabic, they are written together; if not, they are separated: gǎohuài (搞坏; 搞壞, to make broken), dǎsǐ (打死, hit to death), huàwéi (化为; 化為, to become), zhěnglǐ hǎo (整理好, to sort out), gǎixiě wéi (改写为; 改寫為, to rewrite as)
  6. Adjectives (形容词; 形容詞; xíngróngcí): A monosyllabic adjective and its reduplication are written as one: mēngmēngliàng (矇矇亮, dim), liàngtángtáng (亮堂堂, shining bright)
    1. Complements of size or degree such as xiē (), yīxiē (一些), diǎnr (点儿; 點兒) and yīdiǎnr (一点儿; 一點兒) are written separated: dà xiē (大些), a little bigger), kuài yīdiǎnr (快一点儿; 快一點兒, a bit faster)
  7. Pronouns (代词; 代詞; dàicí)
    1. Personal pronouns and interrogative pronouns are separated from other words: Wǒ ài Zhōngguó. (我爱中国。; 我愛中國。, I love China); Shéi shuō de? (谁说的？; 誰說的？, Who said it?)
    2. The demonstrative pronoun zhè (; , this), (, that) and the question pronoun (, which) are separated: zhè rén (这人; 這人, this person), nà cì huìyì (那次会议; 那次會議, that meeting), nǎ zhāng bàozhǐ (哪张报纸; 哪張報紙, which newspaper)
      1. Exception—If zhè, or are followed by diǎnr (点儿; 點兒), bān (), biān (; ), shí (; ), huìr (会儿; 會兒), (; ), me (; ) or the general classifierge (; ), they are written together: nàlǐ (那里; 那裏, there), zhèbiān (这边; 這邊, over here), zhège (这个; 這個, this)
  8. Numerals (数词; 數詞; shùcí) and measure words (量词; 量詞; liàngcí)
    1. Numbers and words like (, each), měi (, each), mǒu (, any), běn (, this), gāi (; , that), (, my, our) and (, your) are separated from the measure words following them: liǎng ge rén (两个人; 兩個人, two people), gè guó (各国; 各國, every nation), měi nián (每年, every year), mǒu gōngchǎng (某工厂; 某工廠, a certain factory), wǒ xiào (我校, our school)
    2. Numbers up to 100 are written as single words: sānshísān (三十三, thirty-three). Above that, the hundreds, thousands, etc. are written as separate words: jiǔyì qīwàn èrqiān sānbǎi wǔshíliù (九亿七万二千三百五十六; 九億七萬二千三百五十六, nine hundred million, seventy-two thousand, three hundred fifty-six). Arabic numerals are kept as Arabic numerals: 635 fēnjī (635 分机; 635 分機, extension 635)
    3. The () of ordinal numerals is hyphenated: dì-yī (第一, first), dì-356 (第 356, 356th). The chū () in front of numbers one to ten is written together with the number: chūshí (初十, tenth day)
    4. Numbers representing month and day are hyphenated: wǔ-sì (五四, May fourth), yīèr-jiǔ (一二·九, December ninth)
    5. Words of approximations such as duō (), lái (; ) and (; ) are separated from numerals and measure words: yībǎi duō gè (一百多个; 一百多個, around a hundred); shí lái wàn gè (十来万个; 十來萬個, around a hundred thousand); jǐ jiā rén (几家人; 幾家人, a few families)
      1. Shíjǐ (十几; 十幾, more than ten) and jǐshí (几十; 幾十, tens) are written together: shíjǐ gè rén (十几个人; 十幾個人, more than ten people); jǐshí (几十根钢管; 幾十根鋼管, tens of steel pipes)
    6. Approximations with numbers or units that are close together are hyphenated: sān-wǔ tiān (三五天, three to five days), qiān-bǎi cì (千百次, thousands of times)
  9. Other function words (虚词; 虛詞; xūcí) are separated from other words, including:
    4. "Constructive auxiliaries" (结构助词; 結構助詞; jiégòu zhùcí) such as de (的/地/得), zhī () and suǒ (): mànmàn de zou (慢慢地走), go slowly)
  10. Capitalization
    2. The first letter of each line in a poem is capitalized.
      1. On some occasions, proper nouns can be written in all caps: BĚIJĪNG, GUÓJÌ SHŪDIÀN, GUÓJIĀ YǓYÁN WÉNZÌ GŌNGZUÒ WĚIYUÁNHUÌ
    4. If a proper noun is written together with a common noun to make a proper noun, it is capitalized. If not, it is not capitalized: Fójiào (佛教, Buddhism), Tángcháo (唐朝, Tang dynasty), jīngjù (京剧; 京劇, Beijing opera), chuānxiōng (川芎, Szechuan lovage)
  11. Initialisms
    1. Single words are abbreviated by taking the first letter of each character of the word: Bjīng (北京, Beijing) → BJ
    3. Initials can also be indicated using full stops: BeǐjīngB.J., guójiā biāozhǔnG.B.
  12. Line Wrapping
    1. Words can only be split by the character:
      guāngmíng (光明, bright) → guāng-
      , not gu-
    2. Initials cannot be split:
      J. G.
      , not Wáng J.-
    3. Apostrophes disappear in line wrapping:
      Xī'ān (西安, Xi'an) → Xī-
      , not Xī'-
    4. When the original word has a hyphen, the hyphen is added at the beginning of the new line:
      chēshuǐ-mǎlóng (车水马龙; 車水馬龍, heavy traffic: "carriage, water, horse, dragon") → chēshuǐ-
  13. Hyphenation: In addition to the situations mentioned above, there are four situations where hyphens are used.
    1. Coordinate and disjunctive compound words, where the two elements are conjoined or opposed, but retain their individual meaning: gōng-jiàn (弓箭, bow and arrow), kuài-màn (快慢, speed: "fast-slow"), shíqī-bā suì (十七八岁; 十七八歲, 17–18 years old), dǎ-mà (打骂; 打罵, beat and scold), Yīng-Hàn (英汉; 英漢, English-Chinese [dictionary]), Jīng-Jīn (京津, Beijing-Tianjin), lù-hǎi-kōngjūn (陆海空军; 陸海空軍, army-navy-airforce).
    2. Abbreviated compounds (略语; 略語; luèyǔ): gōnggòng guānxì (公共关系; 公共關係, public relations) → gōng-guān (公关; 公關, PR), chángtú diànhuà (长途电话; 長途電話, long-distance calling) → cháng-huà (长话; 長話, LDC).
      Exceptions are made when the abbreviated term has become established as a word in its own right, as in chūzhōng (初中) for chūjí zhōngxué (初级中学; 初級中學, junior high school). Abbreviations of proper-name compounds, however, should always be hyphenated: Běijīng Dàxué (北京大学; 北京大學, Peking University) → Běi-Dà (北大, PKU).
    3. Four-syllable idioms: fēngpíng-làngjìng (风平浪静; 風平浪靜), calm and tranquil: "wind calm, waves down"), huījīn-rútǔ (挥金如土; 揮金如土, spend money like water: "throw gold like dirt"), zhǐ-bǐ-mò-yàn (纸笔墨砚; 紙筆墨硯, paper-brush-ink-inkstone [four coordinate words]). (The AA-BB reduplication above is an instance of this.)[34]
      1. Other idioms are separated according to the words that make up the idiom: bēi hēiguō (背黑锅; 背黑鍋, to be made a scapegoat: "to carry a black pot"), zhǐ xǔ zhōuguān fànghuǒ, bù xǔ bǎixìng diǎndēng (只许州官放火，不许百姓点灯; 只許州官放火，不許百姓點燈, Gods may do what cattle may not: "only the official is allowed to light the fire; the commoners are not allowed to light a lamp")
  14. Punctuation
    1. The Chinese full stop (。) is changed to a western full stop (.).
    2. The hyphen is a half-width hyphen (-).
    3. Ellipsis can be changed from 6 dots (……) to 3 dots (…).
    4. The enumeration comma (、) is changed to a normal comma (,).
    5. All other punctuation marks are the same as the ones used in normal texts.


Relative pitch changes of the four tones


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


The four main tones of Standard Mandarin, pronounced with the syllable ma.

Traditional characters:

() () () () (·ma)

Simplified characters:

() () () () (·ma)


Numerals in place of tone marks[edit]


Tone Tone Mark Number added to end of syllable
in place of tone mark
Example using
tone mark
Example using
First macron ( ¯ ) 1 ma1 mɑ˥
Second acute accent ( ´ ) 2 ma2 mɑ˧˥
Third caron ( ˇ ) 3 ma3 mɑ˨˩˦
Fourth grave accent ( ` ) 4 ma4 mɑ˥˩
"Neutral" No mark
or dot before syllable (·)
no number

Rules for placing the tone mark[edit]




  3. Otherwise, the second vowel takes the tone mark.

Worded differently,



Phonological intuition[edit]



Using tone colors[edit]



Third tone exceptions[edit]

In spoken Chinese, the third tone is often pronounced as a "half third tone," in which the pitch does not rise. Additionally, when two third tones appear consecutively, such as in 你好 (nǐhǎo, hello), the first syllable is pronounced with the second tone. In pinyin, words like "hello" are still written with two third tones (nǐhǎo).

The ü sound[edit]

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 (e.g. ; ; "donkey") from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. ; ; "oven"). Tonal markers are added on top of the umlaut, as in .

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 / (fish) is transcribed in pinyin simply as , not as . 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 umlaut 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 . Genuine ambiguities only happen with nu/ and lu/, which are then distinguished by an umlaut.


This also presents a problem in transcribing names for use on passports, affecting people with names that consist of the sound or , particularly people with the surname (), a fairly common surname, particularly compared to the surname (), (), () and (). 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.[38][39]


Pinyin in Taiwan[edit]

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. Tongyong Pinyin ("official phonetic"), a variant of pinyin developed in Taiwan, was designed to romanize languages and dialects spoken on the island in addition to Mandarin Chinese. The Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) resisted its adoption, preferring the Hanyu Pinyin system used in Mainland China and in general use internationally. Romanization preferences quickly became associated with issues of national identity. Preferences split along party lines: the Kuomintang and its affiliated parties in the pan-blue coalition supported the use of Hanyu Pinyin while the Democratic Progressive Party and its affiliated parties in the pan-green coalition favored the use of Tongyong Pinyin.

Tongyong Pinyin was made the official system in an administrative order that allowed its adoption by local governments to be voluntary. A few 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,[4][5] though with a slightly different capitalization convention than mainland China. Most areas of Taiwan adopted Tongyong Pinyin, consistent with the national policy. Many street signs in Taiwan today still display Tongyong Pinyin but some, especially in northern Taiwan, display Hanyu Pinyin. It is still not unusual to see spellings on street signs and buildings derived from the older Wade-Giles, MPS2 and other systems.

The adoption of Hanyu Pinyin as the official romanization system in Taiwan does not preclude the official retention of earlier spellings. International familiarity has led to the retention of the spelling Taipei ("Taibei" in pinyin systems) and even to its continuation in the name of New Taipei, a municipality created in 2010. Personal names on Taiwanese passports honor the choices of Taiwanese citizens, who often prefer the Wade-Giles romanization of their personal names. Transition to Hanyu Pinyin in official use is also necessarily gradual. Universities and other government entities retain earlier spellings in long-established names, budget restraints preclude widespread replacement of signage and stationery in every area, and questions remain about the ability of the national government to enforce the standard island-wide.[40] Primary education in Taiwan continues to teach pronunciation using zhuyin (MPS or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols).

Comparison with other orthographies[edit]



Because Pinyin is purely a representation of the sounds of Mandarin, it completely lacks the semantic cues and contexts inherent in Chinese characters. Pinyin is also unsuitable for transcribing some Chinese spoken languages other than Mandarin, languages which by contrast have traditionally been written with Han characters allowing for written communication which, by its unified semanto-phonetic orthography, could theoretically be readable in any of the various vernaculars of Chinese where a phonetic script would have only localized utility.

Chart of comparison with other romanizations[edit]

Vowels a, e, o, i
IPA ä ɔ ɛ ɯʌ ɑʊ ou än ən ɑŋ ɤŋ ɑɻ i iou iɛn in
Pinyin a o ê e ai ei ao ou an en ang eng er yi ye you yan yin ying
Tongyong Pinyin a o e e ai ei ao ou an en ang eng er yi ye you yan yin ying
Wade–Giles a o eh o/ê ai ei ao ou an ên ang êng êrh i yeh yu yen yin ying
Zhuyin ㄧㄝ ㄧㄡ ㄧㄢ ㄧㄣ ㄧㄥ
Vowels u, y
IPA u ueɪ uən uɤŋ ʊŋ y yɛn yn iʊŋ
Pinyin wu wo/o wei wen weng ong yu yue yuan yun yong
Tongyong Pinyin wu wo/o wei wun wong ong yu yue yuan yun yong
Wade–Giles wu wo/o wei wên wêng ung yüeh yüan yün yung
Zhuyin ㄨㄛ/ㄛ ㄨㄟ ㄨㄣ ㄨㄥ ㄩㄝ ㄩㄢ ㄩㄣ ㄩㄥ
Non-sibilant consonants
IPA puɔ pʰuɔ muɔ fɤŋ tioʊ tueɪ tuən tʰɯʌ ny ly kɯʌɻ kʰɯʌ xɯʌ
Pinyin bo po mo feng diu dui dun te ger ke he
Tongyong Pinyin bo po mo fong diou duei dun te nyu lyu ger ke he
Wade–Giles po p'o mo fêng tiu tui tun t'ê kêrh k'o ho
Zhuyin ㄅㄛ ㄆㄛ ㄇㄛ ㄈㄥ ㄉㄧㄡ ㄉㄨㄟ ㄉㄨㄣ ㄊㄜ ㄋㄩ ㄌㄩ ㄍㄜㄦ ㄎㄜ ㄏㄜ
example 歌儿
Sibilant consonants
IPA tɕiɛn tɕiʊŋ tɕʰin ɕyɛn ʈʂɯʌ ʈʂɨ ʈʂʰɯʌ ʈʂʰɨ ʂɯʌ ʂɨ ʐɯʌ ʐɨ tsɯʌ tsuɔ tsɯ tsʰɯʌ tsʰɯ sɯʌ
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 jih tsê tso tzu ts'ê tz'u szu
Zhuyin ㄐㄧㄢ ㄐㄩㄥ ㄑㄧㄣ ㄒㄩㄢ ㄓㄜ ㄔㄜ ㄕㄜ ㄖㄜ ㄗㄜ ㄗㄨㄛ ㄘㄜ ㄙㄜ
IPA mä˥˥ mä˧˥ mä˨˩˦ mä˥˩
Pinyin ma
Tongyong Pinyin ma
Wade–Giles ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4 ma,
ma0, or
Zhuyin ㄇㄚ ㄇㄚˊ ㄇㄚˇ ㄇㄚˋ •ㄇㄚ

Computer input systems[edit]


Other languages[edit]



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[edit]


  1. ^ a b Snowling, Margaret J.; Hulme, Charles (2005). The science of reading: a handbook. Blackwell handbooks of developmental psychology) 17. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 320–22. ISBN 1-4051-1488-6. 
  2. ^ "Pinyin celebrates 50th birthday". Xinhua News Agency. 2008-02-11. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  3. ^ "ISO 7098:1982 – Documentation – Romanization of Chinese". Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
  4. ^ a b "Hanyu Pinyin to be standard system in 2009". Taipei Times. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  5. ^ a b "Government to improve English-friendly environment". The China Post. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  6. ^ The on-line version of the canonical Guoyu Cidian (《國語辭典》) defines this term as: 標語音﹑不標語義的符號系統，足以明確紀錄某一種語言。(A system of symbols for notation of the sounds of words rather than for their meanings that is sufficient to accurately record some language.) See, accessed 14 September 2012.
  7. ^ Sin, Kiong Wong (2012). Confucianism, Chinese History and Society. World Scientific. p. 72. ISBN 9814374474. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  8. ^ Brockey, Liam Matthew (2009). Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724. Harvard University Press. p. 261. ISBN 0674028813. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  9. ^ a b Chan, Wing-tsit; Adler, Joseph (2013). Sources of Chinese Tradition. Columbia University Press. pp. 303, 304. ISBN 0231517998. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  10. ^ Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese, Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press. p. 261. ISBN 0521296536. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  11. ^ Jensen, Lionel M.; Weston, Timothy B. (2007). China's Transformations: The Stories Beyond the Headlines. Rowman & Littlefield. p. XX. ISBN 074253863X. 
  12. ^ Chen, Ping (1999). Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521645727. Retrieved 13 July 2014. 
  13. ^ John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984), pp. 246-247.
  14. ^ "Father of pinyin". China Daily. 26 March 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2009.  Reprinted in part as Simon, Alan (21–27 Jan 2011). "Father of Pinyin". China Daily Asia Weekly (Hong Kong). Xinhua. p. 20. 
  15. ^ "Zhou Youguang". China Digital Times. China. 
  16. ^ "Tag: Zhou Youguang". 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2012-04-06. 
  17. ^ Branigan, Tania (2008-02-21). "Sound Principles". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  18. ^ Rohsenow, John S. 1989. Fifty years of script and written language reform in the PRC: the genesis of the language law of 2001. In Zhou Minglang and Sun Hongkai, eds. Language Policy In The People's Republic Of China: Theory And Practice Since 1949, p. 23
  19. ^ Branigan, Tania (2008-02-21). "Sound principles". The Guardian (London). 
  20. ^ a b "Hanyu Pinyin system turns 50". Straits Times. 2008-02-11. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  23. ^ "New Pinyin Standards (2012). On Derk Zech’s blog, with links to PDF documents". 2012-12-31. Retrieved 2013-11-10. 
  24. ^ Lin Mei-chun (2000-10-08). "Official challenges romanization". Taipei Times. 
  25. ^ Ao, Benjamin (1997-12-01). "History and Prospect of Chinese Romanization". Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal (Internet Chinese Librarians Club) (4). ISSN 1089-4667. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  26. ^ R.F. Price (2005). Education in Modern China. Volume 23 of "China : history, philosophy, economics". (2, illustrated ed.). Routledge. p. 123. ISBN 0-415-36167-2. 
  27. ^ Price (2005), pp. 206–208
  28. ^ Hashimoto, Mantaro (1970). "Notes on Mandarin Phonology". In Jakobson, Roman; Kawamoto, Shigeo. Studies in General and Oriental Linguistics. Tokyo: TEC. pp. 207–220 
  29. ^ You can hear recordings of the Finals here
  30. ^
  31. ^ a b "Apostrophes in Hanyu Pinyin: when and where to use them". 
  32. ^ a b "Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography". Qingdao Vocational and Technical College of Hotel Management (in Chinese). Department of Educational Administration. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014. 
  33. ^ "Release of the National Standard Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography". China Education and Research Network (in Chinese). China Education and Research Network. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2014. 
  34. ^ "Use of the Hyphen; Abbreviations and Short Forms". Retrieved 2012-04-06. 
  35. ^ Swofford, Mark. "Where do the tone marks go?". Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  36. ^ Nathan Dummitt, Chinese Through Tone & Color (2008)
  37. ^ "Hanping Chinese Dictionary color scheme". 2013-01-10. Retrieved 2013-01-10. 
  38. ^ Huang, Rong. "公安部最新规定 护照上的"ü"规范成"YU"". Retrieved 29 August 2012. 
  39. ^ Li, Zhiyan. ""吕"拼音到怎么写？ 公安部称应拼写成"LYU"". Retrieved 23 August 2012. 
  40. ^ "Google Reader". Retrieved 2010-05-17. 
  41. ^ Taylor, Insup and Maurice M. Taylor (1995), Writing and literacy in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, Volume 3 of Studies in written language and literacy, John Benjamins, p. 124.

Further reading[edit]

  • 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.
  • Uy, Dr. Tim and Jim Hsia (ed.) (2009). Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary: Advanced Reference Edition. Mountain View, CA: Loqu8 Press. 

Pinyin reading matters[edit]

External links[edit]

Preceded by
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Official romanization adopted
by the People's Republic of China

Succeeded by
Preceded by
de facto used romanization
by the People's Republic of China

Succeeded by
Preceded by
Tongyong Pinyin
Official romanization adopted
by the Republic of China (Taiwan)

Succeeded by