Pinyin



The reading materials of this book are written in bite size for learning easier, can be used for learning Pinyin Chinese* as well as English. (*For learning Hanzi Chinese, please click here.)


 * You can search related topics of this book from the following box, or browse the resources.

=The formulation of Pinyin=

Historic background
Pinyin was officially declared by the government of the People's Republic of China in 1958.

=The explanation of Pinyin=

What is Pinyin?
Pinyin (also called Hanyu Pinyin, Romanized Chinese or Pinyin Chinese) is a type of transliteration for Putonghua - the Standard Chinese language (a tonal language) where tone marks are used to show tones. It is the official form of the Latin alphabet transliteration used for the People's Republic of China and most of the world. And it is the standard form of Chinese Romanization for the United Nations.

Orthography
We should divide Pinyin text by words and write syllables connectedly, such as "I am a foreigner" should be written as "Wǒ shì wàiguórén" in Pinyin.

Syllable-dividing mark
Syllable-dividing mark is the mark for dividing syllables, used before the syllables starting with vowels "a", "o", or "e", such as "pí'ǎo".

=The application of Pinyin=

For spelling Putonghua
Chinese is normally written by ideographics. But for non-Chinese-speaking people, it is hard to recognize them. Pinyin can help Chinese learners recognize them more easily. This is a useful way to learn Chinese. Pinyin can also be used in place of Hanzi when Hanzi is not convenient.

Indexing problems
There is no particular order to Hanzi as it does not use the Roman alphabet (also called the Latin alphabet, i.e. ABC), so ordering by alphabetical order is inconvenient. There are currently many indexing methods to Hanzi, including character stroke, character radical, Four-Corner System, Zhuyin, Pinyin and etc. The structural problems of Hanzi cause indexing difficulty.

Solutions to indexing problems
Related governments together stipulate a unified Hanzi strokes and radicals standard.

There have been suggestions to use Pinyin as the indexing method. Pinyin adopts internationally used Roman alphabet, makes convenient file order. Pinyin uses phonetic values, avoiding the problem created by the lack of unity between traditional and simplified character strokes.

Technical terms translation problems
Majority of written language uses Roman alphabet (also called Latin alphabet). Hanzi (also called Chinese character) is not an alphabetic written language and is not convenient for translation, causing a lot of confusion. Technological terms such as Internet can be translated as 互联网 (Hùliánwǎng), 国际互联网 (Guójì Hùliánwǎng), 因特网 (Yīntèwǎng); laser translated as 雷射 (léishè), 镭射 (léishè), 莱塞 (láisài), 激光 (jīguāng). Brand names such as National, Panasonic, Technics are translated as 乐声牌 (Lèshēng-pái), 松下 (Sōng-xià); Sharp is translated as 声宝 (Shēngbǎo), 夏普 (Xiàpǔ); Sony is translated as 新力 (Xīnlì), 索尼 (Suǒní). Place names such as 北京 (Běijīng) is translated as Peking, Beijing; 广州 (Guǎngzhōu) is translated as Canton, Kwangchow, Guangzhou. People names such as the surname 罗 (Luó) is translated as Luo, Lo, Law; 李 (Lǐ) is translated as Lee, Li; Nixon is translated as 尼克逊 (Níkèxùn), 尼克松 (Níkèsōng). The same person can be translated into different names.

Technical terms translation problem solutions
When translating foreign languages, directly transliterating foreign languages can solve problems. For example, Internet directly translates to the Internet; laser directly translates to the laser; National, Panasonic and Technics directly translate to National, Panasonic and Technics, or as kanji of Japan: 松下 (Sōng-xià). Names of Chinese people, places and technical terms all use Pinyin to transliterate to foreign languages. For example, 北京 (Běijīng) 邓小平 (Dèng Xiǎopíng) and 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà) use Pinyin to transliterate to Beijing, Deng Xiaoping and Putonghua.

Learn Chinese
Pinyin is a tool for learning Mandarin, and is used to explain both the grammar and spoken Mandarin. Books containing both Hanzi and Pinyin are used by learners of Chinese; Pinyin's role in teaching pronunciation is similar 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 ("vocalized Arabic").

Pinyin reading materials
Pinyin reading materials are commonly used for learning Chinese.

Pinyin input method
Pinyin input method is a popularly used phonetic input method. To key in Putonghua's pinyin which will automatically convert into Hanzi. For example: "BABA" is for inputting "爸爸".

= Resources =
 * Category:Book:Pinyin
 * See also

=Appendix=

Pinyin Orthography

 * Basic Rules of Pinyin Orthography (Summary)

Dictionaries

 * Pinyin vocabulary
 * Wenlin Pinyin dictionary

Pinyin reading matters
The reading materials of this book can be used for learning Chinese as well as English.


 * |Please see for Pinyin reading matters


 * Pinyin reading matters from Wikimedia

Pinyin tone marking
ā á ǎ à a = a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 = a ar aa ah 'a *

āi ái ǎi ài = ai air aai aih

ān án ǎn àn = an arn aan ahn

āng áng ǎng àng = ang arng aang ahng

ē é ě è = e er ee eh

- ér ěr èr = - err eer erh

nǖ nǘ nǚ nǜ = nv nvr nvv nvh

lǖ lǘ lǚ lǜ = lv lvr lvv lvh

de = d, dy, or de, can be written distinguishably as follows:

d indicating subordination; suffix indicating an adjective

dy -ly, suffix indicating an adverb

de indicating a verb followed by an adverb or adverb clause; infix indicating be able to

le indicating a past tense; indicating a new situation

bu not, no; non-, un-; be unable to

'g non-specific measure word

'r non-syllabic diminutive suffix; retroflex final


 * * Syllable-dividing mark can be replaced by grave mark (`) when apostrophe (') is used for indicating neutral tone.


 * Alternative methods can be used when diacritics are not convenient.