The different

varieties of Chinese There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...

have been transcribed into many other writing systems.

General Chinese

General Chinese is a diaphonemic orthography invented by

Yuen Ren Chao Yuen Ren Chao (Chinese: 趙元任; 3 November 189225 February 1982), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American linguist, educator, scholar, poet, and composer, who contributed to the modern study of Chinese phonology and grammar. Chao ...

to represent the pronunciations of all major varieties of Chinese simultaneously. It is "the most complete genuine Chinese

diasystem In the field of dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is a linguistic analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties in a way that displays their structural differences. The term ''diasystem'' was coined by linguis ...

yet published". It can also be used for the

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

pronunciations of Chinese characters, and challenges the claim that

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

s are required for inter-dialectal communication in written Chinese. General Chinese is not wholly a romanisation system, but consists of two alternative systems: one uses Chinese characters as a

syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...

of 2082 glyphs, and the other is a

romanisation In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

system with similar spellings to ''

Gwoyeu Romatzyh Gwoyeu Romatzyh ( ; GR) is a system for writing Standard Chinese using the Latin alphabet. It was primarily conceived by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), who led a group of linguists on the National Languages Committee in refining the system betwe ...

''.

''Guanhua zimu''

, developed by Wang Zhao (1859–1933), was the first alphabetic writing system for Chinese developed by a Chinese person. This system was modeled on Japanese ''

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

'', which he learned during a two-year stay in Japan, and consisted of letters that were based on components of Chinese characters. After returning to China in 1900, he taught his system in various parts of North China, but the government banned it in 1901. One of Wang's contemporaries, Lao Naixuan (1843–1921), later adapted ''Guanhua zimu'' for use in two Wu dialects, those of

Ningbo Ningbo is a sub-provincial city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the Eas ...

and

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

. In doing this, he raised the issue that was ultimately responsible for the failure of all alphabetic writing systems in China: the notion that people should be introduced to literacy in their own local dialects. Such a proposal would both challenge the unique position of the millennia-old writing system and create more than one literary language, destroying China's linguistic unity in both the historical and geographic senses. Because of this, there was strong opposition from the very beginning to proposals of this kind.

Bopomofo

Wu Jingheng, who had developed a "beansprout alphabet", and Wang Zhao, who had developed ''Guanhua zimu'' in 1900, and

Lu Zhuangzhang Lu Zhuangzhang (1854–1928) was a Chinese scholar notable for creating the ''Qieyin xinzi'' ( 'new phonetic alphabet'), the first romanization system for Chinese designed by a native speaker, which he published in 1892. Lu's work stimulated Chin ...

were part of the

Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation was established by the Republic of China in 1913 in order to address several aspects of Chinese language reform—including selecting an official phonetic transcription system for Mandarin Chine ...

(1912–1913), which developed the rudimentary Jiyin Zimu () system of

Zhang Binglin Zhang Binglin (January 12, 1869 – June 14, 1936), also known by his art name Zhang Taiyan, was a Chinese philologist, textual critic, philosopher, and revolutionary. His philological works include ''Wen Shi'' (文始 "The Origin of Writing"), ...

into the Mandarin-specific phonetic system now known as

Zhuyin Fuhao Bopomofo, also called Zhuyin Fuhao ( ; ), or simply Zhuyin, is a transliteration system for Standard Chinese and other Sinitic languages. It is the principal method of teaching Chinese Mandarin pronunciation in Taiwan. It consists of 37 cha ...

or bopomofo, proclaimed on 23 November 1918. The significant feature of bopomofo is that it is composed entirely of

ruby character Ruby characters or rubi characters () are small, annotative glosses that are usually placed above or to the right of logographic characters of languages in the East Asian cultural sphere, such as Chinese ''hanzi'', Japanese ''kanji'', and Kor ...

s which can be written beside any Chinese text whether written vertically, right-to-left, or left-to-right. The characters within the bopomofo system are unique phonetic characters, and are not part of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

. In this way, it is not technically a form of romanisation, but because it is used for phonetic transcription the alphabet is often grouped with the romanisation systems.

Taiwanese kana

When

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

was under Japanese rule, a

-based writing system used to write Holo Taiwanese. It functioned as a phonetic guide to Chinese characters, much like ''

furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana (syllabic characters) printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also know ...

'' in

, or bopomofo. There were similar systems for other languages in Taiwan as well, including

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

and

Formosan languages The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather up to nine separate primary subfamili ...

Tao pronunciation letters

Tao prununciation letters, or Tao HanZi Yin in chinese, are pronunciation letters invented in 1939 for a Cantonese language dictionary.

Phags-pa script

The Phags-pa script was an alphabet designed by

Drogön Chögyal Phagpa Drogön Chogyal Phagpa (), who lived from (26 March 1235 – 15 December 1280), was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also the first Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan dynasty and was concurrently named the director o ...

at the behest of

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

during the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

, to unify the empire's various languages. While Phags-pa has aided in the reconstruction of pre-modern Chinese pronunciation, it totally ignores tone.

Manchu alphabet

The

Manchu alphabet The Manchu alphabet ( mnc, m= , v=manju hergen, a=manju hergen) is the alphabet used to write the now critically endangered Manchu language. A similar script called Xibe script is used today by the Sibe people, Xibe people, Xibe language, wh ...

was used to write Chinese in the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

Mongolian alphabet

In Inner Mongolia the Mongolian alphabet is used to transliterate Chinese.

''Xiao'erjing''

Xiao'erjing Xiao'erjing, Xiaorjing, Xiaojing or Benjing, is a Arabic script, Perso-Arabic script used to write Sinitic languages, including Lanyin Mandarin, Zhongyuan Mandarin, Northeastern Mandarin, and Dungan language, Dungan. It is used on occasion ...

'' uses the

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

to transliterate Chinese. It is used on occasion by many

ethnic minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

who adhere to the

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

faith in China (mostly the Hui, but also the Dongxiang, and the Salar), and formerly by their

Dungan Dungan may refer to: * Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin ** Dungan language ** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally * Dungan Mountains in Sibi District, Pakistan * Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes ...

descendants in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. Soviet writing reforms forced the Dungan to replace ''xiao'erjing'' with a

Roman alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from —additions su ...

and later a Cyrillic alphabet, which they continue to use up until today.

Romanisation

There have been many Chinese

systems throughout history. Recently,

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

has become prominent since its introduction in 1982. Other well-known systems include Wade-Giles and

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

Cyrillisation

The Russian system for Cyrillisation of Chinese is the

Palladius system The cyrillization of Chinese is the transcription of Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet. The Palladius system is the official Russian standard for transcribing Chinese into Russian, with variants existing for Ukrainian, Belarusia ...

. The

Dungan language Dungan ( or ) is a Sinitic language spoken primarily in the Chu Valley of southeastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. It is the native language of the Dungan people, a Hui subgroup that fled Qing China in the 19th century. It evolved f ...

, a variety of Mandarin, was once written in the Latin script, but now employs

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

. Some use the Cyrillic alphabet to shorten pinyin—e.g. as . Various other countries employ bespoke systems for cyrillising Chinese.

Braille

A number of

braille Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

transcriptions have been developed for Chinese. In mainland China, traditional

mainland Chinese Braille Mainland Chinese Braille is a braille script for Standard Chinese used in China. Consonants and basic finals conform to international braille, but additional finals form a semi-syllabary, as in bopomofo. Each syllable is written with up to ...

and

Two-Cell Chinese Braille Two-cell Chinese Braille was designed in the 1970s and is used in parallel with traditional Chinese Braille in China. Each syllable is rendered with two braille characters. The first combines the initial and medial; the second the rime and ...

are used in parallel to transcribe Standard Chinese.

Taiwanese Braille Taiwanese Braille is the braille script used in Taiwan for Taiwanese Mandarin (''Guoyu''). Although based marginally on international braille, most consonants have been reassigned; also, like Chinese Braille, Taiwanese Braille is a semi-sylla ...

is used in Taiwan for

Taiwanese Mandarin Taiwanese Mandarin, frequently referred to as ''Guoyu'' () or ''Huayu'' (), is the variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. A large majority of the Taiwanese population is fluent in Mandarin, though many also speak a variety of Min Chinese ...

. In traditional Mainland Chinese Braille, consonants and basic finals conform to

international braille The goal of braille uniformity is to unify the braille alphabets of the world as much as possible, so that literacy in one braille alphabet readily transfers to another. Unification was first achieved by a convention of the ''International Congre ...

, but additional finals form a

semi-syllabary A semi-syllabary is a writing system that behaves partly as an alphabet and partly as a syllabary. The main group of semi-syllabic writing are the Paleohispanic scripts of ancient Spain, a group of semi-syllabaries that transform redundant plosi ...

, as in bopomofo. Each syllable is written with up to three Braille cells, representing the

initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

and

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

, respectively. In practice tone is generally omitted. In Two-Cell Chinese Braille, designed in the 1970s, each syllable is rendered with two braille characters. The first combines the initial and

medial Medial may refer to: Mathematics * Medial magma, a mathematical identity in algebra Geometry * Medial axis, in geometry the set of all points having more than one closest point on an object's boundary * Medial graph, another graph that repr ...

; the second the

syllable rime A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

and tone. The base letters represent the initial and rhyme; these are modified with diacritics for the medial and tone. Like traditional Mainland Chinese Braille, Taiwanese Braille is a semi-syllabary. Although based marginally on international braille, the majority of consonants have been reassigned.Only ''p m d n g c a e ê ü'' (from p m d n k j ä è dropped-e ü) approximate the French norm. Other letters have been reassigned so that the sets of letters in groups such as ''d t n l'' and ''g k h'' are similar in shape.

References

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