Bopomofo
Semisyllabary used to transcribe Chinese / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), also called Zhuyin (Chinese: 注音; pinyin: zhùyīn), occasionally Mandarin Phonetic Symbols (Chinese: 注音符號; pinyin: zhùyīn fúhào; Wade–Giles: chu4yin1 fu2hao4), is a Chinese transliteration and writing system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe other varieties of Chinese, particularly other varieties of Mandarin Chinese dialects, as well as Taiwanese Hokkien. Consisting of 37 characters and five tone marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin.
Bopomofo 注音符號; 注音符号 | |
---|---|
Script type | with diacritics for tones |
Creator | Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation Introduced by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China |
Time period | 1918[1] to 1958 in mainland China (used supplement Hanyu Pinyin in all editions of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian from 1960 to present 2016 edition); 1945 to the present in Taiwan |
Direction | Left-to-right, right-to-left script |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Oracle bone script
|
Child systems | Cantonese bopomofo, Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols, Suzhou Phonetic Symbols, Hmu Phonetic Symbols, Matsu Fuchounese Bopomofo [zh] |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Bopo (285), Bopomofo |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Bopomofo |
| |
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
Mandarin Phonetic Symbol | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 注音符號 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 注音符号 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bopomofo was first introduced in China by the Beiyang government in the 1910s and was used alongside the Wade–Giles system for romanization purposes, which used a modified Latin alphabet. Today, Bopomofo is now more common in Taiwan than on the mainland, and is after Hanyu Pinyin used as a secondary electronic input method for writing Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan as well as in dictionaries or other non-official documents.
Bopomofo is the name used by the ISO and Unicode. Zhuyin (注音) literally means phonetic notation. The original formal name of the system was 國音字母; Guóyīn Zìmǔ; 'National Language Phonetic Alphabet' and 註音字母; Zhùyīn Zìmǔ; 'Phonetic Alphabet or Annotated Phonetic Letters'.[2] It was later renamed 注音符號; Zhùyīn Fúhào; 'phonetic symbols'. In official documents, Bopomofo is occasionally called "Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I" (國語注音符號第一式), abbreviated as "MPS I" (注音一式),[2][3] to distinguish it from the romanized phonetic system released in 1984 as Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS II).
The name Bopomofo comes from the first four letters of the system: ㄅ, ㄆ, ㄇ and ㄈ.[4] Similar to the way that the word "alphabet" is ultimately derived from the names of the first two letters of the alphabet (alpha and beta), the name "Bopomofo" is derived from the first four syllables in the conventional ordering of available syllables in Mandarin Chinese. The four Bopomofo characters (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) that correspond to these syllables are usually placed first in a list of these characters. The same sequence is sometimes used by other speakers of Chinese to refer to other phonetic systems.[citation needed]
Origins
The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu,[2] which was based on Zhang Binglin's shorthand. It was used as the official phonetic script to annotate the sounds of the characters in accordance with the Old National Pronunciation.[5] A draft was released on 11 July 1913, by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education, but it was not officially proclaimed until 23 November 1928.[2] It was first named Guóyīn Zìmǔ 'national pronunciation alphabet', but in April 1930 was renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào 'phonetic symbols' to address fears that the alphabetic system might independently replace Chinese characters.[6]
Modern use
Bopomofo is the predominant phonetic system in teaching, reading and writing in elementary school in Taiwan. In elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Bopomofo as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one children's newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News, annotates all articles with Bopomofo ruby characters.
It is also the most popular way for Taiwanese to enter Chinese characters into computers and smartphones and to look up characters in a dictionary.
In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some overseas communities such as Filipino Chinese use Bopomofo.
Bopomofo is shown in a secondary position to Hanyu Pinyin in all editions of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian from the 1960 edition to the current 2016 edition (7th edition).
Bopomofo is also used to transcribe other Chinese dialects, most commonly Taiwanese Hokkien and Cantonese, however its use can be applied to practically any dialect in handwriting (because not all letters are encoded). Outside of Chinese, Bopomofo letters are also used in Hmu and Ge languages by a small number of Hmu Christians.[7]
The Bopomofo characters were created by Zhang Binglin, taken mainly from "regularized" forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. The consonants are listed in order of place of articulation, from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, /l/ etc.
Consonants | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bopomofo | Origin[8] | IPA | Pinyin | WG | Example |
ㄅ | From 勹, the ancient form and current top portion of 包 bāo, "to wrap up; package" | p | b | p | 包 bāo ㄅㄠ |
ㄆ | From 攵, a variant form of 攴 pū, "to knock lightly". | pʰ | p | pʻ | 撲 pū ㄆㄨ |
ㄇ | From 冂, the archaic character and current "cover" radical 冖 mì. | m | m | m | 冞 mí ㄇㄧˊ |
ㄈ | From the "right open box" radical 匚 fāng. | f | f | f | 匪 fěi ㄈㄟˇ |
ㄉ | From 𠚣, archaic form of 刀 dāo, "blade". Compare the Shuowen seal . | t | d | t | 地 dì ㄉㄧˋ |
ㄊ | From 𠫓 tū, an upside-down form of 子 zǐ and an ancient form of 突 tū ( and in seal script)[9][10] | tʰ | t | tʻ | 提 tí ㄊㄧˊ |
ㄋ | From /𠄎, ancient form of 乃 nǎi, "to be" (a copula in Classical Chinese). | n | n | n | 你 nǐ ㄋㄧˇ |
ㄌ | From 𠠲, archaic form of 力 lì, "power". | l | l | l | 利 lì ㄌㄧˋ |
ㄍ | From the obsolete character 巜 guì/kuài, "ditch". | k | g | k | 告 gào ㄍㄠˋ |
ㄎ | From the archaic character, now "breath" or "sigh" component 丂 kǎo. | kʰ | k | kʻ | 考 kǎo ㄎㄠˇ |
ㄏ | From the archaic character and current radical 厂 hǎn. | x | h | h | 好 hǎo ㄏㄠˇ |
ㄐ | From the archaic character 丩 jiū. | tɕ | j | ch | 叫 jiào ㄐㄧㄠˋ |
ㄑ | From the archaic character 𡿨 quǎn, graphic root of the character 巛 chuān, "river" (modern 川). | tɕʰ | q | chʻ | 巧 qiǎo ㄑㄧㄠˇ |
ㄒ | From 丅, an ancient form of 下 xià, "under". | ɕ | x | hs | 小 xiǎo ㄒㄧㄠˇ |
ㄓ | From /𡳿, archaic form of 之 zhī, a genitive marker in Classical Chinese. | ʈʂ | zhi, zh- | ch | 知 zhī ㄓ; 主 zhǔ ㄓㄨˇ |
ㄔ | From the character and radical 彳 chì | ʈʂʰ | chi, ch- | chʻ | 吃 chī ㄔ; 出 chū ㄔㄨ |
ㄕ | From 𡰣, an ancient form of 尸 shī | ʂ | shi, sh- | sh | 是 shì ㄕˋ; 束 shù ㄕㄨˋ |
ㄖ | Modified from the seal script form of 日 rì, "day" or "sun". | ɻ~ʐ | ri, r- | j | 日 rì ㄖˋ; 入 rù ㄖㄨˋ |
ㄗ | From the archaic character and current radical 卩 jié, dialectically zié ([tsjě]; tsieh² in Wade–Giles) | ts | zi, z- | ts | 字 zì ㄗˋ; 在 zài ㄗㄞˋ |
ㄘ | From 𠀁, archaic form of 七 qī, dialectically ciī ([tsʰí]; tsʻi¹ in Wade–Giles). Compare semi-cursive form and seal-script . | tsʰ | ci, c- | tsʻ | 詞 cí ㄘˊ; 才 cái ㄘㄞˊ |
ㄙ | From the archaic character 厶 sī, which was later replaced by its compound 私 sī. | s | si, s- | s | 四 sì ㄙˋ; 塞 sāi ㄙㄞ |
Rhymes and medials | |||||
Bopomofo | Origin | IPA | Pinyin | WG | Example |
ㄚ | From 丫 yā | a | a | a | 大 dà ㄉㄚˋ |
ㄛ | From the obsolete character 𠀀 hē, inhalation, the reverse of 丂 kǎo, which is preserved as a phonetic in the compound 可 kě.[11] | o | o | o | 多 duō ㄉㄨㄛ |
ㄜ | Derived from its allophone in Standard Chinese, ㄛ o | ɤ | e | o/ê | 得 dé ㄉㄜˊ |
ㄝ | From 也 yě, "also". Compare the Warring States bamboo form | e | -ie/ê | eh | 爹 diē ㄉㄧㄝ |
ㄞ | From 𠀅 hài, archaic form of 亥. | ai | ai | ai | 晒 shài ㄕㄞˋ |
ㄟ | From 乁 yí, an obsolete character meaning 移 yí, "to move". | ei | ei | ei | 誰 shéi ㄕㄟˊ |
ㄠ | From 幺 yāo | au | ao | ao | 少 shǎo ㄕㄠˇ |
ㄡ | From 又 yòu | ou | ou | ou | 收 shōu ㄕㄡ |
ㄢ | From the archaic character 𢎘 hàn "to bloom", preserved as a phonetic in the compound 犯 fàn | an | an | an | 山 shān ㄕㄢ |
ㄣ | From 𠃉, archaic variant of 鳦 yǐ or 乚 yà[12] (乚 is yǐn according to other sources[13]) | ən | en | ên | 申 shēn ㄕㄣ |
ㄤ | From 尢 wāng | aŋ | ang | ang | 上 shàng ㄕㄤˋ |
ㄥ | From 𠃋, archaic form of 肱 gōng[14] | əŋ | eng | êng | 生 shēng ㄕㄥ |
ㄦ | From 儿, the bottom portion of 兒 ér used as a cursive and simplified form | aɚ | er | êrh | 而 ér ㄦˊ |
ㄧ | From 一 yī, "one" | i | yi, -i | i | 以 yǐ ㄧˇ; 逆 nì ㄋㄧˋ |
ㄨ | From 㐅, ancient form of 五 wǔ, "five". Compare the transitory form 𠄡. | u | w, wu, -u | u/w | 努 nǔ ㄋㄨˇ; 我 wǒ ㄨㄛˇ |
ㄩ | From the ancient character 凵 qū, which remains as a radical | y | yu, -ü | ü/yü | 雨 yǔ ㄩˇ; 女 nǚ ㄋㄩˇ |
ㄭ |
From the character 帀. It represents the fricative vowel of ㄓ,ㄔ,ㄕ,ㄖ,ㄗ,ㄘ,ㄙ,though it is not used after them in transcription.[15] | ɻ̩~ʐ̩, ɹ̩~z̩ | -i | ih/ŭ | 資 zī ㄗ; 知 zhī ㄓ; 死 sǐ ㄙˇ |
Stroke order
Bopomofo is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters. ㄖ is written with three strokes, unlike the character from which it is derived (Chinese: 日; pinyin: rì), which has four strokes.
ㄧ can be written as a vertical line () or a horizontal line (); both are accepted forms. Traditionally, it should be written as a horizontal line in vertical writing, and a vertical line in horizontal writing. The People's Republic of China almost exclusively uses horizontal writing, so the vertical form (in the rare occasion that Bopomofo is used) has become the standard form there. Language education in the Republic of China generally uses vertical writing, so most people learn it as a horizontal line, and use a horizontal form even in horizontal writing. In 2008, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education decided that the primary form should always be the horizontal form, but that the vertical form is accepted alternative.[16] Unicode 8.0.0 published an errata in 2014 that updates the representative glyph to be the horizontal form.[17] Computer fonts may only display one form or the other, or may be able to display both if the font is aware of changes needed for vertical writing.
Tonal marks
As shown in the following table, tone marks for the second, third, and fourth tones are shared between bopomofo and pinyin. In bopomofo, the mark for first tone is usually omitted but can be included,[18][19] while a dot above indicates the fifth tone (also known as the neutral tone). In pinyin, a macron (overbar) indicates the first tone, and the lack of a marker usually indicates the fifth (light) tone.
Tone | Bopomofo | Pinyin | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Tone Marker | Unicode Name | Tone Marker | Unicode Name | |
1 | ˉ | Modifier Letter Macron (usually omitted)[18][19] |
◌̄ | Combining Macron |
2 | ˊ | Modifier Letter Acute Accent | ◌́ | Combining Acute Accent |
3 | ˇ | Caron | ◌̌ | Combining Caron |
4 | ˋ | Modifier Letter Grave Accent | ◌̀ | Combining Grave Accent |
5 | ˙ | Dot Above[20] | · | Middle Dot (usually omitted)[21] |
Unlike Hanyu Pinyin, Bopomofo aligns well with the Chinese characters in books whose texts are printed vertically, making Bopomofo better suited for annotating the pronunciation of vertically oriented Chinese text.
When used in conjunction with Chinese characters, Bopomofo is typically placed to the right of the Chinese character vertically in both vertical print[22][23] and horizontal print[24] or to the top of the Chinese character in a horizontal print (see Ruby characters).
Example
Below is an example for the word "bottle" (pinyin: píngzi):
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, |
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or |
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Erhua transcription
Words rhotacized as a result of erhua are spelled with ㄦ attached to the syllable (like 歌兒 gēr). In case the syllable uses other tones than the 1st tone, the tone mark is attached to the penultimate letter standing for syllable nucleus, but not to ㄦ (e.g. 哪兒 nǎr; 一點兒 yīdiǎnr; 好玩兒 hǎowánr).[25]
Pinyin
Bopomofo and pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations; hence there is a one-to-one correspondence between the two systems:
Rhyme | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ㄚ | ㄛ | ㄜ | ㄝ | ㄞ | ㄟ | ㄠ | ㄡ | ㄢ | ㄣ | ㄤ | ㄥ | ㄦ | |||
Medial | [ɨ] (ㄭ) 1 -i |
[a] ㄚ a -a |
[o] ㄛ 3 o -o 3 |
[ɤ] ㄜ e -e |
[ɛ] ㄝ ê |
[ai̯] ㄞ ai -ai |
[ei̯] ㄟ ei -ei |
[ɑu̯] ㄠ ao -ao |
[ou̯] ㄡ ou -ou |
[an] ㄢ an -an |
[ən] ㄣ en -en |
[ɑŋ] ㄤ ang -ang |
[ɤŋ] ㄥ eng -eng |
[aɚ] ㄦ er | |
ㄧ | [i] ㄧ yi -i |
[i̯a] ㄧㄚ ya -ia |
[i̯o] ㄧㄛ yo |
[i̯ɛ] ㄧㄝ ye -ie |
[i̯ai̯] ㄧㄞ yai |
[i̯ɑu̯] ㄧㄠ yao -iao |
[i̯ou̯] ㄧㄡ you -iu |
[i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ yan -ian |
[in] ㄧㄣ yin -in |
[i̯ɑŋ] ㄧㄤ yang -iang |
[iŋ] ㄧㄥ ying -ing |
||||
ㄨ | [u] ㄨ wu -u |
[u̯a] ㄨㄚ wa -ua |
[u̯o] ㄨㄛ 3 wo -uo 3 |
[u̯ai̯] ㄨㄞ wai -uai |
[u̯ei̯] ㄨㄟ wei -ui |
[u̯an] ㄨㄢ wan -uan |
[u̯ən] ㄨㄣ wen -un |
[u̯ɑŋ] ㄨㄤ wang -uang |
[u̯ɤŋ], [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ weng -ong 4 |
||||||
ㄩ | [y] ㄩ yu -ü 2 |
[y̯ɛ] ㄩㄝ yue -üe 2 |
[y̯ɛn] ㄩㄢ yuan -üan 2 |
[yn] ㄩㄣ yun -ün 2 |
[i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ yong -iong |
1 Not written.
2 ⟨ü⟩ is written as ⟨u⟩ after ⟨j⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨x⟩, or ⟨y⟩.
3 ⟨ㄨㄛ⟩/⟨-uo⟩ is written as ⟨ㄛ⟩/⟨-o⟩ after ⟨ㄅ⟩/⟨b-⟩, ⟨ㄆ⟩/⟨p-⟩, ⟨ㄇ⟩/⟨m-⟩, ⟨ㄈ⟩/⟨f-⟩.
4 ⟨weng⟩ is pronounced [ʊŋ] (written as ⟨-ong⟩) when it follows an initial.
Chart
IPA | a | ɔ | ɛ | ɤ | ai | ei | au | ou | an | ən | aŋ | əŋ | ʊŋ | aɹ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pinyin | a | o | ê | e | ai | ei | ao | ou | an | en | ang | eng | ong | er |
Tongyong Pinyin | ||||||||||||||
Wade–Giles | eh | ê/o | ên | êng | ung | êrh | ||||||||
Bopomofo | ㄚ | ㄛ | ㄝ | ㄜ | ㄞ | ㄟ | ㄠ | ㄡ | ㄢ | ㄣ | ㄤ | ㄥ | ㄨㄥ | ㄦ |
example | 阿 | 喔 | 誒 | 俄 | 艾 | 黑 | 凹 | 偶 | 安 | 恩 | 昂 | 冷 | 中 | 二 |
IPA | i | je | jou | jɛn | in | iŋ | jʊŋ | u | wo | wei | wən | wəŋ | y | ɥe | ɥɛn | yn |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pinyin | yi | ye | you | yan | yin | ying | yong | wu | wo/o | wei | wen | weng | yu | yue | yuan | yun |
Tongyong Pinyin | wun | wong | ||||||||||||||
Wade–Giles | i/yi | yeh | yu | yen | yung | wên | wêng | yü | yüeh | yüan | yün | |||||
Bopomofo | ㄧ | ㄧㄝ | ㄧㄡ | ㄧㄢ | ㄧㄣ | ㄧㄥ | ㄩㄥ | ㄨ | ㄨㄛ/ㄛ | ㄨㄟ | ㄨㄣ | ㄨㄥ | ㄩ | ㄩㄝ | ㄩㄢ | ㄩㄣ |
example | 一 | 也 | 又 | 言 | 音 | 英 | 用 | 五 | 我 | 位 | 文 | 翁 | 玉 | 月 | 元 | 雲 |
IPA | p | pʰ | m | fəŋ | tjou | twei | twən | tʰɤ | ny | ly | kɤɹ | kʰɤ | xɤ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pinyin | b | p | m | feng | diu | dui | dun | te | nü | lü | ge | ke | he |
Tongyong Pinyin | fong | diou | duei | nyu | lyu | ||||||||
Wade–Giles | p | pʻ | fêng | tiu | tui | tun | tʻê | nü | lü | ko | kʻo | ho | |
Bopomofo | ㄅ | ㄆ | ㄇ | ㄈㄥ | ㄉㄧㄡ | ㄉㄨㄟ | ㄉㄨㄣ | ㄊㄜ | ㄋㄩ | ㄌㄩ | ㄍㄜ | ㄎㄜ | ㄏㄜ |
example | 玻 | 婆 | 末 | 封 | 丟 | 兌 | 頓 | 特 | 女 | 旅 | 歌 | 可 | 何 |
IPA | tɕjɛn | tɕjʊŋ | tɕʰin | ɕɥɛn | ʈʂɤ | ʈʂɨ | ʈʂʰɤ | ʈʂʰɨ | ʂɤ | ʂɨ | ɻɤ | ɻɨ | tsɤ | tswo | tsɨ | tsʰɤ | tsʰɨ | sɤ | sɨ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pinyin | jian | jiong | qin | xuan | zhe | zhi | che | chi | she | shi | re | ri | ze | zuo | zi | ce | ci | se | si |
Tongyong Pinyin | jyong | cin | syuan | jhe | jhih | chih | shih | rih | zih | cih | sih | ||||||||
Wade–Giles | chien | chiung | chʻin | shüan | chê | chih | chʻê | chʻih | shê | shih | jê | jih | tsê | tso | tzŭ | tsʻê | tzʻŭ | sê | ssŭ |
Bopomofo | ㄐㄧㄢ | ㄐㄩㄥ | ㄑㄧㄣ | ㄒㄩㄢ | ㄓㄜ | ㄓ | ㄔㄜ | ㄔ | ㄕㄜ | ㄕ | ㄖㄜ | ㄖ | ㄗㄜ | ㄗㄨㄛ | ㄗ | ㄘㄜ | ㄘ | ㄙㄜ | ㄙ |
example | 件 | 窘 | 秦 | 宣 | 哲 | 之 | 扯 | 赤 | 社 | 是 | 惹 | 日 | 仄 | 左 | 字 | 策 | 次 | 色 | 斯 |
IPA | ma˥˥ | ma˧˥ | ma˨˩˦ | ma˥˩ | ma |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pinyin | mā | má | mǎ | mà | ma |
Tongyong Pinyin | ma | mȧ | |||
Wade–Giles | ma1 | ma2 | ma3 | ma4 | ma |
Bopomofo | ㄇㄚ | ㄇㄚˊ | ㄇㄚˇ | ㄇㄚˋ | ˙ㄇㄚ |
example (Chinese characters) | 媽 | 麻 | 馬 | 罵 | 嗎 |