Pinyin

For other uses, see Pinyin (disambiguation).

Pinyin is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin, where pin means "spell" and yin means "sound".

The most common variant of pinyin in use is called Hanyu Pinyin (simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音; pinyin: Hànyǔ Pīnyīn), also known as scheme of the Chinese phonetic alphabet (simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音方案; traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音方案; pinyin: Hànyǔ Pīnyīn fāng'àn).

Hanyu Pinyin was approved in 1958 and adopted in 1979 by the government in the People's Republic of China. It superseded older romanization systems such as Wade-Giles (1859; modified 1892) and Chinese Postal Map Romanization, and replaced Zhuyin as the method of Chinese phonetic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. Hanyu Pinyin was adopted in 1979 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the standard romanization for modern Chinese (ISO-7098:1991). It has also been accepted by the Government of Singapore, the Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and many other international institutions. It has also become a useful tool for entering Chinese language text into computers.

Pinyin is a romanization and not an anglicization; that is, it uses Roman letters to represent sounds in Standard Mandarin. The way these letters represent sounds in Standard Mandarin will differ from how other languages that use the Roman alphabet represent sound. For example, the sounds indicated in pinyin by b and g correspond more closely to the sounds indicated by p and k in some Western uses of the Latin script, e.g., French. Other letters, like j, q, x or zh, indicate sounds that do not correspond to any exact sound in English. Some of the transcriptions in pinyin, such as the ang ending, do not correspond to English pronunciations, either.

By letting Roman characters refer to specific Chinese sounds, pinyin produces a compact and accurate romanization, which is convenient for native Chinese speakers and scholars. However, it also means that a person who has not studied Chinese or the pinyin system is likely to severely mispronounce words, which is a less serious problem with some earlier romanization systems such as Wade-Giles.

Pronunciation

The primary purpose of pinyin in Chinese schools is to teach Standard Mandarin pronunciation. For those Chinese who speak Standard Mandarin at home, pinyin is used to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know; however, for the many Chinese who do not use Standard Mandarin at home, pinyin is used to teach them the Standard Mandarin pronunciation of words when they learn them in elementary school.

Pinyin uses the Roman alphabet, hence the pronunciation is relatively straightforward for Westerners. Pinyin vowels are pronounced similarly to vowels in Romance languages, and most consonants are similar to English. A pitfall for English-speaking novices is, however, the unusual pronunciation of x, q, c, zh, and z (and sometimes i) and the unvoiced pronunciation of d, b, g, and j. More information on the pronunciation of all pinyin letters in terms of English approximations is given further below.

The pronunciation of Chinese is generally given in terms of initials and finals, which represent the segmental phonemic portion of the language. Initials are initial consonants, while finals are all possible combinations of medials (semivowels coming before the vowel), the nucleus vowel, and coda (final vowel or consonant).

For a complete table of all pinyin syllables, see pinyin table.

Initials

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin.

	Bilabial		Labio- dental	Alveolar		Retroflex		Alveolo- palatal		Velar
Plosive	[p] b	[pʰ] p		[t] d	[tʰ] t					[k] g	[kʰ] k
Nasal	[m] m			[n] n
Lateral approximant				[l] l
Affricate				[ts] z	[tsʰ] c	[ʈʂ] zh	[ʈʂʰ] ch	[tɕ] j	[tɕʰ] q
Fricative			[f] f	[s] s		[ʂ] sh	[ʐ] * r	[ɕ] x		[x] h
Approximant						[ɻ] * r

^* /ɻ/ may phonetically be [ʐ] (a voiced retroflex fricative). This pronunciation varies among different speakers, and is not two different phonemes.

Conventional order, derived from the BoPoMoFo system, is:

b p m f

d t n l

g k h

j q x

zh ch sh r

z c s

Finals

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an -r, which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals. ¹

It is of interest to point out that the only syllable-final consonants in standard Mandarin are -n and -ng, and -r which is attached as a grammatical suffix. If you see a Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant, it is either from a non-Mandarin language (southern Chinese languages such as Cantonese, or minority languages of China), or it indicates the use of a non-pinyin Romanization system (where final consonants may be used to indicate tones).

Nucleus	Coda	Medial
		Ø	i	u	y
a	Ø	[ɑ] a -a	[iɑ] ya -ia	[uɑ] wa -ua
	i	[aɪ] ai -ai		[uaɪ] wai -uai
	u	[aʊ] ao -ao	[iaʊ] yao -iao
	n	[an] an -an	[iɛn] yan -ian	[uan] wan -uan	[yɛn] yuan -üan 2
	ng	[ɑŋ] ang -ang	[iɑŋ] yang -iang	[uɑŋ] wang -uang
ə	Ø	[ɤ] e -e	[iɛ] ye -ie	[uɔ] wo -uo/-o 3	[yɛ] yue -üe 2
	i	[eɪ] ei -ei		[ueɪ] wei -ui
	u	[ɤʊ] ou -ou	[iɤʊ] you -iu
	n	[ən] en -en	[in] yin -in	[uən] wen -un	[yn] yun -ün 2
	ng	[ɤŋ] eng -eng	[iɤŋ] ying -ing	[uɤŋ] 4 weng -ong	[yʊŋ] yong -iong
Ø		[z̩] -i	[i] yi -i	[u] wu -u	[y] yu -ü 2

¹ /ər/ (而, 二, etc.) is written as er. For other finals formed by the suffix -r, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends -r to the final that it is added to, without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way. For information on sound changes related to final -r, please see Standard Mandarin.
² "ü" is written as "u" after j, q, or x.
³ "uo" is written as "o" after b, p, m, or f.
⁴ It is pronounced [ʊŋ] when it follows an initial, and pinyin reflects this difference.

In addition, ê [ɛ] is used to represent certain interjections.

Rules given in terms of English pronunciation

All rules given here in terms of English pronunciation are approximate, as several of these sounds do not correspond directly to sounds in English.

Pronunciation of initials

Pinyin	IPA	Explanation
b	[p]	unaspirated p, as in spit
p	[pʰ]	aspirated p, as in pit
m	[m]	as in English
f	[f]	as in English
d	[t]	unaspirated t, as in stop
t	[tʰ]	aspirated t, as in top
n	[n]	as in English
l	[l]	something between the l in English and the continental r
g	[k]	unaspirated k, as in skill
k	[kʰ]	aspirated k, as in kill
h	[x]	like the English h if followed by "a"; otherwise it is pronounced more roughly (not unlike the Scots ch)
j	[tɕ]	like q, but unaspirated. (To get this sound, first take the sound halfway between joke and check, and then slowly pass it backwards along the tongue until it is entirely clear of the tongue tip.) While this exact sound is not used in English, the closest match is the j in ajar, not the s in Asia; this means that "Beijing" is pronounced like "bay-jing", not like "beige-ing".
q	[tɕʰ]	like church; pass it backwards along the tongue until it is free of the tongue tip
x	[ɕ]	like sh, but take the sound and pass it backwards along the tongue until it is clear of the tongue tip; very similar to the final sound in German ich, Portuguese enxada, luxo, xícara, puxa, and to huge or Hugh in some English dialects
zh	[ʈʂ]	ch with no aspiration (take the sound halfway between joke and church and curl it upwards); very similar to merger in American English, but not voiced
ch	[ʈʂʰ]	as in chin, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to nurture in American English, but strongly aspirated
sh	[ʂ]	as in shinbone, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to undershirt in American English
r	[ʐ] or [ɻ]	similar to the English r in rank, but with the lips spread and with the tongue curled upwards
z	[ts]	unaspirated c (halfway between beds and bets), (more common example is suds)
c	[tsʰ]	like ts, aspirated (more common example is cats)
s	[s]	as in sun

Pronunciation of finals

The following is an exhaustive list of all finals in Standard Mandarin. Those ending with a final -r are listed at the end.

To find a given final:

1. Remove the initial consonant. For zh-, ch-, sh-, both letters should be removed, they are single consonants spelt with two letters.
2. However, y- or w- are part of the final; do not remove those.
   1. Syllables beginning with y- and w- are simply standalone forms of finals beginning with i-, u-. and ü-.
3. If the initial is j-, q-, and x-, and the final starts with -u-, then change the -u- to -ü-.

Pinyin	IPA	Final-only form	Explanation
-i	[z̩], [ʐ̩]	n/a	Displayed as an "i" after: "zh", "ch", "sh", "r", "z", "c" or "s". After "z", "c" or "s", sounds like a prolonged "zzz" sound. After "zh", "ch", "sh" or "r", sounds like a prolonged American "r" sound. In some dialects, pronounced slightly more open, allowing a clear-sounding vowel to pass through (a high, central, unrounded vowel, something like IPA /ɨ/; say 'zzz' and lower the tongue just enough for the buzzing to go away).
a	[ɑ]	a	as in "father"
o	[uɔ]	o	starts with English "oo" and ends with a plain continental "o".
e	[ɤ], [ə]	e	a back, unrounded vowel, which can be formed by first pronouncing a plain continental "o" (AuE and NZE law) and then spreading the lips without changing the position of the tongue. That same sound is also similar to English "duh", but not as open. Many unstressed syllables in Chinese use the schwa (idea), and this is also written as e.
ê	[ɛ]	(n/a)	as in "bet". Only used in certain interjections.
ai	[aɪ]	ai	like English "eye", but a bit lighter
ei	[ei]	ei	as in "hey"
ao	[ɑʊ]	ao	approximately as in "cow"; the a is much more audible than the o
ou	[ou̯]	ou	as in "so"
an	[an]	an	starts with plain continental "a" (AuE and NZE bud) and ends with "n"
en	[ən]	en	as in "taken"
ang	[ɑŋ]	ang	as in German Angst, including the English loan word angst (starts with the vowel sound in father and ends in the velar nasal; like song in American English)
eng	[ɤŋ]	eng	like e above but with ng added to it at the back
er	[ɑɻ]	er	like English "are" (exists only on its own, or as the last part of a final in combination with others - see bottom of this list)
Finals beginning with i- (y-)
i	[i]	yi	like English "ee", except when preceded by "c", "ch", "r", "s", "sh", "z" or "zh"
ia	[iɑ]	ya	as i + a; like English "yard"
io	[iɔ]	yo	as i + plain continental "o". Only used in certain interjections.
ie	[iɛ]	ye	as i + ê; but is very short; e (pronounced like ê) is pronounced longer and carries the main stress (similar to the initial sound ye in yet)
iao	[iɑʊ]	yao	as i + ao
iu	[iou̯]	you	as i + ou
ian	[iɛn]	yan	as i + ê + n; like English yen
in	[in]	yin	as i + n
iang	[iɑŋ]	yang	as i + ang
ing	[iŋ]	ying	as i but with ng added to it at the back
Finals beginning with u- (w-)
u	[u]	wu	like English "oo"
ua	[ua]	wa	as u + a
uo	[uɔ]	wo	as u + o; the o is pronounced shorter and lighter than in the o final
uai	[uaɪ]	wai	as u + ai
ui	[ueɪ]	wei	as u + ei; here, the i is pronounced like ei
uan	[uan]	wan	as u + an
un	[uən]	wen	as u + en; like the on in the English won
uang	[uɑŋ]	wang	as u + ang; like the ang in English angst or anger
ong	[ʊŋ]	n/a'	starts with the vowel sound in book and ends with the velar nasal sound in sing
n/a	[uɤŋ]	weng	as u + eng
Finals beginning with ü- (yu-)
ü	[y]	yu	as in German "üben" or French "lune" (To get this sound, say "ee" with rounded lips)
ue	[yɛ]	yue	as ü + ê; the ü is short and light
üan	[yɛn]	yuan	as ü + ê+ n;
ün	[yn]	yun	as ü + n;
iong	[yʊŋ]	yong	as ü + ong;

Finals that are a combination of finals above + r final
Pinyin	IPA	Explanation
ar	[ɑɻ]	like ar in American English "art"
er	[ɤɻ]	as e + r; not to be confused with er final on its own- this form only exists with an initial character before it
or	[uɔɻ]	as o + r
air	[ɑɻ]	as ar
eir	[ɝ]	as schwa + r
aor	[ɑʊɻ]	as ao + r
our	[ou̯ɻ]	as ou + r
anr	[ɑɻ]	as ar
enr	[ɝ]	as schwa + r
angr	[ɑ̃ɻ]	as ang + r, with ng removed and the vowel nasalized
engr	[ɤ̃ɻ]	as eng + r, with ng removed and the vowel nasalized
ir	[iɝ]	as i + schwa + r
ir	[ɝ]	after "c", "ch", "r", "s", "sh", "z", "zh": as schwa + r.
iar	[iɑɻ]	as i + ar
ier	[iɛɻ]	as ie + r
iaor	[iɑʊɻ]	as iao + r
iur	[iou̯ɻ]	as iou + r
ianr	[iɑɻ]	as i + ar
inr	[iɝ]	as ir
iangr	[iɑ̃ɻ]	as i + angr
ingr	[iɤ̃ɻ]	as i + engr
ur	[uɻ]	as u + r
uar	[uɑɻ]	as u + ar
uor	[uɔɻ]	as uo + r
uair	[uɑɻ]	as u + ar
uir	[uɝ]	as u + schwa + r
uanr	[uɑɻ]	as u + ar
unr	[uɝ]	as u + schwa + r
uangr	[uɑ̃ɻ]	as u + angr
ongr	[ʊ̃ɻ]	as ong + r, with ng removed and the vowel nasalized
ür	[yɝ]	as ü + schwa + r
uer	[yɛɻ]	as ue + r
üanr	[yɑɻ]	as ü + ar
ünr	[yɝ]	as ü + schwa + r
iongr	[yʊ̃ɻ]	as ü + ongr

Orthography

Letters

Pinyin differs from other romanizations in several aspects, such as the following:

• w is placed before syllables starting with u.
• y is placed before syllables starting with i and ü.
• ü is written as u when there is no ambiguity (such as ju, qu, and xu), but written as ü when there are corresponding u syllables (such as lü and nü). In such situations where there are corresponding u syllables, it is often replaced with v on a computer, making it easier to type on a standard keyboard.
• When preceded by a consonant, iou, uei, and uen are simplified as iu, ui, and un (which do not represent the actual pronunciation).
• As in zhuyin, what are actually pronounced as buo, puo, muo, and fuo are given a separate representation: bo, po, mo, and fo.
• The apostrophe (') is used before a, o, and e to separate syllables in a word where ambiguity could arise, e.g., pi'ao (simplified Chinese: 皮袄; traditional Chinese: 皮襖) vs. piao (票), and Xi'an (西安) vs. xian (先).
• Eh! alone is written as ê; elsewhere as e. Schwa is always written as e.
• zh, ch, and sh can be abbreviated as ẑ, ĉ, and ŝ. However, the shorthands are rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers.
• ng has the uncommon shorthand of ŋ.

Most of the above are used to avoid ambiguity when writing words of more than one syllable in pinyin. For example uenian is written as wenyan because it is not clear which syllables make up uenian; uen-ian, uen-i-an and u-en-i-an are all possible combinations whereas wenyan is unambiguous because we, nya, etc. do not exist in pinyin. A summary of possible pinyin syllables (not including tones), can be reviewed at: pinyin table

Capitalization & word formation

Although Chinese characters represent single syllables, Mandarin Chinese is a polysyllabic language. Spacing in Hanyu Pinyin is based on whole words, not single syllables. However, there are often ambiguities in partitioning a word. Orthographic rules were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational Commission (国家教育委员会) and the National Language Commission (国家语言文字工作委员会).

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; péngyou, qiǎokèlì (person; friend; chocolate)
   2. Combined meaning (2 characters): Same goes for words combined of two words to one meaning: hǎifēng; wèndá, quánguó (sea breeze; Q&A; 'pan-national')
   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; huánjìng bǎohù guīhuà (seamless steel-tube; environmental protection planning)
2. Duplicated words (AA and ABAB)
   1. AA: Duplicated characters (AA) are written together: rénrén; kànkàn; niánnián (everybody; to have a look; annual)
   2. ABAB: two characters duplicated (ABAB) are written separated: yánjiū yánjiū; xuěbái xuěbái (try again; snow-white)
   3. AABB: A hyphen is used with the schema AABB: láilái-wǎngwǎng; qiānqiān-wànwàn(go back and forth; numerous)
3. Nouns (míngcí): Nouns are written in one: zhuōzi, mùtou (table, wood)
   1. Even if accompanied by a prefix and suffix: fùbùzhǎng (vice minister), chéngwùyuán (conductor), háizimen (children)
   2. Word of position are separated: mén wài (outdoor), hé li (in the river), huǒchē shàngmian (on the train), Huáng Hé yǐnán (south of the Yellow River)
      1. Exceptions are words traditionally connected: tiānshang (at the sky), dìxia (on the floor), kōngzhōng (in the air), hǎiwài (overseas)
   3. Chinese names are separated from the given name which will be written as one: Lǐ Huá, Wáng Jiàngguó, Zhāng Sān.
      1. Titles following the name are separated and are not capitalized: Wáng bùzhǎng (Minister Wang), Lǐ xiānsheng (Mr. Li), Tián zhǔrèn (Director Tian), Zhào tóngzhì (Comrade Zhao).
      2. The forms of address, Lǎo, Xiǎo, Dà and A, are capitalized: Xiǎo Liú (Young Mr. Liu), Dà Lǐ (Great Li), A Sān (Ah San), Lǎo Qián (Senior Qian), Wú Lǎo (Senior Wu)
         1. Exceptions are: Kǒngzǐ (Master Confucius), Bāogōng (Judge Bao), Xīshī (historical person), Mèngchángjūn (historical person)
   4. Geographical names of China:: Běijīng Shì (City of Beijing), Héběi Shěng (Province of Hebei), Yālù Jiāng (Yalu stream), Tài Shān (Mt. Taishan), Dòngtíng Hú (Lake Donting), Táiwān Hǎixiá (Taiwan strait)
   5. Non-Chinese names translated back from Chinese will be written by their original writing: Marx, Einstein, London, Tokyo
4. Verbs: Verbs and their suffixes (-zhe, -le and -guo) are written as one: kànzhe/kànle/kànguo (to see/saw/seen), jìngxíngzhe (to implement). Le as it appears in the end of a sentence is separated though: Huǒchē dào le (The train arrived).
   1. Verbs and their objects are separated: kàn xìn (read a letter), chī yú (eat fish), kāi wánxiào (to be kidding).
   2. If verbs and their complements are each monosyllabic, they are written together, if not, separated: gǎohuài ("to make broken"), dǎsǐ (hit to death), huàwéi ("to become damp"), zhěnglǐ hǎo (to straighten out), gǎixiě wéi (rewrite a screenplay)
5. Adjectives (xíngróngcí): A monosyllabic adjective and its reduplication are written as one: mēngmēnglìang (dim), lìangtāngtāng (shining bright)
   1. Complements of size or degree (as xiē, yīxiē, diǎnr, yīdiǎnr) are written separated: dà xiē (a little bigger), kuài yīdiānr (a bit faster)
6. Pronouns (dàicí)
   1. The plural suffix -men directly follows up: wǒmen (we), tāmen (they)
   2. The demonstrative pronoun zhè (this), nà (that) and the question pronoun nǎ (which) are separated: zhè rén (this person), nà cì huìyì (that meeting), nǎ zhāng bàozhǐ (which newspaper)
      1. Exceptions are: nàli (there), zhèbian (over here), zhège (this piece), zhème (so), zhèmeyàng (that way)... and similar ones.
   3. Words like gè/měi (every, each), mǒu (any), běn (that), gāi (that), wǒ (mine, our), are separated from the measure words following them: gè guó (every nation), gè gè (everyone), měi nián (every year), mǒu gōngchǎng (a certain factory), wǒ xiào (our school).
7. Numerals and measure words (shùcí hé liàngcí)
8. Fuctional words
9. Proverbs
10. Capitalization
11. Separation in the end of a text row

Tones

Relative pitch changes of the four tones

The pinyin system also incorporates suprasegmental graphemes to represent the four tones of Mandarin. Each tone is indicated by a diacritical mark above a non-medial vowel. Many books printed in China mix fonts, with vowels with tone marks rendered in a different font than the surrounding text, a practice that tends to give such pinyin texts a typographically ungainly appearance. This style, most likely rooted in early technical limitations, has led many to believe that pinyin's rules call for this practice and also for the use of "ɑ" (with no curl over the top) rather than the standard style of the letter "a" found in most fonts. The official rules of Hanyu Pinyin, however, specify no such practice. Note that tone marks can also appear on consonants in certain vowelless exclamations.

1. The first tone (Flat or High Level Tone) is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel:

   
   (ɑ̄) ā ē ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū Ǖ

2. The second tone (Rising or High-Rising Tone) is denoted by an acute accent (ˊ):

   
   (ɑ́) á é í ó ú ǘ Á É Í Ó Ú Ǘ

3. The third tone (Falling-Rising or Low Tone) is symbolized by a caron/háček ( ˇ ). Note, it is officially not a breve ( ˘ ), lacking a downward angle, although this misuse is somewhat common on the Internet.

   
   (ɑ̌) ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ

4. The fourth tone (Falling or High-Falling Tone) is represented by a grave accent (ˋ):

   
   (ɑ̀) à è ì ò ù ǜ À È Ì Ò Ù Ǜ

5. The fifth or neutral tone (Neutral Tone) is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:

   
   (ɑ) a e i o u ü A E I O U Ü

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

These tone marks normally are only used in Mandarin textbooks or in foreign learning texts, but they are essential for correct pronunciation of Mandarin syllables, as exemplified by the following classic example of five characters whose pronunciations differ only in their tones:

Traditional characters:

Simplified characters:

The words are "mother", "hemp", "horse", "admonish" and a question particle, respectively.

Numbers in place of tone marks

Since most computer fonts do not contain the macron or caron accents, a common convention is to add a digit representing the tone to the end of individual syllables. For example, "tóng" (tong with the rising tone) is written "tong2". The number used for each tone is as the order listed above (except the "fifth tone", which, in addition to being numbered 5, is also sometimes not numbered or numbered zero, as in ma0 (吗/嗎, an interrogative marker).

Tone	Tone Mark	Number added to end of syllable in place of tone mark	Example using tone mark	Example using number	IPA
First	macron (ˉ)	1	mā	ma1	ma˥˥
Second	acute accent (ˊ)	2	má	ma2	ma˧˥
Third	caron ( ˇ )	3	mǎ	ma3	ma˨˩˦
Fourth	grave accent (ˋ)	4	mà	ma4	mâ˥˩
"Neutral" or "Fifth"	No mark or dot before syllable (·)	no number 5 0	ma ·ma	ma ma5 ma0

Rules for placing the tone mark

The rules for determining on which vowel the tone mark appears are as follows:

1. If there is more than one vowel and the first vowel is i, u, or ü, then the tone mark appears on the second vowel.
2. In all other cases, the tone mark appears on the first vowel.

(y and w are not considered vowels for these rules.)

The reasoning behind these rules is in the case of diphthongs and triphthongs, i, u, and ü (and their orthographic equivalents y and w when there is no initial consonant) are considered medial glides rather than part of the syllable nucleus in Chinese phonology. The rules ensure that the tone mark always appears on the nucleus of a syllable.

Another algorithm for determining the vowel on which the tone mark appears is as follows:

1. First, look for an "a" or an "e". If either vowel appears, it takes the tone mark. There are no possible pinyin syllables that contain both an "a" and an "e".
2. If there is no "a" or "e", look for an "ou". If "ou" appears, then the "o" takes the tone mark.
3. If none of the above cases hold, then the last vowel in the syllable takes the tone mark.

Miscellanea

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 lü (e.g. 驴/驢 donkey) from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. 炉/爐 oven). Tonal markers are added on top of the umlaut, as in lǘ.

However, the ü is not used in other contexts where it represents a front high rounded vowel, namely after the letters j, q, x and y. For example, the sound of the word 鱼/魚 (fish) is transcribed in pinyin simply as yú, not as yǘ. 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 jü. Genuine ambiguities only happen with nu/nü and lu/lü, which are then distinguished by an umlaut diacritic.

Many fonts or output methods do not support an umlaut for ü or cannot place tone marks on top of ü. Likewise, using ü in input methods is difficult because it is not present as a simple key on many keyboard layouts. For these reasons v is sometimes used instead by convention. Occasionally, uu (double u), u: (u followed by a colon) or U (capital u) is used in its place.

See also:

• Chinese Postal Map Romanization (unrelated)
• Combining diacritic marks Unicode #U0300

Comparison chart

Vowels a, e, o

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

Vowels i, u, y

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

Non-sibilant consonants

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

Sibilant consonants

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	hsüan	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

Tones

IPA	ma˥˥	ma˧˥	ma˨˩˦	ma˥˩	ma
Pinyin	mā	má	mǎ	mà	ma
Tongyong Pinyin	ma				må
Wade–Giles	ma1	ma2	ma3	ma4	ma
Bopomofo	ㄇㄚ	ㄇㄚˊ	ㄇㄚˇ	ㄇㄚˋ	˙ㄇㄚ
example (Chinese characters)	媽	麻	馬	罵	嗎

Pinyin in Taiwan

Taiwan has adopted Tongyong Pinyin on the national level since October 2002. Tongyong Pinyin is a modified version of Hanyu Pinyin. The adoption of Tongyong Pinyin has also resulted in political controversy. Much of the controversy centered on issues of national identity, with proponents of Chinese reunification favoring the Hanyu Pinyin system which is used on the People's Republic of China, and proponents of Taiwanese independence favoring the use of Tongyong Pinyin.

Localities with governments controlled by the Kuomintang, most notably Taipei City, have overridden the 2002 administrative order and converted to Hanyu Pinyin (although with a slightly different capitalization convention than the Mainland). As a result, the use of romanization on signage in Taiwan is inconsistent, with many places using Tongyong Pinyin but some using Hanyu Pinyin, and still others not yet having had the resources to replace older Wade-Giles or MPS2 signage. This has resulted in the odd situation in Taipei City in which inconsistent pinyin are shown in freeway directions, with freeway signs, which are under the control of the national government, using one pinyin, but surface street signs, which are under the control of the city government, using the other.

Elementary education continues to teach pronunciation using the zhuyin system in Taiwan. Although the ROC government has stated the desire to use romanization rather than zhuyin in education, the lack of agreement on which form of pinyin to use and the huge logistical challenge of teacher training has stalled these efforts.

Other languages

Pinyin-like systems have been devised for other variants of Chinese. Guangdong Romanization is a set of romanizations devised by the government of Guangdong province for Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka (Moiyen dialect), and Hainanese. All of these are designed to use Latin letters in a similar way to pinyin.

In addition, in accordance to the "Regulation of Phonetic Transcription in Hanyu Pinyin Letters of Place Names in Minority Nationality Languages" (《少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法 》) promulgated in 1976, place names in non-Chinese languages like Mongol, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also officially transcribed using pinyin. The pinyin letters (26 Roman letters, ü, ê) are used to approximate the non-Chinese language in question as closely as possible. This results in spellings that are different from both the customary spelling of the place name, and the pinyin spelling of the name in Chinese:

Customary	Official (Pinyin for local name)	Pinyin for Chinese name
Shigatse	Xigazê	Rìkāzé
Urumchi	Ürümqi	Wūlǔmùqí
Lhasa	Lhasa	Lāsà
Golmud	Golmud	Gé'érmù

See also: Tibetan Pinyin

Controversy

Debate continues about the actual suitability of pinyin as a Chinese romanization method. This argument revolves around pinyin's unconventional use of Roman letters, of which the phonological values of some phonemes are quite different from that of most languages utilizing the Roman alphabet. Some sinologists praise this as pinyin's flexibility in that it allows the entire Roman alphabet to be adapted to the Chinese sound system (compared to Wade-Giles, which leaves out or underuses many letters). Others point out that pinyin letter values are so unconventional that for a person unfamiliar with Chinese, they result in a larger number of mispronunciations when compared to Wade-Giles. However, as not only the PRC but by now most institutions and publications have adopted it, the debate seems increasingly obsolete.

Pinyin, like all systems of romanization, has certain limitations that users should be aware of:

• Like the spelling systems of any other language, pinyin does not represent English pronunciation and should not be pronounced according to English conventions. Readers are advised to learn pinyin phonetic conventions, bearing in mind that many sounds have no equivalents in English.
• Chinese characters can indicate semantic cues. But since pinyin is based only on the sounds of Standard Mandarin, these semantic cues are no longer preserved. For speakers of other Chinese spoken variants who do not speak Standard Mandarin, pinyin is unsuitable for use in reading and writing because these sounds do not correspond to their speech.
• The phonotactics of spoken Mandarin dictate a relatively small set of possible syllables resulting in many homophones. Because of this, pinyin can be more ambiguous than Chinese characters, especially when transcribing Standard Written Chinese, which uses formal constructions not often found in speech. However, this should not be much of an issue in the transcription of normal spoken Mandarin conversation since speakers would not use such highly ambiguous constructions in speech. And Pinyin, as an accurate and unambiguous written representation of the sounds of Mandarin, should not be notably more ambiguous than other languages written with an alphabet.

Computer systems long provided the most convincing argument in favor of pinyin; early computers were able to display nothing but 7-bit ASCII (essentially the 26 letters, the 10 digits, and a handful of punctuation marks). Most contemporary computer systems are now able to readily display characters from not only Chinese, but from many other writing systems as well. In addition, multiple input method editors exist that use standard keyboards to type them (pinyin being one such method). Now, PDAs, tablet PCs and digitizing tablets allow users to write characters with a stylus, which can then be stored and edited like any text. Thus, this justification is no longer as strong as it used to be.

Nonetheless, pinyin has gained wide acceptance, and supporters believe it is useful for students of Chinese as a second language. Also, the ability to easily convert electronic Chinese texts written in traditional or simplified characters into pinyin using computer programs such as the Chinese Pronunciation Tool has greatly increased the value of being able to read pinyin.

Entering toned pinyin with Mac OS X

Activate the "US Extended" keyboard in System Preferences and then do:

• Option-a and then <vowel> to create the first tones: ā, ī, ē, ō, ū
• Option-e and then <vowel> to create the second tones: á, é, í, ó, ú
• Option-v and then <vowel> to create the third tone: ǎ, ǐ, ě, ǒ, ǔ
• Option-` and then <vowel> to create the fourth tone: à, ì, è, ò, ù
• u and then Shift-Option-u and then Shift-Option-<a, e, v or `> gives ǖ, ǘ, ǚ or ǜ.

Entering toned pinyin using the web

See the Pinyin Editor.

See also

• Tongyong Pinyin
• Pinyin table
• List of ISO transliterations
• Tibetan Pinyin
• Legge romanization

References

• 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.

External links

Auto-converters

• Pinyin4j: Java library supporting Chinese to various pinyin representations Support Simplified and Traditional Chinese; Target pinyin systems include Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, Wade-Giles, MPS2, Yale and Gwoyeu Romatzyh; Support multiple pronunciations of a single character; Support customized output, such as ü or tone marks.
• Pinyin Tone Tool Convert pinyin with tone numbers into pinyin with tone marks above the correct vowels. Doesn't require page re-loads.
• Chinese pronunciation tool Paste a Chinese text and get the pinyin pronunciation of all the characters.
• Pinyin editor Write Pinyin with tone.

Other

• Read/Write using Unicode
• Tongyong and Hanyu Pinyin
• Hanyu Pinyin Information
• Zhuyin->Wade-Giles->Pinyin->Word List
• English Wiktionary - Useful resource for identifying Chinese characters (copy and paste individual characters into "search" box)
• the pinyinator - Convert UNICODE Chinese text to pinyin (copy and paste characters into pinyinate box)
• How to use Pinyin to input Chinese?
• U.S. Library of Congress conversion page