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'Zhuyin fuhao' (), or "Symbols for Annotating Sounds", often abbreviated as 'Zhuyin', or known as 'Bopomofo' (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) after the first four letters of this Chinese phonemic alphabet (bo po mo fo), is a phonetic system for transcribing Chinese, especially Mandarin, for people learning to read, write or speak Mandarin. It is currently in wide use in Taiwan. (See Uses).
The system uses 37 special symbols to represent Mandarin sounds: 21 consonants and 16 vowels. Each symbol represents a group of sounds without much ambiguity. It is also the basis for Chinese Braille.

Contents

History

Use as an input method

Symbol origins

Uses

Writing

Zhuyin vs. Tongyong Pinyin & Hanyu Pinyin

Another comparison table

Usage in Chinese languages other than Mandarin

See also

External links

History

The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Woo Tsin-hang from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Guoyin zimu (國音字母 "National Pronunciation Letters") or Zhuyin zimu (註音字母 or 注音字母 "Sound-annotating Letters") which is based on Zhang Binglin's shorthands. (For differences with the Zhang system, see Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation#Phonetic symbols.) A draft was released on July 11, 1913 by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education, but it was not officially proclaimed until November 23, 1918. Zhuyin zimu was renamed to Zhuyin fuhao in April 1930. The use of Zhuyin Fuhao has continued after 1949 on Taiwan and its outlying islands under Taiwan administration. In mainland China, Zhuyin Fuhao was superseded by the pinyin system promulgated by the People's Republic of China, although the pronunciation of words in standard dictionaries are given in both pinyin and Zhuyin.
Taiwan Education Ministry has attempted for many years to phase out the use of Zhuyin in favor of a system based on Roman characters (see MPS II). However, this transition has been extremely slow due to the difficulty in teaching elementary school teachers a new Roman-based system.

Use as an input method

Zhuyin can be used as an input method for Chinese characters. It is one of the few input methods that can be found on most modern personal computers without the user having to download or install any additional software. It is also one of the few input methods that can be used for inputting Chinese characters on certain cell phones.

Symbol origins

There was no official document explaining the details of the origins of the characters, but they are apparent if one understands some basic Chinese characters. The zhuyin symbols are mainly variant ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each symbol represents, and most if not all Bopomofo signs have one or more encoded CJK counterparts (ㄜ seems to be the only exception).
For example:

★ ㄝ (e) ← 也 (yě); cp. ancient Seal form

★ ㄞ (ai) ← 亥 (hài); ancient form

★ ㄟ (ei) ← 乁 (yí) [not 飞 (fēi)]

★ ㄉ (d) ← 刀 (dāo)

★ ㄌ (l) ← 力 (lì)

★ ㄘ (c) ← 七 (cī, now pronounced ''qī''); ancient form of '7'

★ ㄅ (b) ← 勹 (bāo); ancient form of 包

★ ㄨ (u) ← 五 (wǔ); ㄨ, ancient form of 五

★ ㄓ (zh) ← 之 (zhī); ancient form of 之

★ ㄋ (n) ← 乃 (nǎi)

★ ㄒ (x) ← 丅 (xià); ancient form of 下

★ ㄙ (s) ← 厶 (sī); ancient form of 私
Some are virtually identical to Chinese characters in common use, for example:

★ 一 (i) ← 一 (yī)

★ ㄚ (a) ← 丫 (yā)

★ ㄠ (ao) ← 幺 (yāo)

★ ㄦ (er) ← 儿 (ér); modern simplified and ancient form

★ ㄪ (v) ← 万 (wàn, or vàn in some dialects); modern simplification of 萬 '10,000'
Many are nearly entirely identical to radicals with the same sounds, for example:

★ ㄆ (p) ← 攵 (pū)

★ ㄇ (m) ← 冖 (mì)

★ ㄈ (f) ← 匚 (fāng)

★ ㄎ (k) ← 丂 (kǎo)

★ ㄏ (h) ← 厂 (hǎn)

★ ㄗ (z) ← 卩 (zié, now pronounced ''jié'')

★ ㄕ (sh) ← 尸 (shī)

★ ㄤ (ang) ← 尢 (wāng)

★ ㄩ (ü) ← 凵 (qū)

★ ㄡ (ou) ← 又 (yòu)

★ ㄖ (r) ← 日 (rì)

★ ㄔ (chi) ← 彳 (chì)
The Zhuyin characters usually are represented in typographic fonts as if drawn with an ink brush (as in Regular Script). They are encoded in Unicode in the Bopomofo block, in the range U+3105..U+312c, including the 3 dialect (non-Mandarin) letters at the end.

Uses

These phonetic symbols sometimes appear as ruby characters printed next to the Chinese characters in young children's books, and in editions of classical texts (which frequently use characters that are uncommon in modern writing). In advertisements, these phonetic symbols are sometimes used to write certain particles (e.g., ㄉ instead of 的); other than this, one seldom sees these symbols used in mass media adult publications except as a pronunciation guide (or index system) in dictionary entries. Bopomofo symbols are also mapped to the ordinary Roman character keyboard (1 = ''bo'', q = ''po'', a = ''mo'', and so forth) used in one method for inputting Chinese text when using the computer.
Unlike pinyin, the sole purpose for Zhuyin in elementary education is to teach Standard Mandarin pronunciation to children. Grade one textbooks of all subjects (including Mandarin) are entirely in zhuyin. After that year, Chinese character texts are given in annotated form. Around grade four, presence of Zhuyin annotation is greatly reduced, remaining only in the new character section. Schoolchildren learn the symbols so that they can decode pronunciations given in a Chinese dictionary, and also so that they can find how to write words for which they know only the sounds.
Pinyin, on the other hand, is dual-purpose. Besides being a pronunciation notation, pinyin is used widely in publications in mainland China. Some books from mainland China are published purely in pinyin with not even a single Chinese character. Those books are targeted to minority tribal groups or Westerners who know spoken Mandarin but have not yet learned written Chinese characters.
Zhuyin is also used to write some of the aboriginal languages of Taiwan, such as Atayal [1], Seediq [2], Paiwan [3], or Tao [4]. For these it is a primary writing system, not an ancillary system as it is for Chinese.
For non-native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Zhuyin can be useful as a learning tool. Because it does not use romanization, confusion over "Latin alphabet" sounds and "Chinese" sounds is not an issue. As well Zhuyin's formation of initials and finals to form syllables is more straightforward than Pinyin's. However, for one not familiar with Zhuyin, it can be more difficult to first understand the proper pronunciations. With its own keyboard layout, it is also less easily used to enter Chinese by people using a standard latin-based keyboard.

Writing

Zhuyin symbols are written like Chinese characters, including the general order of strokes and positioning. They are always placed to the right of the Chinese characters, whether the characters are arranged vertically or horizontally. Technically, these are Ruby characters. Very rarely do they appear on top of Chinese characters when written horizontally as furigana would be written above kanji in a Japanese text. Because a syllable block contains usually two or three Zhuyin symbols (which themselves fit in a square format) stacked on top of each other, the blocks are rectangular.
The tone marks are similar to the later developed Pinyin tone symbols, except that the natural tone (5th tone) is denoted with a black dot (natural dot), while Pinyin does not carry any accent mark. The neutral dot is the only mark to be placed on top of the vertical Zhuyin syllable block; the remaining three are in a vertical strip to the right of the character.
The tone marks are sometimes given in Regular Script style, matching the associated Chinese characters, and have the same basic shape as do those of the pinyin tone symbols. However, they vary in detail. The thickened end of Zhuyin's second (rising) tone is always at the lower left, whereas the second tone mark in the Pinyin system is a straight line of uniform width. The third tone mark displays the greatest variation.
Zhuyin's tone symbolization was used in the ROC-sponsored romanizations created by the Mandarin Promotion Council. The tone symbols in that system were identical with the Zhuyin tone symbols, except that they were not in Regular Style calligraphy, but in a Western font face and so resemble the tone symbols used in Pinyin.
Most ㄅㄆㄇㄈ characters are written in the same stroke order as other Chinese characters. However, because they are an alphabet, some are written faster. For example, both ㄓ and ㄖ are written in three strokes. ( ; )

Zhuyin vs. Tongyong Pinyin & Hanyu Pinyin

Zhuyin and Pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations, hence there is a mostly 1-to-1 mapping between the two systems. In the table below, the 'Zhuyin' and 'Pinyin' columns show equivalency.
:【】represents the form used in combination with other symbols.
A comparison between Pinyin and Zhuyin for Standard Mandarin can also be done by comparing the transcription of various syllables at Comparison of Chinese Phonetic Systems.

'Zhuyin vs. Pinyin'

Initials
Zhuyin	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Example(Zhuyin, Pinyin)
ㄅ	b	b	p	八 (ㄅㄚ, 'b'a)
ㄆ	p	p	p'	杷 (ㄆㄚˊ, 'p'a)
ㄇ	m	m	m	馬 (ㄇㄚˇ, 'm'a)
ㄈ	f	f	f	法 (ㄈㄚˋ, 'f'a)
ㄉ	d	d	t	地 (ㄉㄧˋ, 'd'i)
ㄊ	t	t	t'	提 (ㄊㄧˊ, 't'i)
ㄋ	n	n	n	你 (ㄋㄧˇ, 'n'i)
ㄌ	l	l	l	利 (ㄌㄧˋ, 'l'i)
ㄍ	g	g	k	告 (ㄍㄠˋ, 'g'ao)
ㄎ	k	k	k'	考 (ㄎㄠˇ, 'k'ao)
ㄏ	h	h	h	好 (ㄏㄠˇ, 'h'ao)
ㄐ	j	j	ch	叫 (ㄐㄧㄠˋ, 'j'iao)
ㄑ	c	q	ch'	巧 (ㄑㄧㄠˇ, 'q'iao)
ㄒ	s	x	hs	小 (ㄒㄧㄠˇ, 'x'iao)
ㄓ	jhih 【jh】	zhi 【zh】	chih 【ch】	主 (ㄓㄨˇ, 'zh'u)
ㄔ	chih 【ch】	chi 【ch】	ch'ih 【ch'】	出 (ㄔㄨ, 'ch'u)
ㄕ	shih 【sh】	shi 【sh】	shih 【sh】	束 (ㄕㄨˋ, 'sh'u)
ㄖ	rih 【r】	ri 【r】	jih 【j】	入 (ㄖㄨˋ, 'r'u)
ㄗ	zih 【z】	zi 【z】	tzû 【ts】	在 (ㄗㄞˋ, 'z'ai)
ㄘ	cih 【c】	ci 【c】	tz'û 【ts'】	才 (ㄘㄞˊ, 'c'ai)
ㄙ	sih 【s】	si 【s】	ssû 【s】	塞 (ㄙㄞ, 's'ai)
Finals
Zhuyin	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Example(Zhuyin, Hanyu)
ㄚ	a	a	a	大 (ㄉㄚˋ, d'a')
ㄛ	o	o	o	多 (ㄉㄨㄛ, du'o')
ㄜ	e	e	e	得 (ㄉㄜˊ, d'e')
ㄝ	e	ê	eh	爹 (ㄉㄧㄝ, di'e')
ㄞ	ai	ai	ai	晒 (ㄕㄞˋ, sh'ai')
ㄟ	ei	ei	ei	誰 (ㄕㄟˊ, sh'ei')
ㄠ	ao	ao	ao	少 (ㄕㄠˇ, sh'ao')
ㄡ	ou	ou	ou	收 (ㄕㄡ, sh'ou')
ㄢ	an	an	an	山 (ㄕㄢ, sh'an')
ㄣ	en	en	en	申 (ㄕㄣ, sh'en')
ㄤ	ang	ang	ang	上 (ㄕㄤˋ, sh'ang')
ㄥ	eng	eng	eng	生 (ㄕㄥ, sh'eng')
ㄦ	er	er	erh	而 (ㄦˊ, 'er')
ㄧ	yi 【i】	yi 【i】	yi 【i】	逆 (ㄋㄧˋ, n'i')
	yin 【in】	yin 【in】	yin 【in】	音 (ㄧㄣ, y'in')
	ying 【ing】	ying 【ing】	ying 【ing】	英 (ㄧㄥ, y'ing')
ㄨ	wu 【u】	wu 【u】	wu 【u】	努 (ㄋㄨˇ, n'u')
	wun 【un】	wen 【un】	wen 【un】	文 (ㄨㄣˊ, w'en')
	wong 【ong】	weng 【ong】	ng 【ung】	翁 (ㄨㄥ, w'ong')
ㄩ	yu 【u, yu】	yu 【u, ü】	yü 【ü】	女 (ㄋㄩˇ, n'ü')
	yun 【un, yun】	yun 【un】	yün 【ün】	韻 (ㄩㄣˋ, y'un')
	yong	yong 【iong】	yung 【iung】	永 (ㄩㄥˇ, 'yong')

Another comparison table

Usage in Chinese languages other than Mandarin

Letters used to write sounds not found in Standard Mandarin (not many web browsers can display these glyphs, see External links for PDF pictures.)

Char	Name
万	V
兀	Ng
广	Gn

Extended Bopomofo for Min-nan and Hakka

Char	Name		Char	Name		Char	Name		Char	Name
ㆠ	Bu		ㆦ	Oo		ㆬ	Im		ㆲ	Ong
ㆡ	Zi		ㆧ	Onn		ㆭ	Ngg		ㆳ	Innn
ㆢ	Ji		ㆨ	Ir		ㆮ	Ainn		ㆴ	Final P
ㆣ	Gu		ㆩ	Ann		ㆯ	Aunn		ㆵ	Final T
ㆤ	Ee		ㆪ	Inn		ㆰ	Am		ㆶ	Final K
ㆥ	Enn		ㆫ	Unn		ㆱ	Om		ㆷ	Final H

See also

★ Zhuyin table

★ Chinese language

★ Mandarin (linguistics)

★ Standard Mandarin

★ Pinyin

★ Chinese input methods for computers

★ Ruby characters

External links

★ Unicode reference glyphs for &

★ Mandarin Dictionary (need Chinese font for Big5 encoding)

★ Chinese Romanization Converter - Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.

★ Zhuyin -> Wade-Giles -> Pinyin -> Word List

★ NPA->IPA National Phonetic Alphabet (zhuyin fuhao) spellings of words transliterated into the International Phonetic Alphabet (The vowel values have been verified against the official IPA site. See [5] )

★ Zhuyin Fuhao to Hanyu Pinyin converter and reverse

★ zhuyin fuhao syllable chart, with Hanyu Pinyin equivalents

★ Pinyin Annotator Add zhuyin (bopomofo) or pinyin on top of any Chinese text. Prompts alternative pronunciations to homonyms. Has the option of exporting into OpenOffice Writer for further editing.