Bopomofo

Mandarin Phonetic Symbols
Type	Semisyllabary (letters for onsets and rimes; diacritics for tones)
Creator	Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation Introduced by the Gov't of the ROC
Time period	1918 to 1958 in China; 1945 to the present in Taiwan
Parent systems	Oracle Bone Script Seal Script Clerical Script Mandarin Phonetic Symbols
Child systems	Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
Sister systems	Simplified Chinese, Kanji, Hanja, Chữ Nôm, Khitan script
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Bopo, 285
Unicode alias	Bopomofo
Unicode range	U+3100–U+312F Bopomofo U+31A0–U+31BF Bopomofo Extended

Mandarin Phonetic Symbol
Traditional Chinese	注音符號
Simplified Chinese	注音符号
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhùyīn fúhào Tongyong Pinyin Jhùyin fúhào Wade–Giles Chu^4-yin^1 fu^2-hao^4 Gwoyeu Romatzyh Juh'in fwuhaw MPS2 Jùyīn fúhàu Bopomofo ㄓㄨˋ ㄧㄣ ㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ Yue: Cantonese Jyutping zyu³ jam¹ fu⁴ hou² Yale Romanization jyu yām fùh houh Southern Min Hokkien POJ Chù-im hû-hō Tâi-lô Tsù-im hû-hō

Zhuyin fuhao, Zhuyin or Bopomofo (pinyin: bōpōmōfō; Jyutping: bo1 po1 mo1 fo1, Mandarin IPA: [pɔ́pʰɔ́mɔ́fɔ́]) is a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of spoken Chinese, particularly the Mandarin dialect. The first two are traditional terms, whereas Bopomofo is the colloquial term, also used by the ISO and Unicode. Consisting of 37 characters and four tone marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin. Zhuyin was introduced in China by the Republican Government in the 1910s and used alongside the Wade-Giles system, which used a modified Latin alphabet. The Wade system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958 by the Government of the People's Republic of China,^[1] and at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1982.^[2] Although Taiwan officially abandoned Wade-Giles in 2009, Bopomofo is still the official phonetic notation system of the country and remains widely used as an educational tool and electronic input method in Taiwan.

Name

The informal 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.

The original formal name of the system was Guóyīn Zìmǔ (traditional 國音字母, simplified 国音字母, lit. "Phonetic Alphabet of the National Language") and Zhùyīn Zìmǔ (traditional 註音字母, simplified 注音字母, lit. "Phonetic Alphabet" or "Annotated Phonetic Letters").^[3] It was later renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào (traditional 注音符號, simplified 注音符号), meaning "phonetic symbols".

In official documents, Zhuyin is occasionally called "Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I" (國語注音符號第一式), abbreviated as "MPS I" (注音一式).

In English translations, the system is often also called either Chu-yin or the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols.^[3][4] A romanized phonetic system was released in 1984 as Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS II).

History

The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu,^[3] which was based on Zhang Binglin's shorthand. 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, 1928.^[3] It was later renamed first Guoyin Zimu and then, in April 1930, Zhuyin Fuhao. The last renaming addressed fears that the alphabetic system might independently replace Chinese characters.^[5]

Modern use

Zhuyin remains the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in elementary school in Taiwan. It is also one of the most popular ways to enter Chinese characters into computers and to look up characters in a dictionary in Taiwan.

In elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Zhuyin as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one children's newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News annotates all articles with Zhuyin ruby characters.

In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some overseas communities still use Zhuyin as a learning tool.

Etymology

Table showing Zhuyin in Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

The Zhuyin characters were created by Zhang Binglin, and taken mainly from "regularised" forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. It is to be noted that the first consonants are articulated from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, /l/ etc.

Origin of zhuyin symbols

Consonants
Zhuyin	Origin	IPA	Pinyin	WG	Example
ㄅ	From 勹, the ancient form and current top portion of 包 bāo	p	b	p	八 (ㄅㄚ, bā)
ㄆ	From 攵, the combining form of 攴 pū	pʰ	p	p'	杷 (ㄆㄚˊ, pá)
ㄇ	From 冂, the archaic character and current radical 冖 mì	m	m	m	馬 (ㄇㄚˇ, mǎ)
ㄈ	From 匚 fāng	f	f	f	法 (ㄈㄚˇ, fǎ)
ㄉ	From the archaic form of 刀 dāo. Compare the bamboo form .	t	d	t	地 (ㄉㄧˋ, dì)
ㄊ	From the upside-down 子 seen at the top of 充 chōng	tʰ	t	t'	提 (ㄊㄧˊ, tí)
ㄋ	From /𠄎, ancient form of 乃 nǎi	n	n	n	你 (ㄋㄧˇ, nǐ)
ㄌ	From the archaic form of 力 lì	l	l	l	利 (ㄌㄧˋ, lì)
ㄍ	From the obsolete character 巜 guì/kuài "river"	k	g	k	告 (ㄍㄠˋ, gào)
ㄎ	From the archaic character 丂 kǎo	kʰ	k	k'	考 (ㄎㄠˇ, kǎo)
ㄏ	From the archaic character and current radical 冂 hǎn	x	h	h	好 (ㄏㄠˇ, hǎo)
ㄐ	From the archaic character 丩 jiū	ʨ	j	ch	叫 (ㄐㄧㄠˋ, jiào)
ㄑ	From the archaic character ㄑ quǎn, graphic root of the character 巛 chuān (modern 川)	ʨʰ	q	ch'	巧 (ㄑㄧㄠˇ, qiǎo)
ㄒ	From 包, an ancient form of 下 xià.	ɕ	x	hs	小 (ㄒㄧㄠˇ, xiǎo)
ㄓ	From /㞢, archaic form of 之 zhī.	ʈʂ	zh	ch	主 (ㄓㄨˇ, zhǔ)
ㄔ	From the character and radical 彳 chì	ʈʂʰ	ch	ch'	出 (ㄔㄨ, chū)
ㄕ	From the character 尸 shī	ʂ	sh	sh	束 (ㄕㄨˋ, shù)
ㄖ	Modified from the seal script form of 日 rì	ɻ	r	j	入 (ㄖㄨˋ, rù)
ㄗ	From the archaic character and current radical 卩 jié, dialectically zié	ts	z	ts	在 (ㄗㄞˋ, zài)
ㄘ	Variant of 七 qī, dialectically ciī. Compare semi-cursive form and seal-script .	tsʰ	c	ts'	才 (ㄘㄞˊ, cái)
ㄙ	From the archaic character 厶 sī, which was later replaced by its compound 私 sī.	s	s	s	塞 (ㄙㄞ, sāi)
Rhymes & Medials
Zhuyin	Origin	IPA	Pinyin	WG	Example
ㄚ	From 丫 yā	a	a	a	大 (ㄉㄚˋ, dà)
ㄛ	From the obsolete character 𠀀 hē, inhalation, the reverse of 丂 kǎo, which is preserved as a phonetic in the compound 可 kě.[6]	o	o	o	多 (ㄉㄨㄛ, duō)
ㄜ	Derived from its allophone in Standard Chinese, ㄛ o	ɤ	e	o/ê	得 (ㄉㄜˊ, dé)
ㄝ	From 也 yě. Compare the Warring States bamboo form	e	ê	eh	爹 (ㄉㄧㄝ, diē)
ㄞ	From 𠀅 hài, bronze form of 亥.	æi	ai	ai	晒 (ㄕㄞˋ, shài)
ㄟ	From 乁 yí, an obsolete character meaning 移 yí "to move".	ei	ei	ei	誰 (ㄕㄟˊ, shéi)
ㄠ	From 幺 yāo	ɑu	ao	ao	少 (ㄕㄠˇ, shǎo)
ㄡ	From 又 yòu	ou	ou	ou	收 (ㄕㄡ, shōu)
ㄢ	From the obsolete character ㄢ hàn "to bloom", preserved as a phonetic in the compound 犯 fàn	æn	an	an	山 (ㄕㄢ, shān)
ㄣ	From 乚 yǐn	ən	en	ên	申 (ㄕㄣ, shēn)
ㄤ	From ㄢ wāng	ɑŋ	ang	ang	上 (ㄕㄤˋ, shàng)
ㄥ	From 厶, an obsolete form of 厷 gōng	əŋ	eng	êng	生 (ㄕㄥ, shēng)
ㄦ	From 儿, the bottom portion of 兒 ér used as a cursive form	ɐɚ	er	êrh	而 (ㄦˊ, ér)
ㄧ	From 刀 yī	i	i/y	i	逆 (ㄋㄧˋ, nì)
ㄨ	From 包, ancient form of 五 wǔ.	u	u/w	u/w	努 (ㄋㄨˇ, nǔ)
ㄩ	From the ancient character 凵 qū, which remains as a radical	y	ü/yu	ü/yü	女 (ㄋㄩˇ, nǚ)
ㄭ	Perhaps 刀, in addition to ㄓ. It represents the minimal vowel of ㄓ, ㄔ, ㄕ, ㄖ, ㄗ, ㄘ, ㄙ, though it is not used after them in transcription.[7]	ɻ̩ / ɹ̩	-i	ih/û	資 (ㄗ, zī); 知 (ㄓ, zhī); 死 (ㄙˇ, sǐ)

The Zhuyin characters are encoded in Unicode in the "bopomofo" block, in the range U+3105 ... U+312D.

Writing

Stroke order

Zhuyin is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters. Note that ㄖ is written with three strokes, unlike the character from which it is derived (日, Hanyu Pinyin: rì), which has four strokes.

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Tonal marks

Tone	Zhuyin	Pinyin
1	none	¯
2	ˊ	ˊ
3	ˇ	ˇ
4	ˋ	ˋ
5	˙	none

The tone marks used in Zhuyin for the second, third, and fourth tones are the same as the ones used in Hanyu Pinyin. In Zhuyin, no marker is used for the first tone and a dot denotes the neutral tone, whereas in Pinyin, a dash (¯) represents the first tone and no marker is used for the neutral tone.

Unlike Hanyu Pinyin, Zhuyin aligns well with the hanzi characters in books whose texts are printed vertically, making Zhuyin better suited for annotating the pronunciation of vertically oriented Chinese text.

Zhuyin, when used in conjunction with Chinese characters, are typically placed to the right of the Chinese character vertically or to the top of the Chinese character in a horizontal print (see Ruby character).

Below is an example for the word "bottle" (pinyin: píngzi):

瓶 ㄆ ㄧ ㄥˊ 子 ㄗ˙

or

ㄆㄧㄥˊ ㄗ˙ 瓶 子

Comparison

Pinyin

Zhuyin and pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations, hence there is a one-to-one correspondence between the two systems. The following table compares the two.

IPA and pinyin counterparts of Zhuyin finals

		Rhyme
			ㄚ	ㄛ	ㄜ	ㄝ	ㄞ	ㄟ	ㄠ	ㄡ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㄥ	ㄦ
Medial		[ɨ] (ㄭ) ^1 -i	[a] ㄚ a -a	[u̯o] ㄛ ^3   -o ^3	[ɤ] ㄜ e -e		[æi̯] ㄞ ai -ai	[ei̯] ㄟ ei -ei	[ɑu̯] ㄠ ao -ao	[ou̯] ㄡ ou -ou	[æn] ㄢ an -an	[ən] ㄣ en -en	[ɑŋ] ㄤ ang -ang	[əŋ] ㄥ eng -eng	[ɐɚ] ㄦ er
	丨	[i] 丨 yi -i	[i̯a] 丨ㄚ ya -ia			[i̯e] 丨ㄝ ye -ie			[i̯ɑu̯] 丨ㄠ yao -iao	[i̯ou̯] 丨ㄡ you -iu	[i̯ɛn] 丨ㄢ yan -ian	[in] 丨ㄣ yin -in	[i̯ɑŋ] 丨ㄤ yang -iang	[i̯əŋ] 丨ㄥ ying -ing
	ㄨ	[u] ㄨ wu -u	[u̯a] ㄨㄚ wa -ua	[u̯o] ㄨㄛ ^3 wo -uo ^3			[u̯æi̯] ㄨㄞ wai -uai	[u̯ei̯] ㄨㄟ wei -ui			[u̯æn] ㄨㄢ wan -uan	[u̯ən] ㄨㄣ wen -un	[u̯ɑŋ] ㄨㄤ wang -uang	[u̯əŋ], [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ weng -ong ^4
	ㄩ	[y] ㄩ yu -ü ^2				[y̯e] 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 are written as ㄛ/-o after b, p, m, or f.
⁴ weng is pronounced [ʊŋ] (written as ong) when it follows an initial.

Chart

Vowels a, e, o

IPA	a	ɔ	ɛ	ɤ	ai	ei	au	ou	an	ən	aŋ	əŋ	ʊŋ	aɚ
Pinyin	a	o	ê	e	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	ong	er
Tongyong Pinyin	a	o	e	e	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	ong	er
Wade–Giles	a	o	eh	o/ê	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	ên	ang	êng	ung	êrh
Zhuyin	ㄚ	ㄛ	ㄝ	ㄜ	ㄞ	ㄟ	ㄠ	ㄡ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㄥ	ㄨㄥ	ㄦ
example	阿	哦	呗	俄	艾	黑	凹	偶	安	恩	昂	冷	中	二

Vowels i, u, y

IPA	i	ie	iou	iɛn	in	iŋ	iʊŋ	u	uo	uei	uən	uəŋ	y	ye	yɛn	yn
Pinyin	yi	ye	you	yan	yin	ying	yong	wu	wo/o	wei	wen	weng	yu	yue	yuan	yun
Tongyong Pinyin	yi	ye	you	yan	yin	ying	yong	wu	wo/o	wei	wun	wong	yu	yue	yuan	yun
Wade–Giles	i	yeh	yu	yen	yin	ying	yung	wu	wo/o	wei	wên	wêng	yü	yüeh	yüan	yün
Zhuyin	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	云

Non-sibilant consonants

IPA	p	pʰ	m	fəŋ	tiou	tuei	tuən	tʰɤ	ny	ly	kɤɚ	kʰɤ	xɤ
Pinyin	b	p	m	feng	diu	dui	dun	te	nü	lü	ger	ke	he
Tongyong Pinyin	b	p	m	fong	diou	duei	dun	te	nyu	lyu	ger	ke	he
Wade–Giles	p	p'	m	fêng	tiu	tui	tun	t'ê	nü	lü	kêrh	k'o	ho
Zhuyin	ㄅ	ㄆ	ㄇ	ㄈㄥ	ㄉㄧㄡ	ㄉㄨㄟ	ㄉㄨㄣ	ㄊㄜ	ㄋㄩ	ㄌㄩ	ㄍㄜㄦ	ㄎㄜ	ㄏㄜ
example	玻	婆	末	封	丟	兌	顿	特	女	旅	歌儿	可	何

Sibilant consonants

IPA	tɕiɛn	tɕiʊŋ	tɕʰin	ɕyɛn	ʈʂɤ	ʈʂɨ	ʈʂʰɤ	ʈʂʰɨ	ʂɤ	ʂɨ	ɻɤ	ɻɨ	tsɤ	tsuo	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	jian	jyong	cin	syuan	jhe	jhih	che	chih	she	shih	re	rih	ze	zuo	zih	ce	cih	se	sih
Wade–Giles	chien	chiung	ch'in	hsüan	chê	chih	ch'ê	ch'ih	shê	shih	jê	jih	tsê	tso	tzu	ts'ê	tz'u	sê	szu
Zhuyin	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	má	mǎ	mà	må
Wade–Giles	ma^1	ma^2	ma^3	ma^4	ma, ma^0, or ma^5
Zhuyin	ㄇㄚ	ㄇㄚˊ	ㄇㄚˇ	ㄇㄚˋ	•ㄇㄚ
example (traditional/simplified)	媽/妈	麻/麻	馬/马	罵/骂	嗎/吗

Non-Standard Mandarin dialects

Three letters formerly used in non-standard dialects of Mandarin are now also used to write other Chinese varieties. Some Zhuyin fonts do not contain these letters; see External links for PDF pictures.

Zhuyin	IPA	GR	Pinyin
ㄪ	v	v	v
ㄫ	ŋ	ng	ng
ㄬ	ɲ	gn	ny

Computer uses

Input method

An example of a Zhuyin keypad for Taiwan.

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.

A typical keyboard layout for Zhuyin on computers.

Unicode

Zhuyin was added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991 with the release of version 1.0.

The Unicode block for Zhuyin, called Bopomofo, is U+3100–U+312F:

Bopomofo^[1]^[2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+310x

ㄅ

ㄆ

ㄇ

ㄈ

ㄉ

ㄊ

ㄋ

ㄌ

ㄍ

ㄎ

ㄏ

U+311x

ㄐ

ㄑ

ㄒ

ㄓ

ㄔ

ㄕ

ㄖ

ㄗ

ㄘ

ㄙ

ㄚ

ㄛ

ㄜ

ㄝ

ㄞ

ㄟ

U+312x

ㄠ

ㄡ

ㄢ

ㄣ

ㄤ

ㄥ

ㄦ

ㄧ

ㄨ

ㄩ

ㄪ

ㄫ

ㄬ

ㄭ

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 8.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Additional characters were added in September 1999 with the release of version 3.0.

The Unicode block for these additional characters, called Bopomofo Extended, is U+31A0–U+31BF:

Bopomofo Extended^[1]^[2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+31Ax

ㆠ

ㆡ

ㆢ

ㆣ

ㆤ

ㆥ

ㆦ

ㆧ

ㆨ

ㆩ

ㆪ

ㆫ

ㆬ

ㆭ

ㆮ

ㆯ

U+31Bx

ㆰ

ㆱ

ㆲ

ㆳ

ㆴ

ㆵ

ㆶ

ㆷ

ㆸ

ㆹ

ㆺ

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 8.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

• Chinese input methods for computers
• Fanqie
• Furigana
• Ruby character
• Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
• Zhuyin table

References

1. "Pinyin celebrates 50th birthday". Xinhua News Agency. 2008-02-11. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
2. "ISO 7098:1982 – Documentation – Romanization of Chinese". Retrieved 2009-03-01.
3. The Republic of China government, Government Information Office. "Taiwan Yearbook 2006: The People & Languages". |Also available at Archived May 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
4. Taiwan Headlines. "Taiwan Headlines: Society News: New Taiwanese dictionary unveiled". Government Information Office, Taiwan(ROC).
5. John DeFrancis. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. Honolulu, HI, USA: University of Hawaii Press, 1984. p. 242.
6. "Unihan data for U+ 20000".
7. Michael Everson, H. W. Ho, Andrew West, "Proposal to encode one Bopomofo character in the UCS", SC2 WG2 N3179.

External links

• Unicode reference glyphs for bopomofo PDF (69.6 KB) and extended bopomofo PDF (61.6 KB)
• Bopomofo annotations – adds inline and pop-up annotations with bopomofo pronunciation and English definitions to Chinese text or web pages.
• Mandarin Dictionary – needs Chinese font for Big5 encoding
• Chinese Phonetic Conversion Tool – converts between Pinyin, Zhuyin and other phonetic systems
• Chinese Romanization Converter – converts between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade–Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems
• Bopomofo -> Wade-Giles -> Pinyin -> Word List
• NPA->IPA National Phonetic Alphabet (bopomofo) spellings of words transliterated into the International Phonetic Alphabet. The vowel values have been verified against the official IPA site. See IPA help preview, SIL International website. See IPA help preview, SIL International website. (Accessed 23-12-2010).
• Bopomofo to Pinyin converter and reverse
• bopomofo syllable chart, with Hanyu Pinyin equivalents
• Pinyin Annotator – adds bopomofo (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
• 《請利用螢幕上的小鍵盤輸入注音符號》 – online keyboard for bopomofo which can turn it into Chinese characters
• Online Zhuyin-Bopomofo Input Method Editor 免费在线中文输入法，使用注音