Bopomofo

U 3100- U 312 F, U 31 A0 -U 31 BF

Zhuyin Fuhao or full Zhuyin (Chinese注音 符号/注音 符号, Pinyin Zhuyin Fuhao, Zhuyin ㄓ ㄨ ㄧ ㄣ ㄈ ㄨ ㄏ ㄠ ) is a non-Latin, phonetic transcription for the Chinese characters. After the sounds of the first four characters of the alphabet ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ ( bo po mo fo) it is also called Bopomofo.

• 3.1 initial sounds
• 3.2 end of a word
• 3.3 tone marks

• 4.1 initial sounds
• 4.2 vowels
• 4.3 end of a word
• 4.4 Miscellaneous

History

Zhuyin Fuhao was during the first National Conference for debate Association as the transcription there also set "national language "国语, Guóyǔ decided that today is still so called on Taiwan and the national Republican standard language普通话, Pǔtōnghuà corresponds roughly.

The idea of ​​developing a non-Latin notation for the Chinese language, originally sprang from the philologist Zhang Binglin, who had developed a kind of phonetic alphabet of 15 characters based on the oracle bone characters and it记 音 字母, Jiyin Zìmǔ ( " According notation alphabet " ) called. The character of Zhang Binglin were taken as a basis and extended by other characters. The final transcription was at conference end first as注音字母adopted Zhuyin Zìmǔ ( " phonetic alphabet " ), in the implementation, however, as注音 符号, Zhuyin Fuhao renamed ( " phonetic symbols ").

From 1921 to 1956 she was in China as romanization in use on Taiwan (since 1949 ), it is to this day. On the mainland, it has since been superseded by the Latin written Pinyin. Some further developments ( Bopomofo Extended) also allow the transcription of other languages ​​spoken in Taiwan, such as Hakka and Min Nan.

In Taiwan, Zhuyin is officially referred to as MPS I, which is an abbreviation for " Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I" (国语 注音 符号 第一 式, Zhuyin Fuhao Guóyǔ dì shì yī ). It received this designation, as the Taiwanese authorities to enforce its own Latin inscription tried the Tongyong Pinyin, which received the designation MPS II.

Use

Children's books contain Zhuyin as a learning aid to pronunciation; on the type of Ruby markup, as used, for example, for Japanese furigana, the signs are then in addition to the right of the Chinese ( in horizontal as vertical arrangement of the word character, which is different to the furigana, which are in horizontal letters about ). For this purpose, as pronunciation help, the alphabet was also originally developed; served as role models to the principle that after (but not the look of each character after ) the Korean Hangul script and the Japanese syllabaries hiragana and katakana. A Latin typeface for this purpose was rejected at that time, to emphasize the Asian identity and the independence of China from the West.

In overlays of movie titles can be found Zhuyin. Monolingual dictionaries from Taiwan often offer a table in which you can search according Zhuyin vocabulary, or the entries themselves are then sorted ( instead of Pinyin). Also in Taiwanese museums and explanations of trees, plants, etc. rare or very old characters will be explained in this way in relation to the debate on the explanatory labels in addition to the exhibits. In addition to the Chinese characters are then reduced Zhuyin character, usually one to four per Zhuyin Chinese characters, separated by initial sound, vowel, nasal or vowel -final and Tonverlauf.

Examples

In the example for the word " bottle " (瓶子, píngzi ) in the write direction from top to bottom and from left to right, the Zhuyin characters are written either in addition to the character or the character that they explain:

Zhuyin characters and their pronunciation

The system uses symbols for the 37 sounds of standard Chinese. So with the four tone marks, it comes to 41 characters. The categorization of the characters modeled on phonetic similarities.

Initial sounds

End of a word

The forms with w and y show the corresponding notation without initial sound. Yo and weng is only available in this form.

Tone marks

Features compared to Pinyin

Zhuyin is in general, especially in the vowels, regular as Pinyin, but it has nevertheless some irregularities and peculiarities. On the whole, however, can be better close to the actual pronunciation than in Pinyin. Another advantage is that the learner does not attempt to transfer his native language pronunciation habits to Scripture and thus much pronounce unintentionally wrong.

Initial sounds

• The initial sounds ㄓ zh, ch ㄔ, ㄕ sh, ㄖ r, z ㄗ, ㄘ c and ㄙ s can occur alone, for example in师: ㄕ. Here, the final sound is pronounced syllabic, almost like an English r be the back to hang (water ). In Pinyin, the example would be listed as shī. But this is misleading, because no [i ] is pronounced. Originally, the character was for this syllabic -final provided in Zhuyin, then it was dropped in the implementation, however.
• The initial sounds ㄐ j, q and ㄑ ㄒ x, however, can in combination ㄐ ㄧ jī, ㄑ ㄧ qī or ㄒ ㄧ xī occur if a [i ] is to be spoken. A syllabic pronunciation is not possible in these initial vowel.
• If ㄧ yi wu ㄨ or ㄩ yu follows a vowel ( see, for example ㄧ ㄛ ying, ㄨ ㄢ wan ㄧ ㄤ yang, ㄩ ㄣ yun, ㄨ ㄥ weng ) he is not fully pronounced, but smoothed to half vocal initial vowel. In German, (nobody) comes as close to j (someone ) the transformation of i. In Pinyin, the semi-vowels y, w, yu- (as initial sound ) or -i - ,-u -, -u-/-ü- be written ( in his mid sound), while a full vowels with yi, wu, yu ( single) or -i,- u, -u/-ü be played (as final sound ). In Zhuyin all are written with the same character, ie the distinction between half and full vowel is not made.

Vowels

• The above that is written in Pinyin only in the combinations lü and nü, although there are for example xue qu emerges and is basically written in Zhuyin with ㄩ: ㄒ ㄩ ㄝ xüe, ㄑ ㄩ Que
• The Pinyin or combination yong - iong [ iun ] is disproportionate ㄩ ㄥ, so u -ng wrote: ㄒ ㄩ ㄥ Xiong [ ɕi̯úŋ ]. This is because Zhuyin does not allow combination of two sounds from the same group as ㄧ and ㄨ because of the strict syllable categories.
• The Pinyin -o in combination ong is always written as ㄨ (u ): ㄓ ㄨ ㄥ zhōng [ tɕúŋ ], composed zh -u- ng, which corresponds to the actual debate rather.
• Pinyin is not already distinguishes between the two pronunciations of e, Zhuyin, however: ㄜ [ ə ] and ㄝ [ ɛ ]. ㄝ occurs only in compounds with vowels, on the other hand ㄜ only with nasal Auslauten.
• The in Pinyin shortened vowel combinations -ui and iu that are actually but [ u̯ɛi̯ ] and [ i̯ɔu̯ ] pronounced to be in Zhuyin pronunciation reproduced faithfully with ㄨ ㄟ ( wu- ei) and ㄧ ㄡ (y -ou ).

End of a word

The characters ㄣ (s) and ㄥ (eng) leave after一( i), ㄨ (u) and ㄩ ( ii) drop the vowel ( s):

• ㄓ ㄥ ( Zheng ), but
• ㄓ ㄨ ㄥ ( zhung, written in Pinyin zhōng );

• ㄇ ㄣ (Men ), but
• ㄇ 一 ㄣ (min);

• ㄔ ㄣ (Chen ), but
• ㄑ ㄩ ㄣ ( Quen, written in Pinyin Qun ).

Others

Unlike pinyin, the first tone is not marked. For this, however, the neutral ( 5 ) clay with a dot before the syllable is provided, for example ˙ ㄉ ㄜ (的, de)

Entstandardisierte dialect characters

Four previously used characters originally belonged to the standard, but were subsequently removed. ㄪ, ㄫ and ㄬ are, however, still needed for the reproduction of some Chinese dialects, which is why they are in the Unicode set. Some Zhuyin pleadings they may be missing an eye in the Unicode set in the above infobox is recommended in this case.

Advanced Bopomofo for Minnanhua

In order to expand Bopomofo for more spoken languages ​​in Taiwan, more characters have been added. These are located in the Unicode set in the category " Bopomofo extended" (extended Bopomofo ). The following table briefly describes the special characters in the Minnan dialect that is common near the southern Chinese mainland and Taiwan. In it are Anlautkonsonanten, nasal vowels and tones that does not know the high Chinese.

Zhuyin input method

Zhuyin is also used as the input method on the computer and mobile phones. In this case, however, the sound must, in contrast to the Pinyin input, always be entered.

The input functions according to the sorting principle, in which a maximum of four elements can be entered at once:

This need not be entered in order, but can also be improved during the input. After pressing the spacebar works out to a select menu that shows a list of hits with matching characters. Using the numbers 1-0, the character looked to be selected. In polysyllabic words with even more syllables can be added, which increases the hit rate: