Bopomofo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bopomofo Mandarin Phonetic Symbols Zhuyin 注音符號 注音符号 （ㄅㄆㄇㄈ）
ㄅㄞˇ ㄎㄜ ㄑㄩㄢˊ ㄕㄨ Chinese: 百科全書 Chinese: 百科全书 (encyclopedia) in Bopomofo
Type	Semisyllabary (letters for onsets and rhymes; diacritics for tones)
Created by	Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation Introduced by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China
Time period	1918 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
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Bopomofo Mandarin Phonetic Symbols Zhuyin 注音符號 注音符号 （ㄅㄆㄇㄈ）
Child systems	Cantonese Bopomofo, Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols, Suzhou Phonetic Symbols, Hmu Phonetic Symbols, Matsu Fuchounese Bopomofo [zh]
Sister systems	Simplified Chinese, Kanji, Hanja, Chữ Nôm, Khitan script
Unicode range	U+3100–U+312F Bopomofo U+31A0–U+31BF Bopomofo Extended
ISO 15924	Bopo
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Bopomofo (Chinese: 注音符號; pinyin: zhùyīn fúhào; Wade–Giles: chu⁴yin¹ fu²hao⁴), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (Chinese: 注音; pinyin: zhùyīn), 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 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 Chinese 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.

Etymology

Bopomofo is the name used by the ISO and Unicode. Zhuyin (Chinese: 注音) literally means phonetic notation. The original formal name of the system was Chinese: 國音字母; pinyin: Guóyīn Zìmǔ; literally "National Language Phonetic Alphabet" and Chinese: 註音字母; pinyin: Zhùyīn Zìmǔ; literally "Phonetic Alphabet or Annotated Phonetic Letters". It was later renamed Chinese: 注音符號; pinyin: Zhùyīn Fúhào; literally "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), 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. 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.

History

Origins

The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu, 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 pronunciation system called "Old National Pronunciation" (Laoguoyin). 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. 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.

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).

Symbols

Table showing Bopomofo in Gwoyeu Romatzyh

Bopomofo in Regular, Handwritten Regular & Cursive formats

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.

Origin of bopomofo symbols

Consonants
Bopomofo	Origin	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 "right open box" radical 匚 fāng.	f	f	f	匪 fěi ㄈㄟˇ
ㄉ	From 𠚣, archaic form of 刀 dāo. 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)	tʰ	t	tʻ	提 tí ㄊㄧˊ
ㄋ	From /𠄎, ancient form of 乃 nǎi (be)	n	n	n	你 nǐ ㄋㄧˇ
ㄌ	From 𠠲, archaic form of 力 lì	l	l	l	利 lì ㄌㄧˋ
ㄍ	From the obsolete character 巜 guì/kuài "river"	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 (modern 川)	tɕʰ	q	chʻ	巧 qiǎo ㄑㄧㄠˇ
ㄒ	From 丅, an ancient form of 下 xià.	ɕ	x	hs	小 xiǎo ㄒㄧㄠˇ
ㄓ	From /𡳿, archaic form of 之 zhī.	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/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.	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 (乚 is yǐn according to other sources)	ən	en	ên	申 shēn ㄕㄣ
ㄤ	From 尢 wāng	aŋ	ang	ang	上 shàng ㄕㄤˋ
ㄥ	From 𠃋, archaic form of 肱 gōng	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.	ɻ̩~ʐ̩, ɹ̩~z̩	-i	ih/ŭ	資 zī ㄗ; 知 zhī ㄓ; 死 sǐ ㄙˇ

Writing

Stroke order

Bopomofo 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 (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. Unicode 8.0.0 published an errata in 2014 that updates the representative glyph to be the horizontal form. 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, 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.

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 and horizontal print 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):

Erhua transcription

Words rhotacized as a result of erhua are spelled with ㄦ attached to the syllable (like 歌兒（ㄍㄜㄦ） 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（ㄋㄚˇㄦ） nǎr; 一（ㄧ）點兒（ㄉㄧㄢˇㄦ） yīdiǎnr; 好（ㄏㄠˇ）玩兒（ㄨㄢˊㄦ） hǎowánr).

Comparison

Pinyin

Bopomofo and pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations; hence there is a one-to-one correspondence between the two systems:

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

Use outside Standard Mandarin

Bopomofo symbols for non-Mandarin Chinese varieties are added to Unicode in the Bopomofo Extended block.

Taiwanese Hokkien

In Taiwan, Bopomofo is used to teach Taiwanese Hokkien, and is also used to transcribe it phonetically in contexts such as on storefront signs, karaoke lyrics, and film subtitles.

Three letters no longer used for Mandarin are carried over from the 1913 standard:

23 more letters were added specifically for Taiwanese Hokkien:

Two tone marks were added for the additional tones: ˪, ˫

Cantonese

The following letters are used in Cantonese.

If a syllable ends with a consonant other than -an or -aan, the consonant's letter is added, then followed by a final middle dot.

-ㄞ is used for [aːi] (aai) (e.g. 敗, ㄅㄞ baai6)

-ㄣ is used for [ɐn] (an) (e.g. 跟, ㄍㄣ gan1), and -ㄢ is used for [aːn] (aan) (e.g. 間, ㄍㄢ gaan1). Other vowels that end with -n use -ㄋ· for the final ㄋ. (e.g. 見, ㄍㄧㄋ· gin3)

-ㄡ is used for [ɐu] (au). (e.g. 牛, ㄫㄡ, ngau4) To transcribe [ou] (ou), it is written as ㄛㄨ (e.g. 路, ㄌㄛㄨ lou6)

ㄫ is used for both initial ng- (as in 牛, ㄫㄡ, ngau "cow") and final -ng (as in 用, ㄧㄛㄫ·, yong "use").

ㄐ is used for [t͡s] (z) (e.g. 煑, ㄐㄩ zyu2) and ㄑ is used for [t͡sʰ] (c) (e.g. 全, ㄑㄩㄋ· cyun4).

During the time when Bopomofo was proposed for Cantonese, tones were not marked.

Computer uses

Input method

An example of a Bopomofo keypad for Taiwan

A typical keyboard layout for Bopomofo on computers

Bopomofo 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 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.. On the QWERTY keyboard, the symbols are ordered column-wise top-down (e.g. 1)

Unicode

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

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

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:

Unicode 3.0 also added the characters Error using : Input "02EA" is not a hexadecimal value. and Error using : Input "02EB" is not a hexadecimal value., in the Spacing Modifier Letters block. These two characters are now (since Unicode 6.0) classified as Bopomofo characters.

See also

In Spanish: Zhuyin para niños

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