Zhuyin

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Zhuyin Fuhao, often shortened as zhuyin and commonly called bopomofo, is a type of sound-based writing for the Chinese language. In Chinese, "bo", "po", "mo" and "fo" are the first four of the conventional ordering of available syllables. As a result, the four syllables together have been used to refer to many different phonetic systems. For Chinese speakers who were first introduced to the Zhuyin system, "bopomofo" means zhuyin fuhao.

Origin of zhuyin symbols Zhuyin PinyinOriginInitials bFrom , the top portion , bāo pFrom , the combining form of , pū mFrom , the archaic form of the radical , mì fFrom , fāng dFrom the archaic form of , dāo. Compare the bamboo form. tFrom the upside-down  seen at the top of  nFrom , ancient form of , nǎi lCalligraphic form of , lì gFrom the obsolete character , guì/kuài, 'river' kFrom  from 考, kǎo hFrom , hàn jFrom the archaic character  from 纠, jiū qFrom the archaic character , quǎn, graphic root of the character , chuān (modern ) xFrom , a seal form of , xià. zhFrom 22px/, archaic form of , zhī. chFrom the radical , chì shFrom the character , shī rA semi-cursive form of , rì zFrom the radical  节, jié, dialectically zié cVariant of , qī, dialectically ciī. Compare semi-cursive form  and seal-script. sFrom the old character , sī, which was later replaced by its compound , sī.Finals i, yFrom , yī u, wFrom , ancient form of , wǔ. ü, yuFrom the ancient character , qū, which remains as a radical aFrom , yā oFrom the obsolete character  hē, inhalation, the reverse of  考, kǎo, which is preserved as a phonetic in the compound , kě. eDerived from its allophone in Standard Mandarin, , o eFrom , yě. Compare the Warring States bamboo form. aiFrom  hài, bronze form of . eiFrom  yí, an obsolete character meaning , yí, "to move". aoFrom , yāo ouFrom , yòu anFrom the obsolete character , hàn, "to bloom", preserved as a phonetic in the compound , fàn enFrom , yǐn angFrom , wāng engFrom , an obsolete form of , gōng erFrom , the bottom portion of , ér used as a cursive form i(16px and inverted ) Perhaps , in addition to . It is the minimal vowel of , , , , , ,  that is spelled "ih" in Tongyong Pinyin and Wade-Giles and "i" in pinyin.

The zhuyin characters 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+312D.

 History 
 History 
After the fall of the Qing dynasty in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China established the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation in 1913 to promote a standardized national language. In 1918, the government officially introduced Zhuyin Fuhao (commonly known as Bopomofo) as a phonetic notation system designed to help the public learn Mandarin pronunciation and literacy.Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press. pp. 259–261.DeFrancis, John (1984). The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 125–127.

After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, the People’s Republic of China was founded on the mainland, while the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan, continuing its governance there.Fairbank, John K. (1992). China: A New History. Harvard University Press. pp. 323–325. In the 1950s, the PRC introduced the Hanyu Pinyin system, which used the Latin alphabet to represent Mandarin pronunciation and gradually replaced Zhuyin in mainland China.Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press. p. 261.

However, Zhuyin Fuhao remained in use in Taiwan, where it continues to serve as an essential tool for teaching Mandarin pronunciation and for typing Chinese characters on computers and mobile devices.Chen, Ping (1999). Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 208–210.

 Features 
Zhuyin was made to closely represent the sounds of Mandarin Chinese. Symbols are divided into two categories, the initials (the first sounds in a syllable) and the finals (the main vowel, the glide consonants ([y/i; IPA:/j/] and [w/u; IPA:/w/]) that come before the main vowel and all the sound that comes after it). There are 4 tone marks to represent the 5 Mandarin tones.

References

Category:Chinese language