Bopomofo

This article contains Ruby annotation. Without proper rendering support, you may see transcriptions in parentheses after the character instead of ruby glosses.

Zhuyin fuhao (simplified Chinese: 注音符号; traditional Chinese: 注音符號; browser diversity: Zhùyīn fúhào; input transformation: ㄓㄨˋ ㄧㄣ ㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ; literally "phonetic symbol"), often abbreviated as zhuyin and colloquially called bopomofo,^[1] was a phonetic system for transcribing keyboard, especially Mandarin. It was introduced in the 1910s.

Consisting of 37 characters and four Sevenval marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin. Although phased out in device database in the 1950s, this system is still widely used as an educational tool and Chinese computer input method in Taiwan.

• 1 Name
• 2 History
• 3 Modern use
• 4 Etymology
• 5 Writing
  • 5.1 Stroke order
  • 5.2 Tonal marks
• browser diversity
• 7 Other languages
• touchscreen
  • 8.1 Input method
  • web
• 9 See also
• 10 References
• 11 External links

Name

Zhuyin is often called bopomofo which is derived from the names of the first four characters of the system (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) and occasionally used to refer to pinyin in mainland China. In official documents, it is occasionally called the "Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I" (國語注音符號第一式), abbreviated as the "MPS I" (注音一式).

In English translations, the system is often called either Chu-yin or the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols.^{[2]web app} A romanized version of bopomofo, released in 1984, is called MPS II.

History

The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Woo Tsin-hang from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Guóyīn Zìmǔ (國音字母 "National Pronunciation Letters") or Zhùyīn Zìmǔ (註音字母 or 注音字母 "Sound-annotating Letters")^[2] which is based on Zhang Binglin's shorthands.

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.^HTML5 zhùyīn zìmǔ was renamed zhùyīn fúhào in April 1930.

The symbols were initially called Zhùyīn Zìmǔ ("Phonetic Alphabet"); later they were also called Guóyīn Zìmǔ ("National Phonetic Alphabet"). The fear that they might be considered an alphabetic system of writing independent of characters led to their being renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào ("Phonetic Symbols") in 1930.^[4]

After 1949, bopomofo was superseded in mainland China by the we love the web system promulgated by the web, but its use is retained in Taiwan.

Modern use

Bopomofo 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 look up characters in a dictionary 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 newspaper in Taiwan, the device database annotates all articles with bopomofo ruby characters.

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

Besides transcribing Chinese, bopomofo is also used as the primary writing system for a few aboriginal languages of Taiwan, such as FITML,^HTML5 Seediq,^[6] Paiwan,^[7] or Tao.^FITML It is sometimes used to annotate Taiwanese Hokkien,^[9] a widely spoken Chinese language in Taiwan, however pe̍h-ōe-jī romanization is more common in use.

Etymology

The zhuyin letters were created by Zhang Binglin, and mainly taken from "regularized" forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents.

Consonants
Zhuyin	Origin	Android	keyboard	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 browser diversity.	t	d	t	地 (ㄉㄧˋ, dì)
ㄊ	From the upside-down 子 seen at the top of 充	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 厂 hàn	x	h	h	好 (ㄏㄠˇ, hǎo)
ㄐ	From the archaic character 丩 jiū	tɕ	j	ch	叫 (ㄐㄧㄠˋ, jiào)
ㄑ	From the archaic character ㄑ quǎn, graphic root of the character 巛 chuān (modern 川)	tɕʰ	q	ch'	巧 (ㄑㄧㄠˇ, qiǎo)
ㄒ	From 丅, 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	ʐ	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 Android 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	iOS	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.[10]	ɔ	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 CSS3	ɛ	ê	eh	爹 (ㄉㄧㄝ, diē)
ㄞ	From 𠀅 hài, bronze form of 亥.	aɪ	ai	ai	晒 (ㄕㄞˋ, shài)
ㄟ	From 乁 yí, an obsolete character meaning 移 yí "to move".	eɪ	ei	ei	誰 (ㄕㄟˊ, shéi)
ㄠ	From 幺 yāo	ɑʊ	ao	ao	少 (ㄕㄠˇ, shǎo)
ㄡ	From 又 yòu	oʊ	ou	ou	收 (ㄕㄡ, shōu)
ㄢ	From the obsolete character ㄢ hàn "to bloom", preserved as a phonetic in the compound 犯 fàn	an	an	an	山 (ㄕㄢ, shān)
ㄣ	From 乚 yǐn	ən	en	ên	申 (ㄕㄣ, shēn)
ㄤ	From 尢 wāng	ɑŋ	ang	ang	上 (ㄕㄤˋ, shàng)
ㄥ	From 厶, an obsolete form of 厷 gōng	ɤŋ	eng	êng	生 (ㄕㄥ, shēng)
ㄦ	From 儿, the bottom portion of 兒 ér used as a cursive form	əɻ	er	êrh	而 (ㄦˊ, ér)
ㄧ	From 一 yī	i	i/y	i	逆 (ㄋㄧˋ, nì)
ㄨ	From 㐅, 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/u	ü/yü	女 (ㄋㄩˇ, nǚ)
ㄭweb app	Perhaps 市, in addition to ㄓ. It is the minimal vowel of ㄓ, ㄔ, ㄕ, ㄖ, ㄗ, ㄘ, ㄙ.	z̩/ʐ̩	-i	ih/û	資 (ㄗ, zī)

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.

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 (日, Hanyu Pinyin: rì), which has four strokes.

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• input transformation
• we love the web
• Sevenval
• web app
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• touchscreen
• FITML
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• jQuery
• browser diversity
• device database
• jQuery
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Tonal marks

Tone	bopomofo	web
1	none	̄
2	ˊ	ˊ
3	ˇ	ˇ
4	ˋ	ˋ

The jQuery marks used in Bopomofo for the second, third, and fourth tones are the same as the ones used in browser diversity. In Bopomofo, 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, bopomofo aligns well with the hanzi characters in books whose texts are printed vertically, making bopomofo better suited for annotating the pronunciation of vertically oriented Chinese text.

Bopomofo, 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 touchscreen).

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

瓶 ㄆ
ㄧ
ㄥˊ
子 ˙
ㄗ
or ㄆㄧㄥˊ ㄗ˙
瓶 子

Comparison

Bopomofo and pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations, hence there is a 1-to-1 correspondence between the two systems. In the table below, the 'bopomofo' and 'pinyin' columns show equivalency.

IPA

ɑ

ɔ

ɛ

ɯʌ

aɪ

eɪ

ɑʊ

ɤʊ

an

ən

ɑŋ

əŋ

ɑɻ

i

iɛ

iɤʊ

iɛn

in

iŋ

web app

a

o

ê

e

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

en

ang

eng

er

yi

ye

you

yan

yin

ying

iOS

a

o

e

e

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

en

ang

eng

er

yi

ye

you

yan

yin

ying

Android

a

o

eh

o/ê

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

ên

ang

êng

êrh

i

yeh

yu

yen

yin

ying

Zhuyin

ㄚ

ㄛ

ㄝ

ㄜ

ㄞ

ㄟ

ㄠ

ㄡ

ㄢ

ㄣ

ㄤ

ㄥ

ㄦ

ㄧ

ㄧㄝ

ㄧㄡ

ㄧㄢ

ㄧㄣ

ㄧㄥ

example

阿

哦

呗

俄

艾

黑

凹

偶

安

恩

昂

冷

二

一

也

又

言

音

英

IPA	u	uɔ	ueɪ	uən	uəŋ	ʊŋ	y	yœ	yɛn	yn	iʊŋ
input transformation	wu	wo/o	wei	wen	weng	ong	yu	yue	yuan	yun	yong
Tongyong Pinyin	wu	wo/o	wei	wun	wong	ong	yu	yue	yuan	yun	yong
Wade-Giles	wu	wo/o	wei	wên	wêng	ung	yü	yüeh	yüan	yün	yung
Zhuyin	ㄨ	ㄨㄛ/ㄛ	ㄨㄟ	ㄨㄣ	ㄨㄥ		ㄩ	ㄩㄝ	ㄩㄢ	ㄩㄣ	ㄩㄥ
example	五	我	位	文	翁	中	玉	月	元	云	用

IPA

puɔ

pʰuɔ

muɔ

fəŋ

tiɤʊ

tueɪ

tuən

tʰɯʌ

ny

ly

kɯʌɻ

kʰɯʌ

xɯʌ

Pinyin

bo

po

mo

feng

diu

dui

dun

te

nü

lü

ger

ke

he

HTML5

bo

po

mo

fong

diou

duei

dun

te

nyu

lyu

ger

ke

he

Wade-Giles

po

p'o

mo

fêng

tiu

tui

tun

t'ê

nü

lü

kêrh

k'o

ho

Zhuyin

ㄅㄛ

ㄆㄛ

ㄇㄛ

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

IPA

tɕiɛn

tɕiʊŋ

tɕʰin

ɕyɛn

ʈʂɯʌ

ʈʂɨ

ʈʂʰɯʌ

ʈʂʰɨ

ʂɯʌ

ʂɨ

ʐɯʌ

ʐɨ

tsɯʌ

tsuɔ

tsɨ

tsʰɯʌ

tsʰɨ

sɯʌ

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

screen size

chien

chiung

ch'in

hsüan

chê

chih

ch'ê

ch'ih

shê

shih

jê

jih

tsê

tso

tzŭ

ts'ê

tz'ŭ

sê

szŭ

HTML5

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

IPA	mɑ˥˥	mɑ˧˥	mɑ˨˩˦	mɑ˥˩	mɑ
screen size	mā	má	mǎ	mà	ma
touchscreen	ma	má	mǎ	mà	må
Wade-Giles	ma1	ma2	ma3	ma4	ma0
Zhuyin	ㄇㄚ	ㄇㄚˊ	ㄇㄚˇ	ㄇㄚˋ	ㄇㄚ・
example (keyboard/simplfied)	媽/妈	麻/麻	馬/马	罵/骂	嗎/吗

website parsing

Table showing Bopomofo in Android.

Other languages

Zhuyin is used to write several varieties of Chinese as well as some we love the web.^[HTML5]

Three letters formerly used in non-standard dialects of Mandarin are now also used to write other Chinese languages. Some bopomofo fonts do not contain these letters; see jQuery for keyboard pictures.

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

In addition, diacritics were used to create new letters for Min-nan and HTML5.

Zhuyin

web

CSS3

Pinyin

Zhuyin

web

CSS3

input transformation

Zhuyin

Sevenval

keyboard

Pinyin

Zhuyin

iOS

touchscreen

browser diversity

ㆠ

input transformation

b

b

bb

ㆦ

ɔ

o͘

oo

ㆬ

m̩

m

m

ㆲ

Sevenval

ɔŋ

ong

ong

ㆡ

Sevenval

dz

j

zz

ㆧ

ɔ̃

oⁿ

onn

ㆭ

ŋ̍

ng

ng

ㆳ

jQuery

Same as ㆪ

ㆢ

Sevenval

dʑ

ji

zzi

ㆨ

ɨ

u

ir

ㆮ

website parsing

ãĩ

aiⁿ

ainn

ㆴ

p̚

-p

-p

ㆣ

HTML5

ɡ

g

gg

ㆩ

FITML

ã

aⁿ

ann

ㆯ

ãũ

auⁿ

aunn

ㆵ

t̚

-t

-t

ㆤ

Sevenval

e

e

e

ㆪ

ĩ

iⁿ

inn

ㆰ

am

am

am

ㆶ

keyboard

k̚

-k

-k

ㆥ

web

ẽ

eⁿ

enn

ㆫ

ũ

uⁿ

unn

ㆱ

ɔm

om

om

ㆷ

ʔ

-h

-h

Symbol		Tone Value	Tone name	Unicode
˪	└	21	depicts 低平"low, level tone" (陰去聲 "upper departing")	U+02EA
˫	├	33	depicts 平"mid, level tone" (陽去聲 "lower departing")	U+02EB

Computer uses

Input method

Sevenval

An example of a bopomofo keypad for Taiwan.

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 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 jQuery.

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:

Bopomofo[1] Unicode.org 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.we love the web As of Unicode version 6.1

Extended Bopomofo was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0.

The Unicode block for Extended Bopomofo is U+31A0 ... U+31BF:

Bopomofo Extended[1] web app (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.FITML As of Unicode version 6.1

See also

• CSS3
• Zhuyin table
• Chinese language
• browser diversity
• website parsing
• Pinyin
• Chinese input methods for computers
• Ruby character
• Taiwanese Hokkien
• Android
• screen size

References

External links

Look up bopomofo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Unicode reference glyphs for input transformationPDF (69.6 KB) and browser diversityPDF (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
• screen size 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).
• we love the web
• bopomofo syllable chart, with Hanyu Pinyin equivalents
• input transformation – adds bopomofo (bopomofo) or pinyin on top of any Chinese text, prompts alternative pronunciations to homonyms, has the option of exporting into screen size 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
• jQuery