拼音

拼音 (pīnyīn) literally means "spelled sounds" — 拼 (to spell out, to assemble) + 音 (sound). It is a romanization system: it uses the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet plus tone diacritics to represent Mandarin pronunciation. It is not an alternative writing system for Chinese. Chinese is written in characters; pinyin is a pronunciation key printed alongside them.

Pinyin is used in three main contexts: (1) teaching pronunciation to children and foreign learners, often printed above characters in textbooks; (2) digital input — typing pinyin on a keyboard and selecting the intended character from a list; (3) reference works — dictionaries list characters with their pinyin pronunciation and tone. Outside of these contexts, published Chinese text is written entirely in characters.

Pinyin is specific to Mandarin (普通话). It does not represent Cantonese, Min, Wu, or other varieties, which have their own romanization systems or none at all.

Chinese scholars and foreign missionaries had been creating romanization systems for centuries. The most widely used predecessor was Wade-Giles, developed by Thomas Francis Wade in 1859 and refined by Herbert Giles in 1892. Wade-Giles dominated Western academic sinology through most of the 20th century — which is why older books write 道 as "tao," 气 as "ch'i," and 毛泽东 as "Mao Tse-tung."

The People's Republic standardized Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音) in 1958, developed by linguist Zhou Youguang and a committee working from 1955. It became the ISO standard (ISO 7098) in 1982 and was adopted by the United Nations in 1986. Taiwan adopted it for official use in 2009, replacing the older Zhuyin (注音, "bopomofo") system in most contexts (though Zhuyin remains used in elementary education).

Mandarin syllables begin with an optional consonant called the initial (声母 shēngmǔ). There are 21 initials. Syllables without a consonant onset are called "zero-initial" syllables (零声母).

The initials are: b p m f (bilabial/labiodental) · d t n l (alveolar) · g k h (velar) · j q x (palatal — only before i and ü) · zh ch sh r (retroflex) · z c s (alveolar sibilant)

The most important point for English speakers: b, d, g in pinyin are unaspirated, not voiced — they sound closer to English p, t, k said softly. p, t, k in pinyin are strongly aspirated, like English p, t, k at the start of a word. The distinction is aspiration, not voicing.

The final (韵母 yùnmǔ) is the vowel-centered portion of a syllable — the part after the initial consonant. Finals can be simple (a single vowel: a, o, e, i, u, ü) or complex (a vowel + glide or nasal: ai, ei, ao, ou, an, en, ang, eng, ong, etc.).

There are 35 finals in standard pinyin. The most challenging for learners: ü (a front rounded vowel, written u after j, q, x, y where no ambiguity exists), e (a mid-back unrounded vowel, not like English "eh"), -i after zh/ch/sh/r/z/c/s (a buzzed syllabic consonant, not a pure vowel), and er (the retroflex vowel in 二 èr, 耳 ěr).

Pinyin marks tone with diacritics placed over the main vowel of the final: ā á ǎ à for tones 1–4; no mark (a) for neutral tone. The rule for which vowel takes the mark: if the syllable contains a or e, mark it; if it contains ou, mark the o; otherwise mark the last vowel.

In digital contexts where diacritics are unavailable or inconvenient, a tone number is appended: mā = ma1, má = ma2, mǎ = ma3, mà = ma4, ma (neutral) = ma5 or ma0. This site uses diacritics throughout body text and tone numbers as parenthetical references in sidebar labels.

Pinyin written without tone marks is called 无调拼音 (wú diào pīnyīn) and is ambiguous — the same string could represent multiple different words. It is used for proper nouns in international contexts (Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao), place names, and personal names in passports.