Bàng-uâ-cê(abbr.BUC;Chinese:Bình thoại tự) orFuzhou romanization(Phúc Châu lời nói La Mã tự), is aLatin Alpha betfor theFuzhou dialectofEastern Minadopted in the middle of the 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized in the 1890s. Bàng-uâ-cê was mainly used inside of church circles, and was taught in some mission schools inFuzhou.[1]However, unlike its counterpartPe̍h-ōe-jīforHokkien,even in its prime days Bàng-uâ-cê was by no means universally understood by Christians.[2]
An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect,2nd Edition, published in 1905Dictionary of the Foochow dialect,3rd Edition, published in 1929Hand-written note in Bàng-uâ-cê, ca. 1910. It reads: "...You are our dwelling place. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. And we are thankful, because Jesus died for us, resurrected, and enabled us to live in the life full of abundance. He helps us conform to the image of the Lord, and be patient and serve Him with all our heart. He teaches us to willingly forgive people..."
AfterFuzhoubecame one of the five Chinesetreaty portsopened by theTreaty of Nanjingat the end ofFirst Opium War(from 1839 to 1842), many Western missionaries arrived in the city. Faced with widespread illiteracy, they developed Latin Alpha bets for theFuzhou dialect.
The first attempt in romanizing the Fuzhou dialect was made by theAmerican MethodistM. C. White,who borrowed a system of orthography known as the System of Sir William Jones. In this system, 14initialswere designed exactly according to theirvoicingandaspiration.⟨p⟩,⟨t⟩,⟨k⟩and⟨ch⟩stand for[p],[t],[k]and[ts];while the Greekspiritus lenis⟨᾿⟩were affixed to the above initials to represent their aspirated counterparts. Besides the default fivevowelsofLatin Alpha bet,fourdiacritic-marked letters⟨è⟩,⟨ë⟩,⟨ò⟩and⟨ü⟩were also introduced, representing[ɛ],[ø],[ɔ],and[y],respectively. This system is described at length in White's linguistic workThe Chinese Language Spoken at Fuh Chau.
Subsequent missionaries, includingRobert S. MaclayfromAmerican Methodist Episcopal Mission,R. W. Stewartfrom theChurch of EnglandandCharles Hartwellfrom theAmerican Board Mission,further modified White's system in several ways. The most significant change was made for theplosiveconsonants,where thespiritus lenis⟨᾿⟩of the aspirated initials was removed and the letters⟨b⟩,⟨d⟩and⟨g⟩substituted for[p][t]and[k].In the aspect ofvowels,⟨è⟩,⟨ë⟩,⟨ò⟩and⟨ü⟩were replaced by⟨a̤⟩,⟨e̤⟩,⟨o̤⟩and⟨ṳ⟩.Since thediacritical markswere all shifted to underneath the vowels, this left room above the vowels which was occupied by the newly introducedtonalmarks. Thus Bàng-uâ-cê avoids the potentially awkward diacritic stacking seen for instance in theVietnamese script,where tone and vowel quality marks both sit above the vowel.
The sample characters are taken from theQi Lin Bayin,a renowned phonology book about the Fuzhou dialect written in theQing Dynasty.The pronunciations are recorded in standardIPAsymbols.
