Zhuyin

Bopomofo
Traditional Chinese	ChúÂmPhùHào
Simplified Chinese	ChúÂmPhùHào
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhùyīn fúhào Bopomofo ㄓㄨˋ ㄧㄣ ㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization jyu yām fùh houh Jyutping zyu3jam1fu4hou6*2 Southern Min HokkienPOJ Chù-im hû-hō

Zhuyin Fuhao,often shortened aszhuyinand commonly calledbopomofo,is a type of sound-based writing for the Chinese language. InChinese,"bo", "po", "mo" and "fo" are the first four of the conventional ordering of availablesyllables.As a result, the four syllables together have been used to refer to many differentphoneticsystems. For Chinese speakers who were first introduced to the Zhuyin system, "bopomofo" meanszhuyin fuhao.

Origin of zhuyin symbols

Zhuyin	Pinyin	Origin
Initials
ㄅ	b	FromBao,the top portionBao,bāo
ㄆ	p	FromPhác,the combining form ofPhộc,pū
ㄇ	m	FromQuynh,the archaic form of the radicalMịch,mì
ㄈ	f	FromPhương,fāng
ㄉ	d	From the archaic form ofĐao,dāo.Compare the bamboo form.
ㄊ	t	From the upside-downTửseen at the top ofSung
ㄋ	n	From𠄎,ancient form ofNãi,nǎi
ㄌ	l	Calligraphic form ofLực,lì
ㄍ	g	From the obsolete character巜,guì/kuài,'river'
ㄎ	k	From丂from khảo,kǎo
ㄏ	h	FromXưởng,hàn
ㄐ	j	From the archaic character丩from củ,jiū
ㄑ	q	From the archaic characterㄑ,quǎn,graphic root of the characterXuyên,chuān(modernXuyên)
ㄒ	x	FromHạ,a seal form ofHạ,xià.
ㄓ	zh	From/𡳿,archaic form ofChi,zhī.
ㄔ	ch	From the radicalXích,chì
ㄕ	sh	From the characterThi,shī
ㄖ	r	A semi-cursive form ofNgày,rì
ㄗ	z	From the radicalTiếtTiết,jié,dialecticallyzié
ㄘ	c	Variant ofBảy,qī,dialecticallyciī.Compare semi-cursive form and seal-script.
ㄙ	s	From the old characterKhư,sī,which was later replaced by its compoundTư,sī.
Finals
ㄧ	i, y	FromMột,yī
ㄨ	u, w	From㐅,ancient form ofNăm,wǔ.
ㄩ	ü, yu	From the ancient characterKhảm,qū,which remains as a radical
ㄚ	a	FromNha,yā
ㄛ	o	From the obsolete character𠀀hē,inhalation, the reverse of丂Khảo,kǎo,which is preserved as a phonetic in the compoundNhưng,kě.
ㄜ	e	Derived from its allophone in Standard Mandarin,ㄛ,o
ㄝ	e	FromCũng,yě.Compare the Warring States bamboo form.
ㄞ	ai	From𠀅hài,bronze form ofHợi.
ㄟ	ei	FromDiyí,an obsolete character meaningDi,yí,"to move".
ㄠ	ao	FromYêu,yāo
ㄡ	ou	FromLại,yòu
ㄢ	an	From the obsolete characterㄢ,hàn,"to bloom", preserved as a phonetic in the compoundPhạm,fàn
ㄣ	en	From乚,yǐn
ㄤ	ang	FromUông,wāng
ㄥ	eng	FromKhư,an obsolete form ofHoành,gōng
ㄦ	er	FromNhi,the bottom portion ofNhi,érused as a cursive form
ㄭ	i	(and invertedㄓ) PerhapsThị,in addition toㄓ.It is the minimal vowel ofㄓ,ㄔ,ㄕ,ㄖ,ㄗ,ㄘ,ㄙthat is spelled "ih" in Tongyong Pinyin and Wade-Giles and "i" inpinyin.

The zhuyin characters are represented in typographicfontsas 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

After theoverthrowofChina's last emperorduring theXinhai Revolutionin 1911, the new government in China created Zhuyin to help the common people read more easily.However, theChinese Communist Partywanted to ban writingChinese charactersaltogether and replace them with theLatin Alpha bet.When thePeople's Liberation Armydefeated theKuomintang(the founding party of theRepublic of China) in 1949 and sent them off toexileinTaiwan,the use of Zhuyin dropped inmainland Chinabecause theCPCwas interested in using the Latin Alpha bet for writing Chinese phonetically.However, Zhuyin is still widely used in Taiwan as it is used to type Chinese on computer and phone keyboards.

Features

Zhuyin was made to closely represent the sounds ofMandarin 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.