The Pinyin phonetic alphabet

The «Transcriptions of Mandarin readings: Latin alphabet» item on the «Character information» tab of a character dictionary entry provides a way of recording character pronunciations in Mandarin. Whereas the Palladius system is intended for Russian speakers, Pinyin, which uses the Latin alphabet, opens up Chinese language learning worldwide. For example, 山 is written shān and 水 as shuǐ, with tones indicated. Pinyin is indispensable for Russian-speaking students and Asian studies scholars working with international materials; its versatility and role in the digital age give it second place after Palladius in the dictionary’s structure.

The phonetic alphabet Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn; officially: 汉语拼音, Hànyǔ pīnyīn, Hanyu Pinyin; literally: «writing the sounds of the Chinese language») was developed in the PRC in the 1950s under Zhou Youguang (周有光, Zhou Youguang), known as the «father of Pinyin». Born in 1906 and trained as an economist, Zhou Youguang headed the committee for writing reform established in 1952. Its task was to replace outdated systems such as Wade-Giles and simplify Chinese language teaching. It was based on the Beijing dialect, standardized as Mandarin in 1949. The first version of Pinyin was presented in 1956, and in 1958 it was approved as the PRC’s official standard. Recognition of Pinyin by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1982 as the main Latin transcription of Chinese consolidated its international status. Pinyin may gain official status in Taiwan in the near future.

Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics to mark the four Mandarin tones: ā (1st, level), á (2nd, rising), ǎ (3rd, falling-rising), à (4th, falling). Initials (consonants, present or absent) and finals (vowels with endings) are represented precisely: 山 — shān, 水 — shuǐ, 茶 — chá. Its features include combinations unfamiliar to Russian speakers: «q» (气, qì, «gas, air», as in the Russian word цигун), «x» (小, xiǎo, «small», as in the Russian word сяоми), «zh» (知, zhī, «to know», represented by the Russian combination чж). Using diacritics requires learning, but ensures precision: 买 (mǎi, «to buy») differs from 卖 (mài, «to sell»). Pinyin reflects Mandarin phonetics, making it the basis of text input systems on computers and smartphones.

A table of Chinese phonemes is provided on this page of our website.