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What is pinyin? Understanding the Chinese alphabet

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Short summary

Chinese, in fact, has no alphabet. What people call the "Chinese alphabet" is pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn), the official way to write Mandarin with Latin letters, which was adopted in mainland China in 1958.

Pinyin, in some sense, has its origins in the late 1500s as Jesuit missionaries to China sought ways to understand the cryptic Chinese language, and turned to their well-known friend: the Latin alphabet. [1] Over time, many different Chinese "Romanization" schemes developed and were utilized to varying degrees. [1] In fact, this is why to this day, various Chinese words and names return different spellings in different parts of the world (ever tried Peking Duck? It's 北京烤鴨: Beijing duck).

Pinyin, however, was actually part of the Chinese language reforms in the 1950s designed to improve literacy. [2] This is also where simplified Chinese characters came from. [3]

It turns out, it's just really hard to learn to read and write Chinese!

The pinyin system uses the short, well-known and easy to learn Latin alphabet (which English and other European languages share) to depict Chinese characters based on their pronunciation.

How does pinyin work?

Pinyin writes each Mandarin syllable as an initial (the consonant at the start), a final (the rest of the syllable), and a tone mark. 妈 (mother) is m + a with the first tone: mā.

Chinese continues to be written and read directly in characters. Pinyin is primarily a pronunciation guide and learning tool. However, now that we have computers, it is also very handy for typing (writing) Chinese using computer devices.

What are the pinyin initials?

There are 21 initials, grouped by where in the mouth you make them:

GroupInitialsHow to make them
Lipsb, p, m, fLike English
Tongue tipd, t, n, lTongue tip behind the upper teeth
Back of the tongueg, k, hh is rougher than in English
Flat tonguej, q, xTongue tip down behind the lower teeth
Curled tonguezh, ch, sh, rTongue tip curled up toward the roof of the mouth
Hissingz, c, sz sounds like "dz", c like the "ts" in "cats"

What are the pinyin finals?

GroupFinals
Single vowelsa, o, e, i, u, ü
Vowel pairsai, ei, ao, ou
Nasal endingsan, en, ang, eng, ong
Starting with iia, ie, iao, iu, ian, in, iang, ing, iong
Starting with uua, uo, uai, ui, uan, un, uang, ueng
Starting with üüe, üan, ün
Otherer

Three of them catch most beginners:

  • e is not the e in "bed". It is closer to "uh": è (饿, hungry).
  • ü is "ee" said with rounded lips: lǜ (绿, green), nǚ (女, woman).
  • i after z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, and r is not "ee". It is a buzz that carries on the consonant: sì (四, four), shí (十, ten).

Where do y and w come from?

y and w are not initials. They are how pinyin spells a syllable that starts with i, u, or ü and has no initial:

FinalWritten alone as
i, ia, ie, iao…yi, ya, ye, yao…
u, ua, uo, uai…wu, wa, wo, wai…
ü, üe, üan, ünyu, yue, yuan, yun

So yú (鱼, fish) is ü with the second tone, and yuè (月, moon) is üe.

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How do tone marks work?

Mandarin has four tones and a neutral tone, and pinyin marks them over a vowel:

ToneMarkExample
First (high and level)āmā 妈, mother
Second (rising)ámá 麻, numb
Third (low, dipping)ǎmǎ 马, horse
Fourth (falling)àmà 骂, to scold
Neutral (short, light)no markma 吗, question word

When a syllable has more than one vowel, the mark goes on a or e if there is one (hǎo, méi), on the o in ou (dōu), and otherwise on the last vowel (liù, guì).

Without marks, pinyin is often written with tone numbers: ma1, ma2, ma3, ma4. For how each tone sounds, see Chinese tones.

Which pinyin spellings trip up beginners?

  • ü without its dots. After j, q, x, and y, ü is written u: qù (去, to go) and xué (学, to study) both have ü. After n and l the dots stay, because nǔ (努) and nǚ (女) are different syllables.
  • zh, j, and z. Three separate sounds: zhū (猪, pig), jū (居, to live), and zū (租, to rent) are different words.
  • Shortened finals. iou, uei, and uen drop their middle vowel after an initial: liù (六, six) is l + iou, and duì (对, correct) is d + uei.
  • The apostrophe. It marks a syllable break before a, o, or e: Xī’ān (西安, the city) is two syllables, and xiān (先, first) is one.

How do you type with pinyin?

Most people type Chinese with a pinyin keyboard: you simply type the pinyin and the device presents you with a list of possible characters that match your pinyin. You then just select the matching character. Typing nihao suggests 你好. On most pinyin keyboards, v stands in for ü, so nv gives 女.

To see how to do this, see how to type Chinese.

How should you learn pinyin?

Learn pinyin first, since every textbook and dictionary uses it. Learn each word with its tone, not just the bare syllable: mǎi (买) is to buy, and mài (卖) is to sell. A good way to test yourself easily is to set up a pinyin keyboard on your phone or computer and use it to type pinyin and select characters. See how much you can type!

Sources

  1. Romanization of ChineseWikipedia
  2. PinyinWikipedia
  3. Simplified Chinese charactersWikipedia