Chinese Language Stack Exchange
Chinese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [pinyin]

Questions about the official transcription writing system that is used to write the reading of chinese characters using the roman alphabet.

Questions about Pinyin in all of its usages. Pinyin is the transcription system of the Chinese language pronunciation of the standard dialect. It is also used for translating Chinese names such as personals and places. Pinyin is broadly used in language education both inland and abroad. It is also used as a writing system to script spoken Chinese by many people worldwide, but not yet official in publications. There are other alphabetic systems of the Chinese language. It may be accepted as related topics to Pinyin.

193 questions
13
votes
4 answers

In pinyin, why is there an inconsistency between bo, po, suo, duo etc

We have: bo, po, mo, fo, wo But then: duo, suo, luo, zuo, ruo, cuo, guo, huo, nuo, tuo In each, the vowel is pronounced the same, but the creators of pinyin have chosen two different spellings. It seems that the u could be dropped from the…
Mike Chamberlain
  • 564
  • 3
  • 14
8
votes
1 answer

How to write characters containing the ǚ pinyin symbol in most common Chinese Input Methods?

I am using four different input methods for typing 汉字. Most of them share the same principles for translating what you type in pinyin to Chinese characters. But I am unable to figure out how to type in pinyin words with an U with Umlaut like ǚ, for…
marcanuy
  • 655
  • 4
  • 15
7
votes
3 answers

Uncommon (Unorthodox?!) Pinyin: What are these?

I find this sort of uncommon, unorthodox, whatever you wanna call it, pinyin very fascinating. These are the ones that I know of already - that, apparently, are still considered to be Mandarin. What I'm wondering is, are there others? What other…
Mou某
  • 35,955
  • 9
  • 53
  • 137
7
votes
4 answers

Should Pinyin be written as it is (collectively) pronounced or in terms of the individual syllables?

As in the title, should something like 不对 be written as bù duì (as in the individual characters) or as bú duì (the way it's actually spoken)? I know that my teacher writes e.g. 你好 as nǐ hǎo (i.e. despite the ní hǎo pronunciation). Google Translate…
J Redford
  • 71
  • 1
6
votes
3 answers

The Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi poem?

A while ago I came across this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Shi_shi_shi_shi Very interesting. I wonder if there's any more homophonic poems like this? Or even is there a genre?
nicobili
  • 456
  • 2
  • 5
5
votes
3 answers

Is the Pinyin made for some Chinese characters in double standard?

The most striking cases are: 莫 (mo), 我(wo), 坡(po),波(bo), but 国(guo), 洛(luo), 错(cuo), etc, with one "u" added, which is unnecessary. To my ears, they are the same, aren't they?
NanningYouth
  • 2,677
  • 2
  • 12
  • 22
5
votes
2 answers

Looking for Pinyin standards

I have noticed discrepancies in how native Mandarin speakers spell certain words in Pinyin reflecting differences in pronunciation, for instance, pángbiān vs. pángbian and zǎoshang vs. zǎoshàng. I've been told that these reflect differences across…
user103
  • 311
  • 2
  • 6
4
votes
3 answers

What is this modified version of Hanyu Pinyin called?

I am new to Chinese, have been studying it for almost a year or so. I noticed that a lot of Chinese music videos have subtitles in a modified version of pinyin that has many distinct features from commonly used Hanyu Pinyin. Some of these features…
ye sheng
  • 53
  • 6
4
votes
5 answers

Why -ian instead of -ien and -üan instead of -üen?

Why are words like 天、面、先、盐 romanized in pinyin as tian, mian, xian, and yan, even though the ending is pronounced [iɛn], and would be better represented as -ien? Likewise, why are words like 卷、全、选、元 romanized as juan, quan, xuan, and yuan, when the…
mic
  • 704
  • 3
  • 15
4
votes
1 answer

Is lo (咯) valid pinyin?

MDBG and Baidu provide a pronunciation of 咯 (as in the sentence-final particle indicating that something is obvious) as lo5. "lo" isn't listed on Wikipedia's pinyin table, and I thought only bo/po/mo/fo could drop the u from -uo. Is this the…
mic
  • 704
  • 3
  • 15
4
votes
2 answers

The max number of characters that map to a single pronunciation

So it seems that there is no way to map the Pinyin version of the pronunciation of Chinese words into Chinese characters directly: If Pinyin (or Other Romanization) can be Translated Back into Chinese Characters What must be done is, in addition to…
Lance
  • 1,246
  • 1
  • 7
  • 15
4
votes
1 answer

What is the Socio-linguistic Function of Mixing Pinyin and Characters Together By Adult Native Chinese Writers?

Several linguistics-oriented scholars, most notably Dr Mair, have recently noted the growing trend in written Chinese discourse towards "digraphia" - the dual use of Pinyin and Chinese characters as sort of a protomorphic kanji+katakana-esque…
Master Sparkles
  • 1,969
  • 13
  • 21
3
votes
1 answer

Segmentation of Pinyin syllables with diacritics

Does anyone know of any open source code for segmenting Pinyin syllables that has diacritic tone marks? Example: yìrúfǎnzhǎng -> yì rú fǎn zhǎng C#, Python, or Lex is preferred but any language will do. I've searched the internet but I'm coming…
stuckintheshuck
  • 213
  • 1
  • 5
3
votes
2 answers

Placement of Pinyin in relation to characters

I recently wrote a short article discussing the use of Pinyin and Zhuyin. One of the sentences I wrote, without thinking too much about it, was that Pinyin is normally written below the characters (in contrast with Zhuyin, which is written…
Olle Linge
  • 3,057
  • 1
  • 23
  • 37
3
votes
2 answers

Pronunciation of 一 in 一边

I am struggling with the pronunciation of the 一 in 一边. The usage I am particularly concerned with is describing simultaneous tasks, as here. My understanding is that 一 is pronounced as first tone when alone or as an ordinal but fourth tone…
The_Anomaly
  • 579
  • 1
  • 4
  • 14
1
2 3