Bopomofo was first introduced in China during the 1910s by the Beiyang government, where it was used alongside Wade–Giles, a romanization system which used a modified Latin alphabet. Today, Bopomofo is more common in Taiwan than on the mainland, and is used as the primary electronic input method for Taiwanese Mandarin, as well as in dictionaries and other non-official documents.
In Taiwan the system is commonly known by its official name Zhuyin fuhao (注音符號; 'phonetic symbols'), or simply as zhuyin (注音; 'phonetic notation'). In official documents, it is occasionally called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I (國語注音符號第一式), abbreviated as "MPS I" (注音一式),[4][5] to distinguish it from the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS II) system published in 1984. Formerly, the system was named Guoyin zimu (國音字母; 'national language alphabet') and Zhuyin zimu (注音字母; 'phonetic alphabet').[4]
The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu,[4] which was based on Zhang Binglin's shorthand. It was used as the official phonetic script to annotate the sounds of the characters in accordance with the Old National Pronunciation.[6] A draft was released on 11 July 1913, by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education, but it was not officially proclaimed until 23 November 1928.[4] It was first named Guóyīn Zìmǔ 'national pronunciation alphabet', but in April 1930 was renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào 'phonetic symbols' to address fears that the alphabetic system might independently replace Chinese characters.[7]
Modern use
A guide on how to typeset Bopomofo alongside characters. (1936, Li Jinxi)
Bopomofo is the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in elementary school in Taiwan. In elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Bopomofo as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one children's newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News, annotates all articles with Bopomofo ruby characters.
It is also the most popular way for Taiwanese to enter Chinese characters into computers and smartphones and to look up characters in a dictionary.
In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some overseas communities such as Filipino Chinese use Bopomofo.
Bopomofo is shown in a secondary position to Hanyu Pinyin in all editions of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian from the 1960 edition to the current 2016 edition (7th edition).
Bopomofo is also used to transcribe other Chinese dialects, most commonly Taiwanese Hokkien and Cantonese, however its use can be applied to practically any dialect in handwriting (because not all letters are encoded). Outside of Chinese, Bopomofo letters are also used in Hmu and Ge languages by a small number of Hmu Christians.[8]
Symbols
Table of Bopomofo, with romanization given in Gwoyeu RomatzyhBopomofo in Regular, Handwritten Regular & Cursive formats
The Bopomofo characters were created by Zhang Binglin, taken mainly from "regularized" forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. The consonants are listed in order of place of articulation, from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, /l/ etc.
Bopomofo is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters. ㄖ is written with three strokes, unlike the character from which it is derived (Chinese: 日; pinyin: rì), which has four strokes.
ㄧ can be written as a vertical line () or a horizontal line (); both are accepted forms. Traditionally, it should be written as a horizontal line in vertical writing, and a vertical line in horizontal writing. The People's Republic of China almost exclusively uses horizontal writing, so the vertical form (in the rare occasion that Bopomofo is used) has become the standard form there. Language education in the Republic of China generally uses vertical writing, so most people learn it as a horizontal line, and use a horizontal form even in horizontal writing. In 2008, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education decided that the primary form should always be the horizontal form, but that the vertical form is accepted alternative.[17] Unicode 8.0.0 published an errata in 2014 that updates the representative glyph to be the horizontal form.[18] Computer fonts may only display one form or the other, or may be able to display both if the font is aware of changes needed for vertical writing.
Bopomofo is occasionally unofficially handwritten as syllable blocks, similar to Hangul, however this is not considered an accepted form by the People's Republic of China nor the Republic of China, and is unsupported by Unicode.
Tonal marks
As shown in the following table, tone marks for the second, third, and fourth tones are shared between bopomofo and pinyin. In bopomofo, the mark for first tone is usually omitted but can be included,[19][20] while a dot above indicates the fifth tone (also known as the neutral tone). In pinyin, a macron (overbar) indicates the first tone, and the lack of a marker usually indicates the fifth (light) tone.
Unlike Hanyu Pinyin, Bopomofo aligns well with the Chinese characters in books whose texts are printed vertically, making Bopomofo better suited for annotating the pronunciation of vertically oriented Chinese text.
When used in conjunction with Chinese characters, Bopomofo is typically placed to the right of the Chinese character vertically in both vertical print[23][24] and horizontal print[25] or to the top of the Chinese character in a horizontal print (see Ruby characters).
Example
Below is an example for the word "bottle" (pinyin: píngzi):
瓶
ㄆ ㄧ ㄥˊ
子
˙ ㄗ
,
瓶
ㄆ ㄧ ㄥˊ
子
˙ ㄗ
or
ㄆㄧㄥˊ
˙ㄗ
瓶
子
Erhua transcription
Words rhotacized as a result of erhua are spelled with ㄦ attached to the syllable (like 歌兒 gēr). In case the syllable uses other tones than the 1st tone, the tone mark is attached to the penultimate letter standing for syllable nucleus, but not to ㄦ (e.g. 哪兒 nǎr; 一點兒 yīdiǎnr; 好玩兒 hǎowánr).[26]
Comparison
Pinyin
Bopomofo and pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations; hence there is a one-to-one correspondence between the two systems:
IPA and pinyin counterparts of Bopomofo finals
Rhyme
ㄚ
ㄛ
ㄜ
ㄝ
ㄞ
ㄟ
ㄠ
ㄡ
ㄢ
ㄣ
ㄤ
ㄥ
ㄦ
Medial
[ɨ] (ㄭ) 1
-i
[a] ㄚ a -a
[o] ㄛ3 o -o 3
[ɤ] ㄜ e -e
[ɛ] ㄝ ê
[ai̯] ㄞ ai -ai
[ei̯] ㄟ ei -ei
[ɑu̯] ㄠ ao -ao
[ou̯] ㄡ ou -ou
[an] ㄢ an -an
[ən] ㄣ en -en
[ɑŋ] ㄤ ang -ang
[ɤŋ] ㄥ eng -eng
[aɚ] ㄦ er
ㄧ
[i] ㄧ yi -i
[i̯a] ㄧㄚ ya -ia
[i̯o] ㄧㄛ yo
[i̯ɛ] ㄧㄝ ye -ie
[i̯ai̯] ㄧㄞ yai
[i̯ɑu̯] ㄧㄠ yao -iao
[i̯ou̯] ㄧㄡ you -iu
[i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ yan -ian
[in] ㄧㄣ yin -in
[i̯ɑŋ] ㄧㄤ yang -iang
[iŋ] ㄧㄥ ying -ing
ㄨ
[u] ㄨ wu -u
[u̯a] ㄨㄚ wa -ua
[u̯o] ㄨㄛ3 wo -uo 3
[u̯ai̯] ㄨㄞ wai -uai
[u̯ei̯] ㄨㄟ wei -ui
[u̯an] ㄨㄢ wan -uan
[u̯ən] ㄨㄣ wen -un
[u̯ɑŋ] ㄨㄤ wang -uang
[u̯ɤŋ],[ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ weng -ong 4
ㄩ
[y] ㄩ yu -ü 2
[y̯ɛ] ㄩㄝ yue -üe 2
[y̯ɛn] ㄩㄢ yuan -üan 2
[yn] ㄩㄣ yun -ün 2
[i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ yong -iong
1 Not written.
2⟨-ü⟩ is written as ⟨-u⟩ after ⟨j-⟩, ⟨q-⟩, ⟨x-⟩, or ⟨y-⟩.
3⟨ㄨㄛ⟩/⟨-uo⟩ is written as ⟨ㄛ⟩/⟨-o⟩ after ⟨ㄅ⟩/⟨b-⟩, ⟨ㄆ⟩/⟨p-⟩, ⟨ㄇ⟩/⟨m-⟩, ⟨ㄈ⟩/⟨f-⟩.
4⟨weng⟩ is pronounced [ʊŋ] (written as ⟨-ong⟩) when it follows an initial.
In Taiwan, Bopomofo is used to teach Taiwanese Hokkien, and is also used to transcribe it phonetically in contexts such as on storefront signs, karaoke lyrics, and film subtitles.
Three letters no longer used for Mandarin are carried over from the 1913 standard:
If a syllable ends with a consonant other than -an or -aan, the consonant's letter is added, then followed by a final middle dot.
-ㄞ is used for [aːi] (aai) (e.g. 敗, ㄅㄞbaai6, "to be defeated").
-ㄣ is used for [ɐn] (an) (e.g. 跟, ㄍㄣgan1, "to follow"), and -ㄢ is used for [aːn] (aan) (e.g. 間, ㄍㄢgaan1, "within"). Other vowels that end with -n use -ㄋ· for the final ㄋ. (e.g. 見, ㄍㄧㄋ·gin3, "to see").
-ㄡ is used for [ɐu] (au). (e.g. 牛, ㄫㄡ, ngau4, "cow") To transcribe [ou] (ou), it is written as ㄛㄨ (e.g. 路, ㄌㄛㄨlou6, "path").
ㄫ is used for both initial ng- (as in 牛, ㄫㄡ, ngau4) and final -ng (as in 用, ㄧㄛㄫ·, jung6 "to use").
ㄐ is used for [t͡s] (z) (e.g. 煑, ㄐㄩzyu2, "to cook") and ㄑ is used for [t͡sʰ] (c) (e.g. 全, ㄑㄩㄋ·cyun4, "whole").
During the time when Bopomofo was proposed for Cantonese, tones were not marked.
Computer uses
Input method
An example of a Bopomofo keypad for TaiwanA typical keyboard layout for Bopomofo on computers
Bopomofo can be used as an input method for Chinese characters. It is one of the few input methods that can be found on most modern personal computers without having to download or install any additional software. It is also one of the few input methods that can be used for inputting Chinese characters on certain cell phones.[citation needed]. On the QWERTY keyboard, the symbols are ordered column-wise top-down (e.g. 1+Q+A+Z)
Unicode 3.0 also added the characters U+02EA˪MODIFIER LETTER YIN DEPARTING TONE MARK and U+02EB˫MODIFIER LETTER YANG DEPARTING TONE MARK, in the Spacing Modifier Letters block. These two characters are now (since Unicode 6.0) classified as Bopomofo characters.[28]
^"Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) | All You Need to Know". Bubble Tea Island. Retrieved 24 July 2024. The term "Bopomofo" is derived from the first four characters of the system's alphabet [ㄅㄆㄇㄈ – B'P'M'F'].
^ abDepartment of Lifelong Education, Ministry of Education 教育部終身教育司, ed. (January 2017). 國語注音手冊 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Ministry of Education; Digital version: Wanderer Digital Publishing Inc. 汪達數位出版股份有限公司. pp. 2, 7. ISBN978-986-051-481-0. 韻符「ㄭ」，陰平調號「¯」，注音時省略不標{...}陰平 以一短橫代表高平之聲調，注音時可省略不標。標注在字音最後一個符號右上角。
^ abDepartment of Lifelong Education, Ministry of Education 教育部終身教育司, ed. (January 2017). The Manual of the Phonetic Symbols of Mandarin Chinese (in English and Chinese (Taiwan)). Ministry of Education; Digital version: Wanderer Digital Publishing Inc. 汪達數位出版股份有限公司. pp. 2, 7. ISBN978-986-051-869-6. the rhyme symbol, "ㄭ", and the mark of Yin-ping tone, "¯", could be left out on Bopomofo notes.{...}This high and level tone is noted as a short dash mark and could be left out in Bopomofo note. If it is noted, it should be put on the upper right corner of the last Bopomofo note.
^The middle dot may optionally precede light-tone syllables only in reference books (辞书), see section 7.3Archived 17 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine of the PRC national standard GB/T 16159-2012 Basic rules of the Chinese phonetic alphabet orthography.
NPA->IPA National Phonetic Alphabet (bopomofo) spellings of words transliterated into the International Phonetic Alphabet. The vowel values have been verified against the official IPA site. See IPA help preview, SIL International website. See IPA help preview, SIL International website. (Accessed 23 December 2010).
Pinyin Annotator – adds bopomofo (bopomofo) or pinyin on top of any Chinese text, prompts alternative pronunciations to homonyms, has the option of exporting into OpenOffice Writer for further editing
《請利用螢幕上的小鍵盤輸入注音符號》 – online keyboard for bopomofo which can turn it into Chinese characters
