Page 40 - Mandarin
P. 40
Scheme fot" the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
Chinese differs fl"om ofhel" alphabetic langt-~a~c; il" that its w..-itten fot'm is not dll"ectl¥
l"elated to its P~-'C>I'lW'lCiation. Jn ol"del" to p~-'ovide phonetic notation fo~" Chinese chat"acters
and to facilitate the COt'\S!Aitation of dictionat"ies 1 phonoloeists dl"afted the "Scheme fo..-
the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet", and in 1958 the Chinese eovel"nment passed an act
to p~"omote the application of this scheme, common!¥ known as the ptnl"in (" at"l"aneed
sotAnds") S}:'stem. Pinyin adopts the Latin alphabets to tl"ansaibe Chinese so~Ands and
few diaCI"itical tone mal"ks to indicate the diffe..-ent tones of Chinese cha..-actet'S Pinyin is
now widel}:' tASed fol" the sttAd}:' of Chinese lan9"a9e 1 and has aided the poptAia..-ization of
sta1"dcvd Chinese (P£Afot1ght-•a ).
