Zhuyin Transcription (Bo-Po-Mo-Fo)

[ 2005-06-15 20:17:14 pm | Author: Admin ]

Zhuyin Transcription (Bo-Po-Mo-Fo)

A third system that has been in use only in Taiwan (and in mainland dictionaries, but only for completion) is the system called Zhuyin 注音 "Commented Sounds" or simply Bo-po-mo-fo, following the first four sounds of the alphabet. This system is very easy to learn, but it does not use Latin letters. Instead, it relies on simplified or very old forms of characters. In my opinion, it is the best system of transscription that exists, but it is not very widespread and will probably die out after Taiwan has started to use the mainland Pinyin system. The Zhuyin system simply puts together initial and final sound of one syllable, like ㄅㄠ "b+a " for [ba ]. Syllables without initial sound are simply written with the final sound, like ㄨ "u" for [u]. Syllables without final vowel are simply written with their inital sound, like ㄓ "dz" for [dz]. Specialities are 1) the use of ㄣ "en" for the final sound [-in], like ㄒㄧㄣ "ç+i+en" for [çin], for the final sound [-un], like ㄍㄨㄣ "g+u+en" for [gun], and for the final sound [-yn], like ㄐㄩㄣ "dj+ü+en" for [djyn]; 2) the use of ㄥ "eng" for the final sound [-ing], like ㄐㄧㄥ "dj+i+e " for [dji ] and for the final sound [-ung], like ㄌㄨㄥ "l+u+e " for [lu ]; 3) the use of ㄢ "an" for the final sound of [- n], like ㄒㄧㄢ "ç+i+an" for [çi n] (causing here the same problem like in the Pinyin transscription system); and 4) the use of "ü+eng" for the final sound of [-iu ], like ㄐㄩㄥ "dj+ü+eng" for [dju ].
The tone pitches are either indicated by accents like in the pinyin transscription - but without the high tone mark - or by points in the corner of the vowel: left upper for the low rising pitch, right upper for the falling pitch, left lower for high and rising pitch.
A hyperlinked table shows the Zhuyin alphabet and the characters the particular letters are deriving from, transscribed with the international transscription system.
The final sound usage of the zhuyin transscription system is demonstrated in the table below. The vowel-less syllables [d-][t-][-][-],[dz][ts][s] are transscribed by the sole particular consonants: ㄓㄔㄕㄖ,ㄗㄘㄙ. As the zhuyin system is only used by Chinese to have a reading help, there are no rules for word separation.