phonetic notation system; zhuyin fuhao
Meanings
1 sense · 4 examplesnoun
phonetic notation system using modified Chinese characters to transcribe Mandarin pronunciation; used before the adoption of Hanyu Pinyin; also called Zhuyin or Bopomofo
This system was officially adopted in 1918 and was widely used in mainland China before 1958. It is still the standard phonetic notation system used in Taiwan today. Unlike Hanyu Pinyin which uses Latin letters, Zhuyin uses character-derived symbols that are not based on the Latin alphabet.
Before the promulgation of the Hanyu Pinyin Scheme, the Zhuyin alphabet was widely used to annotate the pronunciation of Chinese characters.
Taiwan still uses the Zhuyin alphabet to this day, while mainland China mainly uses Hanyu Pinyin.
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The Zhuyin alphabet has thirty-nine characters in total, including twenty-four initials and sixteen finals.
Many older generations of Chinese people learned the Zhuyin alphabet rather than Hanyu Pinyin when they were children.