Bopomofo
It's official name is 注音符號 (zhùyīnfúhào) but it's often called bopomofo (these are the first four sounds)History
It was developed in 1913 by the Ministry of Education (教育部 jiàoyùbù) in the Republic of China, it's name was 國語字母 (guóyǔzìmǔ National Phonetic Alphabet). Between 1919 and 1922 several changes were made, it was finished only in 1930. In 1986 the Republic of China (Taiwan) made some more changes (known as 國語注音符號第二式 guóyǔ zhùyīnfúhào dìèrshì).
It was developed as an pedagogic tool to ease the writing and reading of Mandarin Chinese. It is still the official way to learn Chinese in the Republic of China (Taiwan). The characters/symbols are based on calligraphic forms and some are even derived from Chinese characters.
Input
It consists out of 37 symbols, 21 'consenants', 16 'vowels' and 5 tone symbols.
The disadvantage of this system as a input method is that it contains more than 26 symbols so they can't be mapped to a regular (Western) keyboard lay-out. So some numbers, interpunction are not direct available when typing.
Example: 中國 : 5(ㄓ) + J(ㄨ) + / (ㄥ) + spacebar + E (ㄍ) + J (ㄨ) + I (ㄛ) + 6 (ˊ)
Virtual keyboard
To add bopomofo to your Microsoft Word document:
- Go to Tools
- Customize
- Select Extended formatting
- Select the text where you want to add the bopomofo
- Click on sign with the big blue A in the newly appeared toolbar
Chart
| Pronounciation | Graphical | Hexadecimal |
| b | ㄅ | ㄅ |
| p | ㄆ | ㄆ |
| m | ㄇ | ㄇ |
| f | ㄈ | ㄈ |
| d | ㄉ | ㄉ |
| t | ㄊ | ㄊ |
| n | ㄋ | ㄋ |
| l | ㄌ | ㄌ |
| g | ㄍ | ㄍ |
| k | ㄎ | ㄎ |
| h | ㄏ | ㄏ |
| j | ㄐ | ㄐ |
| q | ㄑ | ㄑ |
| x | ㄒ | ㄒ |
| zh | ㄓ | ㄓ |
| ch | ㄔ | ㄔ |
| sh | ㄕ | ㄕ |
| r | ㄖ | ㄖ |
| z | ㄗ | ㄗ |
| c | ㄘ | ㄘ |
| s | ㄙ | ㄙ |
| a | ㄚ | ㄚ |
| o | ㄛ | ㄛ |
| e | ㄜ | ㄜ |
| ie | ㄝ | ㄝ |
| ai | ㄞ | ㄞ |
| ei | ㄟ | ㄟ |
| ao | ㄠ | ㄠ |
| ou | ㄡ | ㄡ |
| an | ㄢ | ㄢ |
| en | ㄣ | ㄣ |
| ang | ㄤ | ㄤ |
| eng | ㄥ | ㄥ |
| er | ㄦ | ㄦ |
| (y)i | ㄧ | ㄧ |
| u | ㄨ | ㄨ |
| ü | ㄩ | ㄩ |
| ㄪ | ㄪ | |
| ㄫ | ㄫ | |
| ㄬ | ㄬ |
Transcription compharison chart (taken from GilesZone)
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