Bopomofo

Zhuyin (注音 Zhu4 Yin1) literally means "annotate" "syllable" in Mandarin also known as Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) for the first four syllables in the Mandarin Phonetic symbols. It is the National Phonetic System for the Chinese language used mainly in Taiwan. The system uses 37 special symbols to represent the Mandarin sounds (21 consonants and 16 vowels). The first four symbols in the system are bo, po, mo, fo, hence Zhuyin is also known as bopomofo to some westerners. These symbols (ruby characters) are printed next to the Chinese characters in young children books. One seldom sees these symbols used in adult publications except in dictionary entries. Bopomofo is also used as an input method for Chinese text in computer.

Zhuyin and Pinyin are based on the same Mandarin pronunciations, hence a 1-to-1 mapping between the two systems. Zhuyin is used in Taiwan with bopomofo symbols. Pinyin is used in mainland China with roman symbols.

These bopomofo symbols are seldom used except as ruby characters or as pronunciation guide in dictionary. Unlike pinyin, the sole purpose for zhuyin in elementary education is to teach proper Mandarin pronunciation to children. School children learn the symbols so that they can look up pronunciation in a Chinese dictionary properly. Pinyin on the other hand is dual purpose. Other than a pronunciation notation, pinyin is used widely in publications in mainland China. Some books from mainland China are published purely in romanized pinyin symbols with no trace of a single Chinese character. Those books are targetted to minority tribal groups or Westerners who know verbal Mandarin but have trouble recognizing written Chinese text.

The Education Ministry on Taiwan has attempted for many years to phase out the use of Zhuyin in favor of a system based on Roman characters. However, this transition has been extremely slow due to the difficulty in teaching elementary school teachers a new Roman based system.

Bopomofo (the 'zhuyin' and 'pinyin' columns are equivalent )

zhuyin	pinyin	zhuyin	pinyin	zhuyin	pinyin	zhuyin	pinyin
Consonants
ㄅ	B	ㄆ	P	ㄇ	M	ㄈ	F
ㄉ	D	ㄊ	T	ㄋ	N	ㄌ	L
ㄍ	G	ㄎ	K	ㄏ	H
ㄐ	J	ㄑ	Q	ㄒ	X
ㄓ	Zh	ㄔ	Ch	ㄕ	Sh	ㄖ	R
ㄗ	Z	ㄘ	C	ㄙ	S
Vowels
ㄚ	A	ㄛ	O	ㄜ	E	ㄝ	Eh
ㄞ	Ai	ㄟ	Ei	ㄠ	Au	ㄡ	Ou
ㄢ	An	ㄣ	En	ㄤ	Ang	ㄥ	Eng
ㄦ	Er	ㄧ	I	ㄨ	U	ㄩ	IU

Dialect (non-Mandarin) letters (not many web browsers can display these glyphs, follow the external links below to see these symbols.)

Char	Name		Char	Name		Char	Name
ㄪ	V		ㄫ	Ng		ㄬ	Gn

Extended Bopomofo for Minnan and Hakka

Char	Name	Char	Name	Char	Name	Char	Name
ㆠ	Bu	ㆦ	Oo	ㆬ	Im	ㆲ	Ong
ㆡ	Zi	ㆧ	Onn	ㆭ	Ngg	ㆳ	Innn
ㆢ	Ji	ㆨ	Ir	ㆮ	Ainn	ㆴ	Final P
ㆣ	Gu	ㆩ	Ann	ㆯ	Aunn	ㆵ	Final T
ㆤ	Ee	ㆪ	Inn	ㆰ	Am	ㆶ	Final K
ㆥ	Enn	ㆫ	Unn	ㆱ	Om	ㆷ	Final H