What is pinyin?
• Pinyin is a standard of pronunciation symbols. It is not a language. It is one of several systems collectively called Romanization of Chinese. When the East met the West, the West couldn’t read the characters and transcribed the pronunciation onto Western language. Many Western history books about China are written with the Wade-Giles system of Romanization. The most modern system is the Pinyin system developed after years of study. It is the official system of mainland China and is used on street signs, in brochures, and in schools. Yes, children in China use pinyin to begin to read characters. Dictionaries are organized by pinyin as well as by character. School children have to look up unfamiliar characters using pronunciation, just as we do – or they can ask their parents – which we can’t. • Take a look at the basic pinyin pronunciation table. Pinyin is fantastically predictable when compared to English. George Bernard Shaw would be jealous. It is easy to slip into bad habits when
