From Pinyin to Characters – The Chinese Writing System

Many people want to translate Pinyin, also known as the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, to characters with a piece of translating software. Pinyin is based on the accent of the Beijing dialect of the Mandarin Chinese tongue. The acceptance of the Pinyin form within the Chinese writing system was gradually accepted as the official script that People’s Republic of China has been using. After the People’s Republic of China accepted Pinyin as a form of the Chinese writing system, they were promoting the ability to translate Pinyin to characters.

In 1913, the national script created for the National Phonetic Alphabet is based on the Chinese characters. Then during the 1920’s and the 1930’s, they wanted to promote the Latin alphabet for the Chinese language. There was a multitude of success. When the communist took over China in 1949, the wide-ranging writing reform began. During this time, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet and the Chinese Phonetic alphabet was rejected. When it was rejected, the Latin alphabet was chosen to take their place. In 1956, the Committee on Language adopted the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, but then in 1958 they modified this aspect of the Chinese writing system.

When Pinyin was invented, it was not intended to replace the Chinese characters. It was invented more so to teach and popularize the Beijing dialect, and to educate pronunciation.  

Now Pinyin is used to teach people Chinese as a second language. Teaching people Chinese in Pinyin is far easier for people to learn verses Chinese characters. Even though people are learning Chinese two different ways, it is possible to translate Pinyin to characters. When people are converting Pinyin to characters, everybody will be able read what the person is writing. Then nobody will be “out of the loop.” They all will know what is going on.

To give a couple examples of Pinyin to characters

Hello

ùÍ

NÐhÎo

How are you?

1Ũ

WÒ àiqíng nín