Chinese alphabet

Written Chinese is not an alphabetic script.^[1] Rather, it is a logographic script based on Chinese characters, though there also exist alphabetic systems to transcribe the language.

Alphabetic transcription of Chinese

For the use of the Latin alphabet to transcribe Chinese, see:

• Romanization of Chinese
  • Romanization of Chinese in Taiwan
• Hanyu Pinyin (a.k.a. Pinyin) - the modern international standard for transcription of Standard Chinese
• Wade-Giles
• Yale Romanization

For the use of the Cyrillic alphabet to transcribe Chinese, see:

• Cyrillization of Chinese

For the use of the Arabic alphabet to transcribe Chinese, see:

• Xiao'erjing

For another phonetic script in widespread use in Taiwan (often called an alphabet but actually a semi-syllabary) see:

• Zhuyin fuhao (a.k.a. bopomofo or Zhuyin)

See also

• Chinese character classification
• Fanqie
• Transliteration into Chinese characters

References

1. ^ "Does Chinese have an alphabet?". Zhongwen.com - Chinese characters FAQ. http://www.zhongwen.com/x/faq14.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-31.