Place, Personal and Medicine Names in PinYin

by Zhang JuLi

PinYin is everywhere in China: bus stop signs, street and shop names, merchandise labels, personal names, etc. All these PinYin spellings are for short terms, and appear below their corresponding Chinese characters (HanZi). They carry no tone marks. Compared with the HanZi above them, the PinYin spellings are not at all efficient for reading. Chinese is a tonal language with four different tones. The 5th one, the neutral tone, is not an independent one as the other four are. In the tonal language, a syllable consists of two types of significant linguistic element: phonemes and a tone. The phonemes are in the spelling process, but the tone is a non-spelling element, and merely a prosodic feature covering the whole syllable. In reading the alphabetic writing for a tonal language, the reader spells only the phonemes, but not the tones. Therefore, the reader has to identify the syllable boundary at both ends, to pronounce it with a particular tone. In scripts for non-tonal languages, words are separated by space for the purpose of easy reading. Syllable boundaries in the tonal language warrant the same visual un-ambiguity.

Syllable boundaries in the HanZi writing are unequivocally explicit. Each HanZi represents a syllable, and is contained in a square frame. The HanZi boundary is thus also the syllable boundary. On the other hand, syllable demarcation has not been taken into account at all for the PinYin system. The reader has to make greater effort in locating the boundary between neighboring syllables. In order to make the reading of alphabetic writing emulate that of the HanZi writing in terms of syllable demarcation, a simple modification is proposed for the PinYin in this essay, that is, when a term consists of two or more syllables, the first letter of each syllable is written in uppercase, and other letters in lowercase. Examples are presented in the following tables.

Table I: Place Names Current Spelling Modified Spelling Beijing BeiJing Guangzhou GuangZhou Hailaer HaiLaEr Heilongjiang HeiLongJiang Huhehaote HuHeHaoTe Neimenggu NeiMengGu Qiqihaer QiQiHaEr Shanghai ShangHai Shanhaiguan ShanHaiGuan Tianjin TianJin Wulumuqi WuLuMuQi Jiamusi JiaMuSi Lianyungang LianYunGang Xi'an XiAn

Table II: Personal Names Current Spelling Modified Spelling Bai Juyi Bai JuYi Caidanzhuoma CaiDanZhuoMa Duanmu Yuqin DuanMu YuQin Ouyang Meihua OuYang MeiHua Qinshihuang QinShiHuang Hanwudi HanWuDi Huashengdun HuaShengDun Jia Baoyu Jia BaoYu Liu Shaoqi Liu ShaoQi Mao Zedong Mao ZeDong Pabala Gelielangjie PaBaLa GeLieLangJie Songzanganbu SongZanGanBu Wuyunqiqige WuYunQiQiGe Zhou Enlai Zhou EnLai

Besides demarcating syllables, the capital letters also indicate the evenly stressed syllabic format. For instance, it is 'Bei 'Jing, but not 'Bei jing. In BeiJing and TianJin, the PinYin on the bus-stop signs and street names, all in capitals, are devastatingly counter-efficient in presenting syllable boundaries, therefore the whole term. Many Chinese people also have hard time reading PinYin consisting of all capital letters. When the PinYin are modified in the way as discussed in this essay, syllable boundaries would stand out. The spelling process thus becomes a self-advancing one. Comparisons are listed in Table III:

Table III: Place and Bus-stop Names of BeiJing and TianJin

HanZi	Current Spelling	Modified Spelling
天安门	TIANANMEN	TianAnMen
东交民巷	DONGJIAOMINXIANG	DongJiaoMinXiang
紫竹院南门	ZIZHUYUANNANMEN	ZiZhuYuanNanMen
团结湖北五条	TUANJIEHU BEIWUTIAO	TuanJieHu BeiWuTiao
东坝建材城	DONGBAJIANCAICHENG	DongBaJianCaiCheng
朝阳公园路	CHAOYANGGONGYUAN LU	ChaoYangGongYuan Lu
朝阳公园桥东	CHAOYANGGONGYUANQIAO DONG	ChaoYangGongYuanQiao Dong
石佛营路	SHIFOYINGLU	ShiFoYingLu
石佛营西里东站	SHIFOYING XILIDONGZHAN	ShiFoYing XiLiDongZhan
石佛营东里 128号院	SHIFOYING DONGLI YIBAIERSHIBAHAOYUAN	ShiFoYing DongLi YiBaiErShiBaHaoYuan
中山门桥	ZHONSHANMEN QIAO	ZhongShanMen Qiao
大直沽中路	DAZHIGU ZHONGLU	DaZhiGu ZhongLu
朝阳门外大街	CHAOYANGMENWAIDAJIE	ChaoYangMenWaiDaJie
马各庄坤江市场	MAGEZHUANG KUNJIANGSHICHANG	MaGeZhuang KunJiangShiChang
东皇城根北口	DONGHUANGCHENGGEBEIKOU	DongHuangChengGenBeiKou
岳各庄红星美凯龙	YUEGEZHUANGHONGXINGMEIKAILONG	YueGeZhuangHongXingMeiKaiLong
岳各庄红星美凯龙	YUEGEZHUANGHONGXINGMEIKAILONG	YueGeZhuangHongXingMeiKaiLong
管庄惠河建材市场	GUANZHUANGHUIHEJIANCAISHICHANG	GuanZhuangHuiHeJianCaiShiChang

In China, labels on many traditional medicines are also in both HanZi and PinYin. The HanZi are usually larger in size and located above PinYin. And the PinYin is defective for reading, too. The method discussed in this essay, which makes syllabic boundaries more outstanding, will facilitate reading of it. Examples are listed in the following table:

Table IV: Labels of Chinese Medicine

HanZi	Current Spelling	Modified Spelling
藿香正气软胶囊	Huoxiang Zhengqi Ruanjiaonang	HuoXiang ZhengQi RuanJiaoNang
心神宁片	Xinshenning Pian	XinShenNing Pian
蛇胆川贝液	SHEDANCHUANBEI YE	SheDanChuanBei Ye
清脑复神液	QINGNAO FUSHENYE	QingNao FuShenYe
复方鲜竹沥液	Fufang Xianzhuli ye	FuFang XianZhuLi Ye
秋梨润肺膏	Qiuli Runfei Gao	QiuLi RunFei Gao
抗感灵片	KANGGANLINGPIAN	KangGanLingPian
六味地黄丸	LIUWEI DIHUANGWAN	LiuWei DiHuangWan
养阴清肺丸	Yangyin Qingfei Wan	YangYin QingFei Wan

This way of writing PinYin is not limited to place, personal and medicine names. All types of term can be written in it, such as DianBingXiang (电冰箱), LanWeiYan (阑尾炎), XiShouJian (洗手间), GongJiaoChe(公交车), DianYingYuan(电影院), ZhaJiangMian(炸酱面), XiHongShi(西红柿), HouJiLou(候机楼) , etc. , and even longer phrases, such as BeiHai GongYuan(北海公园), GuangZhouShi QiCheZhan (广州市汽车站), ChangAn DaXiYuan (长安大戏院), etc.

Because of it represents the Chinese language more properly, it is expected that PinYin will be used more widely, and attract more people to read it. This type of writing is used only for PinYin spellings that do not carry tone marks. When tone is marked, the tone mark is placed at the right-hand upper corner of syllable to demarcate syllables in the meantime. Therefore, denoting syllable boundary with capital letter will not be necessary.

Syllable demarcation receives more attention in some other alphabetic designs for Chinese. Examples in this regard are: Sun Yat-sen, Mao Tse-Tung, Chen Ning Yang, Chiang Kai-shek, Chou En-lai, Chen Shui-bian, Lee Teng-hui, and so forth. In a popular alphabetic system in Taiwan, a hyphen is inserted between syllables to demarcate syllables. The importance of clear-cut syllable boundaries in alphabetic writing for Chinese is not acknowledged at all in the HanYu PinYin Scheme, such as the spelling rules [1]. Those rules, joining the tonal syllables as non-tonal ones, represent an extreme effort to europeanize Chinese writing system. The superficial and awkward tone marks further distract the reader's attention from identifying syllable boundaries.

A reason that marking syllable boundary with capital letter is a better option than inserting hyphen or space between syllables is that native speakers of Chinese are used to the writing of HanZi. With the HanZi, it is not necessary to insert hyphen or space between characters. The syllabic HanZi line up one after another tightly. When placing space or hyphen between syllables in an alphabetic writing, the text line would run longer than that of HanZi.

This way of writing PinYin may have already been adopted by some people. However, its usage is not popular, but occasional and fragmentary. Purpose of this essay is to support and promote the idea of explicitly demarcating syllables in the alphabetic writing for Chinese. It is believed this issue deserves earnest consideration of Chinese people in the language planning.

Finally, the format discussed in this essay is not of an independent script, but a sound-indicating system complementary to the HanZi. Tones are not marked. It is for a non-tonal language by itself. But it does contain a correct concept, that is, syllable boundaries in the alphabetic writing for Chinese must be as automatically unequivocal as those in the HanZi writing. It helps to promote the PinYin, and provides an energetic transition to a genuine alphabetic writing for the Chinese language.