Pinyin (Simplified / Traditional Chinese:拼音), or more formally Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音 / 漢語拼音), is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu (汉语 / 漢語) means the Chinese language, and pinyin (拼音) means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound". The system is now used in mainland China (and Hong Kong, Macau, and parts of Taiwan) to teach Mandarin Chinese to schoolchildren and internationa...
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Pinyin (Simplified / Traditional Chinese:拼音), or more formally Hanyu Pinyin (汉语拼音 / 漢語拼音), is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu (汉语 / 漢語) means the Chinese language, and pinyin (拼音) means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound". The system is now used in mainland China (and Hong Kong, Macau, and parts of Taiwan) to teach Mandarin Chinese to schoolchildren and internationally to teach Mandarin as a second language. It is also often used to spell Chinese names in foreign publications and can be used to enter Chinese characters (hanzi) on computers and cellphones.
The romanization system was developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982, and since then it has been adopted by many other organizations. This romanization...
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