Sichuanese Pinyin

Sichuanese Pinyin (Si⁴cuan¹hua⁴ Pin¹yin¹; simplified Chinese: 四川话拼音; traditional Chinese: 四川話拼音; pinyin: Sìchuānhuà pīnyīn), is a romanization system specifically designed for the Chengdu dialect of Sichuanese. It is mostly used in selected Sichuanese dictionaries, such as the Sichuan Dialect Dictionary,^[1] Sichuan Dialect's Vocabulary Explanation,^[2] and the Chengdu Dialect Dictionary.^[3] Sichuanese Pinyin is based on Hanyu Pinyin, the only Chinese romanization system officially instructed within the People's Republic of China, for convenience amongst users. However, Hanyu Pinyin is unable to match the phonology of Sichuanese with complete precision, especially in the case for the Minjiang dialect, as there are many differences between Sichuanese and Standard Chinese in phonology.

Scheme

Initials

Below each IPA symbol in the table below are the letters which correspond to their respective sounds in Sichuanese Pinyin, and a sample Chinese character with that initial:^{[citation needed]}

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Coronal	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Velar	Semivowel
Plosive	plain	[p] b 贝			[t] d 得		[k] g 古
Plosive	aspirated	[pʰ] p 配			[tʰ] t 套		[kʰ] k 可
Affricate	plain			[ts] z 早		[tɕ] j 价		[w] w ㄨ
Affricate	aspirated			[tsʰ] c 草		[tɕʰ] q 巧		[j] y ㄧ
Nasal		[m] m 没		[n] n 路		[nʲ] ȵ 你	[ŋ] ng/ŋ 我
Fricative	Voiceless		[f] f 发	[s] s 速		[ɕ] x 小	[x] h 好
Fricative	voiced		[v] v 五	[z] r/th 如
Zero		∅ 儿

Finals

Below each IPA symbol in the table below are the letters which correspond to their respective sounds in Sichuanese Pinyin, and a sample Chinese character with that syllable rime:^{[citation needed]}

	-Ø					-i or -u				nasal finals
Ø-	[z] i 日	[ɚ] er 二	[a] a 大	[o] o 我	[ɛ] e 黑	[ai] ai 街	[ei] ei 批	[au] ao 包	[əu] ou 走	[an] an 烦^[4]	[ən] en 樱	[aŋ] ang/aŋ 帮	[oŋ] ong/oŋ 亩
i-	[i] i 一		[ia] ia 牙		[iɛ] ie 叶	[iai] iai 介		[iau] iao 标	[iəu] iu 九	[ian] ian 变^[4]	[in] in 兵	[iaŋ] iang/iaŋ 量
u-	[u] u 五		[ua] ua 瓜		[uɛ] ue 国	[uai] uai 乖	[uei] ui 类			[uan] uan 段^[4]	[uən] un 春	[uaŋ] uang/uaŋ 光
y-	[y] ü 鱼			[yo] üo 药	[ye] üe 绝					[yan] üan 鲜^[4]	[yn] ün 泳		[yoŋ] iong/ioŋ 蓉

Tones

The Sichuanese Pinyin system uses superscript numbers to mark the four tones of Chengdu dialect. The number is placed on the top right corner of every syllable, where "1" stands for the first tone, "2" stands for the second tone, and so forth.

Rules

The rules of Sichuanese Pinyin are based on those of Hanyu Pinyin, with some slight modifications:

When the final -ong has a zero-initial, it is written ong (as opposed to Hanyu Pinyin weng).
As in Hanyu Pinyin, ü is written u when paired with the series of alveolo-palatal initials (j-, q- and x-); however, the rule is not extended to the additional member ȵ- (e.g. 女 ȵü³).

Sample text

The following sample text is a selection of Sichuanese idioms in Sichuanese Pinyin, Scuanxua Latinxua Sin Wenz (in Sichuanese) and Hanyu Pinyin (in Standard Mandarin pronunciation), for comparative purposes:

Chinese characters	Sichuanese Pinyin	Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz	Hanyu Pinyin
矮子过河，安（淹）了心。	Ngai³zi³ go⁴ ho², ngan¹ no² xin¹.	Ngaaiz go ho, ngan lo xin.	Ǎizi guò hé, yān le xīn.
足正不怕鞋歪。	Juo² zen⁴ bu²pa⁴ hai² wai¹.	Giuo zen bupa xai uai.	Zú zhèng búpà xié wāi.
吃苞谷粑打哈欠，开黄腔。	Ci² bao¹gu²ba¹ da³ ho¹hai¹, kai¹ huang²qiang¹.	C baoguba daa xoxai, kai xuongkiang.	Chī bāogǔbā dǎ hāqiàn, kāi huángqiāng.
猫抓糍粑，脱不到爪爪。	Mer¹ zua¹ ci²ba¹, to² bu²dao³ zao³zao³.	Mer zua cba, to budao zaozao.	Māo zhuā cíbā, tuō bùdào zhuǎzhuǎ.

References

^ (in Chinese) 王文虎、张一舟、周家筠 (1987). 《四川方言词典》. 四川人民出版社. ISBN 7-220-00370-6.
^ (in Chinese) 缪树晟 (1989). 《四川方言词语汇释》. 重庆出版社. ISBN 7-5366-0638-9.
^ (in Chinese) 罗韵希、韋一心、冷玉龍 (1987). 《成都话方言词典》. 四川省社会科学院出版社. ISBN 7-80527-594-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d There is a trend within the Chengdu dialect where [æ] will replace [an].

[《四川方言词典》-1] (in Chinese) 王文虎、张一舟、周家筠 (1987). 《四川方言词典》. 四川人民出版社. ISBN 7-220-00370-6.

[《四川方言词语汇释》-2] (in Chinese) 缪树晟 (1989). 《四川方言词语汇释》. 重庆出版社. ISBN 7-5366-0638-9.

[《成都话方言词典》-3] (in Chinese) 罗韵希、韋一心、冷玉龍 (1987). 《成都话方言词典》. 四川省社会科学院出版社. ISBN 7-80527-594-7.

[an-4] There is a trend within the Chengdu dialect where [æ] will replace [an].

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