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Mandarin phonetic annotation for English

Language Log 2024-12-01

The PRC uses hànyǔ pīnyīn 汉语拼音 ("Sinitic spelling") for phonetic annotation, Taiwan uses zhùyīn fúhào 注音符號 ("phonetic symbols") for the same purpose.  Since we are well acquainted with pīnyīn, but not very familiar with zhùyīn fúhào, I will focus on the latter in this post:

Mark Swofford, "If you ever find yourself stuck on how to pronounce English", Pinyin News (5/7/23):

Here are some lyrics from a popular song, “Count on Me,” by Bruno Mars, with a Mandarin translation. The interesting part is that a Taiwanese third-grader has penciled in some phonetic guides for him or herself, using a combination of zhuyin fuhao (aka bopo mofo) (sometimes with tone marks!), English (as a gloss for English! and English pronunciation of some letters and numbers), and Chinese characters (albeit not always correctly written Chinese characters — not that I could do any better myself). Again, this is a Taiwanese third-grader and so is someone unlikely to know Hanyu Pinyin.

Here is Mark's transcription of the third-grader's pencilled marks in bopomofo, sinographs, and the roman alphabet:

“If you ever find yourself stuck”

Ifㄧˊㄈㄨˊyífúyoueverㄟㄈㄦei-f’erfind5fiveyourselfUㄦㄒㄧㄦㄈㄨU’er xi’erfustuckㄙ打可s-dake

“I’ll be the light to guide you.”

I’llㄞㄦài’erbeㄅㄧbitheㄌl[e]light賴特*laiteto兔tuguide蓋gaiyouyouyou

“Find out what we’re made of”

Findㄈㄞˋfàioutㄠㄊㄜao-t’ewhat花得huadewe’reㄨㄧㄚwi’amade妹的meideof歐福oufu

“When we are called to help our friends in need”

What when花huaweㄨㄧwiareㄚacalled扣kouto兔tuhelp嘿ㄜㄆhei’e-p[e]ourㄠㄦao’erfriendsㄈㄨㄌㄣˇ的ㄙfulen-de-sin硬yingneed[?][?]

I'm impressed, both by the third-grader's resourcefulness in annotating the sounds of Bruno Mars' lyrics with three different systems and by Mark's ability to transcribe his / her faint pencil marks.

Selected readings