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Hànyǔ pīnyīn 汉语拼音 ("Sinitic Spelling") is the official romanization of the PRC. It also comes with an official orthography which provides guidelines for word separation, punctuation, and how to deal with grammatical constructions. An English translation of the basic orthographical rules by John Rohsenow can be found at the back of the various editions of the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary from the University of Hawai'i Press.

Despite the fact that pinyin has often been invoked, both by opponents and proponents of Chinese script reform, especially in the firestorm of discussions that has taken place on Language Log and in other venues during the past week, most people probably do not realize to what extent pinyin has already become an essential part of life in China. To remedy that lack of understanding about what pinyin is actually used for every day, I will simply list a few of its applications in education, commerce, science, manufacturing, architecture, construction, and countless other fields. There is no particular significance to the order in which I list these applications.

1. to teach children and illiterate adults the basics of reading and writing

2. archeologists use pinyin to designate cemeteries, tombs, houses, waste pits, and other elements of the sites they work on

3. in museum labels and catalogs, pinyin is used to annotate the pronunciation of very obscure terms for bronze vessels, weapons, etc.

4. to annotate the sounds of unfamiliar characters in written materials of all sorts

5. in advertising and on packaging

6. braille

7. semaphore

8. road signs

9. teaching Mandarin to non-native speakers

10. designating components and parts of items to be assembled

11.in mathematics, physics, and chemistry

12. in dialectology, phonology, and other sub-fields of linguistics

13. inputting texts in computers, cellphones, and other electronic devices

14. to write down expressions for which there are no known characters or for special effect, particularly on the internet

15. book titles, publication data, and cataloging

16. indices of books

17. ordering of dictionary and encyclopedia entries

18. spelling the names of Chinese citizens on passports and other official and unofficial documents

19. for retrieving passports of citizens who have applied for exit permits

See "Passport pickup by pinyin" (3/02/12)

20. ordering names in lists of people

When I first started studying Chinese 50 years ago, some of these latter functions did not yet use alphabetical ordering. Instead they relied on radical plus residual stroke count, total stroke count, category, etc. Increasingly, however, and especially in recent years, such ordering functions are being taken over by pinyin. Naturally, pinyin's role as a device for transcription has only grown with time.

This is just to get the ball rolling. I'm sure that Language Log readers can think of many other ways in which pinyin is used.

Incidentally, all of these applications contribute to the growth of digraphia in China.

[Thanks to Neil Kubler]

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