User:NorthTension/latinxua

Description

Sin Wenz was designed so that every dialect had its own form of the alphabet. The letters below represent only one of the thirteen possible schemes present, the below form being Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz: that for Northern Mandarin.

Much of Sin Wenz is similar to Pinyin in its orthography. However, palatal affricates are written with the same letters as velar stops, so Beijing is written as Beiging in Sin Wenz. Other differences include the usage of x for both the sounds [x] and [ɕ], so the characters 畫 (pinyin: huà) and 下 (pinyin: xià) are written as xua and xia.

It is based upon the pronunciation outlined by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, rather than upon the Beijing pronunciation (as with Hanyu Pinyin), hence the distinction between sounds such as gi and zi, or spellings such as yo and ung instead of ye or eng.

Initials

An issue of "Dazhung Bao" (大眾报, Dazhong Bao), a newspaper published in Latinxua in 1932

		Bilabial		Labiodental	Alveolar		Retroflex		Alveolo-palatal	Velar
		Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiceless
Nasal			m [m] ㄇ m			n [n] ㄋ n
Plosive	Unaspirated	b [p] ㄅ b			d [t] ㄉ d					g [k] ㄍ g
	Aspirated	p [pʰ] ㄆ p			t [tʰ] ㄊ t					k [kʰ] ㄎ k
Affricate	Unaspirated				z [ʦ] ㄗ z		zh [ʈʂ] ㄓ zh		gi [ʨ] ㄐ j
	Aspirated				c [ʦʰ] ㄘ c		ch [ʈʂʰ] ㄔ ch		ki [ʨʰ] ㄑ q
Fricative				f [f] ㄈ f	s [s] ㄙ s		sh [ʂ] ㄕ sh	rh [ʐ] ㄖ r	xi [ɕ] ㄒ x	x [x] ㄏ h
Liquid						l [l] ㄌ l

Sin Wenz exhibits some interchangeability symbol for alveolo-palatal (j, q, x in pinyin) between g, k, x with z, c, s. For example, 新 (pinyin: xīn; lit. 'new') can be written as xin or sin in Sin Wenz. This is because Sin Wenz generally distinguishes sequences [tsj-][tsʰj-][sj-] from [tɕ-][tɕʰ-][ɕ-], which distinction is lost in Standard Mandarin and not made by Pinyin.

Finals

Nucleus		a					ə						∅
Coda		∅	i	u	n	ŋ	∅	i	u	n	ŋ	ɻ
Medial	∅	a [a] ㄚ a	ai [ai̯] ㄞ ai	ao [au̯] ㄠ ao	an [an] ㄢ an	ang/ong [aŋ] ㄤ ang	o/e1 [ɤ] ㄜ e	ei [ei̯] ㄟ ei	ou [ou̯] ㄡ ou	en [ən] ㄣ en	eng [əŋ] ㄥ eng	r [aɚ̯] ㄦ er	-3 [ɨ] (-i)
	i	ia [ja] ㄧㄚ ia		an [jɛn] ㄧㄢ ian	iang [jaŋ] ㄧㄤ iang	ie [je] ㄧㄝ ie	iou, iu [jou̯] ㄧㄡ iu	in [in] ㄧㄣ in	ing [iŋ] ㄧㄥ ing		i [i] ㄧ i
	u	ua [wa] ㄨㄚ ua	uai [wai̯] ㄨㄞ uai		uan [wan] ㄨㄢ uan	uang [waŋ] ㄨㄤ uang	uo [wo] ㄨㄛ uo	ui2 [wei̯] ㄨㄟ ui		un2 [wən] ㄨㄣ un	ung2 [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ ong		u [u] ㄨ u
	y				yan [ɥɛn] ㄩㄢ üan		ye/yo1 [ɥe] (üe)			yn [yn] ㄩㄣ ün}} (ün)	yng [jʊŋ] ㄩㄥ iong		y [y] ㄩ ü

¹e and ye is written as o and yo after initials g, k and x. For example: gogo (Chinese: 哥哥; pinyin: gēge; lit. 'elder brother'), xyosheng (Chinese: 学生; pinyin: xuésheng; lit. 'student')
²Standalone ui, un and ung are written as wei, wen and weng respectively.
³What is written as i (IPA [ɨ]) after zh, ch, sh, r, z, c and s in pinyin is not written in Sin Wenz.

As in pinyin, spacing in Sin Wenz is based on whole words, not single syllables. Except for u, others syllables starting with u is always written with a w replacing the u. The syllable u is only preceded by a w when it occurs in the middle of a word. For syllables starting with i, the i is replaced by a j (in case of the syllables i, in and ing, preceded by a j) only in the middle of a word. Syllables starting with y is preceded by a j only when preceded by a consonant in the middle of a word. These are unlike pinyin, which always uses w and y regardless of the positions of the syllables. As in pinyin, the apostrophe (') is used before a, o, and e to separate syllables in a word where ambiguity could arise.

Irregular spellings

Because Sin Wenz is written without indicating tones, ambiguity could arise with certain words with the same sound but different tones. In order to circumvent this problem, Sin Wenz defined a list of exceptions: "characters with fixed spellings" (Chinese: 定型字). For example, 买 (pinyin: mǎi; lit. 'buy') and 卖 (pinyin: mài; lit. 'sell') are of the same sound but different tones. The former is written as maai and the latter is written as mai in Sin Wenz. The word 有 (pinyin: yǒu; lit. 'to have') is also special; it is written as iou, as opposed to iu, which may be 又 (pinyin: yòu; lit. 'once more').

Telegrams sent by workers for the railways in the northeast of China switched from Zhuyin to Sin Wenz in 1950, then from Sin Wenz to Hanyu Pinyin in 1958; the 5 irregular spellings of 买 maai, 试 shii, 板 baan, 不 bu, and 李 lii, in use during the Hanyu Pinyin period, were inherited from Sin Wenz.

In addition, Sin Wenz also calls for the use of the postal romanization when writing place names in China, as well as preservation of foreign spellings (hence Latinxua rather than *Ladingxua).