III. The phonetic systems representing Chinese speech sounds

There are several phonetic systems in Chinese, one is called the "phonetic symbols" which is non-Romanizaiton, and four in Romanization at least.

The Phonetic Symbols

Also called (bo-po-mo-fo) and are mostly used in Taiwan and by Chinese immigrants from Taiwan in North America and Europe. In 1913, "A Society for the Unification of Pronunciation was formed under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (with C3i Yu1np5i as Minister), later reorganized under the Ministry as the Committee on the Unification of the National Language" (Y.R. Chao, 1947:9). There were 79 people in the committee, with W{ J*ngh5ng as Chairman, and W1ng Zh3o as Vice Chairman. According to the proposal of M2 Y]z2o, Zh[ X%z}, Qi1n D3os[n, Zh8u Sh]r5n, X} Sh-ut1ng, et al (Yu Di-yong, "The World of Chinese" Dec. 1996, No.82:23), "A system of 39 National Phonetic Letters, or juh'in tzyhmuu was devised" (Y.R. Chao, 1947:9) on March 12. "Later changed to 40 then 37, and called juh'in fwuhaw 'phonetic symbols' (Y.R. Chao, 1947:9).

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