Bopomofo

Bopomofo
"Encyclopedia" written in bopomofo
Script type	Semisyllabary with diacritics for tones
Creator	Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation Introduced by the Beiyang government of the Republic of China
Time period	Mainland China (1918–1958) Xiandai Hanyu Cidian (1960–2016; as a supplement to Hanyu Pinyin) Taiwan (1945–present)
Direction	Left-to-right, right-to-left script
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Bopomofo
Child systems	Cantonese bopomofo, Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols, Suzhou Phonetic Symbols, Hmu Phonetic Symbols, Matsu Fuchounese bopomofo [zh]
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Bopo (285), ​Bopomofo
Unicode
Unicode alias	Bopomofo
Unicode range	U+3100–U+312F (Bopomofo) U+31A0–U+31BF (Bopomofo Extended)
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Bopomofo, also called Zhuyin Fuhao^[1] (/dʒuːˌjɪn fuːˈhaʊ/ joo-YIN foo-HOW; 注音符號; Zhùyīn fúhào; 'phonetic symbols'), or simply Zhuyin,^[2] is a transliteration system for Standard Chinese and other Sinitic languages. It is the principal method of teaching Chinese Mandarin pronunciation in Taiwan. It consists of 37 characters and five tone marks, which together can transcribe all possible sounds in Mandarin Chinese.

Bopomofo was first introduced in China during the 1910s by the Beiyang government, where it was used alongside Wade–Giles, a romanization system which used a modified Latin alphabet. Today, Bopomofo is more common in Taiwan than on the mainland, and is used as the primary electronic input method for Taiwanese Mandarin, as well as in dictionaries and other non-official documents.