Hanyu Pinyin

1 6.3

A way to write Mandarin Chinese sounds using Latin letters

noun
/ˈhɑːnjuː ˈpɪnˌjɪn/

Specialized

: Hanyu Pinyin

Chinese language textbooks often use Hanyu Pinyin to help learners pronounce new words.

Examples

Beijing is written as 'Běijīng' in Hanyu Pinyin.
I learned to write in Hanyu Pinyin last year.
He found it easier to read Chinese names when they were written in Hanyu Pinyin.
Can you explain Hanyu Pinyin to me?
Chinese language textbooks often use Hanyu Pinyin to help learners pronounce new words.
Beijing is written as 'Běijīng' in Hanyu Pinyin.
He found it easier to read Chinese names when they were written in Hanyu Pinyin.

Synonyms

Pinyin

vsHanyu Pinyin

Specialized

1 6.5

A way to show how to pronounce Mandarin using Latin letters

is the same system but uses the full official proper name

Surface Forms

Hanyu Pinyin singular

Hanyu Pinyins plural

Morphology

Hanyu + Pinyin

The compound is directly compositional: 'Hanyu' refers to the Chinese language and 'Pinyin' refers to a system for transcribing Mandarin into Latin letters, so together they denote the romanization system for Chinese. Although a proper name, the meaning follows transparently from the constituents and a B1 learner who knows both parts would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The term Hanyu Pinyin comes from Chinese: Hanyu means 'Chinese language' and Pinyin means 'sound spelling'. It is a simple way to write Mandarin sounds with letters like those in English, so the name fits the system that shows how to say Chinese words.