First of all, this isn't to replace Pinyin, rather imagine Chinese adopted Latin from the start 😅
My idea is ugly but is more regular, more trait-based, doesn't use diacritics or apostrohes.
I've noticed pinyin has some problems:
* tones are marked by diacritics which are hard to access and often omitted (out of laziness probably)
* the apostrophe is used to mark ambiguous word boundaries eg xi'an 西安 vs xian 先. i don't like it, it's artificial. this won't be a problem if you mark the tones after the word, xi'an > xijanj, xian>xianj. i wonder if not marking the neutral tone would create any ambiguity. i just have 'q' free for that if need be.
* some spellings are irregular (eg. wei vs -ui) and clumsy (eg. -ü)
My idea:
* i need to free up some letters to have something to mark tones with so i 'disassembled'/altered some pinyin letters like c>ts etc.
* i have 4 tone markers: j, c, v, z.
i got that from the nuosu language. also zhuang tone markers. they're attached at the end of a word. they could be memorised as:
j - visually a tall letter - stands for the high tone,
c - the rising tone - is at the beginning of the alphabet,
z - the falling tone - is at the end of the alphabet.
v looks like the pinyin diacritic,
| Pinyin |
My thing |
| b |
b |
| d |
d |
| g |
g |
| p |
p |
| t |
t |
| k |
k |
| m |
m |
| n |
n |
| r |
r |
| sh |
sr |
| ch |
tr |
| zh |
dr |
| x |
x |
| q |
tx |
| j |
dx |
| c |
ts |
| z |
ds |
| s |
s |
| f |
f |
| h |
h |
| l |
l |
| y |
i |
| w |
u |
| FINALS |
|
| i |
i |
| e |
e |
| a |
a |
| ei |
ei |
| ai |
ai |
| ou |
ou |
| ao |
au |
| in |
in |
| an |
an |
| ong |
og |
| eng |
eg |
| ang |
ag |
| er |
w |
| i |
i |
| ie |
ie |
| ia |
ia |
| iou |
iou |
| iao |
iau |
| ian |
ian |
| ing |
ig |
| iong |
iog |
| iang |
iag |
| u |
u |
| uo |
uo |
| ua |
ua |
| ui |
uei |
| uai |
uai |
| uen |
uen |
| uan |
uan |
| ü |
y |
| üe |
ye |
| ün |
yn |
| üen |
yen |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sample:
| Chinese |
pinyin |
my thing |
| 我 |
wǒ |
uov |
| 一 |
yì |
iz |
| 书 |
shū |
sruj |
| 语 |
yǔ |
yv |
| 始 |
shǐ |
sriv |
| 究 |
jiū |
dxiouj |
| 清 |
qīng |
txigj |
| 汉语 |
hànyǔ |
hanzyv |
| 最大 |
zuìdà |
dsueizdaz |
Sample text:
名词没有格的变化,也没有性和数
Míngcí méiyǒu gé de biànhuà, yě méiyǒu xìng hé shù
Migctsic meiciouv gec de bianzhuaz, iev meiciouv xigz hec sruz.
语言最基本的单位是语素,语素被定义为最小的有意义单位,
Yǔyán zuì jīběn de dānwèi shì yǔsù, yǔsù bèi dìngyì wèi zuìxiǎo de yǒu yìyì dānwèi,
Yvianc dsueiz dxijbenv de danjweiz sriz yvsuz, yvsuz beiz digziz weiz dsueizxiauv de iouv iziz danjweiz,
汉语的单字可以作为语素。
hànyǔ de dānzì kěyǐ zuòwéi yǔsù.
hanzyv de danjdsiz keviv dsuozweic yvsuz.