Sichuanese Pinyin

Sichuanese Pinyin (Si⁴cuan¹hua⁴ Pin¹yin¹; simplified Chinese: 四川话拼音; traditional Chinese: 四川話拼音; pinyin: Sìchuānhuà pīnyīn), is a romanization system specifically designed for the Chengdu dialect of Sichuanese. It is mostly used in selected Sichuanese dictionaries, such as the Sichuan Dialect Dictionary, Sichuan Dialect's Vocabulary Explanation, and the Chengdu Dialect Dictionary. Sichuanese Pinyin is based on Hanyu Pinyin, the only Chinese romanization system officially instructed within the People's Republic of China, for convenience amongst users. However, Hanyu Pinyin is unable to match the phonology of Sichuanese with complete precision, especially in the case for the Minjiang dialect, as there are many differences between Sichuanese and Standard Chinese in phonology.

Scheme

Initials

Below each IPA symbol in the table below are the letters which correspond to their respective sounds in Sichuanese Pinyin, and a sample Chinese character with that initial:

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Coronal	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Velar	Semivowel
Plosive	plain	[p] b 贝			[t] d 得		[k] g 古
	aspirated	[pʰ] p 配			[tʰ] t 套		[kʰ] k 可
Affricate	plain			[ts] z 早		[tɕ] j 价		[w] w ㄨ
	aspirated			[tsʰ] c 草		[tɕʰ] q 巧		[j] y ㄧ
Nasal		[m] m 没		[n] n 路		[nʲ] ȵ 你	[ŋ] ng/ŋ 我
Fricative	Voiceless		[f] f 发	[s] s 速		[ɕ] x 小	[x] h 好
	voiced		[v] v 五	[z] r/th 如
Zero		∅ 儿

Finals

Below each IPA symbol in the table below are the letters which correspond to their respective sounds in Sichuanese Pinyin, and a sample Chinese character with that syllable rime:

	-Ø					-i or -u				nasal finals
Ø-	[z] i 日	[ɚ] er 二	[a] a 大	[o] o 我	[ɛ] e 黑	[ai] ai 街	[ei] ei 批	[au] ao 包	[əu] ou 走	[an] an 烦	[ən] en 樱	[aŋ] ang/aŋ 帮	[oŋ] ong/oŋ 亩
i-	[i] i 一		[ia] ia 牙		[iɛ] ie 叶	[iai] iai 介		[iau] iao 标	[iəu] iu 九	[ian] ian 变	[in] in 兵	[iaŋ] iang/iaŋ 量
u-	[u] u 五		[ua] ua 瓜		[uɛ] ue 国	[uai] uai 乖	[uei] ui 类			[uan] uan 段	[uən] un 春	[uaŋ] uang/uaŋ 光
y-	[y] ü 鱼			[yo] üo 药	[ye] üe 绝					[yan] üan 鲜	[yn] ün 泳		[yoŋ] iong/ioŋ 蓉

Tones

The Sichuanese Pinyin system uses superscript numbers to mark the four tones of Chengdu dialect. The number is placed on the top right corner of every syllable, where "1" stands for the first tone, "2" stands for the second tone, and so forth.

Rules

The rules of Sichuanese Pinyin are based on those of Hanyu Pinyin, with some slight modifications:

• When the final -ong has a zero-initial, it is written ong (as opposed to Hanyu Pinyin weng).
• As in Hanyu Pinyin, ü is written u when paired with the series of alveolo-palatal initials (j-, q- and x-); however, the rule is not extended to the additional member ȵ- (e.g. 女 ȵü³).

Sample text

The following sample text is a selection of Sichuanese idioms in Sichuanese Pinyin, Scuanxua Latinxua Sin Wenz (in Sichuanese) and Hanyu Pinyin (in Standard Mandarin pronunciation), for comparative purposes:

Chinese characters	Sichuanese Pinyin	Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz	Hanyu Pinyin
矮子过河，安（淹）了心。	Ngai3zi3 go4 ho2, ngan1 no2 xin1.	Ngaaiz go ho, ngan lo xin.	Ǎizi guò hé, yān le xīn.
足正不怕鞋歪。	Juo2 zen4 bu2pa4 hai2 wai1.	Giuo zen bupa xai uai.	Zú zhèng búpà xié wāi.
吃苞谷粑打哈欠，开黄腔。	Ci2 bao1gu2ba1 da3 ho1hai1, kai1 huang2qiang1.	C baoguba daa xoxai, kai xuongkiang.	Chī bāogǔbā dǎ hāqiàn, kāi huángqiāng.
猫抓糍粑，脱不到爪爪。	Mer1 zua1 ci2ba1, to2 bu2dao3 zao3zao3.	Mer zua cba, to budao zaozao.	Māo zhuā cíbā, tuō bùdào zhuǎzhuǎ.