<ul>
<li><p>The official way to write Chinese uses Chinese characters, which is <strong>not</strong> an alphabetical system.</p></li>
<li><p>There have been various phonetic systems developed to either write or transcribe Chinese. Some of these systems are alphabets. To emphasise, these phonetic systems are <strong>not</strong> official ways of writing Chinese.</p></li>
<li><p>The official way of writing, using characters, does <strong>not</strong> use word spacing. When using a phonetic script, word spacing is commonly adopted; see <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/31746/spacing-guidelines-for-modern-chinese-writing/">Spacing Guidelines for Modern Chinese Writing</a>.</p></li>
</ul>

<h1>Example phonetic systems:</h1>

<p><strong>Writing Chinese</strong></p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pe%CC%8Dh-%C5%8De-j%C4%AB" rel="noreferrer">Pe̍h-ōe-jī</a>, a Roman alphabet for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Min" rel="noreferrer">Minnan</a>;</li>
<li>Dungan <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script" rel="noreferrer">Cyrillic</a>, a Cyrillic alphabet for a the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungan_language" rel="noreferrer">Dungan language</a>, a dialect of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Plains_Mandarin" rel="noreferrer">Central Plains Mandarin</a>;</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiao%27erjing#Modern_usage" rel="noreferrer">Xiao'erjing</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_alphabet" rel="noreferrer">Perso-Arabic</a>-based <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abugida" rel="noreferrer">abugida</a> for Mandarin.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Transcribing Chinese</strong></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Hanyu Pinyin, a Roman alphabet for Mandarin;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_romanization_of_Cantonese" rel="noreferrer">Yale Romanisation</a> for Cantonese;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo" rel="noreferrer">Bopomofo</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-syllabary" rel="noreferrer">semi-syllabary</a> for Mandarin.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-04T23:33:17.227Z
2018-12-04T23:33:17.227Z
dROOOze
<p>Just wanted to confirm, is there an alphabetic system in the Chinese language? Like in the Korean language, the Hangul is in alphabetic system.</p>

<p>Also does the official Chinese Language adopts word spacing? Or is it more like, certain countries that has Chinese as an official Language does adopt word spacing and others don't?</p>

<characters><writing>
Is there an alphabetic system in the Chinese language?
# Is there an alphabetic system in the Chinese language?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-04)

Just wanted to confirm, is there an alphabetic system in the Chinese language? Like in the Korean language, the Hangul is in alphabetic system.

Also does the official Chinese Language adopts word spacing? Or is it more like, certain countries that has Chinese as an official Language does adopt word spacing and others don't?

**Tags:** characters, writing


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-12-04. Score: 12

* The official way to write Chinese uses Chinese characters, which is **not** an alphabetical system.
* There have been various phonetic systems developed to either write or transcribe Chinese. Some of these systems are alphabets. To emphasise, these phonetic systems are **not** official ways of writing Chinese.
* The official way of writing, using characters, does **not** use word spacing. When using a phonetic script, word spacing is commonly adopted; see [Spacing Guidelines for Modern Chinese Writing](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/31746/spacing-guidelines-for-modern-chinese-writing/).

# Example phonetic systems:

**Writing Chinese**

* [Pe̍h-ōe-jī](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pe%CC%8Dh-%C5%8De-j%C4%AB), a Roman alphabet for [Minnan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Min);
* Dungan [Cyrillic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script), a Cyrillic alphabet for a the [Dungan language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungan_language), a dialect of [Central Plains Mandarin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Plains_Mandarin);
* [Xiao'erjing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiao%27erjing#Modern_usage), a [Perso-Arabic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_alphabet)-based [abugida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abugida) for Mandarin.

**Transcribing Chinese**

* Hanyu Pinyin, a Roman alphabet for Mandarin;
* [Yale Romanisation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_romanization_of_Cantonese) for Cantonese;
* [Bopomofo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo), a [semi-syllabary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-syllabary) for Mandarin.


---

