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Foochow Romanized, a.k.a. Bàng-uâ-cê (BUC for short; Chinese characters: 平話字) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (Chinese characters: 福州話羅馬字), is a romanized orthography for the Fuzhou dialect adopted in the middle of 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized several decades later. Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of Church circles, and was taught in some Mission Schools in Fuzhou.1 But unlike its counterpart Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Southern Min Language, Foochow Romanized, even in its prime days, was by no means universally understood by Christians.2
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History of Foochow Romanized
After Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of First Opium War (from 1839 to 1842), many Western missionaries arrived in the city. Faced with widespread illiteracy, they developed romanization schemes for Fuzhou dialect.
The first attempt in romanizing Fuzhou dialect was made by the American Methodist M. C. White, who borrowed a system of orthography known as the System of Sir William Jones. In this system, 14 initials were designed exactly according to their voicing and aspiration. P, T, K and CH stand for [p], [t], [k] and [ts]; while the Greek spiritus lenis "᾿" were affixed to the above initials to represent their aspirated counterparts. Besides the default five vowels of Latin alphabet, four diacritic-marked letters È, Ë, Ò and Ü were also introduced, representing [ɛ], [ø], [ɔ] and [y], respectively. This system is described at length in White's linguistic work The Chinese Language Spoken at Fuh Chau.
Subsequent missionaries, including Robert S. Maclay from American Methodist Episcopal Mission, R. W. Stewart from the Church of England and Charles Hartwell from the American Board Mission, further modified White's System in several ways. The most significant change was made in the scheme of plosive consonants, by which the spiritus lenis "᾿" of the aspirated initials was totally removed and the letters B, D and G were introduced to represent [p] [t] and [k]. In the aspect of vowels, È, Ë, Ò and Ü were replaced by A̤, E̤, O̤ and Ṳ; and since the diacritical marks were all shifted to underneath the vowels, tonal marks were thus invented.
Scheme
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This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. |
The sample characters are taken from the phonetics book Qī Lín Bāyīn (《戚林八音》, Foochow Romanized: Chék Lìng Báik-ĭng), a renowned phonology book about the Fuzhou dialect written in the Qing Dynasty. The pronunciations are recorded in standard IPA symbols.
Initials
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Rimes
Rimes without codas
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Rimes with coda [-ʔ
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Rimes with codas [-ŋ] and [-k]
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Tones
| Name | Tonal value | BUC symbol | Example |
| Yīnpíng (陰平, BUC: Ĭng-bìng) | 55 | ˘ | 君 Gŭng |
| Shǎngshēng (上聲, BUC: Siōng-siăng) | 33 | - | 滾 Gūng |
| Yīnqù (陰去, BUC: Ĭng-ké̤ṳ) | 213 | ˊ | 貢 Góng |
| Yīnrù (陰入, BUC: Ĭng-ĭk) | 24 | ˊ | 谷 Gók |
| Yángpíng (陽平, BUC: Iòng-bìng) | 53 | ` | 群 Gùng |
| Yángqù (陽去, BUC: Iòng-ké̤ṳ) | 242 | ^ | 郡 Gông |
| Yángrù (陽入, BUC: Iòng-ĭk) | 5 | ˘ | 掘 Gŭk |
Note that Foochow Romanized uses the breve, not the caron (ˇ), to indicate Yīnpíng and Yángrù tones of Fuzhou dialect.
Sample text
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This section includes inline links to audio files. If you have trouble playing the files, see Wikipedia Media help. |
| Foochow Romanized | Chinese characters (traditional) | English Translation | Audio File |
|---|---|---|---|
| Báe̤k-hŭng gâe̤ng Nĭk-tàu | 北風共日頭 | The North Wind and the Sun | listen |
| Ô sŏ̤h huòi, Báe̤k-hŭng gâe̤ng Nĭk-tàu duŏh hī dó̤i căng, káng diê-nè̤ng buōng-sê̤ṳ duâi. | 有蜀回，北風共日頭著許塊爭，看底儂本事大。 | Once upon a time, the North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was stronger. | listen |
| Căng lì căng kó̤ mò̤ suŏ iàng. | 爭來爭去無輸贏。 | They disputed on and on without reaching a conclusion. | listen |
| Ciā sèng-hâiu, duô lā̤ ô sŏ̤h ciéh nè̤ng giàng lā̤, sĭng lā̤ sê̤ṳng duŏh sŏ̤h iông gâu-gâu gì duâi-ĭ. | 者辰候，墿嚟有蜀隻儂行嚟，身嚟頌著蜀件厚厚其大衣。 | Just at that moment, there was a man walking along the road, wearing a very heavy coat. | listen |
| Ĭ lâng ciéh gōng hō̤, diê-nè̤ng ô buōng-sê̤ṳ sĕng gáe̤ cī ciéh nè̤ng gâe̤ng duâi-ĭ táung lâi gó̤, cêu sáung diê-nè̤ng buōng-sê̤ṳ duâi. | 伊兩隻講好，底儂有本事先告玆隻儂共大衣褪唻去，就算底儂本事大。 | The two agreed that who first make this man take his coat off should be considered stronger. | listen |
| Dăng nĭ, Báe̤k-hŭng cêu sāi lĭk sī-miâng dék chuŏi, bók-guó ĭ muōng chuŏi dék lê-hâi, cī ciéh lā̤ giàng-duô gì nè̤ng cêu ciŏng hī iông duâi-ĭ muōng bău muōng gīng gó̤. | 仱呢，北風就使力死命的吹，不過伊罔吹的利害，玆隻嚟行墿其儂就將許件大衣罔包罔緊去。 | Then, the North Wind exerted all his strength to blow, but the harder he blew, the tighter that walking man wrapped his coat. | listen |
| Gáu muōi-hâiu, Báe̤k-hŭng mò̤ bâing-huák, cêu cūng-kuāng láe̤k gó̤. | 遘尾後，北風無辦法，就總款〇去。 | At last, the North Wind was at his wits' end, so he gave up. | listen |
| Guó nék-òng, Nĭk-tàu chók lì. | 過仂暅，日頭出來。 | After a while, the Sun came out. | listen |
| Iĕk-pĕ̤-pĕ̤ sāi sāi lĭk sŏ̤h puŏh, hī ciéh lā̤ giàng-duô gì nè̤ng ché̤ṳk-káik cêu ciŏng hī iông duâi-ĭ táung lŏ̤h lì. | 熱〇〇使使力蜀曝，許隻嚟行墿其儂〇刻就將大衣褪落來。 | He shined out forcibly with a sweltering heat, and immediately that walking man took off his coat. | listen |
| Cī-hâ Báe̤k-hŭng cêu nâ diông sìng-nêng, lâng gá nè̤ng diē-sié, gó sê Nĭk-tàu gì buōng-sê̤ṳ duâi. | 玆下北風就僅剩承認，兩個儂底勢，故是日頭其本事大。 | And so the North Wind had no choice but to confess that the Sun was stronger of the two. | listen |
References
See also
External links
- Everything You Want To Know About Foochow Romanized (in Foochowese)
- GÔ IÓK CṲ̆: The Old Testament, in Foochow Romanized.
- SĬNG IÓK CṲ̆: The New Testament, in Foochow Romanized.
- An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect (download linkPDF (8.48 MB)), by T. B. Adam, 1905
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 26 October 2008, at 13:09.
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