Computer Standards & Interfaces 20 Ž1998.

25–29

Recombinant Chinese Pinyin system for efficient processing of

information in Chinese
Harry Tong ) , Linda Jin
Argonne National Laboratory BioCARS, Building 434-B Argonne, IL 60439 USA
Accepted 1 August 1998

Abstract

An enhanced Pinyin ŽChinese phonetic symbol. coding system has been developed for creating a novel Romanized
version of the Chinese language. The homophonic problem associated with inputting Chinese characters to computers has
been solved by the addition of a suffix to the conventional Pinyin of individual Chinese characters as well as multisyllable
wordsrphrases. The suffix for the Pinyin of a Chinese character comprises a combination of a tone symbol and a single
letter index that is mostly designated as the first letter of an English word giving an appropriate translation. For multisyllable
Chinese words, the suffix consists only of a single letter that indicates either the tone of the last Chinese character or the first
letter of an English translation. The resulting set of Romanized Chinese notations, christened ‘Chinish’, make it possible to
input Chinese characters as efficiently as English words. It is proposed that Chinish be used as a replacement for the current
Pinyin system as a standard interface between Chinese speaking users and computers. q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Chinese Pinyin system; Chinish; Coding system; Information processing

1. Introduction the overseas Chinese community. Since Chinese

characters are highly complex, the various sets of
It has long been recognized that the input of
rules for decomposing them into components suit-
Chinese characters to computers represents a bottle-
able for computer processing are necessarily arbi-
neck for Chinese information processing. Numerous
trary to some degree. Although coding systems based
coding methods for Chinese have been developed to
on such sets of rules can achieve an acceptable level
tackle this problem, most of which are based on the
of efficiency in inputting Chinese for trained profes-
coding of individual components Žcalled ‘radicals’.
sional typists, they are difficult to learn and easy to
of the ideographic Chinese characters. There are
forget once not in use. The alternative methods for
about 6000 simplified Chinese characters in common
coding Chinese characters are based on one of the
use in the People’s Republic of China and in Singa-
Chinese phonetic systems called Hanyu Pinyin
pore, and about 7000 traditional Chinese characters
Ž . that was originally designed by the gov-
in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, and in a greater part of
ernment of the People’s Republic of China for the
most commonly spoken Chinese dialect known as
)
Corresponding author. Tel.: q1 630 2520441; fax: q1 630 Mandarin. Upon its publication, it was made clear
2520443; e-mail: tong@cars1.uchicago.edu that such a phonetic system was not intended to be

0920-5489r98r$ - see front matter q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 0 - 5 4 8 9 Ž 9 8 . 0 0 0 3 1 - 2
26 H. Tong, L. Jin r Computer Standards & Interfaces 20 (1998) 25–29

Fig. 1. Comparison of the styles of the Chinese character prompt box between ŽA. conventional input methods, as implemented in the
ChinaPro system ŽqDORAK International, 1997–1998.; and ŽB. a Chinish based input system, as implemented in Chinish Write ŽqYijun
Ding and Harry Tong, 1998.. The list of multiple choices of Chinese characters in A are displayed after ‘shi’ is entered in ChinaPro, which
does not allow for tones, and those in B are displayed after ‘shih’ Žwith ‘h’ indicating the first tone. is typed in Chinish Write. The ranking
indices for the Chinish notations in B are derived as follows: a as in ‘arthropod’ Ž .; b in ‘body’ Ž .; c in ‘carry out’ Ž .; g in ‘grass’
Ž .; k in ‘kou’ Ž ., a Chinese radical name; l in ‘lion’ Ž .; p in ‘poem’ Ž .; t in ‘teacher’ Ž .. The Chinese character ‘ ’ Žlose. has
only the space key as the ranking index, and is simply represented by the Pinyin ‘shi’ plus the first tone symbol ‘h’. Additionally, the Pinyin
‘shi’ itself codes for the Chinese number ‘ ’ Žten..

used as an alphabetic version of the written lan-
guage. With one Pinyin notation corresponding to
13–17 Chinese characters on average, the standard
Chinese Pinyin system is extremely inefficient as a
coding method because most of the time the user has
to select a Chinese character from a list of multiple
choices in a prompt box located away from the main
body of text under work ŽFig. 1A.. However, despite
the relative inefficiency caused by the homophonic
problem, the Pinyin system has remained by far the
most popular method for inputting Chinese charac-
ters because for the vast majority of Chinese speak-
ers it requires no special training. Besides serving as
a natural coding system for inputting Chinese charac-
ters to computers, the Pinyin system is the key to
learning correct Chinese pronunciations and to per-
forming general Chinese information processing tasks
such as using a dictionary and preparing a biblio-
graphic list. Learning the Pinyin system forms part
of the primary school education in most countries
and regions where Chinese is spoken.
In order to address the homophonic problem asso-
ciated with the conventional Pinyin system, we have
developed an enhanced version of Pinyin ŽChinish.
that can be used as a precise alphabetic language
with each word capable of being translated into
Chinese characters with 100% accuracy.
2. Design principles of Chinish
In the design of Chinish we have taken into
consideration of the following factors.
1. The possibility to fully leverage the basic
knowledge of conventional Pinyin and English for
most Chinese speakers with a need to communicate
with a computer.
2. The usage frequency of Chinese charactersr
words as a guide in deciding which charactersrwords
are to be given priority for the assignment of the
suffix in case of conflicts.
3. Ergonomic consideration in the choice of let-
ters for the tone symbols, given the conventional
QWERTY design of the English keyboard.
4. Making a distinction between lowercase letters
and uppercase letters to increase the coding capacity,
with words starting with uppercase letters reserved
for person or place names.
5. The need for novice users Žwith a command of
conventional Pinyin. to start using the new language
effectively immediately, as well as the need for
veteran users to increase their efficiency over time,
with only their physical typing speed as the ultimate
constraint on how fast they can input Chinese char-
acters.
In accordance with the design considerations out-
lined above, we have formally represented the Chin-
ish notation of a Chinese character by two parts.
1. The standard toneless Pinyin for the pronuncia-
tion of the Chinese character.
2. A suffix that is unique with respect to all the
homophones of the Chinese character, comprising a
combination of a tone symbol and a ranking index
that is a single letter from the English alphabet. The
five tones of Mandarin pronunciations are formally
represented by the Arabic numbers ‘1’ to ‘5’, but for
 H. Tong, L. Jin r Computer Standards & Interfaces 20 (1998) 25–29
ergonomic reasons they are replaced by a set of
letters better suited for touch typing.
In the few cases where a Pinyin corresponds to
more than twenty-six Chinese characters, all the
characters are first sorted into sub-groups of twenty-
six or less according to their usage frequencies, i.e.,
the most frequently used 26 characters belong to the
first sub-group, which has a suffix containing a
single tone symbol, and the next most frequently
used 26 characters have duplicated tone symbols in
their suffix, and the least frequently used 26 charac-
ters have triplicated tone symbols in their suffix. The
alphabetic replacements for the tone symbols are
selected as follows:
1—h; 2—j; 3—k; 4—l; 5—f;
11—z; 22—x; 33—c; 44—v;
111—zz; 222—xx; 333—cc; 444—vv;
These substitute letters for the tone symbols were
chosen because they do not cause any conflicts with
the standard Pinyin representations. The four tone
symbols ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’ for the most frequently
used first sub-group of Chinese characters are re-
spectively represented by the letters ‘h’, ‘j’, ‘k’, and
‘l’, that are arranged in tandem in the middle row of
a conventional QWERTY type English keyboard.
Accordingly, the QWERTY keyboard is ideally
suited for inputting Chinese characters using the
Chinish notations.
We have found that a most appropriate choice for
the single letter index is the first letter of an English
word giving a translation for the Chinese character
itself. The English letter chosen in such a way can
not only specify the ranking order of a Chinese
character but can also serve as a ‘root’ for its
meaning. Thus a Chinish notation so created has
both a phonetic and a semantic component. It was
estimated that one sixth of Chinese take English
courses some time in their lives, corresponding to a
total of 200 million. To these people a properly
chosen English translation can serve as an excellent
mnemonic device for remembering the ranking in-
dex. Since a Chinese character usually corresponds
to several English translations, the conflicts caused
by several Chinese characters sharing the same pro-
nunciations as well as English translations can be
minimized. Such a system can also circumvent the
differences between the traditional Chinese charac-
ters and their simplified counterparts because its
27
dependence on either of them has been minimized.
For example, the Chinish notation for the Chinese
character ‘ ’ is ‘shihl’, in which ‘shi’ is the conven-
tional Pinyin, ‘h’ represents the tone symbol ‘l’, and
‘l’ is the ranking index taken from the English
translation ‘lion’. For Chinese characters with rela-
tively low usage frequency, or those with no appro-
priate English translations, the ranking index used is
the first letter of the Chinese words depicting the
pronunciation of either the first or the last radical
forming the Chinese character. Special allowances
are made for about 1500 most frequently used Chi-
nese characters, which are simply coded by their
conventional Pinyin, or by the conventional Pinyin
plus the tone symbol. Applying this system, we have
created unambiguous Chinish notations for the ap-
proximately 6500 Chinese characters that can be
found in a typical modern Chinese dictionary ŽZidian,
1992..
The use of the combination of the Pinyin’s
of individual characters in coding multisyllable Chi-
nese wordsrphrases, in particular for disyllables
ŽShuangpin—‘ ’., has been found to be remark-
ably successful in minimizing the homophonic prob-
lem, and is implemented in some widely used Chi-
nese processing systems such as NJSTAR ŽqHong-
bo Data Systems, 1995–1998. and CHINAPRO
ŽqDORAK International, 1997–1998.. In case where
such a phonetic combination corresponds to two or
more Chinese phrases, we have applied the princi-
ples used for coding single Chinese characters to
resolve the ambiguities by adding a suffix to the
phrases with lower usage frequency. In contrast with
single Chinese characters, disambiguation for multi-
syllable Chinese words is achieved with the use of a
single letter as the suffix comprising either the tone
symbol for the last Chinese character or the first
letter of the English translation for the Chinese word.
For example, the Chinish notation for a frequently
used dissyllable word ‘ ’ Žmeaning. is ‘yiyi’,
whereas for a less frequently used word ‘ ’ Žob-
jection. is ‘yiyil’. To avoid coding and reading
confusions with single Chinese characters, for two-
character phrases with the Pinyin for the last charac-
ter consisting of only two letters starting with one of
the four most commonly used tone symbols, an
one-letter suffix is added irrespective of whether
there are duplicated codings. For example, the Chin-
28 H. Tong, L. Jin r Computer Standards & Interfaces 20 (1998) 25–29
ish notation for ‘ ’ Žcompanion. is ‘banlvk 1 ’. For
commonly used Chinese phrases consisting of two or
more characters, we have also provided shorthand
notations consisting of only the first letters of the
Pinyin’s of individual Chinese characters. With such
a system we have already coded 20,000 two-char-
acter, 5400 three-character, 5200 four-character, and
50 five-character Chinese phrases. Thus our system
is not only the easiest to learn for novice users, but
also potentially the most efficient to use in the hands
of experts.
3. Prospect of Chinish as the new standard Pinyin
We propose that Chinish be considered as a re-
placement for the current standard Chinese Pinyin
system in Romanizing Chinese characters and
phrases, because its adoption as the new standard
will completely eliminate the homophonic problem
associated with processing Chinese information us-
ing computers.
One striking feature of our system is the mini-
mum amount of adjustment that is required of users
who are already familiar with the conventional Pinyin
input system. Since Chinish is strictly a superset of
Pinyin, it is therefore the easiest to learn for in-
putting Chinese characters compared with any other
coding methods that also aim to tackle the homo-
phonic problem Že.g., Dianpin from Gowell, 1997..
Because our coding system requires only that the
users make a special effort to remember the last
letter in a Chinish notation for the less frequently
used Chinese characters or phrases, they can start to
use our system effectively right away with a prompt
system that differs slightly from the conventional
one in that the Chinese characters are arranged al-
phabetically rather than numerically ŽFig. 1B.. In the
conventional prompt system a numeric index serves
no more purpose than a temporary device for retriev-
ing a Chinese character. By contrast, in our system
an alphabetic index for accessing a Chinese character
is also part of its Chinish notation. The difference is
superficially small to a novice user, but as the user
1
¨ used in the conventional Pinyin is
The non-English letter "u"
¨ and "nu".
replaced by "v" for the two pronunciations "lu" ¨ Chinish system over conventional Pinyin, we antici-
keeps using our system there will be less and less
need to refer to the prompt system. Once most of the
Chinish notations are learned by heart naturally this
way, the user can input a Chinese character as easily
as an English speaker can type a English word, with
focus only on the content of what is being inputted.
Since mastering Chinish practically eliminates the
need for a prompt system for advanced users, it
follows naturally that the input string before transla-
tion into Chinese characters should appear in the
main body of text, in the same manner as the pro-
cessing of any other alphabetic languages such as
English and Dutch, rather than in the prompt box
only as is usually the case with most conventional
Chinese input systems.
We have also noted that the Chinish coding sys-
tem may serve as a first-approximation automatic
translation mechanism between Chinese and English.
It may make Chinese speakers interested in learning
English for more efficient usage of Chinese. It may
also encourage English speakers to learn Chinese
because they have a unique advantage in using the
written Chinese language via Chinish. Thus the cre-
ation of Chinish not only solves the bottleneck prob-
lem of processing Chinese information if it is adopted
as the next standard Chinese Pinyin, but also gives
rise to a new written language for facilitating cultural
exchanges between speakers of the two major world
languages. Our method may also be adapted for
Romanizing other languages that incorporate Chi-
nese characters such as Japanese and Korean.
The impact of the creation of Chinish on the
general movement to Romanize Chinese cannot yet
be easily assessed. On the one hand Chinish is a
version of Romanized Chinese that is as precise as
the currently used ideographic versions of the lan-
guage, besides being more amenable to automatic
processing by computers. The adoption of Chinish
notations as the basis for indexing bibliographic data
bases can eliminate most of the confusion and incon-
sistency associated with using Pinyin or Chinese
characters themselves ŽCai, 1991.. On the other hand,
the use of Chinish can help preserve the traditional
Chinese writing systems by making Chinese charac-
ters much easier to input to a computer, the medium
of choice in the information age.
Considering all the important advantages of the
 H. Tong, L. Jin r Computer Standards & Interfaces 20 (1998) 25–29
pate that Chinish will be a strong candidate for a
new standard for Romanizing the Chinese language,
and as such will be used as the standard interface
language between Chinese speakers and computers.
4. Technical notes
4.1. Source materials
The Chinese character set sorted by conventional
Pinyin that was used for creating the character dic-
tionary of Chinish was obtained from an on-line
archive maintained by the Chinese Community In-
formation Center ŽCCIC, 1992., as were several
Chinese phrase lists that form the basis of the phrase
dictionary of Chinish. The list of single Chinese
characters sorted by usage frequency was calculated
by Tsai Ž1997.. A list of 3000 commonly used
English words sorted by usage frequency was ob-
tained from Collins Cobuild Ž1997..
4.2. Calculation of phrase usage frequency
The usage frequency of Chinese phrases consist-
ing of two to five Chinese characters were calculated
by the computer program PHRFREQ qHarry Tong
1997–1998.. Searches were performed on unpro-
cessed Chinese phrases from the CCIC data archive
against Chinese reading materials selected from on-
line magazines and journals such as Language and
Information Ž‘ ’, 1995–1998., Huaxia Wen-
zhai Ž‘ ’, 1991–1998. and Tulip Ž‘ ’,
1994–1998., totalling five million Chinese charac-
ters. The threshold for high usage frequency was set
at 3 times per million characters.
4.3. Selection of English words and radical names
Assignment of ranking indices are first made for
the Chinese characters with relatively high usage
29
frequency. When given multiple translations ŽWu et
al., 1992., the English word with the highest usage
frequency was chosen if it is not in conflict with the
choices already made for the other Chinese charac-
ters in the same sub-group. For the assignment of
6500 Chinese characters, 2500 English words were
used. For Chinese characters with low usage fre-
quency, as well as those with no appropriate English
translations, the first letter in the name of the first or
the last radical was used for the ranking index. The
definition of the radical names follows the conven-
tions published in Chinese Characters Ž1985..
Acknowledgements
We thank Titia Sixma for critical comments on
the manuscript. We also thank Xin Tong and Ewalt
Scherer for helpful suggestions, and Yijun Ding for
collaboration in writing the computer program CHIN-
ISH WRITE.
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