Pinyin Transcription
Pinyin Transcription: A system of romanization (transcribing Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet) used to represent the sounds of Mandarin Chinese. Pinyin is based on the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese as spoken in Beijing, and is widely used in China as a tool for teaching Chinese as a second language and inputting Chinese characters on computers and smartphones. Each Pinyin syllable consists of an initial consonant sound, a final vowel sound, and a tone marking.