Xiě Yùn

Xiě Yùn was invented by Christopher Yale Tang (唐泰川) in 2002. He was inspired to invent it after reading a book about Jurchen, the ancient language of the Manchus. He was amazed that Jurchen characters looked very similiar to Chinese characters, but that he could read hardly any of them. So he came up with the idea of devising a writing system for Chinese which could represent the pronunciation and also look like Chinese characters.

Notable features

Xiěyùn (写韵) means "writing pronunciation"
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
Xiěyùn includes 21 consonants. Each consonant has four shapes depending on the tone of the syllable (the neutral tone and tone 1 share the same types)
Xiěyùn includes 36 vowels, each of which has one shape
When a syllable begins with a vowel, one of the three special voiceless symbols is added on the left of the vowels to represent tone 2, 3, and 4. Tone 1 and the neutral tone are not marked.
b, p,m, f, l, n, r are written above vowels
g, k, h, j, q, x are written on the left side of vowels
Vowels are written inside t, d, z, c, s, zh, ch and sh, except the red ones, which are written on right of vowels;
No consonants represent y or w. Syllables beginning with them are considered as beginning with vowels (i and u)
The Latin transliteration in the chart is Hanyupinyin
There's only one punctuation mark, a circle, as in ancient Chinese

Xiě Yùn script

Initials

Xiě Yùn script

Finals and tones

Xiě Yùn finals

Sample text in the Xiě Yùn script

Sample text in the Xiě Yùn alphabet

This text in simplified Chinese characters

人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神互相对待。

Transliteration

Rénrén shēng ér zìyóu, zài zūnyán hé quánlì shàng yīlǜ píngdĕng. Tāmen fùyŏu lĭxìng hé liángxīn, bìng yīng yĭ xīongdì guānxì de jīngshén hùxiāng dùidài.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

If you have any questions about Xiě Yùn, you can contact Christopher at: tangtaichuan[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]cn

Christopher's blog can be found at:
http://i.cn.yahoo.com/tangtaichuan

Other scripts invented by Christopher Yale Tang (唐泰川)

Apasyosus, Ash'fru'kretobi, Christish, Taichuanish, Tangish, Touq Tsh'c, Xiě Yùn,

Other writing systems invented by visitors to this site