Introduction – iv – Pinyin

Pinyin is a way of capturing the sounds of Chinese characters using the roman alphabet. This episode provides a basic description of this system. Because this course is intended for Amharic speakers, and because the Amharic alphabet is better at capturing Chinese sounds than the roman alphabet, our description is rather brief. But pinyin is absolutely essential, especially if you progress with Chinese. You need pinyin to use a Chinese keyboard or to use a dictionary.