Introduction
Suppose you want to use Morse code to send Mandarin Chinese; you would encounter the following problems:
- Traditional Chinese codes used four-digit numbers to encode common characters, but due to their extremely large memory capacity and lack of specific patterns, it is practically impossible for humans to decode the characters, making them unsuitable for widespread use in communication.
- The pinyin scheme for Modern Standard Chinese uses Latin letters to represent the pronunciation of Chinese, which makes it possible to send Chinese using Morse code. However, due to the large number of syllables with intervening and nasal sounds in Chinese, the resulting sequence of Latin letters is very long (e.g., "zhuang"), which significantly reduces communication efficiency.
- Neighboring Japan, in particular, designed "Wakamō Morse Code" to transmit Japanese. This code maps each syllable from the fifty-syllable chart to a specific code, essentially achieving "one code per syllable." (You can try using it for CQ on the following frequencies: ) <DO>). However, if you have some familiarity with hiragana and the katakana charts, you will likely agree with me that the arrangement of hiragana is not very scientific (forcing a correspondence between the order of hiragana and the Latin alphabet while ignoring the internal rules of the katakana chart), which leads to a relatively high learning cost for hiragana.
Considering these issues, the objective of this paper is: Based on the features of the modern Standard Mandarin phonetic system, design a Morse code scheme specifically for representing Mandarin pronunciation.This solution should meet the following criteria:
- Don't reinvent the wheel: If you already know international Morse code, this knowledge can be applied to this Chinese scheme.
- Short code length: For complex syllables in Mandarin, a new set of codes can be designed to replace the lengthy pinyin, thereby improving information efficiency.
- Strong internal pattern: For newly introduced codes, their internal dot-stroke arrangement should have a logical relationship with the corresponding syllables, making them easy to learn.
To meet these requirements, the proposed approach in this article is based on the following idea:
- For initial consonants and simple vowels in Mandarin Chinese, it's best to use the corresponding Latin letters as defined by the pinyin system.
- A set of 5-character codes was designed to represent diphthongs and syllable endings in Chinese, based on the phonological rules of the Chinese language. These codes were specifically created to standardize the representation of vowels with intervening sounds (e-, u-, ü-) and syllable endings (-i, -u, -n, -ng).
Consonant, vowel, and tone scheme
If you are familiar with modern Mandarin Pinyin, you should find this system very familiar. Here are some specific points to pay attention to:
- The following combinations, [zh]-[j], [ch]-[q], and [sh]-[x], have been unified, using the international codes J, Q, and X respectively. This is because the sets of initial consonants can only be combined with completely non-overlapping vowels (for example, [-iang] can only be paired with [j]/[q]/[x], while [-ang] can only be paired with [zh]/[ch]/[sh]). This unification ensures that each consonant can be represented by a single code, for example:
Fried chicken: .--../-./.--../.. (JAJI)
Riding a bicycle: --.-/../--.-/. (QIQE)
- Use V to represent [ü] (the default input method); the remaining unused Y represents a zero vowel [ɨ] ("之吃师资疵丝日" - a vowel sound, different from "衣"), and W represents a reduplicated sound [-r] or syllable [er]. For example:
Daughter: -./...-/.-- (NVW)
Son: .-./--../-.- (WZY)
Origami machine: .---/./.---/-.--/.---/.. (JEJYJI)
馬 [mar]: --/.-/.-- (MAW)
- [ê] Because it's fundamentally always associated with a schwa sound. The combination of these sounds creates the diphthong [-ie] (as in "接切些"), so they are not assigned individual codes.
- Regarding tone, four combinations of length 4, which are not used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), were employed, placed after the syllable to indicate the tone of the preceding syllable (for ease of memorization, "嗒" is approximately high, and "滴" is approximately low), with no indication for a light tone. Of course, if the tone does not cause ambiguity, it can be completely omitted. For example:
Car: --.-/../---./--.-/./---- (QI'QE')
Biking: --.-/../..--/--.-/./---- (QIˊQEˉ)
- For each row of consonants, a default vowel is also provided. This indicates that if the vowel following a consonant is not explicitly written, it represents the vowel that follows by default. This omission can effectively omit foreign-language transliterations (e.g., "Bupumfer," "Detler," "Gekoch," "Siss") and non-words (e.g., "delet," "not," "is"). However, if the omitted vowel is immediately followed by a syllable without any consonants, it cannot be omitted. For example:
Not yours anymore: -.../-..-/-./../-../.-.. (BXNIDL)
Black: -.../.-../.-/-.- (BLAK)
Yi De Ge La Mi: ../-../--./.-../.-/--/.. (IDGLAMI)
The legend of Shi Si: -../----/-../---./-../--/-../----/-../.-.- (XˉXˋXˊXˉXˇ)
Re-vocalization scheme
A memorable PIN code is always based on a regular phonetic pattern. Fortunately, the vowels in Chinese are very regular. In Hashimoto's (1970) Japanese phonetic system, all multi-vowel syllables in Chinese consist of three parts: the nucleus – vowel – coda. The nucleus consists of [i-] [u-] [–]The nucleus of the syllable has [-ə-], and the coda has [–]. [- i] [-u] [-n] [-ng]. If you are familiar with pinyin symbols, you should find this system quite intuitive.
We have designed a set of codes, each consisting of 5 "dips" or "taps," to correspond to this system. You simply need to remember:[i]Corresponding to "–."[u]Corresponding to ".-", diacritics.[–]The following rules apply: the syllable tail ending in [-ng] corresponds to "--", the null vowel corresponding to the syllable tail ending in [-n] corresponds to "..", the syllable nucleus [-ə-] corresponds to ".", and [-a-] corresponds to "-". Remember these, then combine them to form a 5-character code, which represents the initial sound. Note that:
- For sounds like [ia], [ie], [ua], [uo], and [üe], which are initial consonants but lack a syllable tail, we have borrowed some consonant codes that are not typically found in modern Mandarin Chinese, such as [iai]->[IA], [IEI]>[i.e.], [uau] ->[wa], [uou]>[uo], [üe]>[üei]
- Our approach does not treat the sounds represented by "[y]" and "[w]" as initial consonants in Pinyin, but rather considers these cases to be zero-initial consonant situations, for example:
Xiangyang: -..-/-.---/-.--- (X)<One><One>）
Yu Yun Band: ...-/--.../--.-./-../.-.-. (V)<Yin><Yeah>D<Woo>)
With this system, each syllable consists of only one vowel code, one consonant code (with a default vowel), or two codes ("one tone, one vowel") (tone optional). The length of the consonant code is no more than 4, and the length of the vowel code is no more than 5. Therefore, information transmission will be much more efficient than simply sending pinyin. To compare with pinyin, we tried to send the following sentence using Morse code:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Using pinyin to send (word segmentation uses "//" to represent):
.-././-./.-././-.//.../...././-./--.//./.-.//--../../-.--/---/..-//--..--//
--../.-/..//--../..-/-./-.--/.-/-.//...././/--.-/..-/.-/-./.-../..//.../..../.-/-./--.//
-.--/../.-../...-//.--./../-./--./-.././-./--.//.-.-.-//
Using the new scheme to send:
.-./...../.-./.....//-..-/...--//.--//--../../-...-//--..--//
--../..--.//--..//.-.../-.-..//....//--.-/---../.-../..//-..-/..---//
../.-../...-//.--./-..--/-../...--//.-.-.-//
It's definitely shorter!
Please feel free to comment, criticize, or offer suggestions.
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