Bàng-uâ-cê (abbr. BUC; ) or Fuzhou romanization (), is a Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of the 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized in the 1890s. Bàng-uâ-cê was mainly used inside of church circles, and was taught in some mission schools in Fuzhou. However, unlike its counterpart Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Hokkien, even in its prime days Bàng-uâ-cê was by no means universally understood by Christians.R. S. Maclay, C. C. Baldwin, Samuel H. Leger: Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, 1929
History
After Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of First Opium War (from 1839 to 1842), many Western missionaries arrived in the city. Faced with widespread illiteracy, they developed Latin alphabets for the Fuzhou dialect.
The first attempt in romanizing the Fuzhou dialect was made by the American Methodist M. C. White, who borrowed a system of orthography known as the System of Sir William Jones. In this system, 14 initials were designed exactly according to their voicing and aspiration. , , and stand for , , and ; while the Greek spiritus lenis were affixed to the above initials to represent their aspirated counterparts. Besides the default five vowels of Latin alphabet, four diacritic-marked letters , , and were also introduced, representing , , , and , respectively. This system is described at length in White's linguistic work The Chinese Language Spoken at Fuh Chau.
Subsequent missionaries, including Robert S. Maclay from American Methodist Episcopal Mission, R. W. Stewart from the Church of England and Charles Hartwell from the American Board Mission, further modified White's system in several ways. The most significant change was made for the plosive consonants, where the spiritus lenis of the aspirated initials was removed and the letters , and substituted for and . In the aspect of vowels, , , and were replaced by , , and . Since the diacritical marks were all shifted to underneath the vowels, this left room above the vowels which was occupied by the newly introduced tonal marks. Thus Bàng-uâ-cê avoids the potentially awkward diacritic stacking seen for instance in the Vietnamese script, where tone and vowel quality marks both sit above the vowel.
Alphabet The sample characters are taken from the Qi Lin Bayin, a renowned phonology book about the Fuzhou dialect written in the Qing Dynasty. The pronunciations are recorded in standard IPA symbols.
Initials BUCSample characterPronunciation b 邊 p 波 m 蒙 d 低 t 他 n 日 l 柳 g 求 k 氣 ng 語 h 喜 c 爭 ch 出 s 時 None 鶯 Null Initial
Finals
Finals without codas BUCSample characterTraditional pronunciationModern pronunciation a 嘉 ia 奇 ua 花 a̤ 西 or ie 雞 o̤ 歌 or io 橋 uo 過 e̤ / ae̤ 初 or or au 郊 eu / aiu 溝 or or ieu 燒 iu / eu 秋 or oi / o̤i 催 or or ai 開 uai 歪 uoi 杯 ui / oi 輝 or i / e 之 or or u / o 孤 or or ṳ / e̤ṳ 須 or or
Finals with coda BUCTraditional pronunciationModern pronunciation ah iah uah a̤h ieh o̤h or ioh uoh e̤h
Finals with codas [-ŋ] and [-k] BUCSample characterTraditional pronunciationModern pronunciation ang 山 iang 聲 uang 歡 ieng 天 iong 香 uong 光 ing / eng 賓 or or ung / ong 春 or or ṳng / e̤ṳng 銀 or or eng / aing 燈 or or ong / aung 釭 or or e̤ng / ae̤ng 東 or or
Tones NameTone numeralBUC symbolExample Shàngpíng (上平, BUC: Siông-bìng) 55 ◌̆ 君 Gŭng Shǎngshēng (上聲, BUC: Siōng-siăng) 33 ◌̄ 滾 Gūng Shàngqù (上去, BUC: Siông-ké̤ṳ) 213 ◌́ 貢 Góng Shàngrù (上入, BUC: Siông-ĭk) 24 ◌́ 谷 Gók Xiàpíng (下平, BUC: Hâ-bìng) 53 ◌̀ 群 Gùng Xiàqù (下去, BUC: Hâ-ké̤ṳ) 242 ◌̂ 郡 Gông Xiàrù (下入, BUC: Hâ-ĭk) 5 ◌̆ 掘 Gŭk
Note that Bàng-uâ-cê uses the breve, not the caron (ˇ), to indicate Yīnpíng and Yángrù tones of Fuzhou dialect.
Sample text
OriginalIPA Translation Audio Characters The North Wind and the Sun Once upon a time, the North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was stronger. They disputed on and on without reaching a conclusion. Just at that moment, there was a man walking along the road, wearing a very heavy coat. The two agreed that who first succeeded in making this man take his coat off should be considered stronger. Then, the North Wind exerted all his strength to blow, but the harder he blew, the tighter that walking man wrapped his coat. At last, the North Wind was at his wits' end, so he gave up. After a while, the Sun came out. He shined out forcibly with a sweltering heat, and immediately that walking man took off his coat. And so the North Wind had no choice but to confess that the Sun was stronger of the two. References
External links
Everything You Want To Know About Bàng-uâ-cê (in Foochowese) Gô Iók Cŭ: The Old Testament, in Bàng-uâ-cê. Sĭng Iók Cŭ: The New Testament, in Bàng-uâ-cê. An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, by T. B. Adam, 1905