| Bàng-uâ-cê | |
| Type: | Latin alphabet |
| Typedesc: | (modified) |
| Time: | late 19th century – ? |
| Creator: | Moses Clark White, Robert Samuel Maclay, Caleb Cook Baldwin, Robert Stewart |
| Children: | Hinghwa Romanized, Kienning Colloquial Romanized |
| Sample: | Exodus in Foochow.gif |
| Alt: | A sample of Bàng-uâ-cê text |
| Caption: | The Book of Exodus in Bàng-uâ-cê, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society |
Bàng-uâ-cê (abbr. BUC; Chinese: t=平話字) or Fuzhou romanization (Chinese: 福州話羅馬字), 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.[1] 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.[2]
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 pronounced as /[p]/, pronounced as /[t]/, pronounced as /[k]/ and pronounced as /[ts]/; 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 pronounced as /[ɛ]/, pronounced as /[ø]/, pronounced as /[ɔ]/, and pronounced as /[y]/, 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 pronounced as /[p] [t]/ and pronounced as /[k]/. 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.
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.
| BUC | Sample character | Pronunciation | |
| b | 邊 | pronounced as //p// | |
| p | 波 | pronounced as //pʰ// | |
| m | 蒙 | pronounced as //m// | |
| d | 低 | pronounced as //t// | |
| t | 他 | pronounced as //tʰ// | |
| n | 日 | pronounced as //n// | |
| l | 柳 | pronounced as //l// | |
| g | 求 | pronounced as //k// | |
| k | 氣 | pronounced as //kʰ// | |
| ng | 語 | pronounced as //ŋ// | |
| h | 喜 | pronounced as //h// | |
| c | 爭 | pronounced as //ts// | |
| ch | 出 | pronounced as //tsʰ// | |
| s | 時 | pronounced as //s// | |
| None | 鶯 | Null Initial |
| BUC | Sample character | Traditional pronunciation | Modern pronunciation | |
| a | 嘉 | pronounced as //a// | pronounced as //a// | |
| ia | 奇 | pronounced as //ia// | pronounced as //ia// | |
| ua | 花 | pronounced as //ua// | pronounced as //ua// | |
| a̤ | 西 | pronounced as //ɛ// | pronounced as //e// or pronounced as //a// | |
| ie | 雞 | pronounced as //ie// | pronounced as //ie// | |
| o̤ | 歌 | pronounced as //ɔ// | pronounced as //o// or pronounced as //ɔ// | |
| io | 橋 | pronounced as //io// | pronounced as //yo// | |
| uo | 過 | pronounced as //uo// | pronounced as //uo// | |
| e̤ / ae̤ | 初 | pronounced as //ø// or pronounced as //aø// | pronounced as //ø// or pronounced as //ɔ// | |
| au | 郊 | pronounced as //au// | pronounced as //au// | |
| eu / aiu | 溝 | pronounced as //eu// or pronounced as //aiu// | pronounced as //eu// or pronounced as //au// | |
| ieu | 燒 | pronounced as //ieu// | pronounced as //iu// | |
| iu / eu | 秋 | pronounced as //iu// or pronounced as //eu// | pronounced as //iu// | |
| oi / o̤i | 催 | pronounced as //oi// or pronounced as //ɔi// | pronounced as //øy// or pronounced as //ɔy// | |
| ai | 開 | pronounced as //ai// | pronounced as //ai// | |
| uai | 歪 | pronounced as //uai// | pronounced as //uai// | |
| uoi | 杯 | pronounced as //uoi// | pronounced as //ui// | |
| ui / oi | 輝 | pronounced as //ui// or pronounced as //oi// | pronounced as //ui// | |
| i / e | 之 | pronounced as //i// or pronounced as / /ei// | pronounced as //i// or pronounced as //ɛi// | |
| u / o | 孤 | pronounced as //u// or pronounced as / /ou// | pronounced as //u// or pronounced as / /ɔu// | |
| u | 須 | pronounced as //y// or pronounced as / /øy// | pronounced as //y// or pronounced as / /œy// |
| BUC | Traditional pronunciation | Modern pronunciation | |
| ah | pronounced as //aʔ// | pronounced as //aʔ// | |
| iah | pronounced as //iaʔ// | pronounced as //iaʔ// | |
| uah | pronounced as //uaʔ// | pronounced as //uaʔ// | |
| a̤h | pronounced as //ɛʔ// | pronounced as //eʔ// | |
| ieh | pronounced as //ieʔ// | pronounced as //ieʔ// | |
| o̤h | pronounced as //ɔʔ// | pronounced as //oʔ// or pronounced as //ɔʔ// | |
| ioh | pronounced as //ioʔ// | pronounced as //yoʔ// | |
| uoh | pronounced as //uoʔ// | pronounced as //uoʔ// | |
| e̤h | pronounced as //øʔ// | pronounced as //øʔ// |
| BUC | Sample character | Traditional pronunciation | Modern pronunciation | |
| ang | 山 | pronounced as //aŋ// | pronounced as //aŋ// | |
| iang | 聲 | pronounced as //iaŋ// | pronounced as //iaŋ// | |
| uang | 歡 | pronounced as //uaŋ// | pronounced as //uaŋ// | |
| ieng | 天 | pronounced as //ieŋ// | pronounced as //ieŋ// | |
| iong | 香 | pronounced as //ioŋ// | pronounced as //yoŋ// | |
| uong | 光 | pronounced as //uoŋ// | pronounced as //uoŋ// | |
| ing / eng | 賓 | pronounced as //iŋ// or pronounced as //eiŋ// | pronounced as //iŋ// or pronounced as //ɛiŋ// | |
| ung / ong | 春 | pronounced as //uŋ// or pronounced as //ouŋ// | pronounced as //uŋ// or pronounced as //ɔuŋ// | |
| u | 銀 | pronounced as //yŋ// or pronounced as //øyŋ// | pronounced as //yŋ// or pronounced as //œyŋ// | |
| eng / aing | 燈 | pronounced as //eiŋ// or pronounced as //aiŋ// | pronounced as //eiŋ// or pronounced as //aiŋ// | |
| ong / aung | 釭 | pronounced as //ouŋ// or pronounced as //auŋ// | pronounced as //ouŋ// or pronounced as //ɔuŋ// | |
| e̤ng / ae̤ng | 東 | pronounced as //øŋ// or pronounced as //aøŋ// | pronounced as //øyŋ// or pronounced as //ɔyŋ// |
| Name | Tone numeral | BUC symbol | Example | |
| Shàngpíng (上平, BUC: Siông-bìng) | 55 | ◌̆ | 君 Gŭng | |
| Shǎngshēng (上聲, BUC: Siōng-siăng) | 33 | ◌̄ | 滾 Gūng | |
| Shàngqù (上去, BUC: Siông-ké̤u | 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-ké̤u | 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.
| Original | align=middle rowspan=2 | Translation | align=middle rowspan=2 | Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=middle | align=middle | Characters | |||
| 《北風共日頭》 | The North Wind and the Sun | ||||
| 有蜀回，北風共日頭著許塊爭，看底儂本事大。 | Once upon a time, the North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was stronger. | ||||
| 爭來爭去無輸贏。 | They disputed on and on without reaching a conclusion. | ||||
| 者辰候，墿有蜀隻儂行，身頌著蜀件厚厚其大衣。 | Just at that moment, there was a man walking along the road, wearing a very heavy coat. | ||||
| 伊兩隻講好，底儂有本事先告玆隻儂共大衣褪唻去，就算底儂本事大。 | The two agreed that who first succeeded in making this man take his coat off should be considered stronger. | ||||
| 仱呢，北風就使力死命的吹，不過伊罔吹的利害，玆隻行墿其儂就將許件大衣罔包罔緊去。 | Then, the North Wind exerted all his strength to blow, but the harder he blew, the tighter that walking man wrapped his coat. | ||||
| 遘尾後，北風無辦法，就總款〇去。 | At last, the North Wind was at his wits' end, so he gave up. | ||||
| 過仂暅，日頭出來。 | After a while, the Sun came out. | ||||
| 熱〇〇使使力蜀曝，許隻行墿其儂〇刻就將許件大衣褪落來。 | He shined out forcibly with a sweltering heat, and immediately that walking man took off his coat. | ||||
| 玆下北風就僅長承認，兩個儂底勢，故是日頭其本事大。 | And so the North Wind had no choice but to confess that the Sun was stronger of the two. | ||||