The Hakka Transliteration Scheme or Pinfa refers to a romanization scheme published by the Guangdong Provincial Education Department in September 1960 as one of four systems collectively referred to as Guangdong Romanization. The scheme describes the Meixian dialect spoken in Meizhou, Guangdong, which is considered to be the prestige dialect of Hakka, and was later adapted for Gan and Xiang.^[1][2] This system utilizes the Latin alphabet with superscript numbers to represent tone.^[3]

System

Letters

This system uses the Latin alphabet, excluding the letters ⟨r⟩ and ⟨w⟩. It also adds the letter ⟨ê⟩ to represent [ɛ].^[3]

Initials

There are 19 initials used, in addition to the null initial which occurs when no consonant is in the initial position. These are shown below:

The letter ⟨i⟩ which follows the consonants ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩ and ⟨s⟩, represents [ɨ] e.g. 資 zi¹, 雌 ci¹, 思 si¹.

Finals

There are a total of 74 finals, shown below:

In the instance where a final beginning with ⟨i⟩ such as ⟨i⟩ ⟨ia⟩ ⟨iau⟩ etc. without an initial consonant (null initial) the ⟨i⟩ is replaced with ⟨y⟩, e.g. ⟨yi⟩, ⟨ya⟩, ⟨yau⟩ etc.

Tones