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There is no alphabet per se, in Chinese. Chinese characters each represent an entire syllable.

In mainland China, there is some use of the Western Alphabet for phonetic spelling, while in Taiwan, there is a syllabary for phonetic "spelling". Often referred to as "bo-po-mo-fo" the way we call our alphabet the ABCs, this syllabary has symbols to represent the beginnings of syllables and symbols to represent the ends of syllables. Still not an alphabet, though: in the above examble,"bo" is one symbol, "mo" is another, etc. These are "initials", symbols representing the beginnings of syllables. "Finals", symbols for the ends of syllables, represent sounds such as "an" and "ung", etc.

Clear as mud? :D

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16y ago

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