Transcription of Nüshu Script

Nüshu is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters and developed and exclusively used by women of Hunan province who were not afforded education in standard Chinese writing.

When I started researching this script, I discovered that Omniglot, my first-stop source for writing system information, didn't actually have a complete listing of characters or their pronunciations. And in fact, finding this information anywhere was extremely difficult.

Nüshu has been in Unicode since 2017, however, and by piecing together multiple Unicode standards documents (some giving the reference graphics per codepoint, others the romanized transcription), I was able to put together this table of the pronunciations of Nüshu characters. Omniglot reports that Nushu has between 6 and 7 hundred characters, but Unicode 13 encodes 396 characters, ordered by stroke count, phonetic final, phonetic initial, and tone.

Note that the sound system encoded by Nüshu is not identical to that of modern standard Mandarin, and the transcription is not pinyin. This document describes the phonetic transcription, but it is not quite IPA. If any sinologists who can tell me the IPA equivalents end up reading this, I would love to update the table with that information! The pronunciation data used in Unicode sources was in turn derived from the book Nüshu Duben.

i5	na33	tsha5	ie21	poe5	swe33	phiu44
u5	cya35	tie42	njie33	toe33	tchye5	fwe13
liu44	siu35	thu35	njyu13	vai42	kai44	khau21
kou21	tciou35	liang35	ciang13	tsheng44	song44	ma5
fa44	la44	thoe21	tsoe42	fwe44	tswe35	ti13
ci21	fu44	fu35	fu13	tcyu35	tcyu21	fai44
hau35	lou35	liou33	tciou44	ciou35	tchyn21	fang44
vang42	sang33	khang21	theng44	neng44	piong13	iong42
va33	khua44	tchya33	nie33	lie21	tcie44	tchie44
njie44	njie42	ie44	ie33	mwe13	vwe33	vwe5
twe33	tswe44	swe42	swe13	tci35	ci35	i5
liu44	njiu33	ciu35	mu13	yu44	tchy21	njy33
y42	pai35	pai35	lai42	ai42	hau35	tou42
liou42	iou13	tsew35	tsew21	suow44	huow42	huow35
nguw33	mang42	thang44	kang44	liang33	tciang35	njiang42
peng44	seng44	piong42	tshiong21	tcing21	pa5	la33
sie35	tcie35	ie21	poe21	loe42	tsoe13	soe5
koe44	khuoe21	ye21	pwe33	pwe5	tchi21	tsiu33
fu42	vu42	khu35	hu5	pw13	fw42	sw5
kw5	hw44	mai42	thai44	sai44	sai44	thau35
lau21	lau21	nou33	kou33	ciou44	sew35	lew44
thuow21	uow33	kuw5	tcyn42	yn35	vang33	tsang44
sang44	khang35	tciang44	iang13	teng42	neng33	piong33
miong33	ciong42	ciong21	njing42	ng13	tsa35	sa21
kua44	kua35	cya5	cie44	phoe35	foe42	loe35
tshoe44	tshoe21	oe44	tchye35	fwe44	tswe33	ni33
tshi5	tshi5	si44	fu33	ngu13	tchyu21	cyu44
phw21	fai42	tsai13	lou42	tsou5	piou44	miou13
tchiou21	njiou33	iou13	nuow42	kuow44	huow21	pang44
ang21	tsiang44	tsiang42	ciang42	iang42	liong42	tshiong35
ciong44	cing35	la13	cya42	poe42	thoe44	noe33
tshoe44	kue44	kue35	kue21	ye42	pwe35	vwe35
thi5	tsi42	tsi42	tci21	tci21	tshiu21	pu33
tsu42	ku21	tcyu44	njyu33	tchy35	pw5	hw35
phai35	mai33	lai35	sai21	hai42	mau33	tshau35
hau33	kou5	ou44	tsiou33	tshiou44	siou44	tciou5
ciou13	thuow44	fang13	vang5	lang44	tshang44	khang44
khang5	liang42	siang44	ciang44	ciang35	neng35	leng42
nong42	long35	liong13	tsiong13	siong44	tcing44	tcing44
cing42	ing21	ng44	va42	sa35	lie42	tshie21
sie5	ie13	moe13	loe21	tchye44	cye44	pi33
ti44	tci5	tsiu44	pu5	fu21	thu35	hu42
tcy13	cy5	pw42	khw5	lai44	sai44	sau35
tsou42	ngou42	tsiou33	njiou13	ciou5	iou42	yn44
tang42	lang42	kang35	hang44	hang42	siang35	tciang13
iang44	meng42	tsiong42	siong21	tchiong44	pa33	tshie5
sie5	tsoe44	koe35	tcye44	tcye42	pwe35	swe44
ti42	i42	tciu42	ciu44	tsu35	tshu35	ku44
lw5	mai42	kau44	thou21	hou33	pang42	fang44
tang13	lang33	meng33	teng42	tseng42	cing13	ing42
tsa33	tsie21	cie21	moe42	li35	tsi5	tci44
i35	mu33	lu21	hu42	cyu33	hw5	tau13
siou21	lew33	tshew5	yn13	tong13	ie35	voe5
tswe21	i21	tu33	lu35	lou33	tsou42	tsuow44
mang13	tciang33	tchiang21	tciong44	tsie33	moe33	ku44
cyu35	pw21	tsiang42	tshai44	nguow13	nong44	fu5
ku5	fang33	tcye21	fi21

Script Subsets

In order to explore the structure of the script, I broke it down into subsets of characters with common initials, common finals, and common tones. Each initial, final, and tone, with the characters that have them in their pronunciation, is listed below.

Initials

Initial: ∅

Initial: n

Initial: tsh

Initial: p

Initial: s

Initial: ph

Initial: c

Initial: t

Initial: nj

Initial: tch

Initial: f

Initial: l

Initial: th

Initial: v

Initial: k

Initial: kh

Initial: tc

Initial: m

Initial: ts

Initial: h

Initial: ng

Finals

Final: i

Final: a

Final: ie

Final: oe

Final: we

Final: iu

Final: u

Final: ya

Final: ye

Final: yu

Final: ai

Final: au

Final: ou

Final: iou

Final: iang

Final: eng

Final: ong

Final: yn

Final: ang

Final: iong

Final: ua

Final: y

Final: ew

Final: uow

Final: uw

Final: ing

Final: uoe

Final: w

Final: ng

Final: ue

Tones

Tone: 5

Tone: 33

Tone: 21

Tone: 44

Tone: 35

Tone: 42

Tone: 13