Gianni Vacca wrote:

> Before Bopomofo or Pinyin were devised, the Chinese
> had big matrix-like charts with initials and finals
> that one would use to learn the pronunciation of an
> unknown character. Maybe this is what the original
> post referred to.

I guess it looked like this one:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/3847/chinese/rhymetable.htm

But I don't understand the purpose of such a chart.

I know that old Chinese dictionary used to represent the pronunciation of an
entry character by giving two common characters which had respectively the
same initial consonant ("alliteration") and final vowel+consonant ("rhyme").
But how did the chart enter in this?

> > But I have seen a similar chart with the Chinese
> > characters used for the
> > standard transcription of foreign words or names.
> > You can see it in the
> > "Chinese writing system" entry of Florian Coulmas'
> > "The Blackwell
> > Encyclopedia of Writing Systems".
>
> There usually are several characters to choose from
> for a given foreign syllable.

I guess that the purpose of that chart is in fact eliminating these
variations to standardize transcription.

> Does Coulmas give only
> one character for each syllable to be transcribed?

Yes, but the consonants and "rhymes" given on the two axes refer to
"foreign" phonemes, indicated in a sort simplified IPA.

E.g., there are two separate rows for [l] and [r], so the character used to
transcribe [ra] is different from the one to transcribe [la], although both
characters are of course pronounced [la] in Mandarin.

So, it seems that the system is designed to allow a limited "reversability"
of the trascription.

I don't know whether the system is intended for journalists, immigration
officials, encyclopedias, or what else. In the picture's caption, Coulmas
does nor give any information about the origin of the chart. Perhaps table
has a title written in Chinese: if it does, I'll try to type it down for
you.

--
Marco