Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has died
&gt; &quot;We spent three years developing Pinyin. People made fun of
&gt; us, joking that it had taken us a long time to deal with just 
&gt; 26 letters&quot;<p>I actually think it is quite fast. Grasping an entire languages phonology is a huge accomplishment and condensing it to its bare minimum is also impressive.<p>With that said, I must admit I don&#x27;t know how pinyin relates to other phonetic systems such as the Bopomofo[0] or Wade-Giles[1] and for all I know it might just be the exact same system with different letters.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bopomofo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bopomofo</a>
[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Wade–Giles" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Wade–Giles</a>