The 110 Phonetic Families: Free Printable Poster
679 traditional characters, each ringed around the component that carries its sound, on one sheet. Ink on paper, made for printing.
Free · PDF · 1 page · prints at any size · or the night sky edition
What is on it
- The families. Every component that marks the sound of 4 or more characters in the map: 110 phonetic heads, each ringed by the characters that borrow its sound, biggest family first.
- The grading. The color of each line shows how much of the head’s sound survives in today’s Taiwan Mandarin: the same syllable and tone (33%), the same syllable in another tone (26%), or a rhyme only (42%).
- The sources. Readings are Taiwan Mandarin. The data comes from NAER’s TBCL character list, the Dong Chinese character wiki, CJK Decomposition Data and CC-CEDICT, all credited on the sheet.
Made for a study wall, a desk, or a lesson on 形聲字, the sound-and-meaning compounds. The PDF is vector, 24 × 35 inches, so it prints sharply at any size, from Letter or A4 up to a wall poster.
Explore the families in the map
Every family on the sheet has its own page with readings, meanings and the words it builds, and the map shows how each one connects to the rest. Start with 青, whose sound runs through 清、晴、請、情.
Free to print, copy and share. The poster and its adapted data are offered under CC BY-SA 4.0. The sources and what was changed are on the credits page. The sheet describes a curated set, not the whole script: links whose sound agreement scored under 50% were left out, which is why no family shows a member with no sound match at all.