白話字（或者叫做教會羅馬字）係喺明朝萬歷年間由西洋傳教士利馬竇傳入中國。白話字屬拼音字，基本上係西洋傳教士為咗傳教上嘅方便而設計發明嘅，用來學習各地語言，令使用各種唔同漢語嘅人，能夠透過羅馬字譯文來讀解基督教義。雖然佢本意係為咗傳教而設計嘅，但係佢對各地方言語音嘅記錄，提供咗唔少的幫助畀後代研究唔同漢語嘅學者。
Vernacular characters (or church romanizations) were introduced to China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty by the Western missionary Matteo Ricci. Vernacular characters are pinyin characters, which were basically designed and invented by Western missionaries for the convenience of missionary purposes, and were used to learn different languages, so that people who speak different Chinese languages can read and understand the teachings of Christ through Roman translations. Although he was originally designed for missionary purposes, his recording of the phonetics of various local dialects has provided much assistance to future generations of scholars studying different languages.