(thing) by tres equis Tue Jun 11 2002 at 2:56:38
How to write Pinyin in Chinese: The characters are the same for both Traditional and Simplified Chinese:

拼 (拼 or 拼) pīn, pin1 = join together, link, incorporate
音 (音 or 音) yīn, yin1 = sound, tone, pitch, pronunciation
I like it!