11. The computer storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the executable software code further includes instructions for performing steps of: identifying a second Chinese ideogram, the second Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented Chinese dialect; defining a second roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination wherein the second roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to the user's preferred pronunciation of the second Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination; and associating the second roman alphabet equivalent with the second Chinese ideogram, wherein the second roman alphabet equivalent is different from the first roman alphabet equivalent.
8. A computer storage medium having executable software code, the executable software code including instructions for a computer to perform steps of: selecting an implemented Chinese dialect from among a plurality of stored dialects; displaying a matrix of phonetic combinations that excludes phonetic combinations corresponding to syllables not present in the implemented Chinese dialect; selecting a phonetic combination from the display of the displayed phonetic combinations from the implemented Chinese dialect; displaying a first Chinese ideogram, the first Chinese ideogram being associated with the selected phonetic combination in the implemented Chinese dialect; displaying a user interface usable by a user to define a first roman alphabet equivalent of the selected phonetic combination wherein the first roman alphabet equivalent corresponds to a user's preferred pronunciation of the first Chinese ideogram and does not match the displayed phonetic combination; and associating the first roman alphabet equivalent with the first Chinese ideogram.