Wade–Giles
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Wade–Giles () is a
romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
system for
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
. It developed from a system produced by
Thomas Francis Wade Sir Thomas Francis Wade, (25August 181831July 1895) was a British diplomat and sinologist who produced an early Chinese textbook in English, in 1867, that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization system for M ...
, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with
Herbert A. Giles Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British dip ...
's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' of 1892. The romanization systems in common use until the late 19th century were based on the Nanjing dialect, but Wade–Giles was based on the Beijing dialect and was the system of transcription familiar in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century. Both of these kinds of transcription were used in postal romanizations (romanized place-names standardized for postal uses). In
mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
Wade–Giles has been mostly replaced by the
Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
romanization system, which was officially adopted in 1958, with exceptions for the romanized forms of some of the most commonly-used names of locations and persons, and other proper nouns. The romanized name for most locations, persons and other proper nouns in
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
is based on the Wade–Giles derived romanized form, for example
Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
, the
Matsu Islands The Matsu Islands ( or , ; Foochow Romanized: Mā-cū liĕk-dō̤), officially Lienchiang County (, ; Foochow Romanized: Lièng-gŏng-gâing), are an archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea governed by the Republic of China ( ...
and
Chiang Ching-kuo Chiang Ching-kuo (27 April 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China after its retreat to Taiwan. The eldest and only biological son of former president Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government ...
.


History

Wade–Giles was developed by
Thomas Francis Wade Sir Thomas Francis Wade, (25August 181831July 1895) was a British diplomat and sinologist who produced an early Chinese textbook in English, in 1867, that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization system for M ...
, a scholar of Chinese and a British ambassador in China who was the first professor of Chinese at
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Wade published in 1867 the first textbook on the
Beijing dialect The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of ...
of
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
in English,
Yü-yen Tzŭ-erh Chi
' (), which became the basis for the romanization system later known as Wade–Giles. The system, designed to transcribe Chinese terms for Chinese specialists, was further refined in 1892 by
Herbert Allen Giles Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British dip ...
(in ''
A Chinese–English Dictionary ''A Chinese–English Dictionary'' (1892), compiled by the British Consular Officer, consular officer and sinologist Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), is the first Chinese dictionary#Chinese–English dictionaries, Chinese–English encyclopedic ...
''), a British diplomat in China and his son,
Lionel Giles Lionel Giles (29 December 1875 – 22 January 1958) was a British sinologist, writer, and philosopher. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books. He is ...
, a curator at the British Museum.
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
used Wade–Giles for decades as the ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' standard, co-existing with several official
romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
s in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928), Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1986), and
Tongyong Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin () was the official romanization of Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. Taiwan's Ministry ...
(2000). The
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
party has previously promoted
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese ...
with
Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...
's successful presidential bid in 2008 and in a number of cities with
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
elected mayors. However, the current
Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served as ...
administration and
Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...
along with the majority of the people in Taiwan, both native and overseas, use spelling and transcribe their legal names in the Wade–Giles system, as well as the other aforementioned systems.


Initials and finals

The tables below show the Wade–Giles representation of each Chinese sound (in bold type), together with the corresponding
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
phonetic symbol (in square brackets), and equivalent representations in Bopomofo and
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese ...
.


Initials

Instead of ''ts'', ''ts'' and ''s'', Wade–Giles writes ''tz'', ''tz'' and ''ss'' before ''ŭ'' (see below).


Finals

Wade–Giles writes ''-uei'' after ''k'' and ''k'', otherwise ''-ui'': ''kuei'', ''kuei'', ''hui'', ''shui'', ''chui''. It writes as ''-o'' after ''k'', ''k'' and ''h'', otherwise as ''-ê'': ''ko'', ''ko'', ''ho'', ''shê'', ''chê''. When forms a syllable on its own, it is written ''ê'' or ''o'' depending on the character. Wade–Giles writes as ''-uo'' after ''k'', ''k'', ''h'' and ''sh'', otherwise as ''-o'': ''kuo'', ''kuo'', ''huo'', ''shuo'', ''cho''. For ''-ih'' and ''-ŭ'', see below. Giles's ''
A Chinese–English Dictionary ''A Chinese–English Dictionary'' (1892), compiled by the British Consular Officer, consular officer and sinologist Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), is the first Chinese dictionary#Chinese–English dictionaries, Chinese–English encyclopedic ...
'' also includes the syllables ''chio'', ''chio'', ''hsio'', ''yo'', which are pronounced like ''chüeh'', ''chüeh'', ''hsüeh'', ''yüeh'' in Peking dialect.


Syllables that begin with a medial

Wade–Giles writes the syllable as ''i'' or ''yi'' depending on the character.


System features


Consonants and initial symbols

A feature of the Wade–Giles system is the representation of the unaspirated-aspirated
stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
pairs using a character resembling an
apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...
. Thomas Wade and others have used the
spiritus asper In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( grc, δασὺ πνεῦμα, dasỳ pneûma or ''daseîa''; la, spīritus asper) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, d ...
( or ), borrowed from the
polytonic orthography Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period. The more complex polytonic orthography ( el, πολυτονικό σύστημα γραφής, translit=polytonikó sýstīma grafī́s), which includes fiv ...
of the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
language.
Herbert Giles Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British ...
and others have used a left (opening) curved single quotation mark (‘) for the same purpose. A third group used a plain
apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...
('). The backtick, and visually similar characters are sometimes seen in various electronic documents using the system. Examples using the spiritus asper: ''p, p, t, t, k, k, ch, ch''. The use of this character preserves ''b'', ''d'', ''g'', and ''j'' for the romanization of
Chinese varieties Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
containing
voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer ...
consonants, such as
Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the Districts of Shanghai, central districts of the Shanghai, City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as ...
(which has a full set of voiced consonants) and
Min Nan Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...
(Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old
Pe̍h-ōe-jī (; ; ), also sometimes known as the Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Southern Min Chinese, particularly Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien. Developed by Western missionaries working among the Chinese diaspora in South ...
(POJ, often called Missionary Romanization) is similar to Wade–Giles. POJ,
Legge romanization Legge romanization is a Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, used by the prolific 19th century sinologist James Legge. It was replaced by the Wade–Giles system, which itself has been mostly supplanted by P ...
, Simplified Wade, and
EFEO Chinese transcription The Chinese transcription of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) was the most used phonetic transcription of Chinese in the French-speaking world until the middle of the 20th century. While it is often deemed to have been devised by ...
use the letter instead of an apostrophe-like character to indicate aspiration. (This is similar to the obsolete
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
convention before the revisions of the 1970s). The convention of an apostrophe-like character or to denote aspiration is also found in romanizations of other Asian languages, such as
McCune–Reischauer McCune–Reischauer romanization () is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official romanization system in South Korea until 2002, when it was replaced by the Re ...
for
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
and ISO 11940 for
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
. People unfamiliar with Wade–Giles often ignore the spiritus asper, sometimes omitting them when copying texts, unaware that they represent vital information. Hànyǔ Pīnyīn addresses this issue by employing the Latin letters customarily used for voiced stops, unneeded in Mandarin, to represent the unaspirated stops: ''b, p, d, t, g, k, j, q, zh, ch.'' Partly because of the popular omission of apostrophe-like characters, the four sounds represented in Hànyǔ Pīnyīn by ''j'', ''q'', ''zh'', and ''ch'' often all become ''ch'', including in many proper names. However, if the apostrophe-like characters are kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap: * The non-
retroflex A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...
''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''j'') and ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''q'') are always before either ''ü'' or ''i'', but never ''ih''. * The
retroflex A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...
''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''zh'') and ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''ch'') are always before ''ih'', ''a'', ''ê'', ''e'', ''o'', or ''u''.


Vowels and final symbols


Syllabic consonants

Like
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, Wade–Giles renders the two types of syllabic consonant (; Wade–Giles: ''kung1-yün4'';
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese ...
: ''kōngyùn'') differently: * ''-ŭ'' is used after the
sibilant Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
s written in this position (and this position only) as ''tz'', ''tz'' and ''ss'' (Pīnyīn ''z'', ''c'' and ''s''). * ''-ih'' is used after the
retroflex A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...
''ch'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''j'' (Pīnyīn ''zh'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''r''). These finals are both written as ''-ih'' in
Tongyòng Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin () was the official romanization of Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. Taiwan's Ministry o ...
, as ''-i'' in
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese ...
(hence distinguishable only by the initial from as in ''li''), and as ''-y'' in Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Simplified Wade. They are typically omitted in Zhùyīn (Bōpōmōfō).


Vowel o

Final ''o'' in Wade–Giles has two pronunciations in modern Peking dialect: and . What is pronounced in vernacular Peking dialect as a
close-mid back unrounded vowel The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is , called "ram's horns." This symbol is distinct from the symbol f ...
is written usually as ''ê'', but sometimes as ''o'', depending on historical pronunciation (at the time Wade–Giles was developed). Specifically, after velar initials ''k'', ''k'' and ''h'' (and a historical ''ng'', which had been dropped by the time Wade–Giles was developed), ''o'' is used; for example, "哥" is ''ko1'' (Pīnyīn ''gē'') and "刻" is ''ko4'' (Pīnyīn ''kè''). In Peking dialect, ''o'' after velars (and what used to be ''ng'') have shifted to , thus they are written as ''ge'', ''ke'', ''he'' and ''e'' in Pīnyīn. When forms a syllable on its own, Wade–Giles writes ''ê'' or ''o'' depending on the character. In all other circumstances, it writes ''ê''. What is pronounced in Peking dialect as is usually written as ''o'' in Wade–Giles, except for ''wo'', ''shuo'' (e.g. "說" ''shuo1'') and the three syllables of ''kuo'', ''kuo'', and ''huo'' (as in 過, 霍, etc.), which contrast with ''ko'', ''ko'', and ''ho'' that correspond to Pīnyīn ''ge'', ''ke'', and ''he''. This is because characters like 羅, 多, etc. (Wade–Giles: ''lo2'', ''to1''; Pīnyīn: ''luó'', ''duō'') did not originally carry the medial . Peking dialect does not have phonemic contrast between ''o'' and ''-uo''/''wo'' (except in interjections when used alone) and a medial is usually inserted in front of ''-o'' to form . Note that Zhùyīn and Pīnyīn write as ㄛ ''-o'' after ㄅ ''b'', ㄆ ''p'', ㄇ ''m'' and ㄈ ''f'', and as ㄨㄛ ''-uo'' after all other initials.


Tones

Tones are indicated in Wade–Giles using superscript numbers (1–4) placed after the syllable. This contrasts with the use of diacritics to represent the tones in Pīnyīn. For example, the Pīnyīn ''qiàn'' (fourth tone) has the Wade–Giles equivalent ''chien4''.


Punctuation

Wade–Giles uses
hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...
s to separate all syllables within a word (whereas Pīnyīn separates syllables only in specially defined cases, using hyphens or closing (right) single quotation marks as appropriate). If a syllable is not the first in a word, its first letter is not capitalized, even if it is part of a
proper noun A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
. The use of apostrophe-like characters, hyphens, and capitalization is frequently not observed in place names and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas
Taiwanese people Taiwanese people may be generally considered the people of Taiwan who share a common culture, ancestry and speak Taiwanese Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka or indigenous Taiwanese languages as a mother tongue. Taiwanese people may also refer to the i ...
write their
given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
s like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade–Giles is actually "Tai-lun". (See also
Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are often a ...
s.)


Comparison with other systems


Pinyin

*Wade–Giles chose the French-like (implying a sound like IPA's , as in ''s'' in English ''measure'') to represent a Northern Mandarin pronunciation of what is represented as in pinyin (Northern Mandarin / Southern Mandarin ; generally considered
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
s). *''Ü'' (representing ) always has an umlaut above, while pinyin only employs it in the cases of , ', , ' and ', while leaving it out after ''j'', ''q'', ''x'' and ''y'' as a simplification because / cannot otherwise appear after those letters. (The vowel / can occur in those cases in pinyin where the diaeresis are indicated / or ; in which cases it serves to distinguish the
front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
from the
back vowel A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be c ...
. By contrast it is always present to mark the front vowel in Wade–Giles.) Because (as in "jade") must have an umlaut in Wade–Giles, the umlaut-less in Wade–Giles is freed up for what corresponds to ( "have"/"
there is English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts. This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English – a form of speech an ...
") in Pinyin. *The Pīnyīn cluster is in Wade–Giles, reflecting the pronunciation of as in English ''book'' . (Compare '' kung1-fu'' to as an example.) *After a consonant, both Wade–Giles and Pīnyīn use and instead of the complete syllables: and /.


Chart

Note: In Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, the so-called neutral tone is written leaving the syllable with no diacritic mark at all. In Tongyòng Pinyin, a ring is written over the vowel.


Adaptations

There are several adaptations of Wade–Giles.


''Mathews''

The Romanization system used in the 1943 edition of '' Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary'' differs from Wade–Giles in the following ways:'' Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary''. *It uses the right apostrophe: ''p'', ''t'', ''k'', ''ch'', ''ts'', ''tzŭ''; while Wade–Giles uses the left apostrophe, similar to the aspiration
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
used in the International Phonetic Alphabet before the revisions of the 1970s: ''p'', ''t'', ''k'', ''ch'', ''ts'', ''tzŭ''. *It consistently uses ''i'' for the syllable , while Wade–Giles uses ''i'' or ''yi'' depending on the character. *It uses ''o'' for the syllable , while Wade–Giles uses ''ê'' or ''o'' depending on the character. *It offers the choice between ''ssŭ'' and ''szŭ'', while Wade–Giles requires ''ssŭ''. *It does not use the spellings ''chio'', ''chio'', ''hsio'', ''yo'', replacing them with ''chüeh'', ''chüeh'', ''hsüeh'', ''yüeh'' in accordance with their modern pronunciations. *It uses an underscored ''3'' to denote a second tone which comes from an original third tone, but only if the following syllable has the neutral tone and the
tone sandhi Tone sandhi is a phonological change occurring in tonal languages, in which the tones assigned to individual words or morphemes change based on the pronunciation of adjacent words or morphemes. It usually simplifies a bidirectional tone into a ...
is therefore not predictable: ''hsiao3•chieh''. *It denotes the neutral tone by placing a dot (if the neutral tone is compulsory) or a circle (if the neutral tone is optional) before the syllable. The dot or circle replaces the hyphen.


Table


Gallery

Examples of Wade–Giles derived English language terminology: File:Sign of Buddhist Tzu Chi University at the main entrance.JPG,
Tzu Chi University Tzu Chi University (TCU; ) is a private university in Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan. It was founded by the Tzu Chi Foundation (NGO) and is famous in Taiwan for the quality of the medical education it provides. TCU has strong ties with H ...
, Hualien File:Lienchiang County Health Bureau and Lienchiang County Hospital 20140405.jpg,
Lienchiang County The Matsu Islands ( or , ; Foochow Romanized: Mā-cū liĕk-dō̤), officially Lienchiang County (, ; Foochow Romanized: Lièng-gŏng-gâing), are an archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea governed by the Republic of China ( ...
Hospital and Health Bureau File:Emblem of Pingtung County.svg, Emblem of
Pingtung County Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...


See also

*
Comparison of Chinese transcription systems This comparison of Standard Mandarin transcription systems comprises a list of all syllables which are considered phonemically distinguishable within Standard Mandarin. Gwoyeu Romatzyh employs a different ''spelling'' for each tone, whereas ot ...
* Simplified Wade *
Daoism–Taoism romanization issue The English words Daoism () and Taoism ( or ) are alternative spellings for the same-named Chinese philosophy and religion. The root for Daoism or Taoism is the Chinese word 道 ("road" or "way"), which was transcribed '' tao'' or ''tau'' in t ...
*
Legge romanization Legge romanization is a Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, used by the prolific 19th century sinologist James Legge. It was replaced by the Wade–Giles system, which itself has been mostly supplanted by P ...
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Romanization of Chinese Romanization of Chinese () is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Chinese. Chinese uses a logographic script and its characters do not represent phonemes directly. There have been many systems using Roman characters to represent Chin ...
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Cyrillization of Chinese The Cyrillization of Chinese (''Hanyu Cyril Pinyin'') is the transcription of Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet. The Palladius System is the official Russian standard for transcribing Chinese into Russian, with variants existing for U ...


References


Bibliography

Giles, Herbert A. ''A Chinese–English Dictionary''. 2-vol. & 3-vol. versions both. London: Shanghai: Bernard Quaritch; Kelly and Walsh, 1892.
Rev. & enlarged 2nd ed.
in 3 vols.
Vol. I: front-matter & ''a''-''hsü''Vol. II: ''hsü''-''shao''
an
Vol. III: ''shao''-''yün''
, Shanghai: Hong Kong: Singapore: Yokohama: London: Kelly & Walsh, Limited; Bernard Quaritch, 1912. Rpt. of the 2nd ed. but in 2 vols. and bound as 1, New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1964.


Further reading

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Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...


External links

* ttp://www.mandarintools.com/pyconverter.html Chinese Romanization Converter– Convert between Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, Wade–Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade–Giles to PīnyīnPinyin4j: Java library supporting Chinese to Wade–Giles
– Support Simplified and Traditional Chinese; Support most popular Romanization systems, including Hànyŭ Pīnyīn, Tongyòng Pinyin, Wade–Giles, MPS2, Yale and Gwoyeu Romatzyh; Support multiple pronunciations of a single character; Support customized output, such as ü or tone marks.
''Chinese without a teacher'', Chinese phrasebook by Herbert Giles with RomanizationChinese Phonetic Conversion Tool
– Converts between Wade–Giles and other formats
Wade–Giles Annotation
– Wade–Giles pronunciation and English definitions for Chinese text snippets or web pages.


Key to Wade–Giles romanization of Chinese characters: November 1944
(
Army Map Service The Army Map Service (AMS) was the military cartography, cartographic agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1941 to 1968, subordinated to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On September 1, 1968, the AMS was redesignated th ...
) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wade-Giles Romanization of Chinese Writing systems introduced in 1892