Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS II) is a

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

system formerly used in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. It was created to replace the complex

Gwoyeu Romatzyh Gwoyeu Romatzyh ( ; GR) is a system for writing Standard Chinese using the Latin alphabet. It was primarily conceived by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), who led a group of linguists on the National Languages Committee in refining the system betwe ...

system, which used tonal spelling—and to co-exist with the

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles ( ) is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from the system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's '' A Chinese–English Dictionary'' ...

romanization as well as

bopomofo Bopomofo, also called Zhuyin Fuhao ( ; ), or simply Zhuyin, is a Chinese transliteration, transliteration system for Standard Chinese and other Sinitic languages. It is the principal method of teaching Chinese Mandarin pronunciation in Taiwa ...

. It is sometimes referred to as Gwoyeu Romatzyh 2 or GR2.

History

Based on the earlier and more complex

, the tentative version of MPS II was released on May 10, 1984, by the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

under the

Chiang Ching-kuo Chiang Ching-kuo (, 27 April 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China. The eldest and only biological son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China and ended ...

administration. After two years of feedback from the general public, the official version was established on January 28, 1986. To distinguish bopomofo () from MPS II, the former is officially called "Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I" (). Despite its official status for almost two decades until it was replaced by

Tongyong Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin was the official romanization of Taiwanese Mandarin, 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. ...

in 2002, MPS II existed only in some governmental publications (such as travel brochures and dictionaries). However, MPS II was not used for the official romanized names of Taiwanese places, though many road signs replaced during this period use it. It never gained the same status as did

. It is virtually unused overseas.

Table

Initials

Finals

Features

* Indication of tone by respelling, as used in

, is eliminated. Syllables are spelled like its tone one for non-nasal initials, and like tone two for nasal initials. Tone is then marked with four

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 ''diacrit ...

s identical to Zhuyin's. * The romanization of the consonants is identical to Gwoyeu Romatzyh's. * The empty rime is treated in the same way as

Yale romanization The Yale romanizations are four romanization systems created at Yale University for the following four East Asian languages: * Yale romanization of Mandarin * Yale romanization of Cantonese The Yale romanization of Cantonese was developed by ...

: ** It uses ''r'' for both: *** (pinyin ''r''), and *** what is written in pinyin as ''i'' after ''zh'', ''ch'', ''sh'', ''r''. (The use of ''r'' has a tonal diacritic on it and is always final.) ** It uses ''z'' for both: *** (pinyin ''z''), and *** what is written in pinyin as ''i'' after ''z'', ''c'', ''s''. (The use of ''z'' has a tonal diacritic on it and is always final.) *** The ''z'' is not written after ''tz'' (no ''tzz''), however. ''Tz'' corresponds to Pinyin ''zi'' (and Yale ''dz''). * Like GR, ''-iou'', ''-uen'', and ''-uei'' are all written out, unlike the

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

/ Wade ''-iu'', ''-un'', and ''-ui''. * GR's ''au'' persists, as opposed to the ''ao'' of

, Wade-Giles, and the later

. * GR's ''iu'' (Pinyin ''ü'') is written as ''-iu'' and ''yu'' (alone). * GR's ''-ong'' is spelled now ''-ung'' (like Wade-Giles). * GR's ''el'' is spelled now ''er'' (like

). * ''Y-'' and ''w-'' are added to or replace ''i'' and ''u'' (respectively), similarly to Gwoyeu Romatzyh and identical to Pinyin. An example phrase, "The second type of Chinese phonetic symbols":

Space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

s are generally used in place of

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. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

s, except in personal

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

s, which use hyphens in between the syllables of the

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 f ...

References

External links

Standard Mandarin Pinyin Table
The complete listing of all Pinyin syllables used in standard Mandarin, along with native speaker pronunciation for each syllable.

ROC government booklet on MPS II (in English and Chinese)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandarin Phonetic Symbols Ii Romanization of Chinese