Wade–Giles

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Wade–Giles
Script type romanization
Creator Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles
Created19th century
Languages Mandarin Chinese
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 BCP 47 variant subtag: wadegile [1]
Chinese 拼音
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Wēi-Zhái Shì Pīnyīn
Bopomofo ㄨㄟ ㄓㄞˊ ㄕˋ ㄆㄧㄣ ㄧㄣ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Uei Jair Shyh Pin'in
Wade–Giles Wei1 Chai2 Shih4 Pʻin1-yin1
Tongyong Pinyin Wei Jhái Shìh Pin-yin
Yale Romanization Wēi Jái Shr̀ Pīnyīn
MPS2 Wēi Jái Shr̀ Pīnyīn
IPA [wéɪ ʈʂǎɪ ʂɻ̩̂ pʰín.ín]
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Map of the Taiwan Strait, featuring names using Wade-Giles in Taiwan versus those using pinyin in mainland China Taiwan Strait.png
Map of the Taiwan Strait, featuring names using Wade–Giles in Taiwan versus those using pinyin in mainland China

Wade–Giles ( /wdlz/ wayd jylze) 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 (1892).

Contents

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, Wade–Giles has been mostly replaced by Hanyu Pinyin, 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 is based on the Wade–Giles derived romanized form, for example Kaohsiung, the Matsu Islands and Chiang Ching-kuo.

History

Wade–Giles was developed by Thomas Francis Wade, a scholar of Chinese and a British ambassador in China who was the first professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge. Wade published Yü-yen Tzŭ-erh Chi (語言自邇集; 语言自迩集) [2] in 1867, the first textbook on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin in English, [3] which became the basis for the system later known as Wade–Giles. The system, designed to transcribe Chinese terms for Chinese specialists, was further refined in 1892 by Herbert Giles (in A Chinese–English Dictionary ), a British diplomat in China, and his son Lionel Giles,[ citation needed ] a curator at the British Museum. [4]

Taiwan used Wade–Giles for decades as the de facto standard, co-existing with several official romanizations in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928), Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1986), and Tongyong Pinyin (2000). The Kuomintang (KMT) has previously promoted pinyin with Ma Ying-jeou's successful presidential bid in 2008 and in a number of cities with Kuomintang mayors.[ citation needed ]However, the Tsai Ing-wen administration and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) along with the majority of the people in Taiwan, both native and overseas, use spelling and transcribe their legal names based on the Wade–Giles system, as well as the other aforementioned systems.[ citation needed ]

Initials and finals

The tables below show the Wade–Giles representation of each Chinese sound (in bold type), [5] together with the corresponding IPA phonetic symbol (in square brackets), and equivalent representations in Bopomofo and Hanyu Pinyin.

Initials

Labial Dental/Alveolar Retroflex Alveolo-palatal Velar
Nasal m [m]
ㄇ m
n [n]
ㄋ n
Plosive Unaspirated p [p]
ㄅ b
t [t]
ㄉ d
k [k]
ㄍ g
Aspirated [pʰ]
ㄆ p
[tʰ]
ㄊ t
[kʰ]
ㄎ k
Affricate Unaspirated ts [ts]
ㄗ z
ch [ʈʂ]
ㄓ zh
ch [tɕ]
ㄐ j
Aspirated tsʻ [tsʰ]
ㄘ c
chʻ [ʈʂʰ]
ㄔ ch
chʻ [tɕʰ]
ㄑ q
Fricative f [f]
ㄈ f
s [s]
ㄙ s
sh [ʂ]
ㄕ sh
hs [ɕ]
ㄒ x
h [x]
ㄏ h
Liquid l [l]
ㄌ l
j [ɻ~ʐ]
ㄖ r

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

Finals

Coda
/i//u//n//ŋ//ɻ/
Medialih/ŭ
[ɨ]
MoeKai Bopomofo U+312D.svg -i
ê/o
[ɤ]
ㄜ e
a
[a]
ㄚ a
ei
[ei]
ㄟ ei
ai
[ai]
ㄞ ai
ou
[ou]
ㄡ ou
ao
[au]
ㄠ ao
ên
[ən]
ㄣ en
an
[an]
ㄢ an
ung
[ʊŋ]
ㄨㄥ ong
êng
[əŋ]
ㄥ eng
ang
[aŋ]
ㄤ ang
êrh
[aɚ̯]
ㄦ er
/j/i
[i]
ㄧ i
ieh
[je]
ㄧㄝ ie
ia
[ja]
ㄧㄚ ia
iu
[jou]
ㄧㄡ iu
iao
[jau]
ㄧㄠ iao
in
[in]
ㄧㄣ in
ien
[jɛn]
ㄧㄢ ian
iung
[jʊŋ]
ㄩㄥ iong
ing
[iŋ]
ㄧㄥ ing
iang
[jaŋ]
ㄧㄤ iang
/w/u
[u]
ㄨ u
o/uo
[wo]
ㄛ/ㄨㄛ o/uo
ua
[wa]
ㄨㄚ ua
ui/uei
[wei]
ㄨㄟ ui
uai
[wai]
ㄨㄞ uai
un
[wən]
ㄨㄣ un
uan
[wan]
ㄨㄢ uan
uang
[waŋ]
ㄨㄤ uang
/ɥ/ü
[y]
ㄩ ü
üeh
[ɥe]
ㄩㄝ üe
ün
[yn]
ㄩㄣ ün
üan
[ɥɛn]
ㄩㄢ üan

Wade–Giles writes -uei after kʻ and k, otherwise -ui: kʻuei, kuei, hui, shui, chʻui.

It writes [-ɤ] as -o after kʻ, k and h, otherwise as : kʻo, ko, ho, shê, chʻê. When [ɤ] forms a syllable on its own, it is written ê or o depending on the character.

Wade–Giles writes [-wo] as -uo after kʻ, k, h and sh, otherwise as -o: kʻuo, kuo, huo, shuo, bo, tso. After chʻ, it is written chʻo or chʻuo depending on the character.

For -ih and , see below.

Giles's A Chinese–English Dictionary also includes the finals -io (in yo, chio, chʻio, hsio, lio and nio) and -üo (in chüo, chʻüo, hsüo, lüo and nüo), both of which are pronounced -üeh in modern Standard Chinese: yüeh, chüeh, chʻüeh, hsüeh, lüeh and nüeh.

Syllables that begin with a medial

Coda
/i//u//n//ŋ/
Medial/j/i/yi
[i]
ㄧ yi
yeh
[je]
ㄧㄝ ye
ya
[ja]
ㄧㄚ ya
yai
[jai]
ㄧㄞ yai
yu
[jou]
ㄧㄡ you
yao
[jau]
ㄧㄠ yao
yin
[in]
ㄧㄣ yin
yen
[jɛn]
ㄧㄢ yan
yung
[jʊŋ]
ㄩㄥ yong
ying
[iŋ]
ㄧㄥ ying
yang
[jaŋ]
ㄧㄤ yang
/w/wu
[u]
ㄨ wu
wo
[wo]
ㄨㄛ wo
wa
[wa]
ㄨㄚ wa
wei
[wei]
ㄨㄟ wei
wai
[wai]
ㄨㄞ wai
wên
[wən]
ㄨㄣ wen
wan
[wan]
ㄨㄢ wan
wêng
[wəŋ]
ㄨㄥ weng
wang
[waŋ]
ㄨㄤ wang
/ɥ/
[y]
ㄩ yu
yüeh
[ɥe]
ㄩㄝ yue
yün
[yn]
ㄩㄣ yun
yüan
[ɥɛn]
ㄩㄢ yuan

Wade–Giles writes the syllable [i] 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 pairs using a character resembling an apostrophe. Thomas Wade and others used the spiritus asper (ʽ or ʻ), borrowed from the polytonic orthography of the Ancient Greek language. Herbert Giles and others used a left (opening) curved single quotation mark (‘) for the same purpose. A third group used a plain apostrophe ('). The backtick, and visually similar characters, are sometimes seen in various electronic documents using the system.

Examples using the spiritus asper: p, pʻ, t, tʻ, k, kʻ, ch, chʻ. The use of this character preserves b, d, g, and j for the romanization of Chinese varieties containing voiced consonants, such as Shanghainese (which has a full set of voiced consonants) and Min Nan (Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ, often called Missionary Romanization) is similar to Wade–Giles. POJ, Legge romanization, Simplified Wade, and EFEO Chinese transcription use the letter h instead of an apostrophe-like character to indicate aspiration. (This is similar to the obsolete IPA convention before the revisions of the 1970s). The convention of an apostrophe-like character or h to denote aspiration is also found in romanizations of other Asian languages, such as McCune–Reischauer for Korean and ISO 11940 for Thai.

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:

Vowels and final symbols

Syllabic consonants

Like Yale and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, Wade–Giles renders the two types of syllabic consonant (simplified Chinese :空韵; traditional Chinese :空韻; Wade–Giles: kʻung1-yün4; Hànyǔ Pīnyīn: kōngyùn) differently:

  • is used after the sibilants written in this position (and this position only) as tz, tzʻ and ss (Pīnyīn z, c and s).
  • -ih is used after the retroflex ch, chʻ, sh, and j (Pīnyīn zh, ch, sh, and r).

These finals are both written as -ih in Tongyòng Pinyin, as -i in Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (hence distinguishable only by the initial from [i] as in li), and as -y in Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Simplified Wade. They are typically omitted in Zhùyīn (Bōpōmōfō).

IPA ʈ͡ʂɻ̩ʈ͡ʂʰɻ̩ʂɻ̩ɻɻ̩t͡sɹ̩t͡sʰɹ̩sɹ̩
Yale jrchrshrrdztszsz
MPS II jrchrshrrtztszsz
Wade–Gileschihchʻihshihjihtzŭtzʻŭssŭ
Tongyòng Pinyin jhihchihshihrihzihcihsih
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn zhichishirizicisi
Gwoyeu Romatzyh jychyshyrytzytsysy
Simplified Wade chychhyshyrytsytshysy
Zhùyīn

Vowel o

Final o in Wade–Giles has two pronunciations in modern Peking dialect: [wo] and [ɤ].

What is pronounced in vernacular Peking dialect as a close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ] 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, kʻ 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 ) and "刻" is kʻo4 [6] (Pīnyīn ). In Peking dialect, o after velars (and what used to be ng) have shifted to [ɤ], thus they are written as ge, ke, he and e in Pīnyīn. When [ɤ] 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 [wo] is usually written as o in Wade–Giles, except for wo, shuo (e.g. "說" shuo1) and the three syllables of kuo, kʻuo, and huo (as in 過, 霍, etc.), which contrast with ko, kʻo, 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 [w]. Peking dialect does not have phonemic contrast between o and -uo/wo (except in interjections when used alone) and a medial [w] is usually inserted in front of -o to form [wo].

IPA pwopʰwomwofwotwotʰwonwolwokʰɤʈ͡ʂwoʈ͡ʂʰwoʐwot͡swot͡sʰwoswoɤwo
Wade–Gilespopʻomofototʻonolokokʻohochochʻojotsotsʻosoo/êwo
Zhùyīn ㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛㄨㄛ
Pīnyīn bopomofoduotuonuoluogekehezhuochuoruozuocuosuoewo

Zhùyīn and Pīnyīn write [wo] 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 chʻien4.

ToneSample text

(s; t; lit)

Hanyu PinyinWade–Giles
1. high; ; 'mom'ma1
2. rising; 'hemp' [a] ma2
3. low (dipping); ; 'horse'ma3
4. falling; ; 'scold'ma4
5. neutral [b] ; ; (interrogative)mama
  1. Simplified and traditional characters are the same
  2. See neutral tone for more.

Punctuation

Wade–Giles uses hyphens 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. 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 write their given names like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade–Giles is actually "Tai-lun". (See also Chinese names.)

Comparison with other systems

Pinyin

Chart

Vowels a, e, o
IPA aɔɛɤaieiauouanənəŋʊŋ
Pinyin aoêeaieiaoouanenangengonger
Tongyong Pinyin
Wade–Giles ehê/oênêngungêrh
Bopomofo ㄨㄥ
example
Vowels i, u, y
IPA ijejoujɛninjʊŋuwoweiwənwəŋyɥeɥɛnyn
Pinyin yiyeyouyanyinyingyongwuwo/oweiwenwengyuyueyuanyun
Tongyong Pinyin wunwong
Wade–Giles i/yiyehyuyenyungwênwêngyüehyüanyün
Bopomofo ㄧㄝㄧㄡㄧㄢㄧㄣㄧㄥㄩㄥㄨㄛ/ㄛㄨㄟㄨㄣㄨㄥㄩㄝㄩㄢㄩㄣ
example
Non-sibilant consonants
IPA pmfəŋtjoutweitwəntʰɤnylykʰɤ
Pinyin bpmfengdiuduiduntegekehe
Tongyong Pinyin fongdioudueinyulyu
Wade–Giles ppʻfêngtiutuituntʻêkokʻoho
Bopomofo ㄈㄥㄉㄧㄡㄉㄨㄟㄉㄨㄣㄊㄜㄋㄩㄌㄩㄍㄜㄎㄜㄏㄜ
example
Sibilant consonants
IPA tɕjɛntɕjʊŋtɕʰinɕɥɛnʈʂɤʈʂɨʈʂʰɤʈʂʰɨʂɤʂɨɻɤɻɨtsɤtswotsɨtsʰɤtsʰɨ
Pinyin jianjiongqinxuanzhezhichechisheshirerizezuozicecisesi
Tongyong Pinyin jyongcinsyuanjhejhihchihshihrihzihcihsih
Wade–Giles chienchiungchʻinhsüanchêchihchʻêchʻihshêshihjihtsêtsotzŭtsʻêtzʻŭssŭ
Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄢㄐㄩㄥㄑㄧㄣㄒㄩㄢㄓㄜㄔㄜㄕㄜㄖㄜㄗㄜㄗㄨㄛㄘㄜㄙㄜ
example
Tones
IPA ma˥ma˧˥ma˨˩˦ma˥˩ma
Pinyin ma
Tongyong Pinyin ma
Wade–Giles ma1ma2ma3ma4ma
Bopomofo ㄇㄚㄇㄚˊㄇㄚˇㄇㄚˋ˙ㄇㄚ
example (Chinese characters)

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: [7]

Table

Examples of Wade–Giles derived English language terminology:

See also

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The different varieties of Chinese have been transcribed into many other writing systems.

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The Yale romanization of Mandarin is a system for transcribing the sounds of Standard Chinese, based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It was devised in 1943 by the Yale sinologist George Kennedy for a course teaching Chinese to American soldiers, and was popularized by continued development of that course at Yale. The system approximated Chinese sounds using English spelling conventions, in order to accelerate acquisition of correct pronunciation by English speakers.

References

  1. "Language Subtag Registry". IANA. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  2. Wade, Thomas Francis (1867). Yü-yen Tzŭ-erh Chi: A Progressive Course Designed to Assist the Student of Colloquial Chinese, As Spoken in the Capital and the Metropolitan Department (in Chinese). London: Trübner.
  3. Kaske, Elisabeth (2008). The Politics of Language in Chinese Education: 1895–1919. Brill. p. 68. ISBN   978-9-004-16367-6.
  4. "Chinese Language Transliteration Systems – Wade–Giles". UCLA film and television archive. Archived from the original on 28 January 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2007. (Web archive)
  5. A Chinese–English Dictionary .
  6. A Chinese–English Dictionary , p. 761.
  7. Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary .

Bibliography

Further reading