Wade–Giles

Wade–Giles
Traditional Chinese	韋氏拼音
Simplified Chinese	韦氏拼音
Transcriptions Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wéi Shì Pīnyīn Tongyong Pinyin Wéi Shìh Pinyin Wade–Giles Wei2-shih4 P'in1-yin1 Gwoyeu Romatzyh Wei Shyh Pin'in MPS2 Wéi Shr̀ Pīnyīn Bopomofo ㄨㄟˊ ㄕˋ ㄆㄧㄣ ㄧㄣ
Alternative name
Traditional Chinese	威妥瑪拼音
Simplified Chinese	威妥玛拼音
Transcriptions Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wēituǒmǎ Pīnyīn Tongyong Pinyin Weituǒmǎ Pinyin Wade–Giles Wei1-t'o3-ma3 P'in1-yin1 Gwoyeu Romatzyh Ueituoomaa Pin'in MPS2 Wēituǒmǎ Pīnyīn Bopomofo ㄨㄟ ㄊㄨㄛˇ ㄇㄚˇ ㄆㄧㄣ ㄧㄣ

Wade–Giles (/ˌweɪd ˈdʒaɪlz/), sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892.

Wade–Giles was the general system of transcription in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books about China published in western countries before 1979.^[1] It replaced the Nanjing-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the 19th century. It has been entirely replaced by the pinyin system (developed by the Chinese government and approved during 1958)^[2] in mainland China. Outside mainland China, it has mostly been replaced by pinyin but remains common in history books, particularly those before the late 20th century. Additionally, its usage can still be seen in the common English names of certain individuals and locations such as Chiang Ching-kuo or Taipei.

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 Cambridge University. Wade published in 1867 the first textbook on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin in English, the Yü-yen tzu-erh chi (語言自邇集),^[3] 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 1912 by Herbert Allen Giles, a British diplomat in China and his son, Lionel Giles, a curator at the British Museum.^[4]

Taiwan has used Wade–Giles for decades as the de facto standard, co-existing with several official but obscure romanizations in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928), Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1986), and Tongyong pinyin (2000). With the election of the Nationalist government in 2008, Taiwan has officially switched to Hanyu pinyin. However, many signs and maps in Taiwan are still in Wade–Giles, and many Taiwanese, both native and overseas, use or transcribe their legal names in the Wade–Giles system.

Wade–Giles spellings and pinyin spellings for Taiwanese place names and words long accepted in English usage are still used interchangeably in English-language texts.

Initials and finals

The tables below show the Wade–Giles representation of each Chinese sound (in bold type), together with the corresponding IPA phonetic symbol (in square brackets), and equivalent representations in zhuyin fuhao and hanyu pinyin.

Initials

		Bilabial		Labiodental	Dental/Alveolar		Retroflex		Alveolo-palatal	Velar
		Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiceless
Nasal			m [m] ㄇ m			n [n] ㄋ n
Plosive	Unaspirated	p [p] ㄅ b			t [t] ㄉ d					k [k] ㄍ g
	Aspirated	p' [pʰ] ㄆ p			t' [tʰ] ㄊ t					k' [kʰ] ㄎ k
Affricate	Unaspirated				ts [ts] ㄗ z		ch [ʈʂ] ㄓ zh		ch [tɕ] ㄐ j
	Aspirated				ts' [tsʰ] ㄘ c		ch' [ʈʂʰ] ㄔ ch		ch' [tɕʰ] ㄑ q
Fricative				f [f] ㄈ f	s [s] ㄙ s		sh [ʂ] ㄕ sh	j [ʐ]/[r] ㄖ r	hs [ɕ] ㄒ x	h [x] ㄏ h
Lateral						l [l] ㄌ l

For variant representations (ts, ts', ss, tz, tz', sz) used before the "empty rime", see the Empty rime section, below.

Finals

The following is based on the phonological system shown in the table under Standard Chinese phonology → Alternative analyses.

Nucleus		a					ə						∅
Coda		∅	i	u	n	ŋ	∅	i	u	n	ŋ	ɻ
Medial	∅	a [ɑ] ㄚ a	ai [aɪ̯] ㄞ ai	ao [ɑʊ̯] ㄠ ao	an [ɑn] ㄢ an	ang [ɑŋ] ㄤ ang	ê/o [ɯ̯ʌ] ㄜ e	ei [eɪ̯] ㄟ ei	ou [ɤʊ̯] ㄡ ou	ên [ən] ㄣ en	êng [əŋ] ㄥ eng	êrh [ɑɻ] ㄦ er	ih/û [ɨ] ㄭ -i
	i	ia [i̯ɑ] ㄧㄚ ia		iao [i̯ɑʊ̯] ㄧㄠ iao	ien [i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ ian	iang [i̯ɑŋ] ㄧㄤ iang	ieh [i̯ɛ] ㄧㄝ ie		iu [i̯ɤʊ̯] ㄧㄡ iu	in [in] ㄧㄣ in	ing [iŋ] ㄧㄥ ing		i [i] ㄧ i
	u	ua [u̯ɑ] ㄨㄚ ua	uai [u̯ɑɪ̯] ㄨㄞ uai		uan [u̯ɑn] ㄨㄢ uan	uang [u̯ɑŋ] ㄨㄤ uang	o/uo [u̯ɔ] ㄨㄛ uo	ui [u̯eɪ̯] ㄨㄟ ui		un [u̯ən] ㄨㄣ un	ung [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ ong		u [u] ㄨ u
	y				üan [y̯ɛn] ㄩㄢ üan		üeh [y̯œ] ㄩㄝ üe			ün [yn] ㄩㄣ ün	iung [i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ iong		ü [y] ㄩ ü

System features

Consonants and initial symbols

A feature of the Wade–Giles system is the representation of the unaspirated-aspirated stop consonant pairs using apostrophes: p, p', t, t', k, k', ch, ch'. The use of apostrophes preserves b, d, g, and j for the romanization of Chinese languages 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 to indicate aspiration (this is similar to the superscript ʰ used in IPA). The convention of the apostrophe 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 apostrophes, even so far as leaving them out when copying texts, unaware that they represent vital information. Hanyu Pinyin 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 the apostrophe, the four sounds represented in Hanyu pinyin by j, q, zh, and ch all become ch in many literature and personal names. However, were the diacritics to be kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap:

• The non-retroflex ch (Pinyin j) and ch' (pinyin q) are always before either i or ü.
• The retroflex ch (Pinyin zh) and ch' (pinyin ch) are always before a, e, ih, o, or u.

Vowels and final symbols

Empty rime

Wade–Giles shows precisions not found in other major Romanizations in regard to the rendering of the two types of empty rimes (simplified Chinese: 空韵; traditional Chinese: 空韻; pinyin: kōngyùn):

• -u (formerly û) after the sibilants written in this position as tz (ts), tz' (ts') and sz (ss) (pinyin z, c and s).
• -ih after the retroflex ch, ch', sh, and j (pinyin zh, ch, sh, and r).

These empty rimes are all written as -i in Hanyu pinyin (hence distinguishable only by context from true i as in li), and as -ih in Tongyong pinyin. Zhuyin (Bopomofo) does not require the representation of any empty rime.

IPA		ʈʂ͡ɨ	ʈʂʰ͡ɨ	ʂ͡ɨ	ʐ͡ɨ	ʦ͡ɯ	ʦʰ͡ɯ	s͡ɯ
Wade–Giles	new	chih	ch'ih	shih	jih	tzu	tz'u	szu
	old					tsû	ts'û	ssû
Bopomofo		ㄓ	ㄔ	ㄕ	ㄖ	ㄗ	ㄘ	ㄙ
Pinyin		zhi	chi	shi	ri	zi	ci	si

Vowel o

Final o in Wade–Giles has two pronunciations in modern Mandarin: [u̯ɔ] and [ɤ]. What is pronounced today as a close-mid back unrounded vowel is written usually as ê as in pinyin, but sometimes as o, depending on historical pronunciation (at the time Wade-Giles was developed). Notably, after velar initials k-, k'- and h- (and a historical ng-, which has been dropped by the time Wade-Giles was developed), o is used for characters like "哥" (Wade-Giles ko, pinyin ge), though ê also exists after velars, like in "刻" (Wade-Giles k'ê, pinyin ke). Ê is used in other environments. By modern Mandarin, -o after velars (and what used to be ng-) have shifted to -ê, thus they are written as ge, ke, he and e in pinyin.

What is pronounced today as -uo is virtually always written as -o in Wade–Giles, except for characters like "說" (pronounced shuo even back at the time Wade-Giles was developed) and the three syllables of kuo, k'uo, and huo (as in 過, 霍, etc.), which contrasted with ko, k'o, and ho that correspond to pinyin ge, ke, and he. This is because characters like 羅, 多, etc. (Wade-Giles: lo, to; pinyin: luo, duo) did not originally carry the medial -u-. By modern Mandarin, the phonemic distinction between -o and -uo has been lost (except in interjections when used alone), and the medial -u- is added in front of -o, creating the modern -uo.

IPA	pu̯ɔ	pʰu̯ɔ	mu̯ɔ	fu̯ɔ	tu̯ɔ	tʰu̯ɔ	nu̯ɔ	lu̯ɔ	kɤ	kʰɤ	xɤ	ʈʂu̯ɔ	ʈʂʰu̯ɔ	ʐu̯ɔ	ʦu̯ɔ	ʦʰu̯ɔ	su̯ɔ
Wade–Giles	po	p'o	mo	fo	to	t'o	no	lo	ko	k'o	ho	cho	ch'o	jo	tso	ts'o	so
Bopomofo	ㄅㄛ	ㄆㄛ	ㄇㄛ	ㄈㄛ	ㄉㄨㄛ	ㄊㄨㄛ	ㄋㄨㄛ	ㄌㄨㄛ	ㄍㄜ	ㄎㄜ	ㄏㄜ	ㄓㄨㄛ	ㄔㄨㄛ	ㄖㄨㄛ	ㄗㄨㄛ	ㄘㄨㄛ	ㄙㄨㄛ
Pinyin	bo	po	mo	fo	duo	tuo	nuo	luo	ge	ke	he	zhuo	chuo	ruo	zuo	cuo	suo

Tones

Tones are indicated in Wade–Giles using superscript numbers (1–4) placed after the syllable; the neutral tone is denoted either by the super-script number '5' or '0' or, sometimes, by the absence of tone number. This contrasts with the use of diacritics to represent the tones in pinyin. For example, the pinyin qiàn (fourth tone) has the Wade–Giles equivalent ch'ien⁴. The tone numbers are generally omitted except in textbooks.

Punctuation

Wade–Giles uses hyphens to separate all syllables within a word (whereas pinyin separates syllables only in ambiguous cases, using apostrophes, as in Xi'an).

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 apostrophes, hyphens, and capitalization is frequently not observed in place names and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas Taiwanese write their given names like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade–Giles is actually "Tai-lun". (See also Chinese name.)

For the apostrophes used in Wade–Giles to denote aspirated consonants, Giles's original dictionary used left apostrophes (‘) consistently. This orientation was followed in Sinological works until the 1950s or 60s, when it started to be gradually replaced by right apostrophes (’) in academic literature. Online publications almost invariably use the plain apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are not included in Taiwanese passports, and are absent in overseas Chinese names.

Comparison with other systems

Pinyin

• Wade–Giles chose the French-like j to represent a Northerner's pronunciation of what is represented as r in Pinyin.
• Ü always has a trema (diaeresis) above, while pinyin only employs it in the cases of nü, lü, nüe and lüe, while leaving it out in -ue, ju-, qu-, xu-, -uan and yu- as a simplification because u cannot otherwise appear in those positions. Because yü (as in 玉 "jade") must have a diaeresis in Wade, the diaeresis-less yu in Wade–Giles is freed up for what corresponds to you (有) in Pinyin.
• The pinyin vowel cluster ong is ung in Wade–Giles. (Compare Kung Fu to Gong Fu as an example.)
• After a consonant, both the Wade–Giles and Pinyin vowel cluster uei is written ui. Furthermore, both Romanizations use iu and un instead of the complete syllables: iou and uen.
• Single i is never preceded by y, as in pinyin. The only exception is in placenames, which are hyphenless, so without a y, syllable ambiguity could arise.
• The isolated syllable eh is written as ê, like in pinyin. (Schwa is occasionally written as ê as well.) But unlike Pinyin, which uses -e if there is a consonant preceding the sound, Wade–Giles uses -eh. (See circumflex)
• In addition to being the schwa, ê also represents the pinyin er as êrh.

Chart

Vowels a, e, o, i

IPA	ä	ɔ	ɛ	ɯʌ	aɪ	eɪ	ɑʊ	ou	än	ən	ɑŋ	ɤŋ	ɑɻ	i	iɛ	iou	iɛn	in	iŋ
Pinyin	a	o	ê	e	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	er	yi	ye	you	yan	yin	ying
Tongyong Pinyin	a	o	e	e	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	er	yi	ye	you	yan	yin	ying
Wade–Giles	a	o	eh	o/ê	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	ên	ang	êng	êrh	i	yeh	yu	yen	yin	ying
Zhuyin	ㄚ	ㄛ	ㄝ	ㄜ	ㄞ	ㄟ	ㄠ	ㄡ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㄥ	ㄦ	ㄧ	ㄧㄝ	ㄧㄡ	ㄧㄢ	ㄧㄣ	ㄧㄥ
example	阿	哦	呗	俄	艾	黑	凹	偶	安	恩	昂	冷	二	一	也	又	言	音	英

Vowels u, y

IPA	u	uɔ	ueɪ	uən	uɤŋ	ʊŋ	y	yœ	yɛn	yn	iʊŋ
Pinyin	wu	wo/o	wei	wen	weng	ong	yu	yue	yuan	yun	yong
Tongyong Pinyin	wu	wo/o	wei	wun	wong	ong	yu	yue	yuan	yun	yong
Wade–Giles	wu	wo/o	wei	wên	wêng	ung	yü	yüeh	yüan	yün	yung
Zhuyin	ㄨ	ㄨㄛ/ㄛ	ㄨㄟ	ㄨㄣ	ㄨㄥ		ㄩ	ㄩㄝ	ㄩㄢ	ㄩㄣ	ㄩㄥ
example	五	我	位	文	翁	中	玉	月	元	云	用

Non-sibilant consonants

IPA	puɔ	pʰuɔ	muɔ	fɤŋ	tioʊ	tueɪ	tuən	tʰɯʌ	ny	ly	kɯʌɻ	kʰɯʌ	xɯʌ
Pinyin	bo	po	mo	feng	diu	dui	dun	te	nü	lü	ger	ke	he
Tongyong Pinyin	bo	po	mo	fong	diou	duei	dun	te	nyu	lyu	ger	ke	he
Wade–Giles	po	p'o	mo	fêng	tiu	tui	tun	t'ê	nü	lü	kêrh	k'o	ho
Zhuyin	ㄅㄛ	ㄆㄛ	ㄇㄛ	ㄈㄥ	ㄉㄧㄡ	ㄉㄨㄟ	ㄉㄨㄣ	ㄊㄜ	ㄋㄩ	ㄌㄩ	ㄍㄜㄦ	ㄎㄜ	ㄏㄜ
example	玻	婆	末	封	丟	兌	顿	特	女	旅	歌儿	可	何

Sibilant consonants

IPA	tɕiɛn	tɕiʊŋ	tɕʰin	ɕyɛn	ʈʂɯʌ	ʈʂɨ	ʈʂʰɯʌ	ʈʂʰɨ	ʂɯʌ	ʂɨ	ʐɯʌ	ʐɨ	tsɯʌ	tsuɔ	tsɯ	tsʰɯʌ	tsʰɯ	sɯʌ	sɯ
Pinyin	jian	jiong	qin	xuan	zhe	zhi	che	chi	she	shi	re	ri	ze	zuo	zi	ce	ci	se	si
Tongyong Pinyin	jian	jyong	cin	syuan	jhe	jhih	che	chih	she	shih	re	rih	ze	zuo	zih	ce	cih	se	sih
Wade–Giles	chien	chiung	ch'in	hsüan	chê	chih	ch'ê	ch'ih	shê	shih	jê	jih	tsê	tso	tzu	ts'ê	tz'u	sê	szu
Zhuyin	ㄐㄧㄢ	ㄐㄩㄥ	ㄑㄧㄣ	ㄒㄩㄢ	ㄓㄜ	ㄓ	ㄔㄜ	ㄔ	ㄕㄜ	ㄕ	ㄖㄜ	ㄖ	ㄗㄜ	ㄗㄨㄛ	ㄗ	ㄘㄜ	ㄘ	ㄙㄜ	ㄙ
example	件	窘	秦	宣	哲	之	扯	赤	社	是	惹	日	仄	左	字	策	次	色	斯

Tones

IPA	mä˥˥	mä˧˥	mä˨˩˦	mä˥˩	mä
Pinyin	mā	má	mǎ	mà	ma
Tongyong Pinyin	ma	má	mǎ	mà	må
Wade–Giles	ma1	ma2	ma3	ma4	ma, ma0, or ma5
Zhuyin	ㄇㄚ	ㄇㄚˊ	ㄇㄚˇ	ㄇㄚˋ	•ㄇㄚ
example (traditional/simplified)	媽/妈	麻/麻	馬/马	罵/骂	嗎/吗

Note: In Hanyu pinyin the so-called fifth accent (neutral accent) is written leaving the syllable with no diacritic mark at all. In Tongyong Pinyin a ring is written over the vowel instead.

Influences

Chinese Postal Map Romanization is based on Wade–Giles, but incorporating a number of exceptions that override the systematic rules.

See also

• Romanization of Chinese
• Wade–Giles table
• Simplified Wade
• Legge romanization
• Cyrillization of Chinese
• Daoism–Taoism romanization issue

References

External links

• Chinese Romanization Converter – Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade–Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
• Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin → Word list
• A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade-Giles to Pinyin
• Pinyin4j: Java library supporting Chinese to Wade-Giles – Support Simplified and Traditional Chinese; Support most popular Pinyin systems, including Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong 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 romanization
• Chinese 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.
• 國語拼音對照表