Lessing-Othmer

Lessing-Othmer is a romanisation of Mandarin Chinese that was once used by Germans written by F. Lessing and Dr. W. Othmer, who in 1912 printed their book "Lehrgang der nordchinesischen Umgangssprache" (Course in the North Chinese Colloquial Language) in Qingdao (Chinese: 青島; pinyin: Qīngdǎo) whilst it was a German colony in 1912 through the "Deutsch-Chinesische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt."

In 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China for Romanisation ruled that translations of foreign-language publications should use Lessing romanisation in German-speaking countries, and Pinyin in English-speaking countries.^[1]

Table

The tones romanized differently from Pinyin are highlighted in blue.

Initial

Finals

Nucleus		a					ə						∅
Coda		∅	i	u	n	ŋ	∅	i	u	n	ŋ	ɻ	∅	n	ŋ
Medial	∅	a [a] ㄚ a	ai [æi̯] ㄞ ai	au [ɑu̯] ㄠ ao	an [æn] ㄢ an	ang [ɑŋ] ㄤ ang	ö [ɤ] ㄜ e	e [ei̯] ㄟ ei	ou [ou̯] ㄡ ou	ën [ən] ㄣ en	ëng [əŋ] ㄥ eng	örl [ɐɚ̯] ㄦ er	ï [ɨ] ㄭ -i
	i	ia [i̯a] ㄧㄚ ia		iau [i̯ɑu̯] ㄧㄠ iao	iän [i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ ian	iang [i̯ɑŋ] ㄧㄤ iang	iä [i̯e] ㄧㄝ ie		iu [i̯ou̯] ㄧㄡ iu		ing [i̯əŋ] ㄧㄥ ing		i [i] ㄧ i	in [in] ㄧㄣ in
	u	ua [u̯a] ㄨㄚ ua	uai [u̯æi̯] ㄨㄞ uai		uan [u̯æn] ㄨㄢ uan	uang [u̯ɑŋ] ㄨㄤ uang	o [u̯o] ㄨㄛ uo	ui [u̯ei̯] ㄨㄟ ui		un [u̯ən] ㄨㄣ un	ung [u̯əŋ] ㄨㄥ ong		u [u] ㄨ u		ung [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ weng
	y				üan [y̯ɛn] ㄩㄢ üan		üä [y̯e] ㄩㄝ üe						ü [y] ㄩ ü	ün [yn] ㄩㄣ ün	iung [i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ iong

References

1. ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004 edition, "Pinyin romanization" article