Wade–Giles

Wade–Giles
Traditional Chinese	韋氏拼音
Simplified Chinese	韦氏拼音
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wéi Shì Pīnyīn Bopomofo ㄨㄟˊ   ㄕˋ   ㄆㄧㄣ   ㄧㄣ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Wei Shyh Pin'in Wade–Giles Wei^2 Shih^4 Pʻin^1-yin^1 Tongyong Pinyin Wéi Shìh Pinyin MPS2 Wéi Shr̀ Pīnyīn
Alternative name
Traditional Chinese	威妥瑪拼音
Simplified Chinese	威妥玛拼音
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wēituǒmǎ Pīnyīn Bopomofo ㄨㄟ   ㄊㄨㄛˇ   ㄇㄚˇ ㄆㄧㄣ   ㄧㄣ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Ueituoomaa Pin'in Wade–Giles Wei^1-tʻo^3-ma^3 Pʻin^1-yin^1 Tongyong Pinyin Weituǒmǎ Pinyin MPS2 Wēituǒmǎ Pīnyīn

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 A. Giles's Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892.

Wade–Giles was the system of transcription in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in standard reference books and in English language books published before 1979. It replaced the Nanking dialect-based romanization systems that had been common until the late 19th century, such as the Postal Romanization (still used in some place-names). In mainland China it has been entirely replaced by the Hànyǔ Pīnyīn system approved in 1958. Outside mainland China, it has mostly been replaced by Pīnyīn, even though Taiwan implements a multitude of Romanization systems in daily life. Additionally, its usage can be seen in the common English names of certain individuals and locations such as Chiang Ching-kuo. In Southeast Asia, Wade-Giles was used to some extent to transcribe some places and names, such as Lee Hsien Loong, until mostly being replaced by Hanyu Pinyin, with most Romanized names currently being non-systematic transcriptions of Hokkien, Teochew and other non-Standard Mandarin varieties of Chinese.

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, Yü-yen Tzŭ-erh Chi (traditional: 語言自邇集; simplified: 语言自迩集),^[1] 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.^[2]

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 Tongyòng Pinyin (2000). With the election of the Kuomintang party in Taiwan in 2008, Taiwan officially switched to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn. However, many people in Taiwan, both native and overseas, use or transcribe their legal names in the Wade–Giles system, as well the other aforementioned systems.

Singapore has also made limited use of Wade romanization.

Initials and finals

The tables below show the Wade–Giles representation of each Chinese sound (in bold type),^[3] together with the corresponding IPA phonetic symbol (in square brackets), and equivalent representations in Zhùyīn Fúhào (Bōpōmōfō) and Hànyǔ Pīnyīn.

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	pʻ [pʰ] ㄆ p			tʻ [tʰ] ㄊ t					kʻ [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] 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/
Medial	∅	ih/ŭ [ɨ] ㄭ -i	ê/o [ɤ] ㄜ e	a [a] ㄚ a	ei [ei̯] ㄟ ei	ai [ai̯] ㄞ ai	ou [ou̯] ㄡ ou	ao [au̯] 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
	/i/	i [i] ㄧ i	ieh [i̯e] ㄧㄝ ie	ia [i̯a] ㄧㄚ ia			iu [i̯ou̯] ㄧㄡ iu	iao [i̯au̯] ㄧㄠ iao	in [in] ㄧㄣ in	ien [i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ ian	iung [i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ iong	ing [iŋ] ㄧㄥ ing	iang [i̯aŋ] ㄧㄤ iang
	/u/	u [u] ㄨ u	o/uo [u̯o] ㄛ/ㄨㄛ o/uo	ua [u̯a] ㄨㄚ ua	ui/uei [u̯ei̯] ㄨㄟ ui	uai [u̯ai̯] ㄨㄞ uai			un [u̯ən] ㄨㄣ un	uan [u̯an] ㄨㄢ uan			uang [u̯aŋ] ㄨㄤ uang
	/y/	ü [y] ㄩ ü	üeh [y̯e] ㄩㄝ üe						ün [yn] ㄩㄣ ün	üan [y̯ɛn] 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 -ê: 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 [-u̯o] as -uo after kʻ, k, h and sh, otherwise -o: kʻuo, kuo, huo, shuo, chʻo.

For -ih and -ŭ, see below.

Giles's A Chinese-English Dictionary also includes the syllables chio, chʻio, hsio, yo, which are now pronounced like chüeh, chʻüeh, hsüeh, yüeh.

Syllables that begin with a medial

		Coda
		∅			/i/		/u/		/n/		/ŋ/
Medial	/i/	i/yi [i] ㄧ yi	yeh [i̯e] ㄧㄝ ye	ya [i̯a] ㄧㄚ ya		yai [i̯ai̯] ㄧㄞ yai	yu [i̯ou̯] ㄧㄡ you	yao [i̯au̯] ㄧㄠ yao	yin [in] ㄧㄣ yin	yen [i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ yan	yung [i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ yong	ying [iŋ] ㄧㄥ ying	yang [i̯aŋ] ㄧㄤ yang
	/u/	wu [u] ㄨ wu	wo [u̯o] ㄨㄛ wo	wa [u̯a] ㄨㄚ wa	wei [u̯ei̯] ㄨㄟ wei	wai [u̯ai̯] ㄨㄞ wai			wên [u̯ən] ㄨㄣ wen	wan [u̯an] ㄨㄢ wan		wêng [u̯əŋ] ㄨㄥ weng	wang [u̯aŋ] ㄨㄤ wang
	/y/	yü [y] ㄩ yu	yüeh [y̯e] ㄩㄝ yue						yün [yn] ㄩㄣ yun	yüan [y̯ɛn] 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 left apostrophes: p, pʻ, t, tʻ, k, kʻ, ch, chʻ. The use of apostrophes 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 to indicate aspiration (this is similar to the superscript ʰ used in IPA since the revisions of the 1970s). The convention of an 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, 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 the apostrophe, 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 apostrophes are kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap:

• The non-retroflex ch (Pīnyīn j) and chʻ (Pīnyīn q) are always before either i or ü.
• The retroflex ch (Pīnyīn zh) and chʻ (Pīnyīn ch) are always before a, ê, ih, o, or u.

Vowels and final symbols

Syllabic consonants

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

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

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

IPA		ʈ͡ʂɻ̩	ʈ͡ʂʰɻ̩	ʂɻ̩	ɻɻ̩	t͡sɹ̩	t͡sʰɹ̩	sɹ̩
Wade–Giles		chih	chʻih	shih	jih	tzŭ	tzʻŭ	ssŭ
Zhùyīn		ㄓ	ㄔ	ㄕ	ㄖ	ㄗ	ㄘ	ㄙ
Pīnyīn		zhi	chi	shi	ri	zi	ci	si

Vowel o

Final o in Wade–Giles has two pronunciations in modern Mandarin: [u̯o] and [ɤ].

What is pronounced today 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 gē) and "刻" is kʻo^4[4] (Pīnyīn kè). By modern Mandarin, 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 today as [u̯o] 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 [u̯]. By modern Mandarin, the phonemic distinction between o and -uo/wo has been lost (except in interjections when used alone), and the medial [u̯] is added in front of -o, creating the modern [u̯o].

IPA	pu̯o	pʰu̯o	mu̯o	fu̯o	tu̯o	tʰu̯o	nu̯o	lu̯o	kɤ	kʰɤ	xɤ	ʈʂu̯o	ʈʂʰu̯o	ʐu̯o	ʦu̯o	ʦʰu̯o	su̯o	ɤ	u̯o
Wade–Giles	po	pʻo	mo	fo	to	tʻo	no	lo	ko	kʻo	ho	cho	chʻo	jo	tso	tsʻo	so	o/ê	wo
Zhùyīn	ㄅㄛ	ㄆㄛ	ㄇㄛ	ㄈㄛ	ㄉㄨㄛ	ㄊㄨㄛ	ㄋㄨㄛ	ㄌㄨㄛ	ㄍㄜ	ㄎㄜ	ㄏㄜ	ㄓㄨㄛ	ㄔㄨㄛ	ㄖㄨㄛ	ㄗㄨㄛ	ㄘㄨㄛ	ㄙㄨㄛ	ㄜ	ㄨㄛ
Pīnyīn	bo	po	mo	fo	duo	tuo	nuo	luo	ge	ke	he	zhuo	chuo	ruo	zuo	cuo	suo	e	wo

Note that Zhùyīn and Pīnyīn write [u̯o] 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.

Punctuation

Wade–Giles uses hyphens to separate all syllables within a word (whereas Pīnyīn separates syllables only in specially defined cases, using hyphens or right apostrophes 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 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.)

Comparison with other systems

Pīnyīn

• Wade–Giles chose the French-like j (implying a sound like IPA's [ʒ]) to represent a Northern Mandarin pronunciation of what is represented as r in Pīnyīn.
• Ü always has an umlaut above, while Pīnyīn only employs it in the cases of nü, lü, nüe and lüe, while leaving it out after j, q, x and y as a simplification because u cannot otherwise appear after those letters. Because yü (as in 玉 "jade") must have an umlaut in Wade–Giles, the umlaut-less yu in Wade–Giles is freed up for what corresponds to you (有) in Pinyin.
• The Pīnyīn cluster -ong is -ung in Wade–Giles. (Compare kung¹-fu to gōngfu as an example.)
• After a consonant, both Wade–Giles and Pīnyīn use -iu and -un instead of the complete syllables: -iou and -uên/-uen.

Chart

Vowels a, e, o

IPA	a	ɔ	ɛ	ɤ	ai	ei	au	ou	an	ən	aŋ	əŋ	ʊŋ	aɚ
Pinyin	a	o	ê	e	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	ong	er
Tongyong Pinyin	a	o	e	e	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	ong	er
Wade–Giles	a	o	eh	ê/o	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	ên	ang	êng	ung	êrh
Zhuyin	ㄚ	ㄛ	ㄝ	ㄜ	ㄞ	ㄟ	ㄠ	ㄡ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㄥ	ㄨㄥ	ㄦ
example	阿	哦	呗	俄	艾	黑	凹	偶	安	恩	昂	冷	中	二

Vowels i, u, y

IPA	i	ie	iou	iɛn	in	iŋ	iʊŋ	u	uo	uei	uən	uəŋ	y	ye	yɛn	yn
Pinyin	yi	ye	you	yan	yin	ying	yong	wu	wo/o	wei	wen	weng	yu	yue	yuan	yun
Tongyong Pinyin	yi	ye	you	yan	yin	ying	yong	wu	wo/o	wei	wun	wong	yu	yue	yuan	yun
Wade–Giles	i/yi	yeh	yu	yen	yin	ying	yung	wu	wo/o	wei	wên	wêng	yü	yüeh	yüan	yün
Zhuyin	ㄧ	ㄧㄝ	ㄧㄡ	ㄧㄢ	ㄧㄣ	ㄧㄥ	ㄩㄥ	ㄨ	ㄨㄛ/ㄛ	ㄨㄟ	ㄨㄣ	ㄨㄥ	ㄩ	ㄩㄝ	ㄩㄢ	ㄩㄣ
example	一	也	又	言	音	英	用	五	我	位	文	翁	玉	月	元	云

Non-sibilant consonants

IPA	p	pʰ	m	fəŋ	tiou	tuei	tuən	tʰɤ	ny	ly	kɤɚ	kʰɤ	xɤ
Pinyin	b	p	m	feng	diu	dui	dun	te	nü	lü	ger	ke	he
Tongyong Pinyin	b	p	m	fong	diou	duei	dun	te	nyu	lyu	ger	ke	he
Wade–Giles	p	pʻ	m	fêng	tiu	tui	tun	tʻê	nü	lü	kor	kʻo	ho
Zhuyin	ㄅ	ㄆ	ㄇ	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	ʈʂɤ	ʈʂɨ	ʈʂʰɤ	ʈʂʰɨ	ʂɤ	ʂɨ	ɻɤ	ɻɨ	tsɤ	tsuo	tsɨ	tsʰɤ	tsʰɨ	sɤ	sɨ
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	chʻin	hsüan	chê	chih	chʻê	chʻih	shê	shih	jê	jih	tsê	tso	tzŭ	tsʻê	tzʻŭ	sê	ssŭ
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	ma˥˥	ma˧˥	ma˨˩˦	ma˥˩	ma
Pinyin	mā	má	mǎ	mà	ma
Tongyong Pinyin	ma	má	mǎ	mà	må
Wade–Giles	ma^1	ma^2	ma^3	ma^4	ma
Zhuyin	ㄇㄚ	ㄇㄚˊ	ㄇㄚˇ	ㄇㄚˋ	˙ㄇㄚ
example (traditional/simplified)	媽/妈	麻/麻	馬/马	罵/骂	嗎/吗

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.

Intuitiveness issues

Due to the system's use of an apostrophe to distinguish aspirated and unaspirated consonants, such as in pʻa and pa respectively, rather than using separate letters like in Pīnyīn and many other Romanizations, such as in pa and ba respectively, many people have omitted the apostrophe in transcribing Chinese words and names, assuming that it was an optional diacritic.

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:^[5]

• It uses the right apostrophe: pʼ, tʼ, kʼ, chʼ, tsʼ, tzʼŭ; while Wade–Giles uses the left apostrophe, similar to the aspiration diacritic used in the International Phonetic Alphabet before the revisions of the 1970s: pʻ, tʻ, kʻ, chʻ, tsʻ, tzʻŭ.
• It consistently uses i for the syllable [i], while Wade–Giles uses i or yi depending on the character.
• It uses o for the syllable [ɤ], 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, chʻio, hsio, yo, replacing them with chüeh, chʻüeh, 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 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.

See also

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

References

1. Kaske, Elisabeth (2008). The Politics of Language in Chinese Education: 1895 - 1919. BRILL. p. 68. ISBN 90-04-16367-0.
2. "Chinese Language Transliteration Systems – Wade–Giles". UCLA film and television archive. Archived from the original on 2007-01-28. Retrieved 2007-08-04. (Web archive)
3. A Chinese-English Dictionary.
4. A Chinese-English Dictionary, p. 761.
5. Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary.

External links

• Chinese Romanization Converter – Convert between Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, Wade–Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
• Wade–Giles → Zhùyīn → Pīnyīn → Word list
• A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade–Giles to Pīnyīn
• Pinyin4j: 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 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