Wu Chinese The Wu languages (; Romanization of Wu Chinese, Wu romanization and Romanization of Wu Chinese#IPA, IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] (Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languag ...

has three major schools of romanization. The most popular school, Common Wu Pinyin (), was developed by amateur language clubs and local learners. There are two competing schemes; both adhere to the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...

(IPA) and are very similar to each other. The initial scheme was "Wu Chinese Society pinyin" (, developed around 2005), and it formed the basis of "Wugniu pinyin" (, around 2016). Wu Chinese Society pinyin in general does not mark tones. The name ''Wugniu'' comes from the

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the Districts of Shanghai, central districts of the Shanghai, City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as ...

pronunciation of 吴语. Either of them is the default romanization scheme in most learning materials. The second school is the Latin Phonetic Method (, French-Wu or ''Fawu'' []). Its use is in decline. It utilizes the similarities between French and Wu phonetics and thus adheres to both IPA and French orthography. It was developed in 2003 by a Shanghai-born surgeon based in

Lyon, France Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

. The final, and least used school, adheres to Mandarin-Putonghua pinyin as sanctioned by the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

. It is the only school developed by professional linguists, mostly working in state-administered universities. While more than 20 competing schemes within this school have been published since the 1980s, the most notable one is the Shanghainese Pinyin (, often shortened to Qian's Pin ��拼, developed by

Qian Nairong Qian Nairong (Shanghainese: ; born 1945 in Shanghai) is a Chinese linguist. He received a master's degree in Chinese from Fudan University in 1981. He is a professor and the head of the Chinese Department at Shanghai University. He is a research ...

in 2006.

Comparison chart

All examples are given in

and

Suzhounese Suzhounese (; Suzhounese: ''sou1 tseu1 ghe2 gho6'' [] ), also known as the Suzhou dialect, is the Varieties of Chinese, variety of Chinese traditionally spoken in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu, Jiangsu Province, China. Suzhounese is a varie ...

Comparison chart

Initials

Finals

Tones

References