Wade–Giles ( ) is a romanization system for

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

. It developed from the system produced by

Thomas Francis Wade Sir Thomas Francis Wade, (25 August 181831July 1895) was a British diplomat and sinologist who produced an early Chinese textbook in English, in 1867, that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization system for ...

during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with

Herbert Giles Herbert Allen Giles (; 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British dip ...

's ''

A Chinese–English Dictionary ''A Chinese–English Dictionary'' (1892), compiled by the British consular officer and sinologist Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), is the first Chinese–English encyclopedic dictionary. Giles started compilation after being rebuked for cr ...

'' (1892). The romanization systems in common use until the late 19th century were based on the

Nanjing dialect The Nanjing dialect ( zh, s=南京话, t=南京話, p=Nánjīnghuà), also known as Nankinese, Nankingese, Nanjingese, Nanjingnese and Nanjing Mandarin, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Nanjing, China. It is part ...

, but Wade–Giles was based on the

Beijing dialect The Beijing dialect ( zh, s=北京话, t=北京話, p=Běijīnghuà), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the ...

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 romanization Postal romanization was a system of transliterating place names in China developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language fo ...

s (romanized place-names standardized for postal uses). In

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, Wade–Giles has been mostly replaced by

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

, 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 Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...

, the

Matsu Islands The Matsu Islands; Foochow Romanized: Mā-cū liĕk-dō̤ ( or ), officially Lienchiang County; Foochow Romanized: Lièng-gŏng-gâing (), are an archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea governed by the Republic of China ...

and

Chiang Ching-kuo Chiang Ching-kuo (, 27 April 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China. The eldest and only biological son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China and ended ...

History

Wade–Giles was developed by

, a scholar of Chinese and a British ambassador in China who was the first professor of Chinese at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Wade published ' () in 1867, the first textbook on the

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

in English, 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

(in ''

''), a British diplomat in China, and his son Lionel Giles, a curator at the British Museum. Taiwan used Wade–Giles for decades as the de facto standard, co-existing with several official romanizations in succession, namely,

Gwoyeu Romatzyh Gwoyeu Romatzyh ( ; GR) is a system for writing Standard Chinese using the Latin alphabet. It was primarily conceived by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), who led a group of linguists on the National Languages Committee in refining the system betwe ...

(1928),

Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (MPS II) is a romanization system formerly used in Taiwan. It was created to replace the complex Gwoyeu Romatzyh system, which used tonal spelling—and to co-exist with the Wade–Giles romanization as well as bo ...

(1986), and

Tongyong Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin was the official romanization of Taiwanese Mandarin, Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. ...

(2000). The

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

(KMT) has previously promoted pinyin with

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, t=馬英九; pinyin: ''Mǎ Yīngjiǔ''; ; born 13 July 1950) is a Taiwanese politician, lawyer, and legal scholar who served as the sixth president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Kuomintang (KMT ...

's successful presidential bid in 2008 and in a number of cities with Kuomintang mayors. However, the

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...

administration and

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...

(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.

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

Bopomofo Bopomofo, also called Zhuyin Fuhao ( ; ), or simply Zhuyin, is a Chinese transliteration, transliteration system for Standard Chinese and other Sinitic languages. It is the principal method of teaching Chinese Mandarin pronunciation in Taiwa ...

and

Initials

Instead of ''ts'', ''ts'' and ''s'', Wade–Giles writes ''tz'', ''tz'' and ''ss'' before ''ŭ'' (see

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...

Finals

Wade–Giles writes ''-uei'' after ''k'' and ''k'', otherwise ''-ui'': ''kuei'', ''kuei'', ''hui'', ''shui'', ''chui''. It writes as ''-o'' after ''k'', ''k'' and ''h'', otherwise as ''-ê'': ''ko'', ''ko'', ''ho'', ''shê'', ''chê''. When forms a syllable on its own, it is written ''ê'' or ''o'' depending on the character. Wade–Giles writes as ''-uo'' after ''k'', ''k'', ''h'' and ''sh'', otherwise as ''-o'': ''kuo'', ''kuo'', ''huo'', ''shuo'', ''bo'', ''tso''. After ''ch'', it is written ''cho'' or ''chuo'' depending on the character. For ''-ih'' and ''-ŭ'', see

. Giles's ''

'' also includes the finals ''-io'' (in ''yo'', ''chio'', ''chio'', ''hsio'', ''lio'' and ''nio'') and ''-üo'' (in ''chüo'', ''chüo'', ''hsüo'', ''lüo'' and ''nüo''), both of which are pronounced ''-üeh'' in modern

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...

: ''yüeh'', ''chüeh'', ''chüeh'', ''hsüeh'', ''lüeh'' and ''nüeh''.

Syllables that begin with a medial

Wade–Giles writes the syllable 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 In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...

pairs using a character resembling an

apostrophe The apostrophe (, ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

. Thomas Wade and others used the

spiritus asper In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( or ; ) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or after rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even afte ...

( or ), borrowed from the

polytonic orthography Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period. The more complex polytonic orthography (), which includes five diacritics, notates Ancient Greek phonology. The simpler monotonic orthography (), introduce ...

of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

language.

and others used a left (opening) curved single

quotation mark Quotation marks are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the sam ...

(‘) for the same purpose. A third group used a plain

('). The

backtick The backtick is a typographical mark used mainly in computing. It is also known as backquote, grave, or grave accent. The character was designed for typewriters to add a grave accent to a (lower-case) base letter, by overtyping it atop that let ...

, and visually similar characters, are sometimes seen in various electronic documents using the system. Examples using the spiritus asper: ''p'', ''p'', ''t'', ''t'', ''k'', ''k'', ''ch'', ''ch''. The use of this character preserves ''b'', ''d'', ''g'', and ''j'' for the romanization of

Chinese varieties There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China ...

containing

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

consonants, such as

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the city of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan langua ...

(which has a full set of voiced consonants) and

Min Nan Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...

(Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old

Pe̍h-ōe-jī ( ; , , ; POJ), also known as Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Hokkien Southern Min, particularly Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese and Amoy dialect, Amoy Hokkien, and it is widely employed as one of the writing syst ...

(POJ, often called Missionary Romanization) is similar to Wade–Giles. POJ,

Legge romanization Legge romanization is a Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, used by the prolific 19th-century sinologist James Legge. It was replaced by the Wade–Giles system, which itself has been largely supplanted by ...

, Simplified Wade, and

EFEO Chinese transcription The Chinese transcription system invented by the French School of the Far East (EFEO) was the most widely used in the French-speaking world until the mid-20th century. While it is often deemed to have been devised by Séraphin Couvreur, who was ...

use the letter 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 to denote aspiration is also found in romanizations of other Asian languages, such as

McCune–Reischauer McCune–Reischauer romanization ( ) is a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. According to Reischauer, McCune "persuaded the American Army Map Service to ad ...

for

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

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: * The non-

retroflex A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''j'') and ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''q'') are always before either ''ü'' or ''i'', but never ''ih''. * The

''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''zh'') and ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''ch'') are always before ''ih'', ''a'', ''ê'', ''e'', ''o'', or ''u''.

Vowels and final symbols

Syllabic consonants

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

and

, Wade–Giles renders the two types of

syllabic consonant A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''awful'', respectively. To represe ...

( zh, s=空韵, t=空韻; Wade–Giles: ''kung¹-yün⁴'';

Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...

: ''kōngyùn'') differently: * ''-ŭ'' is used after the

sibilant Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English w ...

s written in this position (and this position only) as ''tz'', ''tz'' and ''ss'' (Pīnyīn ''z'', ''c'' and ''s''). * ''-ih'' is used after the

''ch'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''j'' (Pīnyīn ''zh'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''r''). These finals are both written as ''-ih'' in

Tongyòng Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin was the official romanization of Taiwanese Mandarin, Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. ...

, as ''-i'' in

(hence distinguishable only by the initial from as in ''li''), and as ''-y'' in

and Simplified Wade. They are typically omitted in Zhùyīn (Bōpōmōfō).

Vowel ''o''

Final ''o'' in Wade–Giles has two pronunciations in modern Peking dialect: and . What is pronounced in vernacular Peking dialect as a

close-mid back unrounded vowel The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is , called "ram's horn." This symbol is distinct from the symbol ...

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'', ''k'' 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 ''ko⁴'' (Pīnyīn ''kè''). In Peking dialect, ''o'' after velars (and what used to be ''ng'') have shifted to , thus they are written as ''ge'', ''ke'', ''he'' and ''e'' in Pīnyīn. When 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 is usually written as ''o'' in Wade–Giles, except for ''wo'', ''shuo'' (e.g. "說" ''shuo¹'') and the three syllables of ''kuo'', ''kuo'', and ''huo'' (as in 過, 霍, etc.), which contrast with ''ko'', ''ko'', 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 . Peking dialect does not have phonemic contrast between ''o'' and ''-uo''/''wo'' (except in interjections when used alone) and a medial is usually inserted in front of ''-o'' to form . Zhùyīn and Pīnyīn write 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 ''chien⁴''.

Punctuation

Wade–Giles uses

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

s 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 Capitalization ( North American spelling; also British spelling in Oxford) or capitalisation (Commonwealth English; all other meanings) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in ...

, even if it is part of a

proper noun A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity ('' Africa''; ''Jupiter''; '' Sarah''; ''Walmart'') as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

. 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 Taiwanese people are the Taiwanese nationality law, citizens and nationals of the Republic of China (ROC) and those who reside in an Overseas Taiwanese, overseas diaspora from the entire Taiwan Area. The term also refers to natives or inhabitan ...

write their

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

s like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade–Giles is actually "Tai-lun". (See also

Chinese name Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethni ...

s.)

Comparison with other systems

Pinyin

*Wade–Giles chose the French-like (implying a sound like IPA's , as in ''s'' in English ''measure'') to represent a Northern Mandarin pronunciation of what is represented as in pinyin (Northern Mandarin / Southern Mandarin ; generally considered

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...

s). *''Ü'' (representing ) always has an umlaut above, while pinyin only employs it in the cases of , ', , ' and ', while leaving it out after ''j'', ''q'', ''x'' and ''y'' as a simplification because / cannot otherwise appear after those letters. (The vowel / can occur in those cases in pinyin where the diaeresis are indicated / or ; in which cases it serves to distinguish the

front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned approximately as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction th ...

from the

back vowel A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be c ...

. By contrast it is always present to mark the front vowel in Wade–Giles.) Because (as in "jade") must have an umlaut in Wade–Giles, the umlaut-less in Wade–Giles is freed up for what corresponds to ( "have"/"

there is English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts. Overview This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English – forms of s ...

") in Pinyin. *The Pīnyīn cluster is in Wade–Giles, reflecting the pronunciation of as in English ''book'' . (Compare '' kung¹-fu'' to as an example.) *After a consonant, both Wade–Giles and Pīnyīn use and instead of the complete syllables: and /.

Chart

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:'' Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary''. *It uses the right apostrophe: ''p'', ''t'', ''k'', ''ch'', ''ts'', ''tzŭ''; while Wade–Giles uses the left apostrophe, similar to the aspiration

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

used in the International Phonetic Alphabet before the revisions of the 1970s: ''p'', ''t'', ''k'', ''ch'', ''ts'', ''tzŭ''. *It consistently uses ''i'' for the syllable , while Wade–Giles uses ''i'' or ''yi'' depending on the character. *It uses ''o'' for the syllable , 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'', ''chio'', ''hsio'', ''yo'', replacing them with ''chüeh'', ''chüeh'', ''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 Tone sandhi is a phonological change that occurs in tonal languages. It involves changes to the tones assigned to individual words or morphemes, based on the pronunciation of adjacent words or morphemes. This change typically simplifies a bidirec ...

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.

Table

Gallery

Examples of Wade–Giles derived English language terminology: File:Sign of Buddhist Tzu Chi University at the main entrance.JPG,

Tzu Chi University Tzu Chi University (TCU; ) is a private university in Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan. It was founded by the Tzu Chi Foundation ( NGO). TCU has strong ties with Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation as well as five teaching hospitals in ...

, Hualien File:Lienchiang County Health Bureau and Lienchiang County Hospital 20140405.jpg,

Lienchiang County The Matsu Islands; Foochow Romanized: Mā-cū liĕk-dō̤ ( or ), officially Lienchiang County; Foochow Romanized: Lièng-gŏng-gâing (), are an archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea governed by the Republic of China (T ...

Hospital and Health Bureau File:Emblem of Pingtung County.svg, Emblem of

Pingtung County Pingtung () is a County (Taiwan), county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county ...

References

Bibliography

* Wade, Thomas Francis. ''A progressive course designed to assist the student of Colloquial Chinese'' (Yü Yen Tzǔ Êrh Chi) in two volumes. Third edition Shanghai: Hong Kong: Singapore: Yokohama: London: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1903. * Giles, Herbert A. ''A Chinese–English Dictionary''. 2-vol. & 3-vol. versions both. London: Shanghai: Bernard Quaritch; Kelly and Walsh, 1892.
Rev. & enlarged 2nd ed.
in 3 vols.
Vol. I: front-matter & ''a''-''hsü''Vol. II: ''hsü''-''shao''
an
Vol. III: ''shao''-''yün''
, Shanghai: Hong Kong: Singapore: Yokohama: London: Kelly & Walsh, Limited; Bernard Quaritch, 1912. Rpt. of the 2nd ed. but in 2 vols. and bound as 1, New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1964.

External links

* ttp://www.mandarintools.com/pyconverter.html Chinese Romanization Converter– Convert between Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, Wade–Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade–Giles to PīnyīnPinyin4j: 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 RomanizationChinese 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.

Key to Wade–Giles romanization of Chinese characters: November 1944
(

Army Map Service The Army Map Service (AMS) was the military cartography, cartographic agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1941 to 1968, subordinated to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On September 1, 1968, the AMS was redesignated th ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wade-Giles Romanization of Chinese Writing systems introduced in 1892