
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 during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with
Herbert Giles's ''
A Chinese–English Dictionary'' (1892).
The romanization systems in common use until the late 19th century were based on the
Nanjing dialect, but Wade–Giles was based on the
Beijing dialect 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 romanizations (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, 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, the
Matsu Islands and
Chiang Ching-kuo.
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 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
Beijing dialect of
Mandarin 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
Herbert Giles (in ''
A Chinese–English Dictionary''), 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 (1928),
Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1986), and
Tongyong Pinyin (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's successful presidential bid in 2008 and in a number of cities with Kuomintang mayors. However, the
Tsai Ing-wen administration and
Democratic Progressive Party (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 and
Hanyu Pinyin.
Initials
Instead of ''ts'', ''ts'' and ''s'', Wade–Giles writes ''tz'', ''tz'' and ''ss'' before ''ŭ'' (see
below).
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
below.
Giles's ''
A Chinese–English Dictionary'' 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: ''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 pairs using a character resembling an
apostrophe. Thomas Wade and others used the
spiritus asper ( or ), borrowed from the
polytonic orthography 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.
Herbert Giles and others used a left (opening) curved single
quotation mark (‘) for the same purpose. A third group used a plain
apostrophe ('). The
backtick, 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 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 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 for
Korean 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 ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''j'') and ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''q'') are always before either ''ü'' or ''i'', but never ''ih''.
* The
retroflex ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''zh'') and ''ch'' (Pīnyīn ''ch'') are always before ''ih'', ''a'', ''ê'', ''e'', ''o'', or ''u''.
Vowels and final symbols
Syllabic consonants
Like
Yale and
Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, Wade–Giles renders the two types of
syllabic consonant ( zh, s=空韵, t=空韻; Wade–Giles: ''kung
1-yün
4'';
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn: ''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
retroflex ''ch'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''j'' (Pīnyīn ''zh'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''r'').
These finals are both written as ''-ih'' in
Tongyòng Pinyin, as ''-i'' in
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (hence distinguishable only by the initial from as in ''li''), and as ''-y'' in
Gwoyeu Romatzyh 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 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 ''ko
1'' (Pīnyīn ''gē'') and "刻" is ''ko
4'' (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" ''shuo
1'') 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: ''lo
2'', ''to
1''; 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 ''chien
4''.
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, 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 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 names.)
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
allophones).
*''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 from the
back vowel . 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") 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 is therefore not predictable: ''hsiao
3•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, Hualien
File:Lienchiang County Health Bureau and Lienchiang County Hospital 20140405.jpg, Lienchiang County Hospital and Health Bureau
File:Emblem of Pingtung County.svg, Emblem of Pingtung County
See also
*
Comparison of Chinese transcription systems
*
Simplified Wade
*
Daoism–Taoism romanization issue
*
Legge romanization
*
Romanization of Chinese
*
Cyrillization of Chinese
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.
Further reading
*
–
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
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)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade-Giles
Romanization of Chinese
Writing systems introduced in 1892