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Wade-Giles (), sometimes abbreviated
Wade, is a
Romanization system (phonetic notation and
transcription) for the
Chinese language based on the form of
Mandarin (linguistics) used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade in the mid-19th century, and reached settled form with Herbert Giles's
Chinese language-
English language dictionary of
1892.
Wade-Giles was the main system of transcription in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books about China published before 1979. It replaced the
Nanjing-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the 19th century. It has mostly been replaced by the
pinyin system today, but remains in use in the
Republic of China (Taiwan).
Transcription, not transliteration
Although frequently improperly called "transliteration", Wade-Giles' system is a
transcription of Chinese. There can be no transliteration of Chinese script into any phonetic script, like the Latin (or
English language) alphabet. Any system of romanization of Chinese renders the
sounds (pronunciation) and not the ideography characters (written form).
History
Wade-Giles was developed by Thomas Francis Wade, a British ambassador in China and Chinese scholar who was the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge University. Wade published the first Chinese textbook in English in 1867. The system was refined in 1912 by
Herbert Allen Giles, a British diplomat in China. (Web archive)
The Wade-Giles system was designed to transcribe Chinese terms, for Chinese specialists. This origin has led to a general sense that the system is non-intuitive for non-specialists and not useful for teaching Chinese pronunciation.
The Republic of China (
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), MPS II (
1986), and Tongyong Pinyin (2000). Taiwanese place names are still being virtually written in Wade-Giles, and many
Chinese Americans and
Canada also write their Chinese names in Wade-Giles.
The
Hanyu Pinyin system is the official and most widely used system in the
People's Republic of China. In
Singapore, Pinyin is taught in national schools and widely used in official documents, although a reversal of government policy changed the requirement to register people's Chinese names in Pinyin. Wade-Giles spellings and Pinyin spellings for Taiwanese place names and words long accepted in English usage are still used interchangeably in English-language texts in both countries.
Technical aspects
One symbol-multiple sounds
A common complaint about the Wade-Giles system is the representation of the unaspirated-aspirated
stop consonant pairs using apostrophes:
p, p', t, t', k, k', ch, ch'''. However, the use of apostrophes preserves ''b'', ''d'', ''g'', and ''j'' for the romanization of [Chinese spoken language containing [voiced consonants, such as [Shanghainese (which has a full set of voiced consonants) and [Taiwanese (linguistics) (Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old Missionary Romanisation is similar to Wade-Giles.
On the other hand, people unfamiliar with the Wade-Giles often ignore the apostrophes, even so far as leaving them out when copying texts, unaware that they represent vital information. Hanyu Pinyin 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.'' Another approach, adopted in the [Legge romanization and [Simplified Wade systems, is to add the letter ''h'' instead of an apostrophe to indicate aspiration (this is similar to the superscript h used in [IPA).
Partly because of the popular omission of the apostrophe, the four sounds represented in Hanyu Pinyin by ''j'', ''q'', ''zh'', and ''ch'' all become ''ch'' in many literature and personal names. However, were the diacritics to be kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap:
* The non-[retroflex ''ch'' (Pinyin ''j'') and ''ch''' (Pinyin ''q'') are always before either ''i'' or ''ü''.
* The [retroflex ''ch'' (Pinyin ''zh'') and ''ch''' (Pinyin ''ch'') are always before ''a'', ''e'', ''ih'', ''o'', or ''u''.
Furthermore, Wade uses ''lo'' for three distinct sounds (''le'', ''luo'', and ''lo'' in Pinyin); ''jo'' for two (''re'' and ''ruo''); and ''no'' for two (''ne'' and ''nuo'').
=== One sound-multiple symbols===
In addition to several sounds presented using the same letter(s), sometimes, one single sound is represented using several sets of letters. There exists two versions of Wade-Giles Romanizations for each of the Pinyin syllables ''zi'', ''ci'', and ''si''.
* The older version writes ''tsû'', ''ts'û'', and ''ssû''
* The newer version writes:
** ''tzu'' for ''tsû'', but it still remains ''ts-'' before other vowels, as in ''tsung'' for the Pinyin ''zong''.
** ''tz'u'' for ''ts'û'', but remains ''ts'-'' before other vowels.
** ''szu'' or ''ssu'' for ''ssû'', but is ''s-'' before other vowels. Note, not ''ss-''.
=== Precision with empty rime ===
On the other hand, Wade-Giles shows precisions not found in other major Romanizations in regard to the rendering of the two types of empty [Syllable rimes ({{zh-stp|s=空韵|t=空韻|p=kōngyùn-->):
* ''-u'' (formerly ''û'') after the [sibilant ''tz'', ''tz''', and ''s'' (Pinyin ''z'', ''c'', and ''s'').
* ''-ih'' after the [retroflex ''ch'', ''ch''', ''sh'', and ''j'' (Pinyin ''zh'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''r'').
These empty rimes are all written as ''-i'' in [Hanyu Pinyin (hence undistinguishable from true ''i'' as in ''li''), and all written as ''-ih'' in [Tongyong Pinyin. [Zhuyin, as a non-Romanization, does not require the representation of any empty rime.
=== Partial interchangeability of ''uo'' and ''e'' with ''o'' ===
What is pronounced as a [close-mid back unrounded vowel is written usually as ''-e'' as in [pinyin, but sometimes as ''-o''. This vowel in an isolate syllable is written as ''o'' or ''ê''. When placed in a syllable, it is ''e''; except when preceded by ''k'', ''k''', and ''h'', when it is ''o''.
What is actually pronounced as ''-uo'' is virtually always written as ''-o'' in Wade-Giles, except ''shuo'' and the three syllables of ''kuo'', ''k'uo'', and ''huo'', which already have the counterparts of ''ko'', ''k'o, and
ho that represent pinyin
ge,
ke, and
he.
Punctuation
In addition to the apostrophe (mark)s used for distinguishing the
#one symbol-multiple sounds, Wade-Giles uses hyphens to separate all
syllables within a
word, whereas Pinyin only uses apostrophes to separate ambiguous syllables. Originally in his dictionary, Giles used left apostrophes (‘) consistently. Such orientation was followed in Sinological works until the 1950s or 60s, when it started to be gradually replaced by right apostrophes (’) in academic literature. On-line publications almost invariably use the plain apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are completely ignored in Taiwanese passports, hence their absence in
overseas Chinese names.
If the syllable is not the first in a word, its first letter is not
Majuscule, even if it is a proper noun. The use of apostrophes, hyphens, and capitalization is frequently not observed in placenames and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas Chinese of Taiwanese origin write their
given names like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade-Giles actually writes "Tai-lun". The capitalization issue arises partly because ROC passports indiscriminately capitalize all letters of the holder's names (beside the photograph). It is also due to the misunderstanding that the second syllable is a middle name. (See also
Chinese name)
Wade-Giles uses superscript numbers to indicate tone (tonal language), and official Pinyin uses diacritics. The tone marks are ignored except in
textbooks.
Comparison with Pinyin
- Wade-Giles chose the French language-like j to represent a Northerner's pronunciation of what now is represented as r in Pinyin.
- Ü always has a diaresis above, while Pinyin only employs it in the cases of nü and lü, while leaving it out in -ue, ju-, qu-, xu-, -uan and yu- as a simplification because u cannot otherwise appear in those positions. Because yü (as in 玉 "jade") must have a diaresis in Wade, the diaresis-less yu in Wade-Giles is freed up for what correspond to you (有) in Pinyin.
- The Pinyin vowel cluster ong is ung in Wade-Giles. (Compare Kung Fu to Gong Fu as an example.)
- After a consonant, both the Wade-Giles and Pinyin vowel cluster uei is written ui. Furthermore, both Romanizations use iu and un instead of the complete syllables: iou and uen.
- Single i is never preceded by y, as in pinyin. The only exception is in placenames, which are hyphenless, so without a y, syllable ambiguity could arise.
- The isolated syllable eh is written as ê, like in Pinyin. (Schwa is occasionally written as ê as well.) But unlike Pinyin, which uses -e if there is a consonant preceding the sound, Wade-Giles uses -eh. (See circumflex)
- In addition to being the schwa, ê also represents the Pinyin er as êrh.
Comparison chart
Influences
Chinese Postal Map Romanization is based on Wade-Giles, but incorporating a number of exceptions that override the systematic rules.
See also
References
External links
- Chinese Romanization Converter – Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
- Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin conversion table (See Zhuyin)
- Pinyin → Wade-Giles → Zhuyin conversion table
- Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin → Word list
- A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade-Giles to Pinyin
- Pinyin4j: Java library supporting Chinese to Wade-Giles – Support Simplified and Tranditional Chinese; Support most popular Pinyin systems, including Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, Wade-Giles, MPS2, Yale and Gwoyeu Romatzyh; Support multiple pronunciations of a single character; Support customized output, such as ü or tone marks.
- Pronunciation Guide – From Chuang Tzu's Genius of the Absurd
Wade-Giles (), sometimes abbreviated
Wade, is a
Romanization system (phonetic notation and
transcription) for the Chinese language based on the form of Mandarin (linguistics) used in
Beijing. It developed from a system produced by
Thomas Francis Wade in the mid-19th century, and reached settled form with Herbert Giles's
Chinese language-
English language dictionary of 1892.
Wade-Giles was the main system of transcription in the English-speaking world for most of the
20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books about China published before
1979. It replaced the Nanjing-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the
19th century. It has mostly been replaced by the
pinyin system today, but remains in use in the
Republic of China (Taiwan).
Transcription, not transliteration
Although frequently improperly called "transliteration", Wade-Giles' system is a transcription of Chinese. There can be no transliteration of Chinese script into any phonetic script, like the Latin (or English language) alphabet. Any system of romanization of Chinese renders the sounds (pronunciation) and not the
ideography characters (written form).
History
Wade-Giles was developed by Thomas Francis Wade, a British ambassador in China and Chinese scholar who was the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge University. Wade published the first Chinese textbook in English in 1867. The system was refined in 1912 by Herbert Allen Giles, a British diplomat in China. (Web archive)
The Wade-Giles system was designed to transcribe Chinese terms, for Chinese specialists. This origin has led to a general sense that the system is non-intuitive for non-specialists and not useful for teaching Chinese pronunciation.
The
Republic of China (
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), MPS II (1986), and Tongyong Pinyin (
2000). Taiwanese place names are still being virtually written in Wade-Giles, and many
Chinese Americans and Canada also write their Chinese names in Wade-Giles.
The Hanyu Pinyin system is the official and most widely used system in the People's Republic of China. In
Singapore, Pinyin is taught in national schools and widely used in official documents, although a reversal of government policy changed the requirement to register people's Chinese names in Pinyin. Wade-Giles spellings and Pinyin spellings for Taiwanese place names and words long accepted in English usage are still used interchangeably in English-language texts in both countries.
Technical aspects
One symbol-multiple sounds
A common complaint about the Wade-Giles system is the representation of the unaspirated-aspirated
stop consonant pairs using apostrophes:
p, p', t, t', k, k', ch, ch'''. However, the use of apostrophes preserves ''b'', ''d'', ''g'', and ''j'' for the romanization of [Chinese spoken language containing [voiced consonants, such as [Shanghainese (which has a full set of voiced consonants) and [Taiwanese (linguistics) (Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old Missionary Romanisation is similar to Wade-Giles.
On the other hand, people unfamiliar with the Wade-Giles often ignore the apostrophes, even so far as leaving them out when copying texts, unaware that they represent vital information. Hanyu Pinyin 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.'' Another approach, adopted in the [Legge romanization and [Simplified Wade systems, is to add the letter ''h'' instead of an apostrophe to indicate aspiration (this is similar to the superscript h used in [IPA).
Partly because of the popular omission of the apostrophe, the four sounds represented in Hanyu Pinyin by ''j'', ''q'', ''zh'', and ''ch'' all become ''ch'' in many literature and personal names. However, were the diacritics to be kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap:
* The non-[retroflex ''ch'' (Pinyin ''j'') and ''ch''' (Pinyin ''q'') are always before either ''i'' or ''ü''.
* The [retroflex ''ch'' (Pinyin ''zh'') and ''ch''' (Pinyin ''ch'') are always before ''a'', ''e'', ''ih'', ''o'', or ''u''.
Furthermore, Wade uses ''lo'' for three distinct sounds (''le'', ''luo'', and ''lo'' in Pinyin); ''jo'' for two (''re'' and ''ruo''); and ''no'' for two (''ne'' and ''nuo'').
=== One sound-multiple symbols===
In addition to several sounds presented using the same letter(s), sometimes, one single sound is represented using several sets of letters. There exists two versions of Wade-Giles Romanizations for each of the Pinyin syllables ''zi'', ''ci'', and ''si''.
* The older version writes ''tsû'', ''ts'û'', and ''ssû''
* The newer version writes:
** ''tzu'' for ''tsû'', but it still remains ''ts-'' before other vowels, as in ''tsung'' for the Pinyin ''zong''.
** ''tz'u'' for ''ts'û'', but remains ''ts'-'' before other vowels.
** ''szu'' or ''ssu'' for ''ssû'', but is ''s-'' before other vowels. Note, not ''ss-''.
=== Precision with empty rime ===
On the other hand, Wade-Giles shows precisions not found in other major Romanizations in regard to the rendering of the two types of empty [Syllable rimes ({{zh-stp|s=空韵|t=空韻|p=kōngyùn-->):
* ''-u'' (formerly ''û'') after the [sibilant ''tz'', ''tz''', and ''s'' (Pinyin ''z'', ''c'', and ''s'').
* ''-ih'' after the [retroflex ''ch'', ''ch''', ''sh'', and ''j'' (Pinyin ''zh'', ''ch'', ''sh'', and ''r'').
These empty rimes are all written as ''-i'' in [Hanyu Pinyin (hence undistinguishable from true ''i'' as in ''li''), and all written as ''-ih'' in [Tongyong Pinyin. [Zhuyin, as a non-Romanization, does not require the representation of any empty rime.
=== Partial interchangeability of ''uo'' and ''e'' with ''o'' ===
What is pronounced as a [close-mid back unrounded vowel is written usually as ''-e'' as in [pinyin, but sometimes as ''-o''. This vowel in an isolate syllable is written as ''o'' or ''ê''. When placed in a syllable, it is ''e''; except when preceded by ''k'', ''k''', and ''h'', when it is ''o''.
What is actually pronounced as ''-uo'' is virtually always written as ''-o'' in Wade-Giles, except ''shuo'' and the three syllables of ''kuo'', ''k'uo'', and ''huo'', which already have the counterparts of ''ko'', ''k'o, and
ho that represent pinyin
ge,
ke, and
he.
Punctuation
In addition to the
apostrophe (mark)s used for distinguishing the #one symbol-multiple sounds, Wade-Giles uses
hyphens to separate all syllables within a
word, whereas Pinyin only uses apostrophes to separate ambiguous syllables. Originally in his dictionary, Giles used left apostrophes (‘) consistently. Such orientation was followed in Sinological works until the 1950s or 60s, when it started to be gradually replaced by right apostrophes (’) in academic literature. On-line publications almost invariably use the plain apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are completely ignored in Taiwanese passports, hence their absence in
overseas Chinese names.
If the syllable is not the first in a word, its first letter is not Majuscule, even if it is a
proper noun. The use of apostrophes, hyphens, and capitalization is frequently not observed in placenames and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas Chinese of
Taiwanese origin write their
given names like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade-Giles actually writes "Tai-lun". The capitalization issue arises partly because ROC passports indiscriminately capitalize all letters of the holder's names (beside the photograph). It is also due to the misunderstanding that the second syllable is a
middle name. (See also
Chinese name)
Wade-Giles uses superscript
numbers to indicate tone (tonal language), and official Pinyin uses diacritics. The tone marks are ignored except in
textbooks.
Comparison with Pinyin
- Wade-Giles chose the French language-like j to represent a Northerner's pronunciation of what now is represented as r in Pinyin.
- Ü always has a diaresis above, while Pinyin only employs it in the cases of nü and lü, while leaving it out in -ue, ju-, qu-, xu-, -uan and yu- as a simplification because u cannot otherwise appear in those positions. Because yü (as in 玉 "jade") must have a diaresis in Wade, the diaresis-less yu in Wade-Giles is freed up for what correspond to you (有) in Pinyin.
- The Pinyin vowel cluster ong is ung in Wade-Giles. (Compare Kung Fu to Gong Fu as an example.)
- After a consonant, both the Wade-Giles and Pinyin vowel cluster uei is written ui. Furthermore, both Romanizations use iu and un instead of the complete syllables: iou and uen.
- Single i is never preceded by y, as in pinyin. The only exception is in placenames, which are hyphenless, so without a y, syllable ambiguity could arise.
- The isolated syllable eh is written as ê, like in Pinyin. (Schwa is occasionally written as ê as well.) But unlike Pinyin, which uses -e if there is a consonant preceding the sound, Wade-Giles uses -eh. (See circumflex)
- In addition to being the schwa, ê also represents the Pinyin er as êrh.
Comparison chart
Influences
Chinese Postal Map Romanization is based on Wade-Giles, but incorporating a number of exceptions that override the systematic rules.
See also
References
External links
- Chinese Romanization Converter – Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
- Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin conversion table (See Zhuyin)
- Pinyin → Wade-Giles → Zhuyin conversion table
- Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin → Word list
- A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade-Giles to Pinyin
- Pinyin4j: Java library supporting Chinese to Wade-Giles – Support Simplified and Tranditional Chinese; Support most popular Pinyin systems, including Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, Wade-Giles, MPS2, Yale and Gwoyeu Romatzyh; Support multiple pronunciations of a single character; Support customized output, such as ü or tone marks.
- Pronunciation Guide – From Chuang Tzu's Genius of the Absurd
Wade-Giles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wade-Giles pronounced /ˌweɪdˈʤaɪlz/ (simplified Chinese: 威妥玛拼音 or 韦氏拼音; traditional Chinese: 威妥瑪拼音 or 韋氏拼音; pinyin: wēituǒmǎ pīnyīn ...
Oriental Exercise - Wade-Giles or Pinyin?
Knowing your Wade-Giles from your Pinyin ... Wade-Giles or PinYin? For us here in the West, endeavouring to study and to learn about oriental exercise systems such as qi gong or ...
Romanization Tables
Wade-Giles to Zhuyin to Pinyin Table; Pinyin to Wade-Giles to Zhuyin Table. Japanese (Modified Hepburn) Korean (McCune-Reischauer) Note: The romanization tables are best viewed with ...
Wade-Giles - Wikipédia
Le Wade-Giles, parfois abrégé en Wade, est une romanisation du chinois mandarin, langue chinoise. Il est développé d'après un système créé par Thomas Wade au milieu du XIX ...
Pinyin and Wade-Giles Romanization
Pinyin and Wade-Giles Romanization ... There are two main systems in use for romanising Chinese - the process of writing down spoken chinese in an alphabetic form.
Wade Giles
Wade-Giles romanization system for Mandarin Chinese ... Wade-Giles. The Wade-Giles romanization system for Mandarin Chinese is the product of two British scholars:
Wade-Giles - Wiktionary
Wade-Giles. A certain system, once extremely popular, for transcribing the Beijing form of Mandarin Chinese into the Latin alphabet. [edit] Usage notes
Wade-Giles - definition of Wade-Giles in the Medical dictionary - by ...
Wade-Giles. one of the techniques used in romanizing the Chinese spoken word. Used extensively in the preparation of veterinary acupuncture literature.
Use pinyin not Wade-Giles - Meta
I would suggest that everyone should use pinyin to transliterate Chinese names, not Wade-Giles. There are several reasons for this: Most Putonghua (more commonly known as Mandarin ...
Wade Giles - LinkedIn
View Wade Giles's professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Wade Giles discover inside connections to ...
