Gwoyeu Romatzyh is one of a number of
systems for romanizing Chinese. It is the least widely mastered of the major
systems, but has great utility for the
student of
Chinese.
This presentation is based on material in Yuen Ren Chao's Mandarin
Primer and Grammar of Spoken Chinese. It appeared previously on the Yuen Ren Society’s old web-page on GeoCities, but GeoCities has accidently locked me (the original author) out and the old web site can never again be updated. Please msg me if you notice any errors; I will be very grateful to you.
Note: Since Pinyin is now the most widely known form of Chinese
romanization, I have described Romatzyh in comparison to Pinyin spelling.
Pinyin equivalents are given between curly brackets ({ }). For the reader who has no experience of Pinyin or Chinese phonology, this entire presentation may be baffling. If that describes you, then why not browse elsewhere?
This guide, in its present form (date 9 December 2001) is a draft
and still in need of correction.
Gwoyeu Romatzyh (also known as GR) is most closely associated with the name of Y. R. Chao, even though it was supposedly the product of a committee and even though the original inspiration for tonal spelling seems to have been Lin Yu-tang's. There is no question, however, that in its present form it is largely Chao's work. It is a finely crafted system of romanization that shows his handiwork and insights in many places.
Gwoyeu Romatzyh is probably too complicated for most people to bother with. Indeed, some people seem to become enraged merely on seeing it in print or hearing it praised. For the student who is willing to spend a little time to learn it, however, the investment brings an enormous reward. The great value of Romatzyh is that tonal distinctions are ineradicably built into the spelling of all syllables, and so anyone who can remember the letters of the alphabet can remember the tones of the words, which seems to be much easier for many Westerners than remembering diacritic marks.
Even if it were easier to learn, Gwoyeu Romatzyh would still never be a widely used system. Although it was adopted by the Nationalist government early on and although it has been used in Taiwan until recently, it was the subject of vociferous attacks by the Communists almost from the beginning and for reasons of Communist face it can never be promulgated again. Perhaps that is just as well. Today, daring to use Romatzyh marks the cranky Western scholar as someone who cares a great deal about language and is willing to take the trouble to indicate tones in print. And perhaps also as one who is not willing to let the ideologically inclined dictate his or her choice of scholarly tools.
Tables
Table of Initials
b p m f
t d n l
g k h
j ch r sh
tz ts s
y/i
w/u
The
initials are mostly the same as in
Pinyin, with a few exceptions.
- Romatzyh initials j, ch, and sh include both
the Pinyin zh-ch-sh series and the
j-q-x series. Since these two series are in
complementary distribution - they can never occur before the same sounds -
no information is lost by combining them into a single series.
- The Pinyin initials z and c are represented in
Romatzyh by tz and ts.
- The Pinyin initials y and w are also sometimes
written i and u; see Rules 3, 8, and 9, below.
Table of endings
.___________________________________________________________________________.
| | (open) | -i | -u | -n | -ng | -l (L)|
|____|___________|__________|__________|__________|_________________|_______|
|Row | | | | | | |
| A: | y a i | ai ei | au ou | an en | ang eng ong | el(EL)|
| I: | i ia ie | iai | iau iou | ian in | iang ing iong| |
| U: | u ua uo | uai uei| | uan uen| uang ueng | |
| IU:| iu iue| | | iuan iun| | |
|____|___________|__________|__________|__________|_________________|_______|
There are a number of differences between this and the
Pinyin final
system. The most important are:
- Romatzyh uses y for the final Pinyin writes as i
after certain initials, as in Pinyin zhi (Romatzyh jy),
chi (Romatzyh chy), shi (Romatzyh shy),
ri (Romatzyh ry), zi (Romatzyh tzy), ci
(Romatzyh tsy), and si (Romatzyh sy).
- Romatzyh writes as iu the final that Pinyin sometimes writes
as a u with an umlaut (Pinyin nu"3 'girl') and
sometimes as plain u after the initials j, q, and
x. So Romatzyh writes jiu for Pinyin ju, chiu
for Pinyin qu, and shiu for Pinyin xu. Similarly,
iu is also used as a medial, as in chiuan for Pinyin
quan or shiue for Pinyin xue.
- Romatzyh writes the rhotacized ("r") ending of Northern Chinese, as
in xiao3-gour3 'puppy', with the letter l. No doubt this is
confusing to beginners. The reason r is not used is that it
already plays an important role in tonal spelling. For more information
about this erlhuah (Pinyin er2-hua4), see below.
A few differences of lesser importance are that Romatzyh writes
Pinyin un as
uen,
Pinyin iu as
iou,
Pinyin ui as
uei, and
Pinyin ao as
au. Note that the
final uo is written plain
o after the labial
initials
b,
p,
m, and
f, as in
Pinyin.
The most important feature of Romatzyh, however, and the one that makes it look utterly different from Pinyin, is tonal spelling. Romatzyh does not use diacritic marks to indicate tones. Instead, tone is actually spelled into each syllable. This is what makes Romatzyh hard to learn but at the same time extremely valuable. Tonal spelling is much easier for many non-Chinese to remember - especially people whose native languages do not use diacritics - than Pinyin. This means that people who use Romatzyh will find it easier to remember the tones of well-known proper nouns that they might otherwise only know in toneless romanized spelling.
Since Romatzyh uses only symbols that appear in the ordinary lower ASCII character set, it can be used to write fully tonal Mandarin on the internet or in telegrams, without forcing you to resort to all sorts of ad hoc tricks to indicate tone.
Rule #1
Begin with the basic form of the
syllable: this means the plain
initial and the plain
final, as shown in the tables above. This basic form undergoes various changes, described below, to show tonal distinctions.
Rule #2
To make
Tone #2 from
finals in Row A of the table, add
r after the
vowel. E.g.:
cha goes to char {cha2},
he goes to her {he2},
tsai goes to tsair {cai2},
chen goes to chern {chen2}
hong goes to horng {hong2}.
Rule #3
To make
Tone #2 from
finals in Rows I, U, and IU, change the
medials
i,
u, and
iu into
y,
w, and
yu,
respectively. E.g.:
shiang goes to shyang {xiang2},
hua goes to hwa {hua2},
ching goes to chyng {qing2},
iuan goes to yuan {yuan2}.Note, however, that
as complete
finals of themselves,
i is changed into
yi, (not plain
*y!) and
u into
wu (not plain
*w!). E.g.:
chi goes to chyi {qi2},
hu goes to hwu {hu2},
i goes to yi {yi2},
u goes to wu {wu2}.
Rule #4
To make
Tone #3, any
vowel letter used
alone, as well as any
e appearing next to
i (that is, in
ei and
ie) and any
o appearing next to
u (that
is, in
ou and
uo), are doubled. E.g.:
jy goes to jyy {zhi3},
da goes to daa {da3},
ching goes to chiing {qing3},
gei goes to geei {gei3},
jie goes to jiee {jie3},
shou goes to shoou {shou3},
huo goes to huoo {huo3}.
Rule #5
To make
Tone #3, change the
medial or
ending i,
u,
iu
into
e,
o,
eu, respectively. E.g.:
jiang goes to jeang {jiang3},
guen goes to goen {gun3},
jiuan goes to jeuan {juan3},
mai goes to mae {mai3},
hau goes to hao {hao3}.But if the
medial is changed, the
ending is left unchanged.
E.g.:
shiau goes to sheau {xiao3} (not *sheao or *shiao),
guai goes to goai {guai3} (not *goae or *guae).
Rule #6
In order to make
Tone #4, change the
endings
zero,
-i,
-u,
-n,
-ng, and
-l (L) into
-h,
-y,
-w,
-nn,
-nq (that's N+Q), and
-ll
(double L), respectively. E.g.:
ju goes to juh {zhu4},
mai goes to may {mai4},
gou goes to gow {gou4},
man goes to mann {man4},
shang goes to shanq {shang4},
el goes to ell {er2}.
Supplementary Rules:
Rule #7
The basic form of a
syllable beginning with the letters
m,
n,
l, or
r is considered to be in
Tone #2. This
reflects the fact that
sonorant initials in the classical pyng
tone
regularly appear in
Mandarin tone 2, not
tone 1. For example:
ma {ma2},
nian {nian2},
lai {lai2},
ren {ren2}.To make these
syllables into
Tone #1, add
h after the
initial. E.g.:
ma goes to mha {ma1},
nie goes to nhie {nie1},
la goes to lha {la1},
reng goes to rheng {reng1}.
Rule #8
In order to make
Tone #3 when a zero
initial occurs with a
final from
Rows I, U, or IU, add the letter
y-,
w-,
y-,
respectively. E.g.:
iou goes to yeou {you3} (compare jeou {jiu3}),
ua goes to woa {wa3} (compare goa {gua3}),
iuan goes to yoan {yuan3} (compare cheuan {quan3}).
But the
final -iee is
changed into
yee (not
*yiee), and
-uoo into
woo (not
*wuoo).
Rule #9
In order to make
Tone #4 when a zero
initial occurs with these same
finals (
finals from Rows I, U, or IU), you
must
change the
initials
i-,
u-,
iu-
into
y-,
w-,
yu-, respectively. E.g.:
iau goes to yaw {yao4} (compare jiaw {jiao4}),
uen goes to wenn {wen4} (compare kuenn {kun4}),
iun goes to yunn {yun4} (compare jiunn {jun4}).
But
add the
initials
y or
w to the four
finals
-ih,
-uh,
-inn,
-inq (that is, N+Q). E.g.:
i goes to yih {yi4},
u goes to wuh {wu4},
in goes to yinn {yin4},
ing goes to yinq {ying4}.
An extra rule
The name of the city of
Rome and words derived from it are to be spelled
"Roma", even though they are pronounced (and ought to be spelled) Luomaa.
Hence the name of this system of
Romanization is spelled Romatzyh, not
*Luomaatzyh.
Special matters concerning rhotacization
("erlhuah")
The pronunciation of erlhuah ({er2-hua4},
rhotacized finals) is not as
simple a matter as many people think. There are actually many rules about
which
syllables merge with which and in what
tones, and these rules are
not the same for all speakers, even within
Peking dialect itself. As a
result it is not easy to give a concise list of principles for how
Romatzyh treats this feature - not because Romatzyh itself is complicated,
but because
Mandarin and
Peking dialect are complicated and inconsistent
from speaker to speaker.
Certain finals become merged when rhotacized, and are treated
differently by Romatzyh and {Pinyin]. Take a syllable like ji {ji1}.
When it undergoes erlhuah it becomes homophonous with the erlhuah form of
jin {jin1}. Since the two forms are homophonous, Romatzyh writes
them the same way: jiel. Pinyin distinguishes them, as
jir1 and jinr1. Similarly, jie {jie1} and
jian {jian1} become merged when they undergo erlhuah: Romatzyh
writes both as jial, but Pinyin distinguishes them as jier1
and jianr1. Clearly, Romatzyh operates at a more purely
descriptive level, while Pinyin is intent on showing the syllable
underlying the rhotacized syllable. If you don't happen to know
the underlying syllable, however, it is easy to make mistakes in Pinyin.
and if you don't know the exact rules of erlhuah, you may pronounce the
Pinyin form incorrectly. Many Westerners, in fact, seeing a Pinyin form
such as jianr1, pronounce it with the same nasalization as
jiangr1, and this is a decidedly minority reading in Peking.
Romatzyh writes jial, which is unmistakably not nasalized. The
erlhuah form of jiang in Romatzyh is jiangl.
The
neutral tone is indicated by placing a period (.) before each
syllable
that is neutral. Obviously this is more work than the
practice in
Pinyin,
where tonally neutral
syllables simply have their
diacritic marks left
off.
In Y.R.Chao's own writings, certain common morphemes appearing in the neutral tone are often written without vowels: for instance, sh for .shy, the copula; g for .ge, the common measure word; d for .de, the possessive particle; etc. These are not standard today, with the exception of the noun suffix tz for .tzy. Chao tended to indicate the underlying tones of neutral syllables, even though those underlying tones could not be heard.
As in
Pinyin, an
apostrophe is used to mark the break between
syllables
that might otherwise be run together and read the wrong way. For
instance, the ancient city of Charng'an ("extend the
peace") needs the
apostrophe after the
g, because if we wrote *Charngan some people
might decide to break after the
n and pronounce it as *Charn-gan
("
cicada livers"). The modern name of the same city is written Shi'an
("western
peace"), because without the
apostrophe we might read it as
*Shian ("
deliciously
fresh tasting"). In both of these examples,
Pinyin
uses an
apostrophe the same way and in the same place.
Special words whose tone is not allowed to
change
The four words
bu 'not',
i 'one',
chi 'seven', and
ba 'eight', whose
tones change in different tonal enviroments, are
always written in their
Tone 1 forms in Romatzyh.
A few more examples in tabular form
Rule #2:
Tone 1: ba po shy tai tong
Tone 2: bar por shyr tair torng
Pinyin: {ba} {po} {shi} {tai} {tong}
Rule #3:
Tone 1: shiuan uan shing chu ji
Tone 2: shyuan wan shyng chwu jyi
Pinyin: {xuan} {wan} {xing} {chu} {ji}
Rule #4:
Tone 1: tzy shan jin fei duo
Tone 3: tzyy shaan jiin feei duoo
Pinyin: {zi} {shan} {jin} {fei} {duo}
Rule #5:
Tone 1: jiau guei shiue dai shau
Tone 3: jeau goei sheue dae shao
Pinyin: {jiau} {gui} {xue} {dai} {shao}
Rule #6:
Tone 1: chiu gai dou shin fang jiel
Tone 4: chiuh gay dow shinn fanq jiell
Pinyin: {qu} {gai} {dou} {xin} {fang} {jir/jinr}
Rule #7:
Tone 1: mhi nhiou lhau rheng
Tone 2: mi niou lau reng
Pinyin: {mi} {niu} {lao} {reng}
Rule #8 (Tone 3 only):
Consonant initial: chii goan guoo jiee
Vowel initial: yii woan woo yee
Pinyin: {qi} {guan} {guo} {jie}
Pinyin: {yi} {wan} {wo} {ye}
Rule #9 (Tone 4 only):
Consonant initial: guay jiow chih shuh
Vowel initial : way yow yih wuh
Pinyin: {guai} {jiu} {qi} {shu}
Pinyin: {wai} {you} {yi} {wu}
Practice your Romatzyh on this:
-
Renshiu jy chiou
- chiyueh jih wanq,
- Su Tzyy yeu keh fannjou
- you yu Chyhbih jy shiah.
- Chingfeng shyu lai
- shoeibo bushing,
- jeujeou juukeh,
- sonq mingyueh jy shy
- ge yeauteau jy jang.
Shao yan,
- yueh chu yu Dongshan jy shanq
- pairhwai yu doouniou jy jian,
- bairluh herng Jiang
- shoeiguang jie tian,
- tzonq iwoei jy suoo ru
- ling wannching jy mangran.
- Hawhaw hu ru pyng shiu yuh feng
- erl bujy chyi suoo jyy,
- piaupiau hu ru yi shyh dwulih
- yeu huah erl dengshian.
Yushyh yiinjeou lehshenn, kowshyan erl ge jy. Ge iue:
- 'Gueyjaw shi... lanjeang,
- jyi kongming shi... suh liouguang,
- meaumeau shi... yu hwai,
- wanq meeiren shi... tian ifang.'
Keh yeou chuei donqshiau jee, yii ge erl heh jy. Chyi sheng
mingmingran:
- ru yuann ru muh
- ru chih ru suh,
- yuin neauneau
- bujyue ru leu,
- wuu iouhuo jy chyanjiau
- chih gujou jy lifuh.
Su Tzyy cheauran, jenqjin erl wenn keh iue, 'Herwey chyi ran
yee?' Keh iue:
- Yueh ming shing shi
- uchiueh nan fei...
tsyy fei Tsaur Menqder jy shy hu?
- Shi wanq Shiahkoou
- dong wanq Wuuchang,
- shan chuan shiang mou
- yuh hu tsangtsang,
tsyy fei Menqder jy kuenn yu Jou Lang jee hu? Fang chyi poh
Jingjou, shiah Jiangling, shuennliou erl dong yee,
- jwulu chian lii
- jingchyi bih kong,
- shyjeou lin Jiang
- herngshuoh fuh shy.
Guh ishyh jy shyong yee, erl jin an tzay tzai? Kuanq wu yeu Tzyy,
yuchyau yu Jiang duu jy shanq, leu yushia erl yeou miluh,
- jiah iyeh jy beanjou
- jeu paurtzuen yii shiang juu,
- jih fwuyou yu Tiandih
- meau tsanghae jy isuh,
- ai wu sheng jy shiuyu
- shiann charng Jiang jy wu chyong,
- jya feishian yii iauyou
- baw mingyueh erl charng jong,
- jy bukee hu jiuh der
- tuo yisheang yu beifeng.'
Su Tzyy iue: 'Keh yih jy, fwu shoei yeu yueh hu?
- Shyh jee ru sy, erl weicharng woang yee.
- Yngshiu jee ru bii, erl tzwu moh shiaucharng yee.
Gay jiang
- tzyh chyi biann jee erl guan jy
- tzer Tiandih tserng buneng yii ishuenn,
- tzyh chyi bubiann jee erl guan jy,
- tzer wuh yeu woo jie wujinn yee,
erl yow her shiann hu? Chieefwu,
- Tiandih jy jian
- wuh ge yeou juu,
- goou fei wu jy suoo yeou
- swei ihaur erl moh cheu.
- Wei jiangshanq jy chingfeng
- yeu shanjian jy mingyueh,
- eel der jy erl wei sheng
- muh yuh jy er cherng seh,
- cheu jy wujinn
- yonq jy bu jye,
- shyh tzaw wuh jee jy wujinn tzanq yee,
- erl wu yeu Tzyy jy suoo gonq shyh.
- Keh shii erl shiaw
- shii jaan geng juo.
- Yau her jih jinn
- beiparn langjyi,
- Shiang yeu jennjieh hu jou jong
- bu jy dongfang jy jih bair.