Gwoyeu Romatzyh

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Gwoyeu Romatzyh, abbreviated GR, is a romanization (formerly used officially in the Republic of China) with spelling rules which allow for tonal distinctions (unlike most other Romanizations, which uses diacritics or numerals to indicate different tones).

In tonal spelling, four letters (-y, -e, -w, -o), represent vowel glides and a tone simultaneously. Only two post-vocalic (= after a vowel) letters in Gwoyeu Romatzyh are used to signify tones and not actual segmental sounds: -r and -h. For example, the Pinyin and Wade-Giles ai (pinyin: aī, aí, aǐ, and aì) is written in GR as ai, air, ae, or ay (tones 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). In this case, "r" is not pronounced and simply indicates tone two. The letters -e and -y in the above examples represent both the sound -i AND the third (fourth) tone. Making letters do double duty is the preferred, economical way to show tones in GR. This is why the second tone is not always indicated by r, as GR's iou, you, yeou, or yow correspond to Pinyin and Wade-Giles yōu, yóu, yǒu, yòu respectively. (See #Tonal rules)

Because most learners of Chinese now start with Hanyu Pinyin, when they first meet GR, they reject this "odd-looking" (to their eyes) romanization out of hand and refuse to consider its advantages. The slightly greater effort required to read and learn GR is very helpful when trying to learn and remember tones, but few learners give it a chance (see links below to learn about these advantages). Even though the majority of native speaker dictionaries published in Taiwan still use GR, Taiwanese teachers of Chinese do not learn or teach GR. Later ROC Romanizations (MPS II and Tongyong Pinyin) as well as Wade-Giles are much more widely known in Taiwan. Hanyu Pinyin is now the most internationally used romanization.

[edit] History

Proposed by Lin Yutang, and developed mostly by Y.R. Chao and from 1925 to 1926 also by the Preparatory Commission for the Unification of the National Language, GR was proclaimed by the Republican Government University (國民政府大學院 Guomin Zhengfu Daxueyuan) on September 26, 1928. It appeared in addition to the existing phonetic symbols, the Zhuyin. GR was renamed to Transliteration Symbols (譯音符號 Yiyin Fuhao) in 1940. It was modified into and officially replaced by MPS II in Taiwan in January 1986.

[edit] Segmental features

The differences and unique similarities unrelated to tone rendering that GR has with Wade-Giles (Wade) and Hanyu Pinyin (Pinyin):

• The three symbols, j, ch, and sh, represent six sounds. When followed by "i", they are Pinyin j, q, and x. Otherwise, they correspond to zh, ch, and sh.
• Y represents both the empty rimes (Wade -u and -ih; Pinyin -i) and i (Wade and Pinyin i). The empty rime y may stand alone or be followed by a consonant. The vowel y is always followed by a vowel (including i), and is never alone.
• While GR iu is Pinyin/Wade ü, GR iou is Pinyin/Wade iu.
• Like Pinyin/Wade iu is spelled out as iou in GR, the Pinyin/Wade un and ui are spelled out as uen and uei.
• Au is Pinyin/Wade ao.
• Wade ts (formerly tz) is split into ts for ts' (Pinyin c) and tz for ts (Pinyin z)
• Like most Romanizations, it has a diacritic mark for the rarely used sound "eh!", which is è or ê, which behaves like e ("uh!"). But when in combination, è loses its accent.
• -ong is as in Pinyin, and unlike Wade's -ung.
• Like Pinyin, an apostrophe is used to disambiguate syllable sequence.
• It also has three letters for dialectal sounds: v (万 in extended Zhuyin), ng (兀), and gn (广).

[edit] Tonal rules

The additional letter or modified letter (replacement of another) to signify tone is usually done to the vowel or diphthong. The following list number correspond to tone number.

1. No extra tone-letter is added to tone one, i.e., they are written as if they have no tone, and syllables with other tones are modified from tone one. Except:
   • Those beginning with l, r, m, and n have -h after them. And tone-two syllables with l, r, m, and n initials behave like tone-one syllable.
2. For tone-two syllables, all vowels (and last vowel of the diphthongs) are followed by r, except:
   • I becomes y, unless it is final, then i has y preceding it: yi.
   • U becomes w, unless it is final, then u has w preceding it: wu.
3. Tone-three vowels are doubled, except:
   • Diphthongs with a do not double. Instead, the I becomes e or the U becomes o.
   • Note that, for diphthongs without a, the letter that comes first in alphabet order is doubled, i.e.,
     • Double e, not i.
     • Double o, not u.
   • There may also be an additional cosmetic change. See below.
4. For tone-four syllables, all vowels (and last vowel of the diphthongs) are followed by h, except:
   • Those syllables end in -n double the consonant: -nn.
   • Those end in -l double the consonant: -ll.
   • Those end in -ng become -nq.
   • In diphthongs with final "I" or "U"...
     • I becomes y.
     • U becomes w.
   • There may also be an additional cosmetic change. See below.
5. A dot (often written as period) is placed before neutral tone syllables (which otherwise appear in those syllables' exact original tonal spelling). However, this is sometimes ignored by the writer.

[edit] Cosmetic changes

In addition, for purposes of appearance and clarity, some vowels (all i, u, and sometimes e and o) occurring at the beginning of syllable in tones three and four should be replaced or preceded by another letter, provided that there will still be vowel left in the syllable and the changed syllable does not become identical with another.

• i and e can be replaced or preceded by a y
• u and o can be replaced or preceded by a w

For syllables in tone three, the y or w should precede the first vowel, except in the cases of iee and uoo, when the y or w should replace the first vowel. For syllables in tone four, when the y or w should replace the first vowel, except that if i or u are complete syllables by themselves, they become yi or wu respectively.

[edit] Rhotacization

Because r is already used for the consonant and as a tone two marker, el is used instead to signify the Pinyin er.

Erhua (兒化), or rhotacization, is transcribed as is said (surface form), while most other Romanizations express the underlying form. Sometimes, one GR rhotacized form equals several Pinyin forms, for example,

• Jiel corresponds to the Pinyin jīr and jīnr.
• Jial corresponds to the Pinyin jīar and jīanr.

The final i, y, and n are deleted when rhotacized. For i, y, and iu, the rhotic el is added, for others, just l.

[edit] Exceptions

The following are words or characters that always disobey the rules:

• The name Romatzyh (should be "Luomaatzyh") is parallel to Roma internationally.
• Although the tones for the characters "one" (一), "seven" (七), "eight" (八), and "no" (不) change in different contexts, in GR, they are always written i, chi, ba, and bu, respectively.

[edit] External links

• A short course (around 10 pages)
• Rules and examples (one page) from Everything2
• Comparison chart
• Comparison chart II
• Zhuyin-GR comparison vowel chartde:Gwoyeu Romatzyh

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