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Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Traditional Chinese
國語羅馬字
Simplified Chinese
国语罗马字
Literal meaning
Standard Chinese romanization
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
Guóyǔ Luómǎzì
Bopomofo
ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄩˇ ㄌㄨㄛˊ ㄇㄚˇ ㄗˋ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Wade–Giles
Kuo2-yü3 Lo2-ma3-tzu4
Tongyong Pinyin
Guó-yǔ Luó-mǎ-zìh
Yale Romanization
Gwóyǔ Lwómǎdz̀
IPA
[kwǒỳ lwǒmàtsɹ̩̂]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
Gwokyu Lòhmáhjih
Jyutping
Gwok3 jyu3 Lo4 ma5 zi6
IPA
[kʷɔ̄ːkjȳːlɔ̀ːmɐ̬tɕìː]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ
Kok-gí Lô-má-jī
Gwoyeu Romatzyh,[a] abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Standard Chinese in the Latin alphabet. It was conceived by Yuen Ren Chao, who led a group of linguists to develop the system from 1925 to 1926. From 1942 to 2000, a small number of reference works published in Hong Kong and overseas made use of the system, and Chao would use it throughout his later linguistics work, including in his most influential publications. However, Gwoyeu Romatzyh never achieved widespread use among the Chinese public. In places where it had been used, it was eventually replaced—largely by Hanyu Pinyin (or simply 'pinyin'), which became the international standard romanization during the second half of the 20th century. Pinyin itself made use of principles originally introduced by Gwoyeu Romatzyh, whose influence is often reflected in the design of later systems.
GR indicates the four tones of Standard Chinese by varying the spelling of syllables, rather than by using either diacritics as in pinyin, or numerals as in the earlier Wade–Giles system. The distinct spellings for each tone also vary by syllable according to particular rules. Tonal spelling was originally proposed by Lin Yutang, one of the members of the development team. Chao said that this could possibly aid students of Chinese learning to articulate tones.[1] However, later study comparing the tonal accuracy of students reading aloud from either Gwoyeu Romatzyh or pinyin has not substantiated Chao's hypothesis.[2]
In September 1928, the Republic of China adopted Gwoyeu Romatzyh as the national romanization system for Standard Chinese.[3] It began to see use in Chinese dictionaries, with some proponents hoping that it would eventually replace Chinese characters entirely. However, despite support from linguists both in China and overseas, the public largely lacked interest in the system, or even viewed it with hostility due to its complexity.[b] In addition, its widespread adoption was hindered by its narrow calibration to the Beijing dialect during a period when the country lacked a strong centralizing government to impose its use. While tonal spelling also features in romanization schemes used for other Asian languages like Hmong and Zhuang, their rules are considerably simpler than those in Gwoyeu Romatzyh.
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^Chao & Yang 1947, p. xv, "The common [foreign] attitude of treating the tone as an epiphenomenon on top of the solid sounds—consonants and vowels—is to the Chinese mind quite unintelligible...".
^McGinnis 1997, "The results clearly indicated that GR did not lead to significantly greater accuracy in tonal production. Indeed, the use of GR reflected slightly lower rates of tonal production accuracy for native speakers of both American English and Japanese.".
GwoyeuRomatzyh, abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Standard Chinese in the Latin alphabet. It was conceived by Yuen Ren Chao, who led a group of...
The spelling of GwoyeuRomatzyh (GR) can be divided into its treatment of initials, finals and tones. GR uses contrasting unvoiced/voiced pairs of consonants...
tonal-spelling GwoyeuRomatzyh, and to co-exist with the popular Wade–Giles (romanization) and Zhuyin (non-romanization). It is sometimes referred to as Gwoyeu Romatzyh...
indicate the tone with diacritics: mā, má, mǎ, mà. Still, the system of GwoyeuRomatzyh (National Romanization) bypasses the issue of introducing non-letter...
used Mandarin Chinese textbooks in the 20th century. He invented the GwoyeuRomatzyh romanization scheme, which, unlike pinyin and other romanization systems...
almost by a factor of four. For comparison: Other systems include GwoyeuRomatzyh, the French EFEO, the Yale system (invented for use by US troops during...
are considered phonemically distinguishable within Standard Chinese. GwoyeuRomatzyh employs a different spelling for each tone, whereas other systems employ...
for Mandarin, others include bopomofo, Wade–Giles, Yale, EFEO and GwoyeuRomatzyh. Especially when distinguished from other languages of China DeFrancis...
Pinyin incorporated different aspects from existing systems, including GwoyeuRomatzyh from 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz from 1931, and the diacritics from bopomofo...
Chinese University of Hong Kong and McCraw (1928-1973) Red Chamber Dream GwoyeuRomatzyh Qian, Suoqiao (1 October 2010). "Representing China: Lin Yutang vs...
Romanization Converter – converts between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade–Giles, GwoyeuRomatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems Bopomofo -> Wade-Giles...
Shao (Chinese: 邵; pinyin: Shào; HKG Romanisation: Shiu; GwoyeuRomatzyh: Shaw) is a common Chinese family name. It is the 86th most populous family name...
romanization systems that indicate tones in such a way (the other being GwoyeuRomatzyh). All other systems use diacritics or numbers to indicate tone. One...
to romanization in general) ISO 7098 (1991): Based on Hanyu Pinyin. GwoyeuRomatzyh (GR, 1928–1986, in Taiwan 1945–1986; Taiwan used Japanese Romaji before...
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