Gwoyeu Romatzyh

Gwoyeu Romatzyh (國語羅馬字 Pinyin: Guóyǔ Luómǎzì), abbreviated GB, isromanization (formerly used officially inRepublicChina)complex spelling rules which allowtonal distinctions (unlike most other Romanizations, which require additional diacritics or numerals).

Asresult its tonal spelling, many lettersGwoyeu Romatzyhalso usedsignify tonesnot actual segmental sounds. For example,PinyinWade-Giles aiwrittenGB as oneai, air, ae, or ay (tones 1, 2, 3,4, respectively). In this case, "r"not pronouncedsimply indicates tone two. However, tone twonot always indicated by r, as GB's iou, you, yeou, or yow correspondPinyinWade-Giles you. (See #Tonal rules) Becausethese elaborate rulesirregularities, GBdifficultreadlearn,comparison tolater ROC Romanizations (MPS IITongyong Pinyin) as well asalready popular Wade-GilesHanyu Pinyin.

Tablecontents

1 History 2 Segmental features 3 Tonal rules 4 Cosmetic changes 5 Rhotacization 6 Exceptions 7 External links

History

Proposed by Lin Yutang,developed mostly by Y.R. Chaofrom 19251926 also byPreparatory Commission forUnification ofNational Language, GB was proclaimed byRepublican Government University (國民政府大學院 Guomin Zhengfu Daxueyuan) on September 26, 1928. It appearedaddition toexisting phonetic symbols,Zhuyin. GB was renamedTransliteration Symbols (譯音符號 Yiyin Fuhao)1940. It was modified intoofficially replaced by MPS IIJanuary 1986.

Segmental features

The differencesunique similarities unrelatedtone rendering that GB hasWade-Giles (Wade)Hanyu Pinyin (Pinyin):

• The three symbols, j, ch,sh, represent six sounds. When followed by "i", theyPinyin j, q,x. Otherwise,correspondzh, ch,sh.
• Y represents bothempty rimes (Wade -u-ih; Pinyin -i)i (WadePinyin i). The empty rime y may stand alone or be followed byconsonant. The vowel yalways followed byvowel (including i),is never alone.
• While GB iuPinyin/Wade ü, GB iouPinyin/Wade iu.
• Like Pinyin/Wade iuspelled out as iouGB,Pinyin/Wade unuispelled out as uenuei.
• AuPinyin/Wade ao.
• Wade ts (formerly tz)split into tsts' (Pinyin c)tzts (Pinyin z)
• Like most Romanizations,hasdiacritic mark forrarely used sound "eh!", whichè or ê, which behaves like e ("uh!"). But whencombination, è loses its accent.
• -ongasPinyin,unlike Wade's -ung.
• Like Pinyin, an apostropheuseddisambiguate syllable sequence.
• It also has three lettersdialectal sounds: v (万extended Zhuyin), ng (兀),gn (广).

Tonal rules

The additional letter or modified letter (replacementanother)signify toneusually done tovowel or diphthong. The following list number correspondtone number.

1. No extra tone-letteraddedtone one , i.e., theywritten as ifhave no tone,syllablesother tonesmodified from tone one. Except:
   • Those beginningl, r, m,n have -h after them. And tone-two syllablesl, r, m,n initials behave like tone-one syllable.
2. For tone-two syllables, all vowels (and last vowel ofdiphthongs)followed by r, except:
   • I becomes y, unless itfinal, then i has y preceding it: yi.
   • U becomes w, unless itfinal, then u has w preceding it: wu.
3. Tone-three vowelsdoubled, except:
   • I becomes e
   • U becomes o
   • Diphthongsa do not doublefollowabove two exceptions.
   • The diphthong eu becomes iu
   • For diphthongs without a,letter that comes firstalphabet orderdoubled, i.e.,
     • Double e, not i.
     • Double o, not u.
   • Also, there#cosmetic changes
4. For tone-two syllables, all vowels (and last vowel ofdiphthongs)followed by h, except:
   • Those syllables end-n doubleconsonant: -nn.
   • Those end-l doubleconsonant: -ll.
   • Those end-ng become -nq.
   • In diphthong,unstressed (or final)...
     • I becomes y.
     • U becomes w.
   • Also, there#cosmetic changes
5. A dot (often written as period)placed before neutral tone syllables (which otherwise appear exactly like those tone-one syllables). However, thissometimes ignored by writer.

Cosmetic changes

In addition,cosmeticclarifying purposes, some initial vowels (all iu,some eo)tones threefourreplaced or modified, soas there still will be vowel left insyllable andchanged syllable does not become identicalanother.

• iemodified by y: replaced or preceded by it
• uomodified by w

For tone-three syllables,modifieradded, except -iee-uoo -- which have its first vowels replaced. For tone-four syllables, vowelsreplaced, except when replacement will mean no vowel left, thenmodifieradded.

Rhotacization

Because ralready used forconsonantastone two marker, elused insteadsignifyPinyin er.

Erhua (兒化), or rhotacization,transcribed assaid (surface form), while most other Romanizations expressunderlying form. Sometimes, one GB rhotacized form equals several Pinyin forms,example,

• Jiel corresponds toPinyin jīrjīnr.
• Jial corresponds toPinyin jīerjīanr.

The final i, y,ndeleted when rhotacized. For i, y,iu,rhotic eladded,others, just l.

Exceptions

The followingwords or characters that always disobeyrules:

• The name Romatzyh (should be "Luomaatzyh")parallelRoma internationally.
• Even thoughtone"one" (一) changesdifferent context (Pinyin: yī or yí or yì),GB,will always be i, as iftone one.
• Even though "eight" (八)"seven" (七)sometimes readtone twospeech (beforetone-fourneutral-tone word), but italways written astone one, i.e., bachi.
• Even thoughword "no" (不) should be buh (tone four),disregardsrulesis written as iftone one: bu.

External links

• A short course (around 10 pages)
• Rulesexamples (one page) from everything2.com
• Comparison chart
• Comparison chart II
• Zhuyin-GB comparison vowel chart