Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh 國語羅馬字;国语罗马字 | |
---|---|
Script type | romanization |
Created | 1925 |
Time period | |
Languages | Standard Chinese |
Gwoyeu Romatzyh | |
---|---|
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 | [kʷɔ̄ːk jȳː lɔ̀ː mɐ̬ tɕìː] |
Southern Min | |
Hokkien POJ | Kok-gí Lô-má-jī |
Gwoyeu Romatzyh,
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
History
Following the
On 26 September 1928, Gwoyeu Romatzyh was officially adopted by the Republic's nationalist government—led at the time by the Kuomintang (KMT).[3][8] The corresponding entry in Chao's diary, written in GR, reads G.R. yii yu jeou yueh 26 ry gong buh le. Hoo-ray!!! ("G.R. was officially announced on September 26. Hooray!!!")[9] It was intended for use alongside the existing bopomofo system, hence its alternative designation as the "Second Pattern of the National Alphabet".[c] Both systems were used to indicate the revised standard of pronunciation in the new official Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use of 1932.[10] In general, the designers of Gwoyeu Romatzyh were interested in large-scale reform of the Chinese writing system; these potential reforms often involved adopting Gwoyeu Romatzyh as a primary, practical script for the language.[11] During the 1930s, two short-lived attempts were made to teach Gwoyeu Romatzyh to railway workers and peasants in Henan and Shandong.[12] Support for GR was confined to a small number of trained linguists and sinologists, including Qian Xuantong and Luo Changpei in China and Walter Simon in England.[13] During this period, GR faced increasing hostility because of the complexity of its tonal spelling. Conversely, sinologist Bernhard Karlgren criticized GR for its lack of phonetic rigour.[14] Ultimately, like Latinxua Sin Wenz, GR failed to gain widespread support, principally because the "national" language was too narrowly based on the Beijing dialect:[15] "a sufficiently precise and strong language norm had not yet become a reality in China".[3]
Historical use of Gwoyeu Romatzyh is reflected in the official spelling of the name for the province of
Description
Basic first tone forms
An important feature of Gwoyeu Romatzyh, inspired by its precursors and later adopted by pinyin, is the use of consonant pairs with a
Other notable features of Gwoyeu Romatzyh orthography include:
- ⟨iu⟩ represents the close front rounded vowel /y/, spelled contextually as ⟨ü⟩ or ⟨u⟩ in pinyin.
- Final ⟨-y⟩ represents the [ɨ] allophone of i: GR ⟨shy⟩ and ⟨sy⟩ correspond to pinyin ⟨shi⟩ and ⟨si⟩ respectively.
- ⟨el⟩ corresponds to pinyin ⟨er⟩, with ⟨-r⟩ being reserved to indicate the second tone. The most important use of -(e)l is as a rhotacizationsuffix, as in ideal = i dean + -(e)l ('a little'; yìdiǎnr).
- A number of frequently occurring morphemes have abbreviated spellings in GR. The most of these are: -g (-ge), -j (-zhe), -m (-me), sh (shi) and -tz (-zi).[19]
Tonal spelling
By default, the basic Gwoyeu Romatzyh spelling described above is used for syllables with the
- either a vowel is changed to another vowel resembling it in sound (i to y, for example, or u to w)
- or a letter is doubled
- or a silent letter (r or h) is added after the vowel.
Wherever possible, the concise first method is used.
Word segmentation
An important principle of Gwoyeu Romatzyh is that text should use spaces as dividers between words. While this has been common practice in European languages since; but in Chinese the concept of "word" is not easy to pin down. The basic unit of speech is popularly thought to be the monosyllable represented by a character, which in most cases represents a meaningful syllable or morpheme, a smaller unit than the "linguistic word".[21] Characters are written and printed with no spaces between words; yet in practice most Chinese words consist of two-syllable compounds, and it was Chao's bold innovation in 1922 to reflect this in GR orthography by grouping the appropriate syllables together into words.[22] This represented a radical departure from hyphenation used in Wade–Giles forms, e.g. Kuo2-yü3 Lo2-ma3-tzu4.
Publication history
Chao used Gwoyeu Romatzyh in four influential works:
- Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese (1947; in collaboration with Yang Lien-sheng)
- Mandarin Primer[23] – originally used in the Army Specialized Training Program at the Harvard University School for Overseas Administration from 1943 to 1944, and subsequently in civilian courses; republished in 1948.[24] It was written "to supply the advanced student of spoken Chinese with reading matter which he can actually use in his speech".[25] The work consists of three volumes of Chinese text with facing GR romanization,[26] including recorded dialogues, fragments of an autobiography, two plays, and a translation of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (Tzoou daw Jinqtz lii).[27][28]
- A Grammar of Spoken Chinese (1968)[29]
- Readings in Sayable Chinese (1968)[30][full citation needed] – in this context, sayable means colloquial, as opposed to the written vernacular Chinese often read by students.[31]
In 1942, Walter Simon introduced Gwoyeu Romatzyh to English-speaking sinologists in a pamphlet entitled The New Official Chinese Latin Script. Over the remainder of the 1940s he published a series of textbooks and readers, as well as a Chinese-English dictionary using GR. His son Harry Simon later went on to use GR in papers he published on Chinese linguistics.[32]
In 1960, Y. C. Liu, who was a colleague of Walter Simon at
Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (1972) incorporated a number of novelties, which included a simplified romanization scheme derived from GR,[34][35] though Lin eliminated most of the spelling rules.
The first 3 issues of Shin Tarng magazine (1982–1989; Xīntáng) also used a simplified version of Gwoyeu Romatzyh. The fourth issue, now rendered as Xin Talng, used a system that adapted pinyin to use tonal spelling akin to GR.[36]
Pedagogy
Chao believed that the benefit of tonal spelling was to make the use of tones in Chinese more salient to learners:
[GR] makes the spelling more complicated, but gives an individuality to the physiognomy of words, with which it is possible to associate meaning ... [A]s an instrument of teaching, tonal spelling has proved in practice to be a most powerful aid in enabling the student to grasp the material with precision and clearness.[37]
For example, it may be easier to memorize the difference between GR Beeijing 'Beijing' and beyjiing 'background' than the pinyin Běijīng and bèijǐng. One study conducted at the University of Oregon from 1991 to 1993 compared the results of teaching elementary level Chinese using either pinyin or GR to two matched groups of students; the study ultimately concluded that "GR did not lead to significantly greater accuracy in tonal production".[38]
Notes
- ^ Traditional Chinese: 國語羅馬字; simplified Chinese: 国语罗马字; pinyin: Guóyǔ Luómǎzì; lit. 'Standard Chinese romanization'
- ^ For a detailed account of the historical background, see DeFrancis, John. "One State, One People, One Language". Nationalism and Language Reform in China. Princeton University Press. Retrieved 2024-03-04 – via pinyin.info.
- ^ 国音字母第二式; Gwoin tzyhmuu dihell shyh; Guóyīn zìmǔ dì'èr shì; see Simon 1947, p. lxxi, Table X
References
Citations
- ^ 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.".
- ^ a b c Kratochvíl 1968, p. 169.
- ^ Zhong 2019, pp. 27–28; DeFrancis 1950a.
- ^ Chao 1948, p. 11, "Without disclaiming responsibility, as a very active member of the Committee on Unification, for the merits and defects of the system, I must give credit to my colleague Lin Yutang for the idea of varying the spelling to indicate difference in tone.".
- ^ DeFrancis 1950a, footnotes 43 and 46.
- ^ DeFrancis 1950, p. 74.
- ISSN 0913-8439.
- ^ Zhong 2019, p. 41.
- ^ 国音常用字汇; Gwoin charngyonq tzyhhuey; Guóyīn chángyòng zìhuì: see Chao 1948, p. 11
- ^ Chao 1968c, "While the official position was that it was to be used whenever Chinese was to be spelled in Latin letters, such as in dealing with foreigners, those who devised the system, of whom I was one, had in our minds the design of a practical system of writing.".
- ^ DeFrancis 1950, pp. 77–78.
- ^ DeFrancis 1950, p. 75.
- ^ Karlgren 1928, p. 20, "[GR] is based on a series of very fatal phonetic lies, and for this reason it will be very difficult to learn, and consequently impractical.".
- ^ DeFrancis 1950, p. 76.
- ^ "陕西为什么拼作Shaanxi,而不是Shanxi". The Paper (in Chinese). Retrieved 2017-12-19.
- ^ Chiung 2001.
- ^ Chao 1948, pp. 19–24; Chao 1968a, pp. 20–25.
- ^ Chao 1968a, p. xxx.
- ^ Chao 1948, pp. 28–30, 336; Chao 1968a, pp. 29–30, 847; Simon 1947, p. lviii, Table IX.
- ^ Chao 1968a, pp. 138–143; Kratochvíl 1968, pp. 89–99.
- ^ DeFrancis 1950a, note 46.
- ^ Chao, Yuen Ren. Mandarin Primer. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Archived from the original on 27 October 2005. Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- ^ Chao 1948, p. v.
- ^ Chao 1968b, pp. i, iv.
- ^ Yuen Ren Chao. "Readings in Sayable Chinese: table of contents". pinyin.info. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
- ^ 走到鏡子裡跟阿麗思看見裡頭有些什麼; Tzoou daw Jinqtz lii gen Alihsy Kannjiann Liitou Yeou Shie Sherme; Zǒu dào jìngzili gēn Ālìsī kànjian lǐtou yǒu xiē shénme.
- ^ Carroll, Lewis. "Yuen Ren Chao in Wonderland". Translated by Chao, Yuen Ren. Richard Warmington. Retrieved 2007-03-12.Carroll, Lewis (1969). "Humpty Dumpty in Mandarin Chinese". Translated by Chao, Yuen Ren. Asian Language Publications. Retrieved 2007-03-15 – via pinyin.info.
- ^ Kratochvíl 1968, p. 187.
- ^ Cassette recordings of this text are available from various online sources.
- ^ Chao 1968b, pp. i, vi.
- ^ Simon 1958.
- ^ Liu 1960, p. xii, "[The book's] primary aim is to introduce students to the Classical style through the medium of the modern spoken language.".
- ^ Lin, Yutang. Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (Online ed.). Chinese University of Hong Kong. "In the original edition, 'Guoryuu Romatzyh' (國語羅馬字) was used as the scheme for romanization." Another feature was an "Instant Index System": "an invention by Lin Yutang with the intention of providing a simple and unambiguous rule to call up any given Chinese character ... [T]his index system has not been widely used since its inception.". Retrieved 2007-03-27.
- ^ Ching, Yutang & Li 1975.
- ^ "Xin Tang: a journal of romanized Mandarin". pinyin.info. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
- ^ Chao 1948, p. 11.
- ^ McGinnis 1997.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-674-73288-9.
- ——— (1968a). A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. [University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-00219-9.
- ——— (1968b). Readings in Sayable Chinese. Asian Language Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-87950-328-9.
- ——— (1968c). Language and Symbolic Systems. ISBN 0-521-09457-7.
- ———; Yang, L. S. (1947). Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-15800-8.
- Chen, Ping (1999). Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64572-7.
- Ch'en, Ta-tuan; Link, P.; Tai, Y. J.; Ch'en, T. T. (2000). Chinese Primer. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09602-3.
- Ching, Eugene; Yutang, Lin; Li, Choh-ming (1975). "Review of Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage by Lin Yutang". The Journal of Asian Studies. 34 (2). Association for Asian Studies: 521–524. S2CID 146408374.
- Chiung, Wi-vun Taiffalo (2001). "Romanization and Language Planning in Taiwan". The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal. 9 (1): 15–43.
- DeFrancis, John (1950). Nationalism and Language Reform in China. Princeton University Press.
- (1950a). "One State, One People, One Language". In DeFrancis (1950).
- Nationalism and language reform in China. New York: Octagon. 1972 [1950]. ISBN 978-0-374-92095-1.
- Karlgren, Bernhard (1928). The Romanization of Chinese. London: China Society.
- Kratochvíl, Paul (1968). The Chinese Language Today. Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-084651-6.
- Lin, Yutang (1972). Chinese–English Dictionary of Modern Usage. Chinese University of Hong Kong. ISBN 0-07-099695-4.
- Liu, Y. C. (1960). Fifty Chinese Stories 言文对照中国故事五十篇. Lund Humphries. ISBN 0-85331-054-8.
- McGinnis, Scott (October 1997). "Tonal Spelling versus Diacritics for Teaching Pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese". The Modern Language Journal. 81 (2). Blackwell Publishing: 228–236. JSTOR 328789.
- Simon, Harry F. (1958). "Some Remarks on the Structure of the Verb Complex in Standard Chinese". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 21 (1/3): 553–577. S2CID 145370253.
- Simon, Walter (1942). The New Official Chinese Latin Script Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Tables, Rules, Illustrative Examples. Arthur Probsthain.
- ——— (1947). A Beginners' Chinese-English Dictionary. Lund Humphries.
- Zhong, Yurou (2019). Chinese Grammatology: Script Revolution and Literary Modernity, 1916–1958. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-54989-9.
External links
- "A short course (10 pages)". Retrieved 2007-03-31.
- "GR Junction". Retrieved 2007-03-31.
- "A Guide to Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tonal Spelling of Chinese". Archived from the original on September 3, 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
- "Gwoyeu Romatzyh". Retrieved 2007-03-31.
- "Romanization comparison chart". Retrieved 2007-03-31.
- Chinese Phonetic Conversion Tool - Converts between Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other formats