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Wade-Giles

Wade-Giles

Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on the form of Mandarin used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade in the mid-19th century, and reached settled form with Herbert Giles's Chinese-English dictionary of 1912. It was the main system of transliteration in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century, replacing the Nanjing-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the 19th century.

History

The Wade-Giles system was designed to transliterate Chinese terms for Chinese specialists. This origin has led to a general sense that the system is non-intuitive for non-specialists and not useful for teaching Chinese pronunciation. The Republic of China has used Wade-Giles for decades as the de facto standard, co-existing with several official but obscure Romanizations in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928), MPS II (1986), and Tongyong Pinyin (2000). Taiwanese placenames in international use have still been virtually all in Wade-Giles. Many Taiwanese Americans and Taiwanese Canadians also have their Chinese names written in Wade-Giles, while consistently ignoring some punctuation. The Hanyu Pinyin system is the official and most widely used system in the People's Republic of China. In Singapore, Pinyin is taught in national schools and widely used in official documents, although an about-turn in government policy reversed the requirement to register people's Chinese names in Pinyin. Wade-Giles spellings for Taiwanese placenames and words long accepted in English usage are still used interchangeably in English language texts in both countries, however. The famous past Chinese men Confucius and Mencius, who became known of in Europe early, are usually known in these Latinized forms.

One symbol-multiple sounds

A common complaint about the Wade-Giles system is the representation of the unaspirated-aspirated stop consonant pairs using apostrophes: p, p', t, t', k, k', ch, ch. However, the use of apostrophes preserves b, d, g, and j for the romanization of Chinese dialects containing voiced consonants, such as Shanghainese (which has a full set of voiced consonants) and Taiwanese (Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old Missionary Romanisation is similar to Wade-Giles. On the other hand, people unfamiliar with the Wade-Giles often ignore the apostrophes, even so far as leaving them out when copying texts, unaware that they represent vital information. Hanyu Pinyin addresses this issue by employing the Latin letters customarily used for voiced stops, unneeded in Mandarin, to represent the unaspirated stops: b, p, d, t, g, k, zh/j, ch/q. Partly because of the popular omission of the apostrophe, the four sounds represented in Hanyu Pinyin by j, q, zh, and ch all become ch in many literature and personal names. However, were the diacritics to be kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap:
- The non-retroflex ch (Pinyin j) and ch (Pinyin q) are always before either i or ü.
- The retroflex ch (Pinyin zh) and ch (Pinyin ch) are always before a, e, ih, o, or u.

One sound-multiple symbols

In addition to several sounds presented using the same letter(s), sometimes, one single sound is represented using several sets of letters. There exists two versions of Wade-Giles Romanizations for each of the Pinyin syllables zi, ci, and si.
- The older version writes tsû, ts'û, and ssû
- The newer version writes:
  - tzu for tsû, but it still remains ts- before other vowels, as in tsung for the Pinyin zong.
  - tz'u for ts'û, but remains ts'- before other vowels.
  - szu or ssu for ssû, but is s- before other vowels. Note, not ss-.

Precision with empty rime

On the other hand, Wade-Giles shows precisions not found in other major Romanizations in regard to the rendering of the two types of empty rimes (空韻):
- -u (formerly û) after the sibilant tz, tz, and s (Pinyin z, c, and s).
- -ih after the retroflex ch, ch, sh, and j (Pinyin zh, ch, sh, and r). These empty rimes are all written as -i in Hanyu Pinyin (hence undistinguishable from true i as in li), and all written as -ih in Tongyong Pinyin. Zhuyin, as a non-Romanization, does not require the representation of any empty rime.

Partial interchangeability of uo and e with o

What is pronounced as a close-mid back unrounded vowel is written usually as -e as in pinyin, but sometimes as -o. This vowel in an isolate syllable is written as o or ê. When placed in a syllable, it is e; except when preceded by k, k, and h, when it is o. What is actually pronounced as -uo is virtually always written as -o in Wade-Giles, except shuo and the three syllables of kuo, k'uo, and huo, which already have the counterparts of ko, k'o, and ho that represent pinyin ge, ke, and he.

Punctuation

In addition to the apostrophes used for distinguishing the multiple sounds of a single Latin symbol, Wade-Giles uses hyphens to separate all syllables within a word, whereas Pinyin only uses apostrophes to separate ambiguous syllables. Originally in his dictionary, Giles used left apostrophes (‘) consistently. Such orientation was followed in Sinological works until the 1950s or 60s, when it started to be gradually replaced by right apostrophes (’) in academic literature. On-line publications almost always use the plain apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are completely ignored in Taiwanese passports, hence their total absence in overseas Chinese's names. If the syllable is not the first in a word, its first letter is not capitalized, even if it is a proper noun. The use of apostrophes, hyphens, and capitalization is frequently not observed in placenames and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas Chinese of Taiwanese origin write their given names like "Tai Lun" or "Tai-Lun", whereas the Wade-Giles actually writes "Tai-lun". The capitalization issue arises partly because ROC passports indiscriminately capitalize all letters of the holder's names (beside the photograph). It is also due to the misunderstanding that the second syllable is a middle name. (See also Chinese name) Wade-Giles uses superscript numbers to indicate tone, and official Pinyin uses diacritics. The tone marks are ignored except in textbooks.

Other differences with Pinyin


- Wade-Giles chose the French-like j to represent a Northerner's pronunciation of what now is represented as r in Pinyin.
- Ü (as in 玉 "jade") always has umlaut above, while Pinyin only employs the umlaut in the four cases of lü, lüe, nü, and nüe.
- The Pinyin vowel cluster ong is ung in Wade-Giles. (See Confucius as an example.)
- After a consonant, the Wade-Giles vowel cluster uei is written ui in pinyin. However, both Romanizations, unlike some others, use iu and un instead of the complete syllables: iou and uen.
- I is never preceded by y, as in pinyin. The only exception is in placenames, which are hyphenless, so without a y, syllable ambiguity could arise.
- The isolated syllable eh! is written as ê, like in Pinyin. (Schwa is occasionally written as ê as well.) But unlike Pinyin, which uses -e if there's consonant preceding the sound, Wade-Giles uses -eh. (See circumflex)
- In addition to being the schwa, ê also represents the Pinyin er as êrh.

Influences

Postal System Pinyin is based on Wade-Giles, but incorporating a number of exceptions that override the systematic rules.

See also


- Daoism-Taoism Romanization issue, an exceptional example for employing Wade-Giles instead of pinyin.

External links


- [http://www.mandarintools.com/pyconverter.html Chinese Romanization Converter] - Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems.
- [http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/eastasian/ctable2.htm Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin conversion table] (See Zhuyin)
- [http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/eastasian/ctable3.htm Pinyin → Wade-Giles → Zhuyin conversion table]
- [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/china.html A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade-Giles to Pinyin] Category:Chinese language romanization ms:Wade-Giles

Romanization

:In Antiquity, Romanization describes the spread of Roman culture and language. In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representing of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language used a different writing system. Methods of romanization include transliteration, representing written text, and transcription, representing the spoken word. The latter can be subdivided into phonological transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision. Each romanization has its own set of rules for pronunciation of the romanized words. To romanize is to transliterate or transcribe a language into the Roman alphabet. This process is most commonly associated with the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages (CJK). Cyrillization is the similar process of representing a language using the Cyrillic alphabet. Also spelled romanisation and latinisation.

Methods of romanization

Transliteration

If the romanization attempts to transliterate the original script, the guiding principle is a one-to-one mapping of characters in the source language into the target script, with less emphasis on how the result sounds when pronounced according to the reader's language. For example, the Nihon-shiki romanization of Japanese allows the informed reader to reconstruct the original Japanese kana syllables with 100% accuracy, but is not readable without prior study.

Transcription

Phonological

However, most romanizations are intended for the casual reader, who is unfamiliar with the intricacies of the original script and is more interested in pronouncing the source language. Such romanizations follow the principle of phonological transcription and attempt to render the significant sounds (phonemes) of the original as faithfully as possible in the target language. The popular Hepburn romanization of Japanese is an example of a transcriptive romanization designed for English speakers.

Phonetic

A phonetic conversion goes one step further and attempts to depict all phones in the source language, sacrificing legibility if necessary by using characters or conventions not found in the target script. The International Phonetic Alphabet is the most common system of phonetic transcription.

Tradeoffs

For most language pairs, building a usable romanization involves tradeoffs between the two extremes. Pure transcriptions are generally not possible, as the source language usually contains sounds and distinctions not found in the target language, but which must be shown to for the romanized form to be comprehensible. In general, outside a limited audience of scholars, romanizations tend to lean more towards transcription. As an example, consider the Japanese martial art 柔術: the Nihon-shiki romanization zyūzyutu may allow someone who knows Japanese to reconstruct the kana syllables じゅうじゅつ, but most people would find it easier to guess the pronunciation from the Hepburn version, jūjutsu.

Romanization of specific writing systems

Arabic

For more detail, see Arabic transliteration The Arabic alphabet is used to write Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Romanization standards include:
- Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (1936): [http://www.dmg-web.de/] Adopted by the International Convention of Orientalist Scholars in Rome. It is the basis for the very influential Hans Wehr dictionary (ISBN 0879500034).
- BS 4280 (1968): Developed by the British Standards Institute [http://www.bsi-global.com/index.xalter]
- SATTS (1970s): Developed by US military
- UNGEGN (1972): [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_ar.pdf]
- DIN-31635 (1982): Developed by the Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization)
- ISO 233 (1984). Transliteration.
- Qalam (1985): A system that focuses upon preserving the spelling, rather than the pronunciation, and uses mixed case [http://eserver.org/langs/qalam.txt]
- ISO 233-2 (1993). Simplified transliteration.
- Buckwalter Transliteration (1990s): Developed at Xerox by Tim Buckwalter [http://www.qamus.org/transliteration.htm]; doesn't require unusual diacritics [http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/content-analysis/arabic/info/buckwalter-about.html]
- ALA-LC (1997): [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/arabic.pdf]
- Arabic Chat Alphabet

Hebrew

For more details, see Hebrew alphabet and Romanization of Hebrew.
- ANSI Z39.25 (1975):
- UNGEGN (1977): [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_he.pdf]
- ISO 259 (1984): Transliteration.
- ISO 259-2 (1994): Simplified transliteration.
- ISO/DIS 259-3: Phonemic transcription.
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hebrew.pdf]

Brahmic scripts

The Brahmic family of abugidas is used for languages of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia. There is a long tradition in the west to study Sanskrit and other Indic texts in Latin transliteration. Various transliteration conventions have been used for Indic scripts since the time of Sir William Jones. A comparison of some of them is provided here: [http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3part2.html]
- ISO 15919 (2001): A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to the Latin script. See also [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stone-catend/trind.htm Transliteration of Indic scripts: how to use ISO 15919]. The Devanagari-specific portion is identical to the academic standard, IAST: "International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration", and to the United States Library of Congress standard, ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hindi.pdf]
- Harvard-Kyoto: Uses upper and lower case and doubling of letters, to avoid the use of diacritics, and to restrict the range to 7-bit ASCII.
- ITRANS: a transliteration scheme into 7-bit ASCII created by Avinash Chopde that used to be prevalent on Usenet.
- ASTHA: "Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration for HTML", made in Argentina, also into 7-bit ASCII [http://www.sanskrit-sanscrito.com.ar/english/sanskrit/sanskrit3.html]
- ISCII (1988)
- National Library at Calcutta romanization (?)

Chinese

Romanization of Chinese, in particular, has proved a very difficult problem, although the issue is further complicated by political considerations. Another complication is the fact that Mandarin is not written phonetically, but rather written as ideograms. Because of this, many romanization tables contain Chinese characters plus one or more romanizations or Zhuyin. See also: [http://www.pinyin.info] [http://www.romanization.com/]

Standard Mandarin


- ALA-LC: Used to be similar to Wade-Giles [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/chinese.pdf], but converted to Hanyu Pinyin since 2000 [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pinyin/romcover.html]
- EFEO. Developed by Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient in 19th century, used mainly in France.
- Latinxua Sinwenz (1926): Omitted tone sounds. Used mainly in the Soviet Union and Xinjiang in the 30s. Predecessor of Hanyu Pinyin.
- Lessing-Othmer: Used mainly in Germany.
- Postal System Pinyin (1906): Early standard for international addresses
- Wade-Giles (1912): Transliteration. Very popular from 19th century until recently and continues to be used by some Western academics.
- Yale (1942): Created by the U.S. for battlefield communication and used in the influential Yale textbooks.
Mainland China

- Hanyu Pinyin (1958): In Mainland China, Hanyu Pinyin has been used officially to romanize Mandarin for decades, primarily as a linguistic tool for teaching Standard Mandarin (the standardized Chinese spoken language) to students whose mother tongue is not Standard Mandarin, and has been adopted by much of the international community as a standard for writing Chinese words and names in the Roman alphabet. The value of Hanyu Pinyin in education in China lies in the fact that China, like any other populated area with comparable area and population, has literally thousands of distinct dialects, though there is just one common written language and one common standardized spoken form. (These comments apply to Romanization in general)
- ISO 7098 (1991): Very similar to Hanyu Pinyin.
Taiwan

- Gwoyeu Romatzyh: (1926): Used in mainland China before the communist takeover in 1949. Primarily used in Taiwan. Replaced by MPS II and no longer commonly used.
- Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (1984): Primarily used in Taiwan. Not to be confused with MPS I which is Zhuyin. Replaced by Tongyong Pinyin and no longer commonly used.
- Tongyong Pinyin (2000): Primarily used in Taiwan. Literally means "Universal Spell Sound". Very similar to Hanyu Pinyin. Differences between the two are noted [http://research.chtsai.org/papers/pinyin-xref.html here].

Standard Cantonese


- Barnett-Chao
- Guangdong (1960)
- Hong Kong Government
- Jyutping
- Meyer-Wempe
- Sidney Lau
- Yale (1942)

Min Nan


- Guangdong (1960)
- Presbyterian Church in Taiwan

Japanese

Romanization (or, more strictly, Roman letters) in Japanese is called "rōmaji". The most common systems are:
- Hepburn (1867): transcription
- Nihon-shiki (1885): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602 Strict) in 1989.
- Kunrei-shiki (1937): transliteration. Also adopted as (ISO 3602).
- JSL (1987)
- ALA-LC: Similar to Hepburn [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/japanese.pdf]
- Wāpuro

Korean

Main article: Korean romanization While romanization is often been carried out irrespective of any system, there are some rulesets available to choose from:
- McCune-Reischauer (MR; 1937?), the first transcription to gain some acceptance. A slightly changed version of MR was the official system for Korean in South Korea from 1984 to 2000, and yet a different modification is still the official system in North Korea. Uses breves, apostrophes and diereses, the latter two indicating orthographic syllable boundaries in cases that would otherwise be ambiguous.
What is called MR may in many cases be any of a number of systems that differ from each other and from the original MR mostly in whether word endings are separated from the stem by a space, a hyphen or – according to McCune's and Reischauer's system – not at all; and if a hyphen or space is used, whether sound change is reflected in a stem's last and an ending's first consonant letter (e.g. pur-i vs. pul-i). Although mostly irrelevant when transcribing uninflected words, these aberrations are so widespread that any mention of "McCune-Reischauer romanization" may not necessarily refer to the original system as published in the 1930s.
  - The ALA-LC / U.S. Library of Congress system is an example of these systems that are based on MR, from which it deviates it in some aspects. Word division is addressed in detail, with generous use of spaces to separate word endings from stems that is not seen in MR. Syllables of given names are always separated with a hyphen, which is expressly never done by MR. Sound changes are ignored more often than in MR. Distinguishes between ‘ and ’. [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/korean.pdf] Several problems with MR led to the development of the newer systems:
- Yale (1942): This system has become the established standard romanization for Korean among linguists. Vowel length in old or dialectal pronunciation is indicated by a macron. In cases that would otherwise be ambiguous, orthographic syllable boundaries are indicated with a period. Indicates disappearance of consonants.
- Revised Romanization of Korean (RR; 2000): Includes rules both for transcription and for transliteration. South Korea now officially uses this system which was approved in 2000. Road signs and textbooks were required to follow these rules as soon as possible, at a cost estimated by the government to be at least US$20 million. All road signs, names of railway and subway stations on line maps and signs etc. have been changed. Romanization of surnames and existing companies' names has been left untouched; the government encourages using the new system for given names and new companies. Basically similar to MR, but uses no diacritics or apostrophes. In cases of ambiguity, orthographic syllable boundaries may be indicated with a hyphen, although state institutions never seem to make use of this option e.g. on street signs or linemaps.
- ISO/TR 11941 (1996): This actually is two different standards under one name: one for North Korea (DPRK) and the other for South Korea (ROK). The initial submission to the ISO was based heavily on Yale and was a joint effort between both states, but they could not agree on the final draft. A superficial comparison between the two is available here: [http://www.sori.org/hangul/romanizations.html#Roman_Intro]
- Lukoff romanization
- Joseon Gwahagwon (조선민주주의인민공화국 과학원) romanization

Thai

Thai, spoken in Thailand, is written with its own script, probably descended from Old Khmer, in the Brahmic family. Also see Thai alphabet.
- Royal Thai General System of Transcription:
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/thai.pdf]
- ISO 11940 (1998): Transliteration

Cyrillic

In linguistics, scientific transliteration is used for both Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. This applies to Old Church Slavonic, as well as modern Slavic languages which use these alphabets.

Belarusian

The Belarusian language has been written with both Cyrillic and Latin scripts. Today the Latin script (Łacinka, or Łacinica) is rarely used, although it has its advocates. Despite the existence of a native Latin alphabet, Belarusian names are usually transcribed similarly to the Russian language.
- Belarusian National System of Romanization
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/beloruss.pdf]
- BGN/PCGN
- ISO9 External link: [http://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Belarusian.pdf Thomas T. Pederson's chart] (PDF).

Bulgarian

See transliteration of Bulgarian into English.

Russian

There is no single universally accepted system of writing Russian using the Latin script — in fact there are a huge number of such systems: some are adjusted for a particular target language (e.g. German or French), some are designed as a librarian's transliteration, some are prescribed for Russian traveller's passports; the transcription of some names is purely traditional.   All this has resulted in great reduplication of names.   E.g. the name of the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky may also be written as Tchaykovsky, Tchajkovskij, Tchaikowski, Tschaikowski, Czajkowski, Čajkovskij, Čajkovski, Chajkovskij, Chaykovsky, Chaykovskiy, Chaikovski, Tshaikovski, Tšaikovski etc. Systems include:
- BGN/PCGN (1947): Transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use). [http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/vy75/cyrillic.htm]
- GOST 16876-71 (1983): From the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the former Soviet Union. Russian abbreviation of GOsudarstvenny STandart, "the State Standard". [http://www.ccl.net/cca/software/SOURCES/C/translit/phg-koi8.shtml]
- United Nations standard (1987): Based on GOST. Used in the Russian Federation and increasingly in international cartographic products.
- ISO 9 (1995): Transliteration. From the International Organization for Standardization.
- ALA-LC (1997): [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/russian.pdf]
- "Volapuk" encoding (1990s): Slang term (it's not really Volapük) for a writing method that's not truly a transliteration, but used for similar goals (see article).
- Conventional English transliteration is based to BGN/PCGN, but doesn't follow a particular standard. Described in detail at transliteration of Russian into English.

Ukrainian

Ukrainian personal names are usually transcribed phonetically; see the main article section Conventional romanization of proper names. The Ukrainian National system is used for geographic names in Ukraine.
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/ukrainia.pdf (PDF)].
- ISO 9
- Ukrainian National transliteration: [http://www.hostmaster.net.ua/docs/translit/tab_01.jpg (JPEG, in Ukrainian)].
- Ukrainian National and BGN/PCGN systems, at the UN Working Group on Romanization Systems: [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom2_uk.pdf (PDF)].
- Thomas T. Pederson's comparison of five systems: [http://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Ukrainian.pdf (PDF)].

Greek

Greek language includes the modern language spoken in Greece, as well as ancient Polytonic orthography. See also Greeklish.
- ISO 843 (1997): [http://www.biology.uoc.gr/gvd/contents/databases/01c.htm]
- ALA-LC: [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/greek.pdf]

Overview/Summary

The chart below shows the most common phonemic transcription romanization used for several different alphabets. While it is sufficient for many casual users, there are multiple alternatives used for each alphabet, and many exceptions. For details, consult each of the language sections below. (Because the number of Hangul characters are prohibitively large, only the first characters are provided in the following table.)
ROMANIZEDGreekRussian (Cyrillic)HebrewArabicKatakanaHangul
AAАַ, ֲ, ָدَ, دَ, ﺍ — ﺎ, دَىاア
AIי ַ
BБבּﺏ ﺑ ﺒ ﺐㅂ
CHΧЧㅊ
CHIチ
DΔДדﺩ — ﺪ, ﺽ ﺿ ﻀ ﺾㄷ
DHﺫ — ﺬ
EΕЭ, ֱ, י ֵֶ, ֵ, י ֶ エ
FΦФפ (final ף )ﻑ ﻓ ﻔ ﻒ
FUフ
GΓГגㄱ
GHﻍ ﻏ ﻐ ﻎ
Hח, הﻩ ﻫ ﻬ ﻪ, ﺡ ﺣ ﺤ ﺢㅎ
HAハ
HEヘ
HIヒ
HOホ
IΗ, Ι, ΥИִ, י ִدِイ
IYدِي
Jﺝ ﺟ ﺠ ﺞㅈ
JJㅉ
KΚКכּ (final ךּ ), קﻙ ﻛ ﻜ ﻚㅋ
KAカ
KEケ
KHХכ (final ך )ﺥ ﺧ ﺨ ﺦ
KIキ
KKㄲ
KOコ
KUク
LΛЛלﻝ ﻟ ﻠ ﻞ
MΜМמ (final ם )ﻡ ﻣ ﻤ ﻢㅁ
MAマ
MEメ
MIミ
MOモ
MUム
NΝНנ (final ן )ﻥ ﻧ ﻨ ﻦㄴ
NAナ
NEネ
NIニ
NOノ
NUヌ
OΟ, ΩО, ֳ, וֹֹオ
PΠПפּ (final ףּ )ㅍ
PPㅃ
PSΨ
Qﻕ ﻗ ﻘ ﻖ
RΡРרﺭ — ﺮㄹ
RAラ
REレ
RIリ
ROロ
RUル
SΣ Сס, שֹﺱ ﺳ ﺴ ﺲ, ﺹ ﺻ ﺼ ﺺㅅ
SAサ
SEセ
SHШשﺵ ﺷ ﺸ ﺶ
SHCHЩ
SHIシ
SOソ
SSㅆ
SUス
TΤТט, תּ, תﺕ ﺗ ﺘ ﺖ, ﻁ ﻃ ﻄ ﻂㅌ
TAタ
TEテ
THΘﺙ ﺛ ﺜ ﺚ
TOト
TSЦצ (final ץ )
TSUツ
TTㄸ
UУ, וֻּدُウ
UWدُو
VBВב, ו, וו
Wﻭ — ﻮ
WAワ
WEヱ
WIヰ
WOヲ
XΞ
YЙ, Ыיﻱ ﻳ ﻴ ﻲ
YAЯヤ
YEЕ
YOЁヨ
YUЮユ
ZΖЗזﺯ — ﺰ, ﻅ ﻇ ﻈ ﻆ
ZHЖ

See also


- Anglicisation
- Francization

External links


- [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/ UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems]
- [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html U.S. Library of Congress Romanization Tables] in PDF format
- [http://people.cornell.edu/pages/rc235/Transliteration/demo.html Java romanization app]
- One of the few printed books with lists of romanizations is ALA-LC Romanization Tables, Randall Barry (ed.), U.S. Library of Congress, 1997, ISBN 0844409405.

Transliteration

Transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another. Transliteration attempts to be lossless, so that an informed reader should be able to reconstruct the original spelling of unknown transliterated words. To achieve this objective transliteration may define complex conventions for dealing with letters in a source script which do not correspond with letters in a goal script. Romaji is an example of a transliterating method. This is opposed to transcription, which maps the sounds of one language to the script of another language. Still, most transliterations map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the goal script, for some specific pair of source and goal language. One instance of transliteration is the use of an English computer keyboard to type in a language that uses a different alphabet, such as in Russian. While the first usage of the word implies seeking the best way to render foreign words into a particular language, the typing transliteration is a purely pragmatic process of inputting text in a particular language. Transliteration from English letters is particularly important for users who are only familiar with the English keyboard layout, and hence could not type quickly in a different alphabet even if their software would actually support a keyboard layout for another language. Some programs, such as the Russian language word processor Hieroglyph provide typing by transliteration as an important feature. The rest of the article concerns itself with the first meaning of the word, that is rendering foreign words into a different alphabet. If the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages, a transliteration may be (almost) the same as a transcription. In practice, there are also some mixed transliteration/transcription systems, that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest. Greeklish is an example of such a mixture. In a broader sense, the word transliteration is used to include both transliteration in the narrow sense and transcription. Anglicizing is a transcription method. Romanization encompasses several transliteration and transcription methods.

Example to illustrate the difference between transliteration and transcription

In Modern Greek, the letters <η> <ι> <υ> and the letter combinations <ει> <oι> <υι> are all pronounced (in IPA notation). A transcription consequently renders them all as <i>, but a transliteration still distinguishes them, for example by transliterating to <ē> <i> <y> and <ei> <oi> <yi>. (As the old Greek pronunciation of <η> was , this proposal uses the character appropriate for an Old Greek transliteration or transcription <ē>, an <e> with a macron.) On the other hand, <ευ> is sometimes pronounced and sometimes , depending on the following sound. A transcription distinguishes them, but this is no requirement for a transliteration.

Uses of transliteration

Transliterations in the narrow sense are used in situations where the original script is not available to write down a word in that script, while still high precision is required. For example, traditional or cheap typesetting with a small character set; editions of old texts in scripts not used any more (such as Linear B); some library catalogues (see [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/pubs/isbdg0.htm#0.6 www.ifla.org/VII/s13/pubs/isbdg0.htm]). For example, the Greek language is written in the 24-letter Greek alphabet, which overlaps with, but differs from, the 26-letter version of the Roman alphabet in which English is written. Etymologies in English dictionaries often identify Greek words as ancestors of words used in English. Consequently, most such dictionaries transliterate the Greek words into Roman letters. Transliteration in the broader sense is a necessary process when using words or concepts expressed in a language with a script other than one's own. The idea of transliteration is complicated by the genuine use in multiple languages of different common nouns for the same person, place or thing. Thus, "Muhammad" is in common use now in English and "Mohammed" is less popular, though there are excellent reasons for each transcription (and similarly for "Muslim" and "Moslem"). "Muslim" and "Mohammedan" are not interchangeable, as "Mohammedan" has come to be viewed as a religious slur, and the typical French usage "Musulman" is considered offensively colonialist in English language contexts. However, "Musulmaan" is the way to say "Muslim" in other languages, such as Urdu, Hindi and Russian. Transliteration is also used for simple encryption.

Issues in transliterating particular languages

Some languages and scripts present particular difficulties to transcribers. These are discussed on separate pages.
- Ancient Near East
  - Transliterating cuneiform languages
  - Transliteration of ancient Egyptian (see also Egyptian hieroglyphs)
  - hieroglyphic Luwian
- Avestan
- Brahmic family
  - Devanagari: see IAST, Harvard-Kyoto, ITRANS
  - Pali
  - Tocharian
- Chinese language
  - Pinyin
  - Wade-Giles
  - Bopomofo
- Greek language
  - Transliteration of Greek to the Latin Alphabet
  - Greek alphabet
  - List of Greek words with English derivatives
  - Linear B
  - Greeklish
- Japanese language
  - Romaji Transliterating Japanese to Latin script
  - Transcribing English to Japanese
  - Cyrillization of Japanese
- Korean Language
  - McCune-Reischauer
- Semitic languages
  - Ugaritic alphabet
  - Hebrew alphabet
    - Romanization of Hebrew
  - Arabic alphabet
    - Arabic transliteration
    - Arabic Chat Alphabet
- Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic or Glagolitic alphabets
  - Transliteration of Russian into English
  - Volapuk encoding
  - Romanization of Ukrainian
- Thai language
  - Royal Thai General System of Transcription

See also


- Romanization

Transliteration sites


- [http://www.latkey.com/translit Transliteration .NET service] - a free online translit service for MS Internet Explorer and MS Office for Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Hindi, and other languages.
- [http://transliteration.eki.ee Eesti Keele Instituut] - Collection of Transliteration Tables for many Non-Roman Scripts.
- [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/ United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)] - Working Group on Romanization Systems.
- [http://www.sil.org/ SIL International] - Provides free fonts for transliteration and IPA
- [http://www.mashke.org/Conv/ Automatic Cyrillic Converter]
- [http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html Library of Congress: Romanization]
- [http://www.library.arizona.edu/users/brewerm/sil/lib/transhist.html Transliteration history] - history of the transliteration of Slavic languages into Latin alphabets.
- [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stone-catend/trind.htm Transliteration of Indic Scripts] - How to use ISO 15919
- [http://girish.co.in/projects/dev/trans4.html Online Devanagari Transliteration] - Transliteratation service for transliterating from Devanagari to 8 Indian Scripts.
- [http://lost1.net/?page=hebrew Al's Hebrew Transliterator] - converts phonetic Hebrew (using Latin alphabet) into Hebrew & HTML unicode.
- [http://icu.sourceforge.net/userguide/Transform.html ICU User Guide: Transforms] - Transliteration services in International Components for Unicode
- [http://www.genomantra.biz/unitrans/ Online Devanagari Transliteration, transcodes ITrans to Unicode] - Online demo and Open Source code available for download. Uses a simple table based algorithm. Category:Linguistics

Mandarin (linguistics)

:This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. For the standardized official spoken Chinese language (Putonghua/Guoyu), see Standard Mandarin. Mandarin, or Guanhua (), or Beifanghua () is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. When taken as an independent language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin dialects have more speakers than any other language. The English word Mandarin can refer to two distinct concepts: to all of the Mandarin dialects, or to just Standard Mandarin, which is based on the Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing. Standard Mandarin functions as the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China, the official spoken language of the the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of the official spoken languages of Singapore. "Chinese" — de facto, Standard Mandarin — is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. In everyday use, "Mandarin" refers usually to just Standard Mandarin. The broader group of Mandarin dialects consists of diverse related dialects, some less mutually intelligible than others. It is a grouping defined and used mainly by linguists, and is not commonly used outside of academic circles as a self-description. Instead, when asked to describe the spoken form they are using, Chinese speaking a form of Mandarin will describe the variant that they are speaking, for example Sichuan dialect or Northeast China dialect, and consider it distinct from "[Standard] Mandarin"; they may not recognize that it is in fact classified by linguists as a form of "Mandarin" in a broader sense. Nor is there a common "Mandarin" identity based on language; instead, there are strong regional identities centered around individual Mandarin dialects, due to the wide geographical distribution of its speakers. This article will focus on the wider sense of Mandarin — a large grouping of diverse northern and southwestern Chinese dialects, rather than just Standard Mandarin. Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is significant dispute as to whether Mandarin is a language or a dialect. (See Is Chinese a Language or a Family of Languages for more on this issue.)

History

The present main divisions of the Chinese language developed out of Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. Most Chinese living in a broad arc, from the north-east (Manchuria) to the south-west (Yunnan), use various Mandarin dialects as their home language. The prevalence of linguistic homogeneity (i.e. Mandarin) throughout northern China is largely the result of geography, namely the plains of north China. By contrast, the mountains and rivers of southern China have promoted linguistic diversity. The presence of Mandarin in southwest China is largely due to a plague in the 12th century in Sichuan. This plague, which may have been related to the black death, depopulated the area, leading to later settlement from north China. There is no clear dividing line where Middle Chinese ends and Mandarin begins; however, the Zhongyuan Yinyun (中原音韵), a rhyme book from the Yuan Dynasty, is widely regarded as an important milestone in the history of Mandarin. In this rhyme book we see many characteristic features of Mandarin, such as the reduction and disappearance of final stop consonants and the reorganization of the Middle Chinese tones. Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese living in southern China did not speak any Mandarin. However, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various Chinese dialects, Beijingese Mandarin became dominant at least during the officially Manchu-speaking Qing Empire. Since the 17th century, the Empire had set up Orthoepy Academies (正音書院 Zhengyin Shuyuan) in an attempt to make pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard. But these attempts had little success. This situation changed with the creation (in both the PRC and the ROC) of an elementary school education system committed to teaching Mandarin. As a result, Mandarin is now spoken fluently by most people in Mainland China and in Taiwan. In Hong Kong, the language of education and formal speech remains Cantonese but Mandarin is becoming increasingly influential.

Name and classification

The English term comes from the Portuguese mandarim (from Malay menteri [http://www.bartleby.com/61/33/M0073300.html][http://dictionary.bhanot.net/index.html] from Sanskrit mantrin-, meaning minister); it is a translation of the Chinese term Guānhuà (官話; simplified: 官话), which literally means the language of the mandarins (imperial magistrates). The term Guānhuà is often considered archaic by Chinese speakers of today, though it is used sometimes by linguists as a collective term to refer to all varieties and dialects of Mandarin, not just standard Mandarin. Another term commonly used to refer to all varieties of Mandarin is Běifānghuà (北方話, simplified: 北方话), or the dialect(s) of the North.

Standardized Mandarin

Main article: Standard Mandarin From an official point of view, there are two versions of standardized spoken Mandarin, since the Beijing government refers to that on the Mainland as Putonghua, whereas the Taipei government refers to their official language as Kuo-yü (Guoyu in pinyin). Technically, both Putonghua and Guoyu base their phonology on the Beijing dialect, though Putonghua also takes some elements from other sources. Comparison of dictionaries produced in the two areas will show that there are few substantial differences. However, both versions of "school" Mandarin are often quite different from the Mandarin that is spoken in accordance with regional habits, and neither is identical to even Beijing dialect. Putonghua and Guoyu also differ from the Beijing dialect in vocabulary, grammar, and usage. It is important to note that the terms "Putonghua" and "Guoyu" refer to speech, and hence the difference in the use of simplified characters and traditional characters is not usually considered to be a difference between these two concepts.

Variations

traditional characters Main article: Dialects of Mandarin There are regional variations in Mandarin. This is manifested in two ways: # Various dialects of Mandarin cover a huge area containing nearly a billion people. As a result, there are pronounced regional variations in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar encountered as one moves from place to place. These regional differences are as pronounced as (or more so than) the regional versions of the English language found in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and the United States. # Standard Mandarin has been promoted very actively by the PRC, the ROC, and Singapore as a second language. As a result, native speakers of both Mandarin varieties and non-Mandarin Chinese varieties frequently flavor it with a strong infusion of the speech sounds of their native tongues. Dialects of Mandarin can be subdivided into eight categories: Beijing Mandarin, Northeastern Mandarin, Ji Lu Mandarin, Jiao Liao Mandarin, Zhongyuan Mandarin, Lan Yin Mandarin, Southwestern Mandarin, and Jianghuai Mandarin. Jin is sometimes considered the ninth category of Mandarin (others separate it from Mandarin altogether). In both Mainland China and Taiwan, Mandarin in predominantly Han Chinese areas is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Mandarin, except for local language classes that have been taught for a few hours each week in Taiwan starting in the mid-1990s. However, the era of mass education in Mandarin has not erased these earlier regional differences. In the south, the interaction between Mandarin and local variations of Chinese has produced local versions of the "Northern" language that are rather different from that official standard Mandarin in both pronunciation and grammar.

Phonology

:See standard Mandarin for a description of Standard Mandarin phonology and dialects of Mandarin for an overview of the phonologies of Mandarin dialects. Mandarin, like most Chinese dialects/languages, is syllable timed, as opposed to many Western languages, including English, which are stress timed The set of syllables in Chinese is very small, since each syllable has to be constructed after the pattern: "optional initial consonant followed by vowel followed by optional final consonant (which is either an offglide or /n/), plus tone." Not every syllable that is possible according to this rule actually exists in Mandarin, and in practice there are only a few hundred syllables. For example, Mandarin lacks a final 'm' sound. People with a heavy Mandarin accent would often read 'time' as 'tie-mm', or may even pronounce the 'm' more like 'n.'

Vocabulary

There are more polysyllabic words in Mandarin than in other varieties of Chinese. This is partly because Mandarin has undergone many more sound changes than have southern varieties of Chinese, and has needed to deal with many more homophones — usually by forming new words via compounding, or by adding affixes such as lao-, -zi, -(e)r, and -tou. There are also a small number of words that have been polysyllabic since Old Chinese, such as hudie (butterfly). The pronouns in Mandarin are wǒ (我) "I", nǐ (你) "you", and tā (他/她) "he/she", with -men (们) added for the group. Dialects of Mandarin agree with each other quite consistently on this, but not with other varieties of Chinese (e.g. Wu has 侬 "you"). In addition, there is zánmen (咱们), a "we" that includes the listener, and nín (您), a deferential way of saying "you". A comparable example would be Sie and du in German. Other morphemes that Mandarin dialects tend to share are aspect and mood particles, such as -le (了), -zhe (着), and -guo (过). Other Chinese varieties tend to use different words in some of these contexts (e.g. Cantonese 咗 and 紧). Due to contact with Central Asian cultures, Mandarin has some loanwords from Altaic languages not present in other varieties of Chinese, for example hútong (胡同) "alley". Southern Chinese varieties have borrowed more from Tai or Austronesian languages.

References


-
-
-

See also


- Chinese grammar

External links


- [http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/classification/mandarin/index.php Classification of Mandarin Dialects]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cmn Ethnologue report on Mandarin]
- [http://www.chinesedc.com/4WenYi/Language/sino-tibetan1.htm Chinese language source materials] used as the basis for the map and chart supplied above. Category:Chinese language Category:Tonal languages ja:北方方言 simple:Mandarin language th:ภาษาจีนกลาง

Beijing

:Peking is also the name of an asteroid, see 2045 Peking. A bizarre and striking mix of both old and new styles of architecture can be seen at the Dashanzi Art District, which mixes 1950s-design with a blend of the new. The influence of American urban form and social values in manifest in the creation of Orange County, China, a suburban development about one hour north of the city.

Demographics

Orange County, China, is known for its high concentration of South Korean expatriates.]] South Korea The population of Beijing Municipality, defined as the total number of people who reside in Beijing for 6 months or more per year, was 14.927 million in 2004. 11.872 million people were urban, which includes residents in the Beijing urban area and surrounding towns, and the remainder were rural. [http://www.bjstats.gov.cn/lhzl/cbtj-2004/200501040141.htm] 11.629 million people in Beijing had Beijing hukou (permanent residence) and the remainder were on temporary residence permits. [http://www.bjstats.gov.cn/tjyl/tjgb/200501210039.htm] In addition, there is a large but unknown number of migrant workers (min gong) who live illegally in Beijing without any official residence permit (also termed hei ren or unregistered people). The population of Beijing's urban core (city proper) is around 7.5 million. Over 95% of Beijing's residents belong to the Han Chinese majority. Smaller populations consisting of members of the Manchu, Hui, and Mongol ethnic groups also call the city home. In recent years there has been an influx of South Korean expatriates, who live in Beijing predominantly for business and study, and are concentrated in the Wangjing and Wudaokou areas. A Tibetan high school exists for youth of Tibetan ancestry, nearly all of whom have come to Beijing from Tibet expressly for their studies. A sizable international or expatriate community exists in Beijing, mostly attracted by the highly growing foreign business and trade sector, and many members live in the Beijing urban area's densely populated northern, northeastern and eastern sections. The southwest and southern parts of the Beijing urban area are less densely populated. 2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料，民族出版社，2003/9 (ISBN 7105054255)
Includes only citizens of the PRC. Does not include members of the People's Liberation Army in active service.

Culture

People native to urban Beijing speak the Beijing dialect, which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese. Beijing dialect provides the basis for Standard Mandarin, the standard Chinese language used in the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and Singapore. Rural areas of Beijing Municipality have their own dialects akin to those of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing Municipality. Beijing Opera, or Peking Opera (Jingju), is well-known throughout the national capital. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing Opera is performed through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences, such as gestures, movement, fighting and acrobatics. Much of Beijing Opera is carried out in an archaic stage dialect quite different from modern Standard Mandarin and from the Beijing dialect; this makes the dialogue somewhat hard to understand, and the problem is compounded if one is not familiar with Chinese. As a result, modern theaters often have electronic titles in Chinese and English. Beijing dialect Beijing dialect, the left side was still standing; it has since given way to a new construction project.]] The Siheyuan (四合院) is a traditional architectural style of Beijing. A siheyuan consists of a square housing compound, with rooms enclosing a central courtyard. This courtyard often contains a pomegranate or other type of tree, as well as potted flowers or a fish tank. Siheyuans line Hutongs (胡同), or alleys, which connect the interior of Beijing's old city. They are usually straight and run east-to-west so that doorways can face north and south for Feng Shui reasons. They vary in width — some are very narrow, enough for only a few pedestrians to pass through at a time. Once ubiquitous in Beijing, siheyuans and hutongs are now rapidly disappearing, as entire city blocks of hutongs are leveled and replaced with high-rise buildings. Residents of the hutongs are entitled to apartments in the new buildings of at least the same size as their former residences. Many complain, however, that the traditional sense of community and street life of the hutongs cannot be replaced. Some particularly historic or picturesque hutongs are being preserved and restored by the government, with the objective that by the 2008 Olympics, only these few will remain. One such example can be seen at Nanchizi. Mandarin cuisine is the local style of cooking in Beijing. Peking Roast Duck is perhaps the most well-known dish. The Manhan Quanxi ("Manchu-Han Chinese full banquet") is a traditional banquet originally intended for the ethnic-Manchu emperors of the Qing Dynasty; it remains very prestigious and very expensive. Teahouses are also common in Beijing. Chinese tea comes in many varieties and some rather expensive types of Chinese tea are said to cure an ailing body extraordinarily well. The Jingtailan is a cloisonné metalworking technique and tradition originating from Beijing, and one of the most revered traditional crafts in China. Beijing lacquerware is well known for the patterns and images carved into its surface. The Fuling Jiabing is a traditional Beijing snack food, a pancake (bing) resembling a flat disk with filling, made from fu ling (Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf, or "tuckahoe"), an ingredient common in traditional Chinese medicine.

Stereotypes

Beijingers are stereotypically held to be open, confident, humorous, majestic in manner, enthusiastic about politics, art, culture, or other "grand" matters, unconcerned with thrift or careful calculation, and happy to take center stage. They are however also stereotypically aristocratic, arrogant, laid back, disdainful of "provincials", always "lording it over others", and strongly conscious of social class. These stereotypes may have originated from Beijing's status as China's capital for most of the past 800 years, and the high concentration of officials and other notables in Beijing that has resulted.

Transportation

:Main article: Transportation of Beijing With the growth of the city following economic reforms, Beijing has evolved as an important transportation hub. Encircling the city are five ring roads, nine expressways and city express routes, eleven China National Highways, several railway routes, and an international airport.

Rail

Beijing has two major railway stations: Beijing Railway Station (or the central station) and Beijing West Railway Station. Five other railway stations in Metropolitan Beijing handle regular passenger traffic: Beijing East, Beijing North, Beijing South, Fengtai, and Guang'anmen. Beijing is a railway hub. There are railway lines from Beijing to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Harbin, Baotou, Taiyuan, Chengde and Qinhuangdao. International trains, including lines to cities in Russia and Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK), all run through Beijing. Direct trains to Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR also depart from Beijing. Construction on a Beijing-Tianjin high-speed rail began on July 4, 2005, and is scheduled to be completed in 2007.

Roads and expressways

:See: Ring Roads of Beijing, Expressways of Beijing and China National Highways of Beijing for more related information. China National Highways of Beijing (November 2002 image)]] Beijing is connected via road links from all parts of China. Nine expressways of China (with six wholly new expressways under projection or construction) connect with Beijing, as do eleven China National Highways. Within Beijing itself, an elaborate network of five ring roads has developed, but they appear more rectangular than ring-shaped. Roads in Beijing often are in one of the four compass directions (unlike, for example, Tianjin). One of the biggest concerns with traffic in Beijing deals with its apparently ubiquitous traffic jams. Traffic in the city centre is often gridlocked, especially around rush hour. Even outside of rush hour, several roads still remain clogged up with traffic. Urban area ring roads and major through routes, especially near the Chang'an Avenue area, are often clogged up during rush hour. Recently expressways have been extended (in some cases reconstructed as express routes) into the territories within the 3rd Ring Road. As they are either expressways or express routes, drivers do not need to pass through intersections with traffic lights. This may finally solve the difficulties in "hopping between one ring and another". Another problem is that public transportation is underdeveloped (the subway system is presently minimal) and that even buses are jam-packed with people around rush hour. Beijing was poorly designed in terms of zoning and in terms of transportation system [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-10/06/content_269518.htm], [http://www.bjreview.com.cn/200410/Nation-200410(C).htm]. Compounding the problem is patchy enforcement of traffic regulations, and road rage. Beijing authorities claim that traffic jams may be a thing of a past come the 2008 Olympics. The authorities have introduced several bus lanes where, during rush hour, all vehicles except for public buses must keep clear. Chang'an Avenue runs east-west through the centre of Beijing, past Tian'anmen. It is a major through route and is often called the "First Street in China" by authorities.

Air

Beijing's main airport is the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) near Shunyi, which is about 20 km northeast of Beijing city centre. Most domestic and nearly all international flights arrive and depart at Capital Airport. Capital Airport is the main hub for Air China. It is linked to central Beijing by the Airport Expressway and is a roughly 40-minute drive from the city centre during good traffic hours. In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, another expressway is being built to the Airport, as well as a lightrail system. Other airports in the city include Liangxiang Airport, Nanyuan Airport, Xijiao Airport, Shahe Airport and Badaling Airport. However, these are primary for military use and less well-known to the public.

Public transit

The evolving Beijing Subway has four lines (two above ground, two underground), with several more being built in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics. There were 599 bus and trolleybus routes in Beijing as of 2004. [http://www.bjstats.gov.cn/tjyl/tjgb/200501210039.htm] Taxis are nearly ubiquitous, and some can accept Yikatong cards for payment. Buses and trolleybus fares cost 1 Renminbi for shorter trips, and more for longer trips. Subway tickets range from 2 to 5 Renminbi. Taxi fares depend on vehicle type: these start at 10 Renminbi for the first 3 to 4 kilometers, and go up by 1.20, 1.60, 2.00, or 2.50 Renminbi per extra kilometer, depending on the type of taxi. Some, too, can accept Yikatong cards for payment.

Tourism

Yikatong card Yikatong card :Main article: Tourist attractions of Beijing Despite the turmoil of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—including damage caused by European military intervention, the Japanese invasion of WWII and the Cultural Revolution—and the recent intense urbanisation and transformation, including the demolition of hutongs, Beijing still maintains tourist attractions that are rich in history. Although more known for its political significance in the West, Tian'anmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) remains the spiritual center of China and one of the most important tourist sites of Beijing, both by itself and as the main entrance to the Forbidden City. Other world-renowned sites include the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven.

Buildings, Monuments, and Landmarks


- Sections of the Great Wall (World Heritage Site) at:
  - Badaling
  - Juyongguan
  - Mutianyu
  - Simatai
  - Jinshanling
  - Jiankou
- Forbidden City (World Heritage Site)
- Tiananmen Square, site of the Tiananmen Square protests of May 4, 1919, 1976, and 1989
  - Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace)
  - Great Hall of the People (National Legislature)
  - The National Museum of China
  - Monument to the People's Heroes
  - Mausoleum of Mao Zedong
- The Summer Palace (World Heritage Site)
- Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
- Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian (World Heritage Site)
- The Ming Dynasty Tombs (World Heritage Site)
- Bell Tower and Drum Tower
- Historic Hutongs and Siheyuans in many older neighborhoods
- Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge)
- Prince Gong Mansion (Gong Wang Fu)
- Zheng Yici Peking Opera Theatre
- Liulichang Culture Street
- Beijing Ancient Observatory

Temples, Cathedrals, and Mosques


- Temple of Heaven (World Heritage Site), situated in the southern area of urban Beijing
- Temple of Earth, located in northern Beijing
- Temple of Sun, situated in the eastern area of urban Beijing
- Temple of Moon, located in western Beijing
- Tanzhe Temple
- Jietai Temple
- Yunju Temple
- Yonghegong (Lama Temple)
- Guangji Temple
- Confucius Temple
- Great Bell Temple
- Five Pagoda Temple
- Temple of Azure Clouds
- Temple of Recumbent Buddha
- White Dagoba Temple in Beihai Park
- Badachu
- Immaculate Conception Cathedral
- Holy Saviour Church
- Niujie Mosque

Parks and Gardens


- Beihai Park
- Shichahai
- Jingshan Park
- Beijing World Park
- The Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan)
- The Grandview Garden (Daguanyuan)
- Beijing Botanical Garden
- Taoranting Park

Shopping and Commercial Districts


- Wangfujing: Beijing's most upscale, globalized shopping district
- Xidan
- Beijing CBD
- Beijing Financial Street
- Zhongguancun
- Yizhuang see also: Jin Yuan Mall

Hotels and Lodging

In first two decades following the PRC's foundation in 1949, Beijing had virtually no hotels (at least by Western standards), due to economic and social conditions at the time. One system of institution providing a place for individuals traveling to Beijing from other locations to spend the night was the zhaodaisuo (literally, "accommodation centre"). Zhaodaisuo were subordinate to state organisations or state organs. Older ones had communal public conveniences and amenities. Some zhaodaisuos still remain in use today. In the late 1970s, Beijing, alongside much of China during the period of reform and economic opening under Deng Xiaoping, saw greater attempts at attracting and catering to international business. A large number of hotels and other facilities to accommodate business, tourist, and other visitors began to be constructed. Today, given Beijing's size and status as one of the most frequently visited and economically, politically, and culturally important cities in Asia, a great number of hotels exist, many rivalling the highest international standards. The most well-known hotel is the Beijing Hotel, which is state-owned. Other notable hotels are the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, the Jianguo Hotel, the China World Hotel, the St. Regis, Grand Hyatt at Oriental Plaza and the Peninsula Palace Hotel, operated by the Hong Kong-based Peninsula Group. Youth hostels do exist but are few in number. There is one near the centre of Beijing, where accommodations are located four floors below ground level.

Nightlife

Nightlife in Beijing is varied. Most clubs are situated in the area around Sanlitun or in the region near the Workers Stadium, especially to the north and to the west. New clubs opened on Gongrentiyuchang West Road. Wudaokou, in northwestern Beijing, is also a bustling center of nightlife. There are more Koreans and other foreigners, mostly students, in the area. Bar-wise, the following areas of Beijing are known as hubs for bars which open until late:
- Sanlitun
- Houhai
- Yuandadu

Education

:Main article: Colleges and Universities of Beijing Beijing is home to an extensive number of colleges and universities, including several well-regarded universities of international stature, especially including China's two most prestigious institutions, Peking University ("Beida") and Tsinghua University. Other well known institutions, domestically and internationally, include Beijing Normal University and Renmin University of China. Owing to Beijing's status as the political and cultural capital of China, a larger proportion of tertiary-level institutions are concreated here than probably any other city in China, reaching at least 59 in number. Many international students from Japan, Korea, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere come to Beijing to study every year, a growing trend, especially among Western students. The institutions listed here are administered by China's Ministry of Education. Best-known institutions:
- Tsinghua University (清华大学) (founded 1911), typically considered one of the two best academic institutions in China along with Peking University
- Peking University (北京大学) (founded 1898), typically considered one of the two best academic institutions in China along with Tsinghua University
- Renmin University of China (中国人民大学)
- Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学) (founded 1902)
- Beijing Foreign Studies University (北京外国语大学) Other institutions include:
- Beijing Language and Culture University (北京语言大学)
- Beijing Forestry University (北京林业大学)
- Beijing Institute of Technology (北京理工大学)
- Beijing Jiaotong University (北京交通大学)
- Beijing University of Chemical Technology (北京化工大学)
- Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (北京中医药大学)
- Beijing University of Petroleum (石油大学)
- Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (北京邮电大学)
- Central University of Finance and Economics (中央财经大学)
- China Agricultural University (中国农业大学)
- China University of Political Science and Law (中国政法大学)
- Communication University of China (中国传媒大学)
- Beijing University Health Science Center (formally Beijing Medical University) (北京大学医学部, 原北京医科大学)
- University of International Business and Economics (对外经济贸易大学)
- University of International Relations (国际关系学院)
- University of Science and Technology Beijing (北京科技大学)
- Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (北京航空航天大学)
- Beijing University of Technology (北京工业大学) Arts-related institutions:
- Central Academy of Drama (中央戏剧学院)
- Central Conservatory of Music (中央音乐学院)
- Central Institute of Fine Arts (中央美术学院)
- Beijing Film Academy (北京电影学院)

Media

Beijing Film Academy]

Television and Radio

Beijing Television (BTV) broadcasts on numbered channels 1 through 10. Unlike China Central Television (CCTV), there is at present no exclusive English-language TV channel on a citywide level in Beijing. Three radio stations feature programmes in English: Hit FM on FM 88.7, Easy FM by China Radio International (CRI) on FM 91.5, and the newly launched Radio 774 on AM 774.

Press

The well-known Beijing Evening News (Beijing Wanbao) newspaper is distributed every afternoon, covering news about Beijing in Chinese. Other newspapers include The Beijing News (Xin Jing Bao), the Beijing Star Daily, the Beijing Morning News, the Beijing Youth Daily (Beijing Qingnian Bao), as well as English-language weeklies Beijing Weekend and Beijing Today (the English-language edition of Youth Daily). People's Daily and China Daily (English) are also published in Beijing. Nationally-circulated Chinese newspapers are also available in Beijing. Publications primarily aimed at international visitors and the expatriate community include the English-language periodicals City Weekend, Beijing This Month, Beijing Talk, that's Beijing and MetroZine. The international press, including English- and Japanese-language newspapers and magazines, are available in major international hotels and Friendship Stores, and content often appears complete.

Sports

Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympics. Professional sports teams based in Beijing include:
- Chinese Football Association Super League
  - Beijing Xiandai
- Chinese Basketball Association
  - Beijing Ducks
  - Beijing Olympians

City and regional partnerships

Beijing maintains partnerships or "sister city" status with the following international locations. (Note: some locations are provinces or regional-level units, not cities properly. Beijing itself is not technically a city, being a municipality). 1: A région of France
2: A province of South Africa :Source: [http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/ying/default.htm www.ebeijing.gov.cn]

See also


- List of mayors of Beijing

External links


- [http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/ Official site (English version)]
- [http://en.beijing-2008.org/ Official 2008 Summer Olympics Website] (English)
- [http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/maps/beijing.html Beijing Map - full size, 1560
- 1547 pixels, 645kb)]
- [http://www.muztagh.com/images/map/map-of-beijing-large.jpg Large map of Beijing region]
- [http://www.beijingvirtualcity.com/ Beijing The Virtual City (under construction)]
- [http://www.asinah.org/weather/ZBAA.html Beijing Weather Forecast]
- [http://gou-rou.com/ gou-rou.com Beijing satire]
- [http://www.olympicwatch.org/ Human Rights in China and the Beijing 2008 Olympics - OlympicWatch.org]

Travel & Tourism


- [http://www.code-d.com/china/beijing.html/ Photos of Beijing]
- [http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/ Beijing Travel Informations]
- [http://www.mybeijingchina.com/ My Beijing travel Guide]
- [http://www.peking.org Peking.org - Peking Tourist Attractions, Photos and History]
- [http://www.thebeijingguide.com/ The Beijing Guide]
- [http://brucema.topcities.com/beijingtour/index.html Bruce Ma's Beijing Tour] [http://www.brucema.co.nr/], pictures
- [http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/tours.htm Beijing tours]
- [http://www.beijingservice.com/ Beijing Travel Service]
- [http://www.beijingtrip.com/ Beijing Travel]
- [http://www.beijinglives.com/ Beijinglives.com Information about tourism in Beijing]

Images of Beijing


- [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/beijing.htm Pictures of Beijing]
- [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov:81/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15309 Satellite image of Beijing] at NASA Earth Observatory
- Pictures of: [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/oldbeijing.htm Liulichang, Quianmen and Panjiayuan], [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/tienanmen.htm Tian'anmen], [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/wangfujing.htm Wangfujing], [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/summer.htm Summer Palace], [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/lama.htm Lama Temple], [http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/heaven.htm Temple of Heaven]
- [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/beijing Flickr: Photos tagged with beijing], photos likely of Beijing
- [http://www.ianandwendy.com/slideshowAOG.htm?files=OtherTrips/ChinaVietnamCambodia/China/Beijing Pictures from a backpacker's trip around Beijing]

Wiki project links


- [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Beijing Wikitravel: Beijing]
- category:Cities in ChinaCategory:Capitals in Asia Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games ko:베이징 ms:Beijing ja:北京 simple:Beijing th:ปักกิ่ง

Thomas Francis Wade

Sir Thomas Francis Wade (August 25, 1818 - July 31, 1895) was a London-born British diplomat and Sinologist linguist who invented what was to become the Wade-Giles Romanization for Mandarin Chinese. His Chinese name was Wei Tuoma (威妥瑪). Like his father, Wade began working in the army. As a soldier, later an official interpreter, Wade went to China in 1842. He became a diplomat in 1845 and served in Nanjing, Beijing, Hong Kong, and other posts.

Biography

Born in London, the son of Major Wade of the Black Watch, by his wife Anne, daughter of William Smythe of Barbavilla, Westmeath. In 1838 his father purchased for him a commission in the 81st Regiment. Exchanging (1839) into the 42nd Highlanders, he served with his regiment in the Ionian Islands, devoting his leisure to the congenial study of Italian and modern Greek. On receiving his commission as lieutenant in 1841 be exchanged into the g&ih Regiment, then under orders for China, and landed in Hong Kong in June 1842. The scene of the First Opium War had at that time been transferred to the Yangtze-kiang (Chang Jiang), and thither Wade was ordered with his regiment. There he took part in the attack on Chin-kiang-fu and in the advance on Nanking. In 1845 he was appointed interpreter in Cantonese to the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, and in 1846 assistant Chinese secretary to the superintendent of trade, Sir John Francis Davis. In 1852 he was appointed vice-consul at Shanghai. The Tai-ping rebellion had so disorganized the administration in the neighborhood of Shanghai that it was considered advisable to put the collection of the foreign customs duties into commission, a committee of three, of whom Wade was the chief, being entrusted with the administration of the customs. This formed the beginning of the imperial maritime customs service. In 1855 Wade was appointed Chinese secretary to Sir John Bowring, who had succeeded Sir J. Davis at Hong Kong. On the declaration of the Second Opium War in 1857, he was attached to Lord Elgin's staff as Chinese secretary, and with the assistance of H. N. Ley he conducted the negotiations which led up to the treaty of Tientsin (1858). In the following year he accompanied Sir Frederick Bruce in his attempt to exchange the ratification of the treaty, and was present at Taku when the force attending the mission was attacked and driven back from the Peiho. On Lord Elgin's return to China in 1860 he resumed his former post of Chinese secretary, and was mainly instrumental in arranging for the advance of the special envoys and the British and French forces to Tientsin, and subsequently towards Peking. For the purpose of arranging for a camping ground in the neighborhood of Tungchow he accompanied Mr (afterwards Sir) Harry Parkes on his first visit to that city. As early as 1866, Wade urged Chinses officials to discontinue their method of execution known as "slicing", which was made notorious via tales (perhaps exaggerated or inaccurate) of the death by a thousand cuts. Wade was knighted in 1875, and participated in the Chefoo Convention (1876). After retiring from working over forty years in the British embassies in China, he returned to England in 1883, and donated 4,304 volumes of Chinese literature to the Cambridge University Library's Oriental Collection three years later. He was then elected to be the first professor the Chinese language in