Romanisation of the Chinese languages

The Romanisation of the Chinese Langues (, literally Conversion characters Chinese-Latin ) is the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Chinese language. Chinese was written with the Chinese characters since approximately 1.500 front J. - C. the Chinese writing directly does not return the pronunciation of the language.

The reasons to be of these systems of romanisation are multiple. They allow the phonetic training of the Chinese language for the not-speakers. They also make it possible to help for the pronunciation of Chinese natures not familiers— the pronunciation in standard Mandarin can allow different speakers Chinese Langues to be included/understood. The standard keyboards such AZERTY or QWERTY are in addition planned for the Latin alphabet, which returns the introduction of Chinese natures difficult. The Dictionnaire S Chinese have a complex system of classification, and the systems of romanisation can allow an easier access by using the alphabetical order of the standard pronunciation of the characters.

Among the most known nonChinese systems, one finds in particular the systems Lagging-Gilles and Yale. The most known systems of Chinese origin are Gwoyeu Romatzh and Hanyu Pinyin. Hanyu Pinyin became the official standard in Popular republic of China whereas the Tongyong Pinyin is the official form with Taiwan.

Rétroactes

The Indian grammairiens of the Sanskrit which went in China 2.000 years ago to work on the Buddhist texts and the Buddhist transliteration of term in Chinese, discovered the structure of the " its initial" , " its final" and " your suprasegmental" Syllable S of spoken Chinese. This comprehension is reflected in the system of transcription Fanqie, and whose principle is the same one as the modern systems of transcription. The Fanqie system was ideal to indicate the standard pronunciation of only one isolated nature, such as they are the base of the traditional Chinese in the written literature. This system was however unsuited for the pronunciation of the spoken languages and consequently polysyllabic, such Mandarin.

In addition to the syllabic structure, it is also necessary to indicate the tons in Chinese romanisation. Let us tons distinguish the definition from all Morphème in Chinese, and the definition of the words is consequently ambiguous in the absence of tons. Certain systems indicate tons them with a number according to the syllable, for example: ma¹ , my ² , my ³ , etc Of others, such Pinyin, indicates them via signs Diacritique S, such mā , má , mǎ , and mà for the 4 let us tons standard Mandarin. In addition, the romanisation Gwoyeu Romatzyh proceeds by adding letters to give an indication of the tone, thus avoiding the diacritics or the figures: mha , my , maa and mah , for the four let us tons standard Mandarin.

Uses

Not-Chinese

to return conventions of current pronunciation of the spoken Chinese Language understandable to the students not speaking it, and in particular those not having experience of a tonal Language.
to make the structure syntactic of the understandable Chinese language to the people familiar of the grammar of other languages;
transliteration of the pronunciation of a Chinese character given in that of European languages via specific conventions of these last, to allow the insertion of this pronunciation in a Western text;
to allow a direct communication in a " Chinese spoken basic " between Chinese speakers and not-Chinese.

Chinese

identification of the specific pronunciation of a Chinese character in a specific context (e.g. 行: xíng (to go; behavior, control) gold háng (a store)). This system has to adapt to from top to bottom the vertical writing, from right to left, then from left to right.
recitation of a text in standard Mandarin for the speakers of a Chinese language which is inintelligible with the Mandarin, the such Cantonese.
training of the traditional Chinese or the Chinese writes modern by speakers native Mandarin;
use of a standard keyboard QWERTY;
replacement of the Chinese characters to allow illiterate language tangerine to write.
classification of books, classification of the entries of dictionaries, classification in general;
training of Chinese written and spoken with the non-sinophones.

NonChinese systems

The romanisations Wade, lagging-Gilles and The Wade, Lagging-Gilles, the postal systems, appear always regularly in the Western literature, but generally in reference to old works. Nowadays, the pronunciation formalized by the Hanyu pinyin (generally without mark of let us tons), adopted by the Popular republic of China in 1979, is generally used.

Romanisations of the first missionaries

The first made catholic missionaries of Europe used the Latin Langue abroad for their communications, and certain names romanized at the time are always used. For example, " Confucius " can be analyzed by its four components, that is to say " con" (a regional version of the sound of Kong family name), " fu" (similar to other romanisations), " ci" (" tzu" as a Lagging-Gilles, " dz" in Yale, and " zi" in pinyin), and " us" who was to add so that the name can be used as male Latin proper name. The " part; fuci" name means " large maître" , and thus means in entirety " Large Kong" Master;. In the same way, the romanisation of the other great name of the Confucianism, " Mencius" , date of this time. It contains the elements " meng" (a first name running in Chinese), " ci" (" tzu" or " zi" , meaning " maître"), as well as the Latin final. The Latin name thus means " Meng" Master;.

Later, of the Protestant missionaries created systems adapted to the languages which they met in their missions through the Southeast Asia, and in particular of the coasts of China.

Transcription of the French School of the Far East

This system, conceived by Seraph Roofer, of ÉFEO, was the system dominating in the French-speaking surface until second half of the 20th century, where it started to be replaced by the pinyin.

Lagging-Gilles

Postal system

Yale system

Chinese systems

Qieyin Xinzi

The first system of romanisation created by the Chinese was the Qieyin Xinzi ( Nouvel phonetic alphabet ), developed in 1892 by Lu Zhuangzhang (盧戇章) (1854 - 1928). It was used phonetically to write the Dialecte of Xiamen belonging to the language Min Southerner.

Zhuyin Fuhao

Gwoyeu Romatzyh

Latinxua Sinwenz

Hanyu Pinyin

See also: Hanyu pinyin

In October 1949, Association for the reform of the written Chinese Language was installation. Wu Yuzhang (one of the creators of Latinxua Sinwenz) was the president. All the members of this body belonged to the movement for Latinxua Sinwenz (Nor Haishu (倪海曙), Lin Handa (林汉达), etc) or the movement of Gwoyeu Romatzyh (Li Jinxi (黎锦熙), Luo Changpei (羅常培), etc). They were for the majority of the linguists of quality. Their first directive (1949-1952) was to take " the phonetic project of adoption of the alphabet latin" like " the main object of recherches".

At the time of a communication occurred the January 10th 1958, Zhou Enlai observed that the Committee had spent 3 years to try to create a phonetic alphabet not inspired of the Latin alphabet (it had also tried to adapt Zhuyin Fuhao) but " no satisfactory result was obtenu" and l'" Latin alphabet was then adopté". It noted also emphatiquement:

dans the future, we will adopt the Latin alphabet for a Chinese phonetic alphabet. Used in an extensive way in the scientific disciplines and technological, it will be consequently easily comparable. The adoption of such an alphabet, moreover, will make it possible to facilitate largely the popularization of the common language .

The development of the romanisation Hanyu Pinyin was a complex process which required many decisions on delicate problems, such:

the pronunciation of Hanyu should Pinyin be based on that of the Dialecte of Beijing?
Hanyu should Pinyin replace the Chinese character, or simply be a guide pronunciation?
should the traditional written form be simplified?
Hanyu would Pinyin have used the Latin alphabet?
Hanyu Pinyin should it indicate tons them in all circumstances (as for Gwoyeu Romatzyh)?
Hanyu was Pinyin to be specific to Mandarin, or adaptable to other Chinese languages or dialects?
Hanyu was Pinyin to be used at the only end to promote the pronunciation of the standard Mandarin through China?

In spite of the fact that the First project for a phonetic alphabet Chinese published in China of the People the March 16th 1956 contained certain special characters or unusual, the Committee of research for the Reform of the Language returned quickly to the Latin alphabet, for the following reasons:

the Latin alphabet is largely used by the scientists, it does not matter their native tongue, and the scientific terms are generally written in Latin.
the simple Latin alphabet with written and easy to read. It is used since centuries in the major part of the world. It can be easily adapted to the Chinese pronunciation.
the use of the Cyrillic alphabet would have generated bonds with the U.S.S.R., whereas the Latin alphabet is known majority of the Russian well-read men, and the use of the Cyrillic alphabet would have posed problems with the neighbors of the Southeast Asia of which several used already the Latin alphabet.
in answer to the remark of Mao Zedong that “cultural patriotism” would be a factor of weight in the choice of an alphabet, although the Latin alphabet was " étranger" , it could be factor of a political and economic expansion; and moreover, the fact that two large patriots, qu Qiubai and Lu Xun, were in favor of the romanisation raised the reserves as for a weak patriotism.
on the basis of what the English, French, Germans, Spaniard, Poles, and Czechoslovakian modified the Latin alphabet for their own use, and because the Latin alphabet is derived from the Greek alphabet, which itself was derived from the alphabets Egyptian phenician and , it did not have there more shame particular to adopt the Latin alphabet than it did not have there to use the Arab numerals or other conventional mathematical signs, whatever their origin.

The movement for the reform of the language was deferred during the Cultural revolution, and nothing any more was published in connection with linguistics or of a reform language between 1966 and 1972. Subtitles in pinyin appeared in the Weekly magazine of the People and Hong IQ (" Flag rouge") in 1958 were not indicated any more between July 1966 and January 1977.

In its final version, Hanyu Pinyin:

was to use to return a pronunciation
was exclusively based on the pronunciation of the Dialecte of Beijing
included marks of tone
included/understood traditional the " its initial" , " its final" , and the model of the " your suprasegmental”
was written with the Latin alphabet

Hanyu Pinyin had developed since the directive of Mao of 1951, by the promulgation of November 1st 1957 of the version of test by the Council of State, in its final form approved by the Council of State in September 1978, to be accepted in 1982 by the International Organization for Standardization like the standard of transcription of the Chinese language.

Other transcriptions

The Chinese languages were transcribed phonetically in very many other systems. The writing Phagspa for example, was used to rebuild the pronunciation of the old forms of the Chinese language.

There exist also several systems of Cyrillisation of the Chinese languages.

The project in progress Science and Civilization in China uses another romanisation. The bases are similar (even identical) to the Lagging-Gilles, the principal difference being that a " h" is inserted for the aspiration (where the Lagging-Gilles uses an apostrophe). Consequently, Hanyu Pinyin tiān /Lagging-Gilles you IEN ¹ is returned in thien . See document SCC The Theoretical Background off Alchemy Laboratory like example of this romanisation.

See too

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