Traditional Chinese

/tɹəˈdɪʃənəl tʃaɪˈniːz/

Chinese written using the traditional form of Chinese characters, as opposed to Simplified Chinese (introduced by the PRC as script reform).

حُرُوف صِينِيَّة تَقْلِيدِيَّة

Chinese written using traditional characters


Simplified Chinese

Chinese written using the forms of Chinese characters introduced by the PRC as script reform. The characters are simplified (with a reduced number of strokes, etc.) compared to their pre-reform shapes.

حُرُوف صِينِيَّة مُبَسَّطَة

Chinese written using simplified characters


Chinese

en-adj

Chinese (not generally comparable, comparative more Chinese, superlative most Chinese)

more Chinese (comparative)
most Chinese (superlative)

Chinese
Chinese Proficiency Test
Chinese Turkestan

/ˌt͡ʃʌɪˈniz/

/ˈt͡ʃʌɪˌniz/

[ˌt͡ʃəɪˈniːz]

[ˈt͡ʃəɪˌniˑz]

From China + -ese under influence of Portuguese chinês, replacing older Chinish. Doublet of chinois. In its orientalist sense of "generically exotic, backwards, or poorly organized", sometimes a deliberate marketing strategy to increase sales, as with the German Chinese checkers. In its sense related to the orientation of stage lighting's barn doors, a reference to a supposed resemblance to East Asian eyes.

sjinese

of, from, or relating to China, its people, its culture, and its language

Chinese fire belly newt

Cynops orientalis ⇒ Hypselotriton orientalis

Chinese gooseberry

especially Actinidia chinensis and Actinidia deliciosa

Chinese painted quail

Coturnix chinensis ⇒ Excalfactoria chinensis

Chinese radish Raphanus sativus var. niger ⇒ Raphanus sativus var. sativus)

Chinese spotbill

Anas poecilorhyncha zonorhyncha ⇒ Anas zonorhyncha

Chinese yam

Dioscorea opposita ⇒ Dioscorea polystchya

have got more chins than a Chinese phonebook

have got more chins than a Chinese phone book

Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang

There are four Chinese tones... five, if you count the neutral one.

The construction of a verbal system which is fairly regular and at the same time based on existing languages is a most difficult task, because in no other domain of the grammar do languages retain a greater number of ancient irregularities and differ more fundamentally from one another. Still an attempt will be made here to conciliate the two points of view and to bring about something which resembles the simple Chinese grammar without, however, losing its European character or the power of expressing nuances to which we are accustomed in our own languages.

1928, Otto Jespersen, An International Language, page 82:

The DPRK (Joseon Minjujui Inmin Konghuaguk 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國) is read in Chinese as Chaoxian minzhu zhuyi renmin gonghe guo, and its capital, Pyeonyang, is pronounced Pingrang 平壤.

2012, Endymion Wilkinson, “Introduction”, in Chinese History: A New Manual, 3rd revised edition, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 14:

Of, from, or related to a language native to Han Chinese persons, often used generally of Chinese characters or particularly to refer to Standard Mandarin.


Chinese

/ˌt͡ʃʌɪˈniz/

/ˈt͡ʃʌɪˌniz/

[ˌt͡ʃəɪˈniːz]

[ˈt͡ʃəɪˌniˑz]

The Chinese are present in all parts of the world.

(uncountable, collective) The Han Chinese, whether in China or overseas.

the people of China — see also Han Chinese, overseas Chinese

你好 is read “Nǐ hǎo” and means “Hello” in Chinese.

(uncountable) The Standard Chinese language, written in Chinese characters and spoken and spelled using Standard Mandarin pronunciation.

Sjinees

the standard language of China — see also Mandarin

Suzhounese and Hakka are lesser-known varieties of Chinese.

(uncountable) The branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Southern Min, and other closely related language varieties and dialects.


Wade-Giles

1943. Named after British diplomats Thomas Francis Wade and Herbert Giles, who developed the system in the 19th century.

named-after

The pronunciation aids to Chinese names are of doubtful value. They are not phonetic, being only a slight modification of the Wade-Giles system, and become really confusing when Mandarin pronunciations are given for Cantonese or historical spellings.

1947 May, Earl Swisher, “MacNair, China”, in Pacific Historical Review, volume XVI, number 2, University of California Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 214:

The problem of romanizing Chinese place names is a difficult one. Solutions differ from language to language, and there are several so-called "systems" used even in the English-speaking world.
The system most widely accepted by professionals is the Wade-Giles system. One of its key advantages is that it permits the reader to check back to the original Chinese characters, since most dictionaries are arranged according to this romanization system.

1969, “A note on transliteration”, in Joseph Kitagawa, editor, Understanding Modern China, Quadrangle Books, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 7:

In accordance with the LC manual of bibliographic style, the heading for each entry contains the essential bibliographic data taken from the corresponding LC catalog card. The Chinese titles are given in Wade-Giles romanization. If the English title and/or the title in Pinyin romanization appear in the original work, they are also provided.

1977, “Explanatory Notes”, in Robert Dunn, editor, Chinese-English and English-Chinese Dictionaries in the Library of Congress, Library of Congress, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page vii:

The old spelling system, named the Wade-Giles system after the two 19th century Britons who developed it, made correct pronunciation unnecessarily difficult. It used apostrophes to distinguish aspirated consonants, such as p'ai pronounced with a "p" sound, from unaspirated, such as pai pronounced with a "b" sound. The new Pinyin system eliminates this distinction, which most newspapers ignored anyway. "Beijing" is much closer to the Chinese pronunciation that "Peking", and Vice Premier "Deng" is better rendering than "Teng." But the new system uses some letters in ways that still confuse English speakers. Thers difficult letters are: "c" which should be prounced in this system like the "ts" in "its"; "q" which should be pronounced like the "ch" in "cheek"; "x" which should be pronounced like the "sh" in "she"; and "zh" which should be pronounced like the "j" in "jump".
The system invented by Sir Thomas Wade, diplomat and Cambridge University professor, about 1860 and developed by Herbert Giles, also a Cambridge professor, is only the best known of several in use over the past 100 years. Some of the most familiar Chinese place names, such as Peking and Canton, are derived only partially, or not at all, from Wade-Giles.

1979 March 5, Jay Mathews, “China Is China, But Hangchow Is Hangzhou”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-29:

Most influential in further establishing the Romanization scheme first set down by Wade was Giles' 1,415-page A Chinese–English Dictionary, which became a standard reference work soon after its release in 1912. The orthography it employed came to be known as the Wade–Giles system of Romanization, and it was soon adopted by English-language academia, and then by the media and general public.
In fact Giles' Romanization was only very slightly modified from Wade's – the differences are miniscule. Tones continued to be marked in the Wade–Giles system with numeral superscripts, with the neutral tone either being unmarked, or occasionally given the number '0' or '5'.

2016, Karen Steffen Chung, “Wade–Giles Romanization System”, in The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, →OCLC:

No longer does the ROC claim to be China and the writing systems that Taiwan uses for Chinese have changed to reflect this. Taiwan has held on to traditional characters and bopomofo, resolutely resisted simplified characters, mostly retained Wade-Giles and Yale for personal, political and geographical names in Taiwan, but grudgingly accepted the linguistic arguments for Hanyu pinyin signage in public spaces.

2017 January 22, Martin Boyle, “Pinyin and a Taiwanese identity”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-01-21, Editorials, page 6:

The two most prominent systems of transliterations of Mandarin are Wade-Giles and Pinyin. Wade-Giles, established in the 19th century (Kaske,2008) is named after Herbert Allen Giles[...]

2018 March 12, Sophie Zhou, “The T/Daos shall meet: The failure and success of English transliterations of Mandarin Chinese”, in English Today, volume 35, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Lee starts her memoir with a recollection of hiking with her mother shortly after Gong, the author’s grandfather, has passed away, and the narrative veers into a discussion of translation. Lee explains that she uses traditional Chinese characters, and both the Wade-Giles romanization system and Hanyu Pinyin to transliterate certain details from Mandarin. By extent, this exemplifies the language variations not only in Taiwan but also in her own family. Wade-Giles, she notes, is employed by her elders, though she has been taught Hanyu Pinyin. “The gaps that bind us span more than the distances between words,” she writes.

2020 April 24, Kristen Schott, “The Language of Self-Discovery: On Jessica J. Lee’s “Two Trees Make a Forest””, in Los Angeles Review of Books, archived from the original on 2020-07-07:

Aside from some stylistic unevenness (Mr. Brookes uses both modern pinyin and older Wade-Giles transliterations, when lay readers probably would find it easier to read only the latter, given its continued familiarity for historic places and names) and a few lapses into therapeutic editorializing, “Fragile Cargo” is a fascinating and inspiring story of triumph and the tragedy of war.

2023 February 10, Michael Auslin, “‘Fragile Cargo’ Review: The Long Rescue of China’s Past”, in Wall Street Journal, archived from the original on 2023-03-05:

A system for transcribing the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese into the Latin alphabet; formally uses hyphens and the spiritus asper apostrophe.

Herbert Giles
Thomas Francis Wade
Wade–Giles


Yale

Ultimately borrowed from Welsh Iâl, from iâl (“clearing, cultivated upland”). The surname is habitational. The university is named for Elihu Yale, a notable early benefactor.

A university in the eastern United States.

A romanisation scheme originating from Yale University.

A romanisation scheme designed for Mandarin.

Coordinate term: Jyutping

A romanisation scheme designed for Cantonese.

A romanisation scheme designed for Korean.

A surname transferred from the place name.


Chinese character

en-noun

Chinese character (plural Chinese characters)

There are no Publick Schools in all China (though ſome Writers have erroneouſly ſet forth the contrary) but every perſon chuſes his own Maſter, by whom he is taught in his Houſe, at his own charge. And in regard of the great difficulty in teaching the Chineſe Characters, in reſpect of their vaſt number and variety, it is impoſſible for one to teach many ſeveral perſons ; and therefore every Maſter of a Family takes an Intſructer into his Houſe for his Children, of whom if there be two or three to learn, they are as many as one Tutor can well teach.

1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, page 163:

Had it not been for the casual discovery in the year 1625 of a deeply buried black marble tablet near Hsi-an containing nearly 1,700 Chinese characters, and a long list of names of priests in Syriac, the fact that such a sect rooted itself in the Celestial Empire would never have been believed, as indeed after the tablet was unearthed it was for a long time discredited.

1912, Arthur Henderson Smith, “Uplifting Leaders”, in The Uplift of China, →OCLC, page 117:

Any character used in the written form of several languages of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

кита́йская гра́мота

can also be derogatory, "something unreadable"


Hanzi

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 漢字／汉字 (Hànzì). Doublet of kanji and hanja.

On May 21, 1957, the Jen min je pao published the text of the previous day’s discussions during which writers and scholars of various tendencies had examined before the Commission the proposed reform (which, in the opinion of certain “leftists,” entailed in fact the suppression of the han tzŭ, the Chinese characters).

[1959, Etiemble, “One China or Two?”, in Evergreen Review, volume 2, number 8, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 31:

Chinese character
Chinese character#English

Synonym of Chinese character (specifically in relation to Chinese)


Pinyin

20th c., from Mandarin Chinese 拼音 (pīnyīn, literally “spelled sounds”).

The Chinese government began using the new system Jan. 1 in all its foreign language publications, including the English-language service of the New China News Agency. This is an important source for American journalists writing about China. The United Nations and U.S. government agencies have adopted the new spellings called by the Chinese "Pinyin" meaning "phonetic spelling."[…]
The old spelling system, named the Wade-Giles system after the two 19th century Britons who developed it, made correct pronunciation unnecessarily difficult. It used apostrophes to distinguish aspirated consonants, such as p'ai pronounced with a "p" sound, from unaspirated, such as pai pronounced with a "b" sound. The new Pinyin system eliminates this distinction, which most newspapers ignored anyway. "Beijing" is much closer to the Chinese pronunciation that "Peking", and Vice Premier "Deng" is better rendering than "Teng." But the new system uses some letters in ways that still confuse English speakers. Thers difficult letters are: "c" which should be prounced in this system like the "ts" in "its"; "q" which should be pronounced like the "ch" in "cheek"; "x" which should be pronounced like the "sh" in "she"; and "zh" which should be pronounced like the "j" in "jump".[…]
Reading the alphabetized words still presents problems for the Chinese, however, because the spellings do not distinguish the flur separate tones in the Chinese language that can significantly change meaning. The word "ma" can mean "mother", "horse", or "scold", depending on what tone is used. Under the Pinyin system, two neighboring provinces of northern China are both spelled "Shanxi". In this special case, one of the provinces is now spelled "Shaanzi", to indicate a different tone in the first syllable.

People’s Republic of China
People's Republic of China

A system of romanization for Standard Mandarin, used in the People’s Republic of China, and more recently in other Mandarin Chinese-speaking areas as well.


Pinyin

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Pinyin.

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

A phonetic script or romanization system for various languages spoken in the People's Republic of China, e.g. Tibetan


Pinyin

A Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.


Old Chinese

A linguistic ancestor of the Chinese languages, spoken during roughly the first millennium BCE.


Sino-Japanese

The Chinese-derived elements in the Japanese language.

漢日詞

the Chinese-derived elements in the Japanese language


Wu

Romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 吳／吴 (Wú). Doublet of O.

Linguists say the Wu dialect widely spoken in Shanghai, to take one prominent example, shares only about 31 percent lexical similarity with Mandarin, or roughly the same as English and French.
The encounter at the Datian market began when the dumpling seller approached the foreigner with a phrase that sounded like "goodbye" in the Wu dialect. Knowing it must mean something else, the foreigner guessed she was asking his name, and provided it, producing a laugh from the woman who explained, switching to Mandarin, that she had asked if he had eaten lately.

2005 July 10, Howard W. French, “Uniting China to Speak Mandarin, the One Official Language: Easier Said Than Done”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-05-10, World:

A historic and cultural region of China around the mouth of the Yangtze River, whence:

The family of Chinese languages spoken in that region, including Shanghainese and Suzhounese, the second-most spoken family after Mandarin.

وُو

one of the families of the Chinese language


Wu

Romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 武 (Wǔ, “war, warrior, warlike”).

(historical) An epithet of numerous kings and emperors in Chinese history who were honored with variants of the posthumous name Wuwang or Wudi.


Wu

Romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 烏／乌 (Wū or Wù, “crow, raven, black”).


Wu

Romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 巫 (Wū or Wú, “shaman, sorceror, witch”).


Wu

The romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of various other Chinese surnames: 伍 (Wǔ), 仵 (Wǔ), 鄔／邬 (Wū).


Sino-Korean

the state of Sino-Korean relations

Of or pertaining both to China and to Korea; being both Chinese and Korean.

Until the fifteenth century, Koreans had a native word for the numeral "hundred", but it has since been replaced by a Sino-Korean word.

(specifically, linguistics, of a Korean word) Etymologically borrowed or otherwise derived from an eighth-century dialect of Middle Chinese which greatly influenced the Korean language.

漢字詞

Etymologically from or influenced by Chinese


Sino-Korean

漢韓詞

the Chinese-derived elements in the Korean language

The elements in the Korean language derived from the said dialect of Middle Chinese:

The Korean vocabulary borrowed or otherwise derived from the said dialect.

The distinctive Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters, which is an adaptation of the pronunciation of the said dialect into Korean phonology.


Sino-Vietnamese

Pertaining to the Chinese-derived elements in the Vietnamese language.

漢越

pertaining to the Chinese-derived elements in the Vietnamese language


Sino-Vietnamese

The Chinese-derived elements in the Vietnamese language.

漢越詞

the Chinese-derived elements in the Vietnamese language


Teochew

[…] Lim Peng Siang, Low Kim Pong, Teo Sian Keng and Lee Choon Guan were leaders of Fukien dialect group; Lam Kim Seng, Chua Tse Yong were Teochew leaders; Loke Yew and Lam Wai Fong were Cantonese leaders.

1995, Qinghuang Yan, Community and Politics: The Chinese in Colonial Singapore and Malaysia, Marshall Cavendish International, →ISBN:

'I do not speak English,' the young man said sanguinely in Malay, then said it again in Teochew, to test the white man.

2015, William L. Gibson, Singapore Yellow, Singapore: Monsoon Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 116:

A variety of Southern Min Chinese, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and its diaspora.

潮州話

one of the divisions of the Chinese language


bopomofo

Borrowed from Mandarin ㄅㄆㄇㄈ (bōpōmōfō), from the first four letters: ㄅ (bō), ㄆ (pō), ㄇ (mō), ㄈ (fō).

Name for Zhuyin Fuhao used by ISO and Unicode.


Zhuyin fuhao

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 注音符號 (zhùyīn fúhào, literally “symbol(s) for annotation of sounds”).

bor

A phonetic alphabet used to transcribe Mandarin for students of that language and for inputting Chinese, now used primarily only in Taiwan. Variants also exist for other Chinese lects spoken in Taiwan.

注音符号

ちゅういんふごう, chūin fugō, ちゅうおんふごう, chūon fugō


entering tone

(Chinese phonetics) A short, sharp tone found with syllables that end in plosives (usually /-p -t -k -ʔ/).


Literary Chinese

The written Chinese language used from the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.) to the early 20th century. In Chinese, 文言 (wényán, “literary writing”).

The written Chinese language used from the Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C.E.) (especially the Spring and Autumn Period), through to the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.). In Chinese, 古文 (gǔwén, “Ancient Writing”). The language of many classics of Chinese literature.

Written Chinese for this entire period, without distinction.


Classical Chinese

The written Chinese language used from the Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C.E.) (especially the Spring and Autumn Period), through to the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.). In Chinese, 古文 (gǔwén, “Ancient Writing”) or, formally, 古典漢語／古典汉语 (“Classical Chinese”). The language of many classics of Chinese literature.

The written Chinese language used from the Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C.E.) to the early 20th century.


Chinglish

en-adj

Chinglish (comparative more Chinglish, superlative most Chinglish)

more Chinglish (comparative)
most Chinglish (superlative)

(sometimes derogatory) Of or resembling English that is influenced by the Chinese language.

中式英語的

resembling English influenced by Chinese


Chinglish

And as Global English evolves through the twenty-first century, Chinglish will, undoubtedly, continue to have a sizable impact.

2008, Paul J.J. Payack, A Million Words And Counting: How Global English Is Rewriting The World, →ISBN:

Andrea acknowledged that she spoke Chinglish, that she hated her accent, and that learners needed a comprehensible teacher voice in the classroom.

2010, Janette Ryan, Gordon Slethaug, International Education and the Chinese Learner, →ISBN, page 146:

You will see signs written in Chinglish all over China. These signs are usually amusing to English-speaking westerners because they often make no sense, or the translation is inappropriately sexual in content.

2011, Jean M. Life, LIFE IN CHINA: My Story, →ISBN, page 204:

The same can be said about the speakers of Teochiu, Hokkien, Hakka, and Cantonese and Hailam in Southeast Asia, Cantonese in Hong Kong, and all the different topolect speakers and Chinglish or pidgin speakers in the United States.

2012, Shu-mei Shih, Sinophone Studies: A Critical Reader, →ISBN, page 32:

(sometimes derogatory) Spoken or written English which is influenced by the Chinese language.


Middle Chinese

Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century – 10th century)


stroke order

the standard sequence in which a Chinese character is written in Chinese, Japanese or Korean writing


Sinitic

Sinitic (comparative more Sinitic, superlative most Sinitic)

more Sinitic (comparative)
most Sinitic (superlative)

From Latin Sīna (“China”) + -itic, as in Semitic.

չին-տիբեթական

relating to the group of Chinese languages


erhua

(Chinese phonetics) A phonological process that adds rhotic sounds to syllables in some lects of Chinese.


erization

/ˌɜːɹəˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

/ˌɜːɹaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

Calque of Chinese 兒化／儿化 (érhuà). By surface analysis, er + -ization.


Hanyu Pinyin

zh-l

漢語拼音／汉语拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Mr. Jenner has also provided the Note on Pronunciation at p. 196, for Chinese names which are romanized in this volume according to the Hanyu Pinyin system.

1973, Lu Xun, translated by Gladys Yang, edited by Gladys Yang, Silent China Selected Writings of Lu Xun, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page xii:

I follow McKhann in using Naxi pinyin to transliterate sainii and paq but retain regular Hanyu pinyin for dongba instead of using Naxi pinyin dobbaq since this is the most familiar form.

1996, Bell Yung, Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Harmony and Counterpoint: Ritual Music in Chinese Context, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 253:

This paper points out that since the 1986 National Conference of Language Works, Hanyu Pinyin and Hanzi no longer have equal status in the Chinese writing system. Hanyu Pinyin has assumed a subordinate status to Hanzi, and it is no longer regarded as an evolving alphabetized writing system to replace Hanzi in the future. This posture is much lower than that preferrred by Mao Zedong in the early stage of New China.

2000, Feng Zhiwei, Yin Binyong, “THE CHINESE DIGRAPHIA PROBLEM IN THE INFORMATION AGE”, in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, volume 30, number 1, page 229:

Introducing Hanyu Pinyin is about convenience and consistency, but should not, through autocratic rules, become a new front in the battle over identity.
Pragmatism is exactly why we would see the retention of “Taipei,” “Kaohsiung” and “Hsinchu” instead of “Taibei,” “Gaoxiong” and “Xinzhu,” and is the most sensible way to proceed in a politicized environment.

2008 September 20, “EDITORIAL: Pinyin is welcome, but not coercion”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2008-09-20, Editorials, page 8:

Kaohsiung City Government said Wednesday that it will continue using the Tongyong Pinyin Mandarin romanization system on its street signs, passing on plans by the city's previous mayor to transition to the more widely-used Hanyu Pinyin system.[…]
In May 2019, former Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) proposed adopting the Hanyu Pinyin system for the city's street signs at an estimated cost of NT$73 million (US$2.54 million), though the plan was ultimately delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 October 14, Wang Shu-fen, Matthew Mazzetta, “Kaohsiung nixes proposal to adopt Hanyu Pinyin street signs”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 2020-10-16, Society:

Some use romanization to make a political statement, a legacy of the “Great Tongyong-Pinyin Wars” of the 2000s. Here's a useful trick: if you notice someone is using the Hanyu Pinyin system that is standard in China for their name, they are likely pan-blue (pro-KMT), and if they use Taiwan’s Tongyong Pinyin, they are probably pan-green (pro-DPP).

2022 February 22, Courtney Donovan (石東文) Smith, “The joyous variety in Taiwanese chosen names”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 2022-02-22:

Around twenty years ago, during Taiwan’s romanization wars (when President Chen wanted to impose Tongyong Pinyin upon Taiwan and a great many foreigners and others reacted with dismay and disgust), a popular claim of the Tongyong supporters was, “If Taiwanese use Hanyu Pinyin for their names, no one will be able to tell Taiwanese from Chinese anymore.”

2023 May 9, “Why is the ROC govt trying to make Taiwanese look like Singaporeans?”, in Pinyin.info, archived from the original on 2023-05-10:

A system of romanization for Mandarin Chinese. Usually called Pinyin.

漢語拼音

standard romanization of Mandarin Chinese


Gwoyeu Romatzyh

/ˌɡwəʊjuː rəʊˈmɑːtsə/

Borrowed from Chinese 國語羅馬字／国语罗马字 (Guóyǔ Luómǎzì).

bor+

With regard to romanization, several different systems are concurrently being used in Taiwan, including Wade-Giles, Tongyong Pinyin 通用拼音, Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音, and Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

2003, Julie Ju et al., editors, A Brief Introduction to Taiwan, Government Information Office, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 16:

A transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese, characterized by its tonal spelling without diacritic marks.


fanqie

/fɑːnˈt͡ʃjɛ/

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 反切 (fǎnqiè).

(Chinese phonetics) In traditional Chinese lexicography, a method of indicating the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters, each giving part of the pronunciation.

反切

method of indicating pronunciation of a character


Eastern Min

Partial calque of Chinese 閩東語／闽东语 (mǐndōngyǔ).

pclq

A Chinese language, spoken in the eastern part of Fujian, including its capital city Fuzhou.

восточноми́ньский

диале́кт, язы́к


Northern Min

Partial calque of Chinese 閩北語／闽北语 (mǐnběiyǔ).

A variety of Min Chinese, spoken in northern Fujian, represented by the Jian'ou dialect.


Southern Min

Partial calque of Chinese 閩南／闽南 (Mǐnnán).

A group of local languages of Min Chinese, which can trace their origins to southern Fujian province, China.


checked tone

(Chinese phonetics) Synonym of entering tone


Tongyong Pinyin

/ˌtɒŋjɒŋ ˈpɪnjɪn/

/ˌtʊŋjʊŋ ˈpɪnjɪn/

From the Tongyong Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 通用拼音 (Tongyòng Pinyin).

By now, you may be as puzzled as most American visitors to Taiwan are. And there is more confusion to come. For the purpose of this book, keep in mind that we are using Tongyong Pinyin throughout, with Hanyu Pinyin in parentheses when the spelling is different.

2006, David C. King, Taiwan (Enchantment of the World), Children's Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 89:

Rickshaw Magazine is a Tainan-based publication targeting expats, and free in many hotels and bars, while FYI South also has decent Tainan listings. The city has opted to use the Tongyong Pinyin system, with streets well marked in English and Chinese.

2007, Stephen Keeling, Brice Minnigh, The Rough Guide to Taiwan (Rough Guides), Penguin, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 316:

Taiwan’s still official but probably-not-long-for-this-world romanization system for Mandarin is Tongyong Pinyin.

2008 August 7, “Taiwan Google searches: Hanyu Pinyin vs. Tongyong Pinyin”, in Pinyin.info, archived from the original on 2008-08-12:

Although a few authors, long familiar with Wade-Giles or other older systems (or Tongyong Pinyin, a more recent system still used by some in Taiwan), have not switched to Pinyin in their writings, Chicago joins librarians in urging that Pinyin now be used in all writing about China or the Chinese language.

2017, “Languages Other than English”, in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, University of Chicago Press, →DOI, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 651:

This promotion of Tongyong pinyin reflects Taiwan-identifying political elites seeking to supplant Guoyu with Taiwan-accented Mandarin as the prestige language variety in Taiwan.

2017 January 22, Martin Boyle, “Pinyin and a Taiwanese identity”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-01-21, Editorials, page 6:

The Taichung City Council on Monday (Aug. 24) gave initial approval to station names on the Taichung Mass Rapid Transit's (TMRT) green line, which is set to begin operation by the end of this year.
After a preliminary inspection of the 16.71-km line Monday, the city council gave a nod to the 18 station names on the green line. The English station names were converted using Tongyong pinyin (通用拼音) while four of the stations will also have alternate names, according to CNA.

2020 August 25, Ching-Tse Cheng, “Station names of central Taiwan Metro pass preliminary review”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 2020-09-10:

Kaohsiung City Government said Wednesday that it will continue using the Tongyong Pinyin Mandarin romanization system on its street signs, passing on plans by the city's previous mayor to transition to the more widely-used Hanyu Pinyin system.
In a press release, Kaohsiung's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission said the city adopted Tongyong Pinyin in 2004 amid a push toward national spelling standardizaion by the central government, and later established an advisory committee to promote an English-friendly living environment in Kaohsiung.[…]
Taiwan's Ministry of Education adopted Tongyong Pinyin as the country's official romanization system in 2002, before switching to Hanyu Pinyin in 2008, though a number of Democratic Progressive Party controlled municipalities including Kaohsiung and Tainan have continued to use the former.

For instance, while many DPP-led localities had favoured the locally designed Tongyong Pinyin system for the purpose of Mandarin transliteration (notably for toponyms), the incoming[…]

2022 August 5, Jean-François Dupré, “Language Politics and Recognition under Tsai Ing-wen”, in International Journal of Taiwan Studies, volume 5, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Even within the Taigi community, there's the Pe̍h-ōe-jī, there's the Tongyong pinyin, there's the Tai lo, there's people who don't agree on kanji as orthography, there's people who don't use kanji at all, there's people who think you use kanji for everything except for these prepositions.[…]
What we did is that we held monthly, and later on bimonthly, MoeDict hackathons, where we invite the people of all these different schools to come together. Also, because it's software, so I wrote some programs that automatically turned the Taiwan romanization form to Tongyong or Peh oe ji or whatever form that people prefer.

2023 March 15, Audrey Tang, “Conversation with Cynthia Wang and Tyng-Ruey Chuang”, in Ministry of Digital Affairs, archived from the original on 2023-04-06, 新聞參考資料:

A system of romanization for Mandarin Chinese developed and implemented in the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the 1990s.

通用拼音

a romanization system of Mandarin Chinese


rime dictionary

en-noun

rime dictionary (plural rime dictionaries)

A historical type of Chinese character dictionary that collates characters by rime and tone (pronunciation) rather than by radical. It does not necessarily provide definitions.


Latinxua

From the Latinxua romanization Latinxua of Mandarin 拉丁化 (lādīnghuà, literally “Latinization”), the first part of 拉丁化新文字 (lādīnghuà xīn wénzì, literally “Latinized New Script”).

zh-m

A group of methods of Chinese romanization that uses a set of 28 characters and does not include tone markers.


National Romanization

A loose calque from Chinese 國語羅馬字／国语罗马字 (Guóyǔ Luómǎzì, literally “romanization of the national language”).


Pinyinise

en-verb

Pinyinise (third-person singular simple present Pinyinises, present participle Pinyinising, simple past and past participle Pinyinised)

Pinyinises (present singular third-person)
Pinyinising (participle present)
Pinyinised (participle past)
Pinyinised (past)

(transitive) Alternative spelling of Pinyinize.


pinyinise

pinyinise (third-person singular simple present pinyinises, present participle pinyinising, simple past and past participle pinyinised)

pinyinises (present singular third-person)
pinyinising (participle present)
pinyinised (participle past)
pinyinised (past)

(transitive) Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinise.


pinyinize

pinyinize (third-person singular simple present pinyinizes, present participle pinyinizing, simple past and past participle pinyinized)

pinyinizes (present singular third-person)
pinyinizing (participle present)
pinyinized (participle past)
pinyinized (past)

(transitive) Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinize.


Pinyinisation

en-noun

Pinyinisation (countable and uncountable, plural Pinyinisations)

From Pinyin + -isation or Pinyinise + -ation.


pinyinization

pinyinization (countable and uncountable, plural pinyinizations)

Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinization


pinyinisation

pinyinisation (countable and uncountable, plural pinyinisations)

Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinisation


Pinyinize

en-verb

Pinyinize (third-person singular simple present Pinyinizes, present participle Pinyinizing, simple past and past participle Pinyinized)

Pinyinizes (present singular third-person)
Pinyinizing (participle present)
Pinyinized (participle past)
Pinyinized (past)

The move to Pinyinise Chinese names in schools meant technically switching to a different system of spelling for names to which people were unaccustomed to.

1983, Ministry of Culture, The Mirror, numbers 19-20:

I'm not Chinese, but I can tell you that Mao Zedong's Chinese name, 毛泽东, would be officially Pinyinized as "Mao2 Ze2 Dong1", Deng Xiaoping's name, 邓小平, is "Deng4 Xiao3 Ping2" and Beijing's kanji, 北京, is "Bei3 Jing1".

2000 August 10, Your Name Here:, “MAO SAYDONG???”, in alt.tv.game-shows (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

A quick Google on "French Revolution" "too soon" turns up scads of references to this famous and highly quotable remark, attributed variously to Chou and Mao; some of them even pinyinise the names to Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.

2002 January 20, Phil Edwards, “Mao (or Chou) and the French Revolution”, in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

To understand why many Singaporeans remained unimpressed with the state's call to Pinyinize personal names, particularly their family names, we need first to appreciate that the more successfully implemented SMC measures were successful precisely because Singaporeans were convinced of their pragmatic and communitarian rationales.

2011, Lionel Wee, Language Without Rights, page 119:

At the height of the movement to pinyinise place names in Singapore, Bukit Panjang, now a Housing and Development Board New Town, was known as Zhenghua, along with Yisbun for Nee Soon, and Zhujiao market for tek kha market in Kandang Kerbau.

2013, Victor R Savage, Brenda Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics, page 55:

However, this distinctive dialect market is slowly being eroded as new parents choose to englishize and pinyinize their children's names.

2015, Jessieca Leo, Global Hakka: Hakka Identity in the Remaking, page 181:

(transitive) To romanize Standard Mandarin using the Pinyin system.


Pinyinization

en-noun

Pinyinization (countable and uncountable, plural Pinyinizations)

In Chinese, the speakability-readability problem is capable of various solutions depending on the audience for which the Pinyinized material is intended. A dilemma exists in the fact that the work of Pinyinization must be undertaken by people who are already literate—which means literate in characters—and Chinese literati, even of the newer generation, have displayed even less capacity than their Western counterparts to write in a style capable of ready comprehension by ordinary people.

1986, John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, page 198:

There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that official pinyinization only applies to PRC placenames. This lets out Taipei and, until recently, Hong Kong and Kowloon.

2000 June 18, Mike Wright, “一、台北市路牌；二、漢語拼音”, in sci.lang (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

Chinese doesn't have any capitals, so it really doesn't matter :-)
If you're talking Pinyinization, I guess the only capitals would be Ni and Zhongwen.

2000 November 13, Dalai Lama, “Election Results...”, in alt.roundtable (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

His rationale was that pinyinization was necessary to reduce dialect-based identity and to unite the Chinese community.

2003, Roxy Harris, Ben Rampton, The Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader, page 184:

No it's our good friend Juli Zhang who promotes pinyinisation of Chinese.

2005 July 23, Dylan Sung, “accoustic^([sic]) evidence for uninterruption of speech”, in sci.lang (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

Two other interventions in bilingual education should be noted here: (1) the introduction of a few other Indian languages as mother tongues for Indian learners; and (2) the not too successful attempt at Hanyu Pinyinization of Chinese pupils' names.

2011, Andrew W. Conrad, Alma Rubal-Lopez, Post-Imperial English: Status Change in Former British and American Colonies, 1940-1990, page 451:

(uncountable) The Romanization of Standard Mandarin using the Pinyin system.

There are several erroneous pinyinizations (Guang wu/Guangwu, Chang sha/Changsha, Guang zhou/Guangzhou, Shui-hu-ti/Shuihudi, Hupei/Hubei, jhiu/jiu, You Yingshi/Yu Yingshi, kao/xiao [...]

2004, Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, Journal of Chinese Religions, numbers 32-33:

Note that many Chinese characters have more than one possible Pinyin representation. For instance, there are actually 16 different Chinese pinyinizations of the Chinese transliteration of Ashburton, according to the tables our system uses to map a Chinese character to its Pinyin.

2012, Thierry Poibeau, Horacio Saggion, Jakub Piskorski, Roman Yangarber, Multi-source, Multilingual Information Extraction and Summarization, page 59:

Though these orthographies used the Roman alphabet (with a handful of special characters) it is best thought of not so much as a romanization as a 'Pinyinisation'; that is, it followed not the global standards for romanising Turkic languages, but rather the idiosyncratic assignments of letters to sounds employed in Hanyu pinyin, the PRC romanisation of Chinese.

2021, James Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, Revised and Updated:


ba construction

A grammatical construction in Mandarin Chinese, SUBJ-把-OBJ-VERB, or any analogous constructions in other Chinese lects.


erizational

en-adj

erizational (comparative more erizational, superlative most erizational)

more erizational (comparative)
most erizational (superlative)

(Chinese phonetics) Relating to erization (the process of undergoing erhua).


C-drama

en-noun

C-drama (countable and uncountable, plural C-dramas)


Central Min

Partial calque of Chinese 閩中語／闽中语 (mǐnzhōngyǔ).

pclq

A variety of Min Chinese spoken in central Fujian province, China.