Gwoyeu Romatzyh

Gwoyeu Romatzyh ({{zh-stp|s=国语罗马字|t=國語羅馬字|p=Guóyǔ Luómǎzì}}), abbreviated GR, is a romanization (formerly used officially in the Republic of China) with complex spelling rules which allow for tonal distinctions (unlike most other Romanizations, which require additional diacritics or numerals).

Tonal rules

The additional letter or modified letter (replacement of another) to signify tone is usually done to the vowel or diphthong. The following list number correspond to tone number.

Related Topics:
Vowel - Diphthong

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• No extra tone-letter is added to tone one, i.e., they are written as if they have no tone, and syllables with other tones are modified from tone one. Except:
• * Those beginning with l, r, m, and n have -h after them. And tone-two syllables with l, r, m, and n initials behave like tone-one syllable.
• For tone-two syllables, all vowels (and last vowel of the diphthongs) are followed by r, except:
• * I becomes y, unless it is final, then i has y preceding it: yi.
• * U becomes w, unless it is final, then u has w preceding it: wu.
• Tone-three vowels are doubled, except:
• * Diphthongs with a do not double. Instead, the I becomes e or the U becomes o.
• * Note that, for diphthongs without a, the letter that comes first in alphabet order is doubled, i.e.,
• ** Double e, not i.
• ** Double o, not u.
• * There may also be an additional cosmetic change. See below.
• For tone-four syllables, all vowels (and last vowel of the diphthongs) are followed by h, except:
• * Those syllables end in -n double the consonant: -nn.
• * Those end in -l double the consonant: -ll.
• * Those end in -ng become -nq.
• * In diphthongs with final "I" or "U"...
• ** I becomes y.
• ** U becomes w.
• * There may also be an additional cosmetic change. See below.
• A dot (often written as period) is placed before neutral tone syllables (which otherwise appear exactly like those tone-one syllables). However, this is sometimes ignored by writer.