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.

Precision with empty rime

On the other hand, Wade-Giles shows precisions not found in other major Romanizations in regards to the rendering of the two types of empty rimes (空韻):

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• -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.

Related Topics:
Hanyu Pinyin - Tongyong Pinyin - Zhuyin

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