Wade-Giles
Encyclopedia
Wade–Giles sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization
system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade
during the mid-19th century ( ; Wade–Giles: Wei1-t'o3-ma3 P'in1-yin1), and was given completed form with Herbert Giles
' Chinese
–English
dictionary
of 1892.
Wade–Giles was the most widely-used system of transcription in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books about China
published in western countries before 1979. It replaced the Nanjing
-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the 19th century. It has been entirely replaced by the pinyin
system in mainland China. Outside mainland China, it has mostly been replaced by the pinyin
system (developed by the Chinese government and approved during 1958), but remains common in history books, particularly those about Imperial China. Additionally, its legacy can be felt in the common English names of certain individuals and locations (e.g. Mao Tse-tung, Nanking).
, a British ambassador in China and Chinese scholar who was the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge University. Wade published the first Chinese textbook in English in 1867. The system was refined in 1912 by Herbert Allen Giles, a British diplomat in China and his son, Lionel Giles
, a curator at the British Museum.
The Wade–Giles system was designed to transcribe Chinese terms, for Chinese specialists.
Taiwan
has used Wade–Giles for decades as the de facto
standard, co-existing with several official but obscure romanization
s in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh
(1928), MPS II (1986), and Tongyong pinyin
(2000). With the election of the Nationalist
government in 2008, Taiwan has officially switched to Hanyu pinyin. However, many signs and maps in Taiwan are still in Wade–Giles, and many overseas Chinese write their Chinese names in Wade–Giles.
Wade–Giles spellings and pinyin spellings for Taiwanese place names and words long accepted in English usage are still used interchangeably in English-language texts.
stop consonant
pairs using apostrophe
s: p, p' , t, t' , k, k' , ch, ch' . However, the use of apostrophes preserves b, d, g, and j for the romanization of Chinese languages containing voiced
consonants, such as Shanghainese
(which has a full set of voiced consonants) and Min Nan
(Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ, often called Missionary Romanisation) is similar to Wade–Giles. POJ, Legge romanization
, Simplified Wade
, and EFEO Chinese transcription
use the letter h instead of an apostrophe to indicate aspiration (this is similar to the superscript ʰ used in IPA). The convention of the apostrophe or "h" to denote aspiration is also found in romanizations of other Asian languages, such as McCune–Reischauer for Korean
and ISO 11940
for Thai
.
People unfamiliar with 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, j, q, zh, ch.
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 diacritic
s to be kept, the system reveals a symmetry that leaves no overlap:
s :
These empty rimes are all written as -i in Hanyu pinyin (hence distinguishable only by context 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.
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.
s to separate all syllable
s 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 invariably use the plain apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are completely ignored in Taiwanese passports, hence their absence in overseas Chinese
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 place names and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas Chinese of Taiwan
ese origin write their given name
s 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 number
s to indicate tone, and official Pinyin uses diacritics. The tone marks are ignored except in textbook
s.
Romanization of Chinese
The romanization of Mandarin Chinese is the use of the Latin alphabet to write Chinese. Because Chinese is a tonal language with a logographic script, its characters do not represent phonemes directly. There have been many systems of romanization throughout history...
system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade
Thomas Francis Wade
Sir Thomas Francis Wade, GCMG, KCB , was a British diplomat and Sinologist who produced a syllabary in 1859 that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization for Mandarin Chinese by Herbert Giles in 1892...
during the mid-19th century ( ; Wade–Giles: Wei1-t'o3-ma3 P'in1-yin1), and was given completed form with Herbert Giles
Herbert Giles
Herbert Allen Giles was a British diplomat and sinologist, educated at Charterhouse. He modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system earlier established by Thomas Wade, resulting in the widely known Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system...
' Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
–English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
of 1892.
Wade–Giles was the most widely-used system of transcription in the English-speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books about China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
published in western countries before 1979. It replaced the Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the 19th century. It has been entirely replaced by the pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
system in mainland China. Outside mainland China, it has mostly been replaced by the pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
system (developed by the Chinese government and approved during 1958), but remains common in history books, particularly those about Imperial China. Additionally, its legacy can be felt in the common English names of certain individuals and locations (e.g. Mao Tse-tung, Nanking).
History
Wade–Giles was developed by Thomas Francis WadeThomas Francis Wade
Sir Thomas Francis Wade, GCMG, KCB , was a British diplomat and Sinologist who produced a syllabary in 1859 that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization for Mandarin Chinese by Herbert Giles in 1892...
, a British ambassador in China and Chinese scholar who was the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge University. Wade published the first Chinese textbook in English in 1867. The system was refined in 1912 by Herbert Allen Giles, a British diplomat in China and his son, Lionel Giles
Lionel Giles
Lionel Giles was a Victorian scholar, translator and the son of British diplomat and sinologist, Herbert Giles. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books...
, a curator at the British Museum.
The Wade–Giles system was designed to transcribe Chinese terms, for Chinese specialists.
Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
has used Wade–Giles for decades as the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
standard, co-existing with several official but obscure romanization
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
s in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh , abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by Y.R. Chao and developed by a group of linguists including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself later published influential works in linguistics using GR...
(1928), MPS II (1986), and Tongyong pinyin
Tongyong Pinyin
Tongyong Pinyin was the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese in the Republic of China between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for the Republic of China was being evaluated for adoption. The ROC's Ministry of Education...
(2000). With the election of the Nationalist
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
government in 2008, Taiwan has officially switched to Hanyu pinyin. However, many signs and maps in Taiwan are still in Wade–Giles, and many overseas Chinese write their Chinese names in Wade–Giles.
Wade–Giles spellings and pinyin spellings for Taiwanese place names and words long accepted in English usage are still used interchangeably in English-language texts.
Multi-sound symbols
A common feature of the Wade–Giles system is the representation of the unaspirated-aspiratedAspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
stop consonant
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
pairs using apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
s: p, p
VOICED
Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation...
consonants, such as Shanghainese
Shanghainese
Shanghainese , or the Shanghai language , is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties...
(which has a full set of voiced consonants) and Min Nan
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....
(Hō-ló-oē) whose century-old Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ, often called Missionary Romanisation) is similar to Wade–Giles. POJ, Legge romanization
Legge romanization
Legge romanization is a transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, used by the prolific 19th century sinologist James Legge. It was replaced by the Wade-Giles system, which itself has been mostly supplanted by Pinyin...
, Simplified Wade
Simplified Wade
Simplified Wade is a modification of the Wade-Giles romanization system for writing Mandarin Chinese. It was devised by the Swedish linguist Olov Bertil Anderson, who first published the system in 1970. Simplified Wade uses tonal spelling: in other words it modifies the letters in a syllable in...
, and EFEO Chinese transcription
EFEO Chinese transcription
The Chinese transcription of the École française d'Extrême-Orient was the most used phonetic transcription of Chinese in the French speaking world until the middle of the 20th century. It was created by Séraphin Couvreur of the aforesaid institute in 1902...
use the letter h instead of an apostrophe to indicate aspiration (this is similar to the superscript ʰ used in IPA). The convention of the apostrophe or "h" to denote aspiration is also found in romanizations of other Asian languages, such as McCune–Reischauer for Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and ISO 11940
ISO 11940
ISO 11940 is an ISO standard for the romanization of the Thai alphabet, published in 1998 and updated in September 2003.-Consonants:The transliteration of the pure consonants is derived from their usual pronunciation as an initial consonant. An unmarked h is used to form digraphs denoting...
for Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
.
People unfamiliar with 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, j, q, zh, ch.
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 diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s 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.
Multi-symbol sounds
In addition to several sounds presented using the same letter(s), sometimes, one single sound is represented using several sets of letters. There exist 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 rimeSyllable rime
In the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
s :
- -u (formerly û) after the sibilant tz, tz
' , and ss (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 distinguishable only by context from true i as in li), and all written as -ih in Tongyong Pinyin
Tongyong Pinyin
Tongyong Pinyin was the official Romanization of Mandarin Chinese in the Republic of China between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for the Republic of China was being evaluated for adoption. The ROC's Ministry of Education...
. 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 vowelClose-mid back unrounded vowel
The close-mid back unrounded vowel, or high-mid back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is , called "ram's horns"...
is written usually as -e as in pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
, 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
What is actually pronounced as -uo is virtually always written as -o in Wade–Giles, except shuo and the three syllables of kuo, k
Punctuation
In addition to the apostrophes used for distinguishing the multiple sounds of a single Latin symbol, Wade–Giles uses hyphenHyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign which is also longer...
s to separate all syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s within a word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
, 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 invariably use the plain apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are completely ignored in Taiwanese passports, hence their absence in overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
names.
If the syllable is not the first in a word, its first letter is not capitalized, even if it is a proper noun
Proper noun
A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique entity , as distinguished from a common noun, which represents a class of entities —for example, city, planet, person or corporation)...
. The use of apostrophes, hyphens, and capitalization is frequently not observed in place names and personal names. For example, the majority of overseas Chinese of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese origin write their given name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s 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
Middle name
People's names in several cultures include one or more additional names placed between the first given name and the surname. In Canada and the United States all such names are specifically referred to as middle name; in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc....
. (See also Chinese name
Chinese name
Personal names in Chinese culture follow a number of conventions different from those of personal names in Western cultures. Most noticeably, a Chinese name is written with the family name first and the given name next, therefore "John-Paul Smith" as a Chinese name would be "Smith John-Paul"...
)
Wade–Giles uses superscript number
Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....
s to indicate tone, and official Pinyin uses diacritics. The tone marks are ignored except in textbook
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
s.
Comparison with pinyin
- Wade–Giles chose the FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
-like j to represent a Northerner's pronunciation of what now is represented as r in Pinyin. - Ü always has a trema (diaeresis) above, while pinyin only employs it in the cases of nü, lü, nüe and lüe, while leaving it out in -ue, ju-, qu-, xu-, -uan and yu- as a simplification because uUU is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
cannot otherwise appear in those positions. Because yü (as in 玉 "jade") must have a diaeresis in Wade, the diaeresis-less yu in Wade–Giles is freed up for what corresponds to you (有) in Pinyin. - The pinyin vowelVowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
cluster ong is ung in Wade–Giles. (Compare Kung Fu to Gong Fu as an example.) - After a consonant, both the Wade–Giles and Pinyin vowel cluster uei is written ui. Furthermore, both Romanizations use iu and un instead of the complete syllables: iou and uen.
- Single 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 ehEhEh is a spoken interjection in English, Armenian, Japanese, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan that is similar in meaning to "Excuse me," "Please repeat that" or "huh?" It is also commonly used as a method for inciting an answer, as in "It's nice here, eh?" It is occasionally...
is written as ê, like in pinyin. (SchwaSchwaIn linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
is occasionally written as ê as well.) But unlike Pinyin, which uses -e if there is a consonant preceding the sound, Wade–Giles uses -eh. (See circumflexCircumflexThe circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
) - In addition to being the schwaSchwaIn linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
, ê also represents the pinyin er as êrh.
Comparison chart
Note: In Hanyu pinyin the so-called fifth accent (neutral accent) is written leaving the syllable with no diacritic mark at all. In Tongyong Pinyin a ring is written over the vowel instead.Influences
Chinese Postal Map Romanization is based on Wade–Giles, but incorporating a number of exceptions that override the systematic rules.See also
- Simplified WadeSimplified WadeSimplified Wade is a modification of the Wade-Giles romanization system for writing Mandarin Chinese. It was devised by the Swedish linguist Olov Bertil Anderson, who first published the system in 1970. Simplified Wade uses tonal spelling: in other words it modifies the letters in a syllable in...
- Cyrillization of Chinese from Wade–Giles
- Daoism–Taoism romanization issue
- Legge romanizationLegge romanizationLegge romanization is a transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, used by the prolific 19th century sinologist James Legge. It was replaced by the Wade-Giles system, which itself has been mostly supplanted by Pinyin...
External links
- Chinese Romanization Converter – Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade–Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other known or (un-)common Romanization systems. (*A NON-WORKING JAVA APPLET 03/14/2011)
- Wade-Giles → Zhuyin → Pinyin → Word list
- A conversion table of Chinese provinces and cities from Wade-Giles to Pinyin
- Pinyin4j: Java library supporting Chinese to Wade-Giles – Support Simplified and Traditional Chinese; Support most popular Pinyin systems, including Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, Wade–Giles, MPS2, Yale and Gwoyeu Romatzyh; Support multiple pronunciations of a single character; Support customized output, such as ü or tone marks.
- Pronunciation Guide – From Chuang Tzu's Genius of the Absurd
- Chinese without a teacher, Chinese phrasebook by Herbert Giles with romanization
- Chinese Phonetic Conversion Tool - Converts between Wade–Giles and other formats
- Wade-Giles Annotation – Wade–Giles pronunciation and English definitions for Chinese text snippets or web pages.
- 國語拼音對照表