Mandarin Romanization Data Base

This data base contains spellings of all standard Mandarin syllables in the following systems of Romanized spelling.

• Hanyu Pinyin (The universal modern standard)
• Wade-Giles (A Victorian system in wide use until about 1970)
• Gwoyeu Romatzyh (tonal spelling) (The ROC official, but little observed, standard 1928-1984) (GR spellings are here given in all four tones.)

Please type the spelling(s) you are looking for in the following box.

If you enter more than one spelling, you will get only syllables in which BOTH spellings occur. (For example, typing "lu and luh" will bring up only the line that has both the spelling lu and the GR spelling luh. Typing "shi" and "xi" will bring up only the line that has both the GR spelling shi and the Pinyin spelling xi.) If no line syllable can be represented by both spellings, nothing will be found.

Because of limitations in (my understanding of) the search-engine programming, the spelling "ü" cannot be accommodated at this time. If you use "liu" and "niu" instead of "lü" and "nü" you will find the correct information.

A column is provided for the non-Roman "National Phonetic Alphabet" ("Bopomofo"), which many Chinese (incorrectly) regard as "more accurate" than Roman spellings. If your computer lacks appropriate Unicode fonts, these symbols will appear as question marks or other substitution characters or will be wholly or partly missing. (Caution: The "ng" symbol is missing from many Bopomofo Unicode fonts.)

This page works only if you are connected to the internet. If you prefer a page that can be printed out or used off line, use the Chinese Romanization Table.

Weird & Terrible Exceptions:

1. lo In the Wade-Giles system, the spelling "lo" is confusingly used for two quite different vowels which are spelled "le" and "luo" in Pinyin. (The rare syllable spelled lo in Pinyin is also spelled lo in Wade-Giles.)
2. no In the Wade-Giles system, the spelling "no" is confusingly used for two quite different vowels which are spelled "ne" and "nuo" in Pinyin.
3. jo In the Wade-Giles system, the spelling "jo" is confusingly used for two quite different syllables which are spelled "re" and "ruo" in Pinyin.
4. In Gwoyeu Romatzah, words borrowed from foreign languages and incorporated into Chinese retain their foreign spellings. For example, "Romanization" should be spelled "luomaatzyh" according to its pronunciation, but is officially spelt "Romatzyh" because "Roma" is the Italian spelling for the city of Rome, from which the term "Romanization" derives. (I have never learned why this idiocy was incorporated into an otherwise refreshingly rational system.)