1、BRITISH STANDARD BS 7014:1989 Guide to The romanization of Chinese UDC 003.035:003.324.1:809.51BS7014:1989 This British Standard, having been prepared under the directionof the Information andDocumentation Standards Policy Committee, was published under the authority of the Board ofBSI and comes int
2、o effect on 30June1989 BSI 01-2000 The following BSI references relate to the work on this standard: Committee reference DOT/5 Draft for comment 87/68054 DC ISBN 0 580 16819 0 Committees responsible for this BritishStandard The preparation of this British Standard was entrusted by the Information an
3、d Documentation Standards Policy Committee (DOT/-) to Technical Committee DOT/5 upon which the following bodies were represented: Bodleian Library British Library (Humanities and Social Sciences) Indian Institute Library Library Association Royal Geographical Society Royal Society Society of Antiqua
4、ries of London Standing Conference of National and University Libraries Translators Guild of the Institute of Linguists The following bodies were also represented in the drafting of the standard, through subcommittees and panels: British Broadcasting Corporation Cambridge University Library Ealing C
5、ollege of Higher Education Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministry of Defence Oxford University Oriental Institute Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use Polytechnic of Central London Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding Limited University of Edinburgh University of L
6、eeds University of York Amendments issued since publication Amd. No. Date of issue CommentsBS7014:1989 BSI 01-2000 i Contents Page Committees responsible Inside front cover Foreword ii 1 Scope 1 2 The two principal systems 1 3 The question of standardization 3 Table 1 Syllabaries of Modern Standard
7、Chinese in two systemsof romanization 4 Publications referred to Inside back coverBS7014:1989 ii BSI 01-2000 Foreword This British Standard has been prepared under the direction of the Information and Documentation Standards Policy Committee. It describes and compares the two principal systems of ro
8、manization used to represent the pronunciation of characters in Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin, Kuo-y and Putonghua. It supersedes PD6483:1978 which is withdrawn. This standard has been placed in the general series of BSI publications in accordance with the general policy relating t
9、o the identity of standards on transliteration. It differs from the previous publication, PD6483:1978, in that the descriptive material has been aligned with recent trends in the romanization of Chinese. The effects of the increasing international recognition of Pinyin are discussed and a few minor
10、errors in the syllabaries have been corrected. Although the official standard of Chinese pronunciation has varied through the ages, since1932 it has been strictly based on the phonetic system of Peking speech. A directive of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China of6February1956 confirme
11、d this, and made it clear that the standard spoken language took the northern dialect as its basic dialect. For linguistic description and teaching, other dialects use their own systems of romanization, but names of persons and places, titles of books, and technical terms are normally given in a rom
12、anization of Modern Standard Chinese. The main exception is the practice in Hong Kong, where place names and personal names are romanized according to Cantonese pronunciation. Chinese script is not phonetic. It is common practice to romanize names and terms that occur in earlier periods according to
13、 the modern pronunciation, despite the great changes that have taken place in both the phonetic system and the pronunciation of individual characters. Various systems of romanization are currently in use, and this causes some confusion. The adoption of one standard system of romanization would reduc
14、e that confusion and facilitate reference to Chinese language material. Developments in the Peoples Republic of China are adding emphasis to this fact. A British Standard does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users of British Standards are responsible for their corr
15、ect application. Compliance with a British Standard does not of itself confer immunity from legal obligations. Summary of pages This document comprises a front cover, an inside front cover, pagesi andii, pages1 to8, an inside back cover and a back cover. This standard has been updated (see copyright
16、 date) and may have had amendments incorporated. This will be indicated in the amendment table on the inside front cover.BS7014:1989 BSI 01-2000 1 1 Scope This British Standard describes the romanization of Chinese characters according to the two principal systems, the Wade-Giles and the Pinyin, and
17、 includes comparative tables of the two syllabaries in romanized form. It does not attempt to formulate rules for the juncture of syllables or offer instruction on romanizing directly from Chinese characters. NOTEThe titles of the publications referred to in this BritishStandard are listed on the in
18、side back cover. 2 The two principal systems 2.1 Wade-Giles 2.1.1 The first systems of romanization were devised by foreigners in China, beginning, in the early seventeenth century, with the Jesuits. Until recently, the most widely used system was that devised by Sir Thomas Francis Wade, first publi
19、shed in1859 and revised in his textbook Y-yen tz erh chi (London, 1867). Being comparatively simple and based on the dialect of Peking, it offered certain advantages, but came into general use only after the publication of A Chinese-English Dictionary by Herbert A. Giles (London, 1892; second editio
20、n, revised and enlarged,1912), who modified the system in some minor details. It is on this account that the system is usually called Wade-Giles. 2.1.2 The Wade-Giles system has long been felt to be inadequate for teaching purposes. However, in the fields of documentation and publication it is still
21、 widely used, especially in English-speaking countries. Many reference works of all kinds are based on Wade-Giles and many libraries use it in their catalogues. 2.1.3 The introduction of the official standard of Chinese pronunciation in1932 has necessitated certain minor changes in the Wade-Giles sy
22、stem. The forms chio, chio, hsio and yo are now obsolete and have been combined with cheh, cheh, hseh and yeh, and the alternative forms i and yi can now be reduced to the single i. However, yi should be kept for transliteration in cases where confusion between the letter i and theFigure1 is likely
23、to arise. This modified Wade-Giles system is described by Y.R. Chao in the American edition of Mathews Chinese-English Dictionary (Cambridge, Mass.,1943), pp. xviiixxi: “List of syllabic headings”. 2.1.4 The version of the Wade-Giles system used in the United States is a modified form of the system
24、as laid down in the authoritative style sheets of the Journal of Asian Studies and the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Another simplification is the abolition of the circumflex (as in ch) and the breve (as in ss) as the omission of these redundant diacritics is favoured by practically all schola
25、rs. The system thus simplified is included in the syllabaries inTable 1. 2.1.5 The Wade-Giles system indicates aspirated initials by means of a rough breathing mark (as in tang) or, more commonly, an apostrophe (tang), which cannt be omitted without causing serious ambiguity. The mlaut could theoret
26、ically be omitted in cheh, cheh, hs, hsan, hseh, hsn, leh, neh, yan, yeh, yn, and only retained in ch, ch chan, chan, chn, chn, l, lan, n, y. However, even in the former category the suppression of the umlaut would lead to some confusion, particularly by disrupting the alphabetical order of catalogu
27、e entries, and is therefore not recommended. 2.1.6 For some purposes it may be necessary, in the Wade-Giles system as in other systems, to indicate the tones. If required, superscript numbers or accents may be used, e.g.tan 1 , t n; tan 2 , tn; tan 3 , t!n; tan 4 , tn. 2.1.7 No strict rules can be f
28、ormulated for transcribing juncture. Some style sheets advise hyphenating syllables according to sense, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to do so consistently, except in the case of disyllabic components of personal names, e.g.En-lai in Chou En-lai, Ou-yang in Ou-yang Hsiu. Others prescribe n
29、o juncture at all, except in names. In indexes and library catalogues the alphabetical order does not normally take account of hyphens in title entries, but in author entries disyllabic surnames are filed separately from monosyllabic ones as here the hyphen has a function. 2.1.8 In Wade-Giles romani
30、zation, capitals are avoided as much as possible, but they are always used to mark the beginning (not the second syllable) of a hyphenated name, as illustrated in2.1.7.BS7014:1989 2 BSI 01-2000 2.2 Pinyin 2.2.1 The most important systems of romanization devised by the Chinese themselves are Gwoyeu R
31、omatzyh, promulgated by the Chinese Ministry of Education in1928, and Hny% P-ny-n F+ngn (commonly known as Pinyin), which was approved by the National Peoples Congress in1958. The former enables all the sounds, including tones, of the national speech to be written with the letters of the Roman alpha
32、bet without diacritics. However, although it has been used in teaching, it is no longer widely advocated for any other purpose. 2.2.2 Following its approval in1958 Pinyin was used in China mainly for educational purposes, and in particular as a means of indicating the standard readings of Chinese ch
33、aracters. Primary school children were taught the system as part of their basic training in reading, and Pinyin also played a part in the movement to spread the knowledge and use of Modern Standard Chinese (Putonghua). Outside China, Pinyin was introduced as a teaching medium in many schools, colleg
34、es and universities. Some libraries changed to Pinyin and others adopted Pinyin for new Chinese collections. In August1978 the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China decided that Pinyin should become the standard romanized transcription for Chinese personal and geographical names. On1January
35、1979 the New China (Xinhua) News Agency (NCNA), the official Chinese news agency, adopted Pinyin in place of the modified Wade-Giles system which it had used hitherto. News media outside China had no practical alternative but to follow suit and in recent years there has been a marked increase in the
36、 use of Pinyin in other forms of publication, including books, maps and journals. It has been suggested that Pinyin could eventually become an alphabetical system for writing Modern Standard Chinese. Although it possesses certain qualities which could fit it for this function, in some respects it st
37、ill falls short of being a fully developed alphabetical system. 2.2.3 Syllables within words are written consecutively without a space. Usually this presents no problem, but what constitutes a word in this context has not yet been precisely defined and uncertainty exists as to whether certain morpho
38、logical constructions should be deemed to be words or not. The question of when the particles de and le should be suffixed to the words which precede them without leaving a gap has also not been resolved. The use of the hyphen which was originally advocated in the case of loose morphological constru
39、ctions has declined, and it is now often confined to such expressions as Han-Ying, “Chinese-English” and dao-cha, “knife and fork”. Despite the general tendency towards juncture, Chinese practice in library catalogues, e.g.in the printed catalogue cards of the National Library of China, where it is
40、essential to avoid ambiguity of location, suggests that full separation of all Pinyin syllables is the only safe course. 2.2.4 To avoid ambiguity syllabic boundaries may be marked by an apostrophe, e.g.Xian (a place name); piao, “leather coat”; yinan, “dark”, etc. An apostrophe is also used to mark
41、the boundary between two syllables where the first ends and the second starts with a vowel even when there is strictly speaking no danger of ambiguity, e.g.beiai, “grief”; chaoe, “above quota”. 2.2.5 Another question that awaits final resolution is the method of distinguishing homophones and words w
42、here Pinyin spelling is identical if the tones are not marked. Occasionally this is done by spelling modifications as in the case of the province which used to be written Shensi in the old Post Office system, but which is now written Shaanxi to distinguish it from its neighbour Shanxi (previouslySha
43、nsi). 2.2.6 Tonal diacritics are usually omitted in everyday use of Pinyin, though they are used in many dictionaries and in Chinese language textbooks. The four tones are marked by superscribing the vowel with the following diacritics: - “ ”. Where finals are written with two or more letters, the t
44、one mark is written over the first, unless this is an i or u, in which case it is written over the second. In printing, the dot over the i is lost if a tone is marked on it. Atonic syllables are left unmarked. In this area too, a number of features have not been agreed or standardized. 2.2.7 The pre
45、scription of rules to cover juncture and other such unresolved areas depend on more detailed measures of standardization being adopted in the Peoples Republic of China.BS7014:1989 BSI 01-2000 3 2.3 Syllabaries of Modern Standard Chinese Table 1 contains syllabaries in the Wade-Giles and Pinyin syste
46、ms of romanization. 2.4 Conversion 2.4.1 Because of the wide usage of both systems, it is likely that organizations dealing with Chinese materials will sometimes need to convert names and references from Wade-Giles to Pinyin and vice versa. 2.4.2 In the interest of achieving uniformity within the Wa
47、de-Giles system, the simplified system discussed in2.1.3 and2.1.4 is used inTable 1 to the exclusion of all variant forms of Wade-Giles. 2.4.3 In converting from Wade-Giles to Pinyin it is important to ensure that the Wade-Giles version is correct. For example, certain pre-1979 English language publ
48、ications from the Peoples Republic of China used a form of Wade-Giles which omitted the breathing mark. Moreover for some geographical names, the changes have been such that conversion cannot normally take place and names should be directly romanized from official Chinese character sources. 3 The qu
49、estion of standardization At present only the Wade-Giles and Pinyin systems are commonly used in English language publications and reference materials. It is not likely in the near future that Wade-Giles will entirely be supplanted by Pinyin in the uses for which it has predominated and it is therefore not useful to suggest one system as the standard for the UnitedKingdom. Conversion of records would be expensive and, if it were carried out, coordination would be desirable. However, Pinyin has achieved international reco
