Spelling in Gwoyeu Romatzyh - Tonal Rules

Tonal Rules

Note: In this section the word "tone" is abbreviated as "T": thus T1 stands for Tone 1, or first tone, etc.

Wherever possible GR indicates tones 2, 3 and 4 by respelling the basic T1 form of the syllable, replacing a vowel with another having a similar sound (i with y, for example, or u with w). But this concise procedure cannot be applied in every case, since the syllable may not contain a suitable vowel for modification. In such cases a letter (r or h) is added or inserted instead. The precise rule to be followed in any specific case is determined by the rules given below.

A colour-coded rule of thumb is given below for each tone: the same colours are used below in a list of provinces. Each rule of thumb is then amplified by a comprehensive set of rules for that tone. These codes are used in the rules:

• V = a vowel
• NV = a non-vowel (either a consonant or zero in the case of an initial vowel)
• ⇏ = "but avoid forming "

Pinyin equivalents are given in brackets after each set of examples. To illustrate the GR tonal rules in practice, a table comparing Pinyin and GR spellings of some Chinese provinces follows the detailed rules.

Tone 1: basic form

• Initial sonorants (l-/m-/n-/r-): insert -h- as second letter. rheng, mha (rēng, mā)
• Otherwise use the basic form.

Tone 2: i/u → y/w; or add -r

• Initial sonorants: use basic form. reng, ma (réng, má)
• NVi → NVy ( + -i if final). chyng, chyan, yng, yan, pyi (qíng, qián, yíng, yán, pí)
• NVu → NVw ( + -u if final). chwan, wang, hwo, chwu (chuán, wáng, huó, chú)
• Otherwise add r to vowel or diphthong. charng, bair (cháng, bái)

Tone 3: i/u → e/o; or double vowel

• Vi or iV → Ve or eV (⇏ee). chean, bae, sheau (qiǎn, bǎi, xiǎo), but not gee
• Vu or uV → Vo or oV (⇏oo). doan, dao, shoei (duǎn, dǎo, shuǐ), but not hoo
• When both i and u can be found, only the first one changes, i.e. jeau, goai, sheu (jiǎo, guǎi, xǔ), not jeao, goae, sheo
• For basic forms starting with i-/u-, change the starting i-/u- to e-/o- and add initial y-/w-. yean, woo, yeu (yǎn, wǒ, yǔ)
• Otherwise double the (main) vowel. chiing, daa, geei, huoo, goou (qǐng, dǎ, gěi, huǒ, gǒu)

Tone 4: change/double final letter; or add -h

• Vi → Vy. day, suey (dài, suì)
• Vu → Vw (⇏iw). daw, gow (dào, gòu), but not chiw
• -n → -nn. duann (duàn)
• -l → -ll. ell (èr)
• -ng → -nq. binq (bìng)
• Otherwise add h. dah, chiuh, dih (dà, qù, dì)
• For basic forms starting with i-/u-, replace initial i-/u- with y-/w-, in addition to the necessary tonal change. yaw, wuh (yào, wù)

Neutral tone (轻声 Chingsheng / qīngshēng)

A dot (usually written as a period or full stop) may be placed before neutral tone (unstressed) syllables, which appear in their original tonal spelling: perng.yeou, dih.fang (péngyou, dìfang). Y.R. Chao used this device in the first eight chapters of the Mandarin Primer, restricting it thereafter to new words on their first appearance. In A Grammar of Spoken Chinese he introduced a subscript circle (_o) to indicate an optional neutral tone, as in bujy_odaw, "don't know" (Pinyin pronunciation bùzhīdào or bùzhīdao).

It is important to note that any GR syllables beginning u- or i- must be T1: in T2, T3 and T4 these syllables all begin with w- or y- respectively. An example in all four tones is the following: ing, yng, yiing, yinq (Pinyin ying).