Chinese Language and Romanization

Romanization Systems

你好！ Ni hao!

*Pinyin

Official system of People’s Republic of China

Internationally accepted

See, Hansen, pp. xvii

Difficult Letters in Pinyin Romanization

“q”= “ch” (qian)

“x”= “sh” (xin)

“zh”= “j” (zhan)

“c”= “ts” (cun)

“i”

“r” after “ch,” “zh,” and “r” (chi)

“u” after “z,” “c,” and “s” (zi)

“ee” after “j,” “q,” “x” and all others (ji)

Tones

Ma

1st tone: mā = mother 媽 /妈

2nd tone: má = What? 嗎/吗

3rd tone: mǎ = horse 馬 /马

4th tone: mà = curse 罵 /骂

Names

Surname first

Skaff Jonathan

Wife keeps surname after marriage

Single character surname (most common)

Zhu Yuanzhang

Liu Bang

Double character surname (rare)

Degu Xin

Sima Xiangru

Dialectical diversity

Official language 

*Mandarin

Major southern dialects

Cantonese (Yue), Shanghainese (Wu), Fujianese (Min)

Writing system

Characters: Traditional馬 /Simplified 马