Latin Pinyin

Author
Muke Tever | ✎
Status
abandoned (2004)

Chinese, literally Romanized: a method for spelling Mandarin roughly as if it were Latin.

This Romanization is lossy: several Chinese phonemes may correspond to one Latin spelling. Additionally, tone is not indicated. The main impetus for this system was a way to Latinize Chinese names.

General correspondences

Initials

pinyin	Latin		pinyin	Latin		pinyin	Latin		pinyin	Latin
b	p		p	ph		m	m		f	f
d	t		t	th		n	n		l	l
g	c		k	ch		h	h
j	c(i)		q	ch(i)		x	s(i)
z	z		c	s		s	s
zh	t(i)		ch	th(i)		sh	s(i)		r	z†

† "R" might be keepable for r, but I don't know if the r is a sound a Latin-speaker would hear as r.

• Aspirated consonants are spelled with "h", extending the convention already used for Greek.
• Many of the sibilants fall together to the Latin ear.
• The "(i)"s drop before i, y, and diphthongs beginning with u. If you were using j (not common these days) it would be used here instead of i.

Finals

	i i	u u	ü y
a a	ia ia	ua ua
o o		uo uo
e e	ie ie		üe ue
er er
ai ae		uai uae
ei ei (i?)		uei (=ui) uei (ui?)
ao au	iao iau
ou ou (u?)	iou (=iu) iou (iu?)
an en	ian ien	uan uen	üan yen
en in	in in	uen (=un) uen	ün yn
ang an(g/c)	iang ian(g/c)	uang uan(g/c)
eng en(g/c)	ing in(g/c)	ueng uen(g/c)
ong on(g/c)	iong ion(g/c)

• The (g/c) is something I'm not certain of. Certainly "ng" could always be spelled out (and certainly sometimes it was used: e.g., Sungteius == Shunzhi Emperor). Myself I'd prefer a c to go before unvoiced consonants (thus at least -nct-, -nch-), if not actually dropped altogether before consonants (-nt-) — h not counting as a consonant here. If it must be kept it should at least be dropped before aspirates, combinations such as -cth- being an Abhomination against Nature.

Special correspondences

zi z	ci s	si s
zhi t(i)	chi th(i)	shi s	ri z
ju cy	jue cye	juan cyen	jun cyn
qu chy	que chye	quan chyen	qun chyn
xu sy	xue sye	xuan syen	xun syn
yu y	yue ye	yuan yen	yun yn
ya ia	ye ie	yao iau	you iou (iu?)
yan ien	yin in	ying in(g/c)	yang ian(g/c)
yong ion(g/c)
wu u	wa va	wo vo	wai vae
wei vei (vi?)	wan ven	wen ven	wang van(g/c)
weng ven(g/c)

Notes

Is it accurate? Who knows? The Shunzhi Emperor appeared in Latin as Sungteius, which isn't far off from what we'd have gotten (Suntius, say). Beijing comes out as Peicing or Picing [cf Peking!].

Examples

Reign names of emperors of the Ming Dynasty, transliterated and then made declinable: Hongu, Cienven, Ionle, Honsi, Syente, Tienthon(g), Cinthae, Thiensuen, Thenchua, Honti, Tiente, Ciacin(g), Lonchin(g), Vanli, Thaethian(g), Thienchi, Thiontien.

If we wanted to fully Latinize them, making them declinable, it would be as: Hong(u)us†, Cienvenus, Ionleus, Honsius, Syenteus, Thienthongus, Cinthaeus, Thiensuenus, Thenchuas‡, Hontius, Tienteus, Ciacingus, Lonchingus, Vanlius, Thaethiangus, Thienchius, Thiontienus.

† Fourth declension, -us, -us ?

‡ Greek first declension, -as, -ae, like Aeneas.