Chinese postal romanization

Postal romanization
郵政式拼音邮政式拼音
Script type romanization
Time period
1892–2002
LanguagesChinese
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Chinese postal romanization
A map of China with romanizations published in 1947
Traditional Chinese郵政式拼音
Simplified Chinese邮政式拼音
Literal meaningPostal-style romanization system
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYóuzhèng shì Pīnyīn
Bopomofoㄧㄡˊ ㄓㄥˋ ㄕˋ ㄆㄧㄣ ㄧㄣ
Wade–GilesYu2-cheng4 shih4 P'in1-yin1
Tongyong PinyinYóu-jhèng shìh Pin-yin
IPA[jǒʊ.ʈʂə̂ŋ ʂɻ̩̂ pʰín.ín]
Wu
Shanghainese
Romanization
Yoe1tzen3 seq4 Phin1in1
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationYàuhjing sīk Pingyām
Jyutpingjau4 zing3 sik1 ping3 jam1
IPA[jɐw˩ tsɪŋ˧ sɪk̚˥ pʰɪŋ˧ jɐm˥]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJIû-chèng sek Phèng-im

Postal romanization[1] was a system of transliterating place names in China developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language form of the city's name from the 1890s until the 1980s, when postal romanization was replaced by pinyin, but the system remained in place on Taiwan until 2002.

In 1892, Herbert Giles created a romanization system called the Nanking syllabary. The Imperial Maritime Customs Post Office would cancel postage with a stamp that gave the city of origin in Latin letters, often romanized using Giles's system. In 1896, the Customs Post was combined with other postal services and renamed the Chinese Imperial Post. As a national agency, the Imperial Post was an authority on Chinese place names.[2]

When the Wade–Giles system became widespread, some argued that the post office should adopt it. This idea was rejected at a conference held in 1906 in Shanghai. Instead, the conference formally adopted Nanking syllabary.[3] This decision allowed the post office to continue to use various romanizations that it had already selected. Wade–Giles romanization is based on the Beijing dialect, a pronunciation standard since the 1850s. The use of Nanking syllabary did not suggest that the post office considered Nanjing pronunciation to be standard. Rather, it was an attempt to accommodate a variety of Mandarin pronunciations with a single romanization system.

  1. ^ Postal Romanization. Taipei: Directorate General of Posts. 1961. OCLC 81619222.
  2. ^ Harris (2009), p. 96.
  3. ^ Harris (2009), p. 101.

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