Lessing-Othmer

Lessing-Othmer is a romanization of Mandarin Chinese that was introduced by F. Lessing (de) and Dr. W. Othmer, who in 1912 printed their book „Lehrgang der nordchinesischen Umgangssprache“ (“Course in the North Chinese Colloquial Language”) through the „Deutsch-Chinesische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt“ in Qingdao while it was a German colony.

In 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China for Romanization ruled that translations of foreign-language publications should utilize Lessing-Othmer romanization in German-speaking countries, and Pinyin in English-speaking countries.^[1]

Table

The tones romanized differently from Pinyin are highlighted in blue.

Initial

		Bilabial		Labiodental	Alveolar		Retroflex		Alveolo-palatal	Velar
		Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiceless
Nasal			m [m] ㄇ m			n [n] ㄋ n
Plosive	Unaspirated	b [p] ㄅ b			d [t] ㄉ d					g [k] ㄍ g
	Aspirated	p [pʰ] ㄆ p			t [tʰ] ㄊ t					k [kʰ] ㄎ k
Affricate	Unaspirated				ds [ts] ㄗ z		dsch [ʈʂ] ㄓ zh		dj [tɕ] ㄐ j
	Aspirated				ts [tsʰ] ㄘ c		tsch [ʈʂʰ] ㄔ ch		tj [tɕʰ] ㄑ q
Fricative				f [f] ㄈ f	s [s] ㄙ s		sch [ʂ] ㄕ sh		hs [ɕ] ㄒ x	h [x] ㄏ h
Liquid						l [l] ㄌ l		j [ɻ~ʐ] ㄖ r

Finals

		Coda
		∅			/i/		/u/		/n/		/ŋ/			/ɻ/
Medial	∅	ï [ɨ] ㄭ -i	ö [ɤ] ㄜ e	a [a] ㄚ a	e [ei] ㄟ ei	ai [ai] ㄞ ai	ou [ou] ㄡ ou	au [au] ㄠ ao	ën [ən] ㄣ en	an [an] ㄢ an	ung [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ ong	ëng [əŋ] ㄥ eng	ang [aŋ] ㄤ ang	örl [aɚ] ㄦ er
	/j/	i [i] ㄧ i	iä [je] ㄧㄝ ie	ia [ja] ㄧㄚ ia			iu [jou] ㄧㄡ iu	iau [jau] ㄧㄠ iao	in [in] ㄧㄣ in	iän [jɛn] ㄧㄢ ian	iung [jʊŋ] ㄩㄥ iong	ing [iŋ] ㄧㄥ ing	iang [jaŋ] ㄧㄤ iang
	/w/	u [u] ㄨ u	o [wo] ㄨㄛ uo	ua [wa] ㄨㄚ ua	ui [wei] ㄨㄟ ui	uai [wai] ㄨㄞ uai			un [wən] ㄨㄣ un	uan [wan] ㄨㄢ uan		ung [wəŋ] ㄨㄥ ueng	uang [waŋ] ㄨㄤ uang
	/ɥ/	ü [y] ㄩ ü	üä [ɥe] ㄩㄝ üe						ün [yn] ㄩㄣ ün	üan [ɥɛn] ㄩㄢ üan