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