Simplified Wade, abbreviated SW, is a modification of the WadeâÂÂGiles romanization system for writing Standard Mandarin Chinese. It was devised by the Swedish linguist Olov Bertil Anderson (1920–1993), who first published the system in 1969. Simplified Wade uses tonal spelling: in other words it modifies the letters in a syllable in order to indicate tone differences. It is one of only two Mandarin romanization systems that indicate tones in such a way (the other being Gwoyeu Romatzyh). All other systems use diacritics or numbers to indicate tone.
One of the important changes that Anderson made to WadeâÂÂGiles to was to replace the apostrophe following aspirated consonants with an . This modification, previously used in the Legge romanization, was also adopted by Joseph Needham in his Science and Civilisation in China series. The table below illustrates the spelling difference.
While WadeâÂÂGiles spells the initials differently before the vowel (written à  in WG but y in SW), Simplified Wade spells them the same as everywhere else:
Like most romanization systems for Standard Mandarin, Simplified Wade uses r for WadeâÂÂGiles j: WG jih, jê, jên, jêng, jo, jui, jung, etc., become SW ry, re, ren, reng, ro, ruei, rung, etc.
All other initials are the same as in WadeâÂÂGiles.
The finals of Simplified Wade differ from those of WadeâÂÂGiles in the following ways:
When ü is available, it is used as in WadeâÂÂGiles. Otherwise, the following rules apply:
Both Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Simplified Wade use tonal spelling, but in two very different fashions. In Gwoyeu Romatzyh, the spelling of the tone and the spelling of the final often fuse together: WG -iao has the basic spelling -iau in GR, which becomes -yau in the 2nd tone, -eau in the 3rd tone, -iaw in the 4th tone, and remains -iau in the 1st tone â hence WG chiao<sup>1</sup>, chiao<sup>2</sup>, chiao<sup>3</sup>, chiao<sup>4</sup> become GR , , , . There are different rules for different cases: WG pin<sup>1</sup>, pin<sup>2</sup>, pin<sup>3</sup>, pin<sup>4</sup> become GR pin, pyn, piin, pinn, but WG sui<sup>1</sup>, sui<sup>2</sup>, sui<sup>3</sup>, sui<sup>4</sup> become GR suei, swei, soei, suey.
In Simplified Wade, on the other hand, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tones are always indicated by an otherwise silent letter following the final: -v for the 2nd tone, -x for the 3rd tone, and -z for the 4th tone. The spelling of the tone and the spelling of the final are always separable from each other. Simplified Wade's tonal spelling is therefore similar to the adding of a digit at the end of the syllable.
The 1st tone is always indicated by the absence of a letter following the final. Examples:
When a vertical apostrophe is used above one or more syllables, any syllable without a vertical apostrophe carries the neutral tone: HànyàPënyën lái le is laÃÂiv-le in Simplified Wade.
A right apostrophe is used to indicate a syllable break in an otherwise ambiguous spelling, e.g., for WG pi<sup>1</sup>-ao<sup>3</sup>, freeing up the spelling to unambiguously mean WG . Due to the tone letters, this is only needed when the first syllable carries tone 1.