GL-1 Tonal Spelling for Mandarin Chinese: An introduction 拼調式羅馬拼音入門

Gwoyeu Luomaatzyh (GL for short; also called National Romanization, or Gwoyeu Romatzyh [GR]) is a national treasure, an ideal romanization for people beginning to learn Mandarin Chinese tones. It is highly recommended for teaching simple Chinese conversation to foreign friends. 國語羅馬字是國寶級羅馬拼音，是初次學習國語四聲（普通話四聲）的外國人一套理想羅馬拼音法，教外國朋友初級會話也非常值得採用。

GL uses special spellings to show the four tones of Mandarin Chinese. In order to understand why these spellings are used, one must have a basic understanding of the structure of Chinese syllables. 國語羅馬字用特殊拼法來標國語的四聲。欲了解國羅的拼法，對漢語的音節結構必須有初步的認識。

Each Chinese character usually represents one syllable. Chinese syllables can be made of three parts: An initial (= a consonant), a medial (= a semi-vowel) and a final (= a vowel, sometimes followed by -n or -ng). 通常每個漢字代表一個音節，而漢語的音節有三個成分：聲母（開頭的子音/輔音）、介音（半母音/元音）、韻母（主要母音/元音，有時候末尾還接 -n 或 -ng。

Chart 1, Gwoyeu Luomaatzyh Initials: Note that group 4 is *always* followed by -i or -iu, but group 5 is *never* followed by -i or -iu, so using "j, ch and sh" for both will never cause confusion.

Chart 2, Gwoyeu Luomaatzyh Medials: These letters usually represent semi-vowels

Chart 3, Gwoyeu Luomaatzyh Finals: Group 0 is an unusual vowel that only comes after group 5 and 6 initials (spelled zhi or zi in Hanyu Pinyin); Group 6  ends with an r-like sound, but the letter -r is frequently used to show tones, so GR uses -l instead (spelled er in Hanyu Pinyin)