SIST ISO 7098:2017

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 7098
Third edition
2015-12-15
Information and documentation —
Romanization of Chinese
Information et documentation — Romanisation du chinois
Reference number
©
ISO 2015
© ISO 2015, Published in Switzerland
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ii © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
3 General principles of conversion of writing systems . 2
4 Principles for converting ideophonographic characters . 3
5 Pinyin. 4
6 Syllabic forms . 4
7 Tones . 5
8 Punctuation. 7
9 Numerals . 7
10 Chinese Pinyin Orthography . 7
11 Transcription rules for named entities . 8
12 Automatic transcription for named entities .12
12.1 Fully automatic syllable transcription .12
12.2 Rule-based and semi-automatic word transcription .12
Annex A (normative) Table of Chinese syllable forms .14
Annex B (normative) Table of hexadecimal codes of Chinese vowels with tones .16
Annex C (normative) Ambiguity index for Chinese syllables .17
Bibliography .18
Foreword
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The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 46, Information and documentation.
This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO 7098:1991), which has been
technically revised.
Annexes A, B and C form the integral parts of this International Standard.
iv © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

Introduction
The first edition of ISO 7098 was published in 1982 after ISO/TC 46 recognized the need for an
International Standard specifying the Chinese phonetic alphabet. The second edition was published in
1991.
This third edition is in response to new application needs, for instance to reflect current Chinese
romanization practice and new developments in China and the rest of the world.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 7098:2015(E)
Information and documentation — Romanization of Chinese
1 Scope
This International Standard explains the principles of the Romanization of Modern Chinese Putonghua
(Mandarin Chinese), the official language of the People’s Republic of China as defined in the Directives for
the Promotion of Putonghua, promulgated on 1956-02-06 by the State Council of China. This International
Standard can be applied in documentation of bibliographies, catalogues, indices, toponymic lists, etc.
2 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1
character
element of a writing system, whether or not alphabetical, that represents a phoneme, a syllable, a word
or even prosodic characteristics of the language, by using graphical symbols (letters, diacritical marks,
syllabic signs, punctuation marks, prosodic accents, etc.) or a combination of these signs (a letter having
an accent or a diacritical mark)
EXAMPLE a, B, ω or Γ are, therefore, characters as well as basic letters.
2.2
alphabets
ordered character set, the order of which has been agreed upon
2.3
alphabetical characters
character set that contains letters (2.8)
2.4
alphanumeric characters
character set that contains both letters (2.8) and digits
2.5
graphic character
character that has a visual representation and is normally produced by writing, printing or displaying
2.6
ideophonographical character
graphic character (2.6) that represents an object or a concept and is associated with a sound element in
a natural language
EXAMPLE Chinese hanzi 鹤(crane), Japanese kanji 戦(war) and Korean hanja 册(book) are
ideophonographical characters.
2.7
Chinese characters
ideophonographical character set for recording the Chinese language
Note 1 to entry: Chinese characters (hanzi) are also used in the writing systems of other languages.
2.8
letter
graphic character (2.6) that, when appearing alone or combined with others, is primarily used to
represent a sound element of a spoken language
2.9
word segmentation
process of splitting text into a sequence of word segmentation unit
[SOURCE: ISO 24614-1:2010, 2.25]
3 General principles of conversion of writing systems
3.1 The words in a language, which are written according to a given script (the converted system),
sometimes have to be rendered according to a different system (the conversion system), normally used
for a different language.
This operation is often performed for historical or geographical texts, cartographical documents and,
in particular, for bibliographical work in every case where it is necessary to write words supplied in
various alphabets in a manner that allows intercalation with other words in a single alphabet so as
to enable a uniform alphabetization to be made in bibliographies, catalogues, indices, toponymic lists,
etc. It is indispensable in that it permits the univocal transmission of a written message between two
countries using different writing systems or exchanging a message, the writing of which is different
from their own. It, thereby, permits transmission by manual as well as mechanical or electronic means.
The two basic methods of conversion of a system of writing are transliteration and transcription.
3.2 Transliteration is the operation which consists of representing the characters of an entirely
alphabetical character or alphanumeric character system of writing by the characters of the
conversion alphabet.
In principle, this conversion should be made character by character: each character of the converted
alphabet is rendered by one character, and one only of the conversion alphabet, to ensure the complete
and unambiguous reversibility of the conversion alphabet into the converted alphabet.
When the number of characters used in the conversion system is smaller than the number of characters
of the converted system, it is necessary to use digraphs or diacritical marks. In this case, one shall avoid
as far as possible arbitrary choices and the use of purely conventional marks and try to maintain a
certain phonetic logic in order to give the system a wide acceptance.
However, it shall be accepted that the graphism obtained may not always be correctly pronounced
according to the phonetic habits of the language (or of all the languages) which usually use(s) the
conversion alphabet. On the other hand, this graphism shall be such that the reader who knows the
converted language may mentally restore unequivocally the original graphism and, thus, pronounce
it correctly.
3.3 Retransliteration is the operation which consists of converting the characters of a conversion
alphabet to those of the converted alphabet.
This operation is the exact opposite of transliteration; it is carried out by applying the rules of a system
of transliteration in reverse order so as to reconstitute the transliterated word to its original form.
3.4 Transcription is the operation which consists of representing the characters of a language, whatever
the original system of writing, by the phonetic system of letters or signs of the conversion language.
A transcription system is of necessity based on the orthographical conventions of a conversion language
and its alphabet. The users of a transcription system shall, therefore, have a knowledge of the conversion
language to be able to pronounce the characters correctly. Transcription is not strictly reversible.
Transcription may be used for the conversion of all writing systems. It is the only method that can
be used for systems that are not entirely alphabetical and for all ideophonographic writing systems
(Chinese, Japanese, etc.).
2 © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

3.5 Romanization is the conversion of non-Latin writing systems to the Latin alphabet by means of
transliteration or transcription.
To carry out Romanization, it is possible to use either transliteration or transcription or a combination
of these two methods, according to the nature of the converted system.
3.6 A conversion system proposed for international use may call for compromise and the sacrifice of
certain national customs.
It is, therefore, necessary for each national community of users to accept concessions, fully abstaining
in every case from imposing as a matter of course solutions that are actually justified only by national
practice (for example, regarding pronunciation, orthography, etc.). However, these concessions would
obviously not relate to the use that a country makes of its national writing system: when this national
system is not converted, the characters constituting it shall be accepted in the form in which they are
written in the national language.
When a country uses two systems univocally, converting one into the other to write its own language,
the system of transliteration thus implemented shall be taken a priori as a basis for the international
standardized system, as far as it is compatible with the other principles
...