Lessing-Othmer

Lessing-Othmer is a romanisation of Mandarin Chinese that was once used by Germans written by F. Lessing and Dr. W. Othmer, who in 1912 printed their book "Lehrgang der nordchinesischen Umgangssprache" (Course in the North Chinese Colloquial Language) in Qingdao (Chinese: 青島; pinyin: Qīngdǎo) whilst it was a German colony in 1912 through the "Deutsch-Chinesische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt."

In 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China for Romanisation ruled that translations of foreign-language publications should use Lessing romanisation in German-speaking countries, and Pinyin in English-speaking countries.

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	j [ʐ] ㄖ r	hs [ɕ] ㄒ x	h [x] ㄏ h
Lateral						l [l] ㄌ l

Finals

Nucleus		a					ə						∅
Coda		∅	i	u	n	ŋ	∅	i	u	n	ŋ	ɻ
Medial	∅	a [a] ㄚ a	ai [æɪ̯] ㄞ ai	au [ɑʊ̯] ㄠ ao	an [æn] ㄢ an	ang [ɑŋ] ㄤ ang	ö [ɤ] ㄜ e	e [eɪ̯] ㄟ ei	ou [oʊ̯] ㄡ ou	ën [ən] ㄣ en	ëng [ɤŋ] ㄥ eng	örl [ɐɚ̯] ㄦ er	ï [ɨ] ㄭ -i
	i	ia [i̯a] ㄧㄚ ia		iau [i̯ɑʊ̯] ㄧㄠ iao	iän [i̯ɛn] ㄧㄢ ian	iang [i̯ɑŋ] ㄧㄤ iang	iä [i̯e] ㄧㄝ ie		iu [i̯oʊ̯] ㄧㄡ iu	in [in] ㄧㄣ in	ing [i̯ɤŋ] ㄧㄥ ing		i [i] ㄧ i
	u	ua [u̯a] ㄨㄚ ua	uai [u̯æɪ̯] ㄨㄞ uai		uan [u̯æn] ㄨㄢ uan	uang [u̯ɑŋ] ㄨㄤ uang	o [u̯o] ㄨㄛ uo	ui [u̯eɪ̯] ㄨㄟ ui		un [u̯ən] ㄨㄣ un	ung [ʊŋ] ㄨㄥ ong		u [u] ㄨ u
	y				üan [y̯ɛn] ㄩㄢ üan		üä [y̯e] ㄩㄝ üe			ün [yn] ㄩㄣ ün	iung [i̯ʊŋ] ㄩㄥ iong		ü [y] ㄩ ü