Gwoyeu Romatzyh (pinyin: "Guóyǔ luómǎzì", literally "National Language Romanization"), abbreviated GR, is a romanization of Mandarin Chinese, or a way to write Mandarin using the Roman alphabet, made by Yuen Ren Chao and some other linguists in the late 1920s. It was made as a way to write Mandarin using tonal spelling, or spelling rules that would change the syllable's spelling depending on its tone. For example, the syllable "chai" would be written as "chai" if it has the first Mandarin tone (or "chāi" in Pinyin), "chair" if it has the second tone ("chái")", chae" if it has the third tone ("chăi")"," and "chay" if it had the fourth tone (chài). Y.R. Chao created GR in order to increase literacy in China because China's illiteracy was very high in the early 20th century. He made it that tones could be written without extra tone markers, which can be long and difficult to add when printing.
Even though many other Asian languages use tonal spelling, like Hmong, they all represent tones by using the same letter each time the tone is used. In Hmong, for example, "-b is always" a high tone, "-s" is always a low tone, "-j" is always high-falling tone. In GR, however, each syllable final has its own spelling rules, and many exceptions exist within these rules. For example, first tone words with the final "-a" as in "bā" is written with just one vowel like "ba", except when the syllable begins with an "l-, m-," or "n-", which then must be written as "lha, mha," and "nha" in that order. This is only one of its many rules and exceptions.
Unsurprisingly, many people thought GR was too difficult to learn. Nonetheless, it still has many supporters, and they would rather learn using GR than Pinyin. While supporters of GR claim that it helps users of GR remember tones better than people who just use Pinyin, studies have not supported this claim. As a matter of fact, one study showed that after one year, the subjects who learned Chinese using Pinyin could more accurately speak Mandarin with tones than those who learned using GR.
After the Communist Party took over China, it tried to replaced all romanizations of Chinese, including GR, with Pinyin. While GR is not an official romanization in Taiwan, it can be seen in several places, including road signs, people's names, and the names of products, even though Hanyu Pinyin is the official romanization of Taiwan.
Even though almost all romanizations in mainland China today are in Pinyin, there are still some exceptions. For example, the name of the province Shaanxi is written in GR rather than in Pinyin, which would be Shǎnxī with tone markers, because there is already another province named Shanxi, which is written as Shānxī with tones. If the Pinyin names were to be written without tone markers (which they often are in everyday Pinyin), they should both be spelled Shanxi. Therefore they would be impossible to tell apart using just Pinyin without tones. Therefore, an exception has been made in this case.
Below are examples of sentences written in Chinese characters, Pinyin, and GR with English translations.
Arch of Septimus Severus
The Arch of Septimius Severus () is at the northwest end of the Roman Forum. It is a white marble triumphal arch. It was dedicated in 203 AD after the Parthian victories of Emperor Septimius Severus and his two sons. Two campaigns were fought against the Parthians in 194/195 and 197–199 AD.
The sons were Caracalla and Geta. After the death of Septimius Severus, his sons were initially joint emperors. Caracalla had Geta assassinated in 212; Geta's memorials were destroyed. All images or mentions of him were removed from public buildings and monuments. So, Geta's image and inscriptions were removed from the arch (damnatio memoriae).
Flags of cities of the United States
The flags of the cities of the United States exhibit a wide variety of regional influences and local histories, as well as widely different styles and design principles.
Many flags of Floridian cities feature their city seal on a saltire, incorporating elements from the Floridian flag, itself based on the former Spanish flag, into their designs.
Some city flags of New York, such as that of Albany and New York, feature colors from the Dutch Prince's Flag in their designs, due to the prominence of the Netherlands in the history of New York.
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution/CBS Media Ventures is an American television distribution company founded in 2007 Now in January 2021. It was formed from CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions CBS Television Distribution (CTD) is the former name of CBS Media Ventures, an American television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including the home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment. The division, the main distribution arm of CBS Paramount Network Television (now CBS Television Studios) and of the CBS television network, was formed on September 26, 2006, by CBS Corporation and was headed by Roger King, the CEO of King World until his death in 2007 CBS Media Ventures is an American television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including the home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment. The division, the main distribution arm of CBS Paramount Network Television (now CBS Television Studios) and of the CBS television network, was formed on September 26, 2006, by CBS Corporation and was headed by Roger King, the CEO of King World until his death in 2007 Comes TV Show Rachael Ray
The company handles distribution rights to acquired series, mini-series, and made-for-TV films from the Paramount Television libraries (such as those of Desilu Productions, Paramount Television, Viacom Productions and Enterprises, Republic Pictures Television, Big Ticket Entertainment, Spelling Television, and Worldvision Enterprises), and series, mini-series, and made-for-TV films from the CBS television libraries (such as those by CBS Productions, King World Productions, the majority of those by Group W Productions, and its own first-run broadcast syndication and off-network television series). CBS also handles the TV rights to much of its own theatrical films. The company formerly distributed the film libraries from Paramount Pictures and Republic Pictures, among others. The company is also responsible for international television distribution rights to series by Rysher Entertainment including certain HBO series through its CBS Studios International division.
This would mark the sixth distribution name for CBS as CBS Television Film Sales was the first (1952–1958), CBS Films, Inc. was the second (1958–1967), CBS Enterprises was the third (1968–1971), Eyemark Entertainment was the fourth (1995–2000), and CBS Paramount Domestic Television was the fifth (2006–2012).
From 2006 to 2008, CTD distributed the DreamWorks Television and DreamWorks Pictures libraries in conjunction with Tribune Entertainment, after Viacom's acquisition of DreamWorks in February 2006, but before the studio was spun off. These distribution rights are now held by Disney-ABC Domestic Television (for live-action TV series and post-9/2005 live-action films) and Trifecta Entertainment & Media (for earlier live-action films and all animated productions).