Boursk: Styling

2026-05-18T01:50:48Z

Styling

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:50, 18 May 2026
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	We follow standard [[wikipedia:Pinyin\|Hanyu Pinyin]] with the following specific enhancements and deviations to align with our styling standards:		We follow standard [[wikipedia:Pinyin\|Hanyu Pinyin]] with the following specific enhancements and deviations to align with our styling standards:

	* Tonal diacritics: We strictly use tone marks (diacritics) for all syllables to ensure accurate identification (e.g., ''Mā'' vs ''Má'' vs ''Mǎ'' vs ''Mà).''		* '''Tonal diacritics''': We strictly use tone marks (diacritics) for all syllables to ensure accurate identification (e.g., ''Mā'' vs ''Má'' vs ''Mǎ'' vs ''Mà).''
	* [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Loanword restoration rule\|Loanword restoration]]: Translate clear phonetic English/foreign loanwords into their standard spelling (e.g., 巴士 → '''Bus''', 粉丝 → '''Fans''') instead of strict transliteration (so not ''Bāshì'' ''and Fěnsī)''.		* [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Loanword restoration rule\|'''Loanword restoration''']]: Translate clear phonetic English/foreign loanwords into their standard spelling (e.g., 巴士 → '''Bus''', 粉丝 → '''Fans''') instead of strict transliteration (so not ''Bāshì'' ''and Fěnsī)''.
	* '''之''' '''as a separator:''' The character 之 (Zhī) is treated as a delimiter (colon) when separating a main title from a subtitle.		* '''之''' '''as a separator:''' The character 之 (Zhī) is treated as a delimiter (colon) when separating a main title from a subtitle.
	* '''Agglutination''': We fuse compound words (polysyllabic words) according to standard orthography (e.g., 大学 → '''''Dàxué,''''' not ''Dà Xué''), but keep grammatical [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Particles\|particles]] separate.		* '''Agglutination''': We fuse compound words (polysyllabic words) according to standard orthography (e.g., 大学 → '''''Dàxué,''''' not ''Dà Xué''), but keep grammatical [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Particles\|particles]] separate.
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	As we are Romanizing titles of Chinese literature, we use the following capitalization style:		As we are Romanizing titles of Chinese literature, we use the following capitalization style:

	# Capitalize all ''nouns'', ''verbs'', ''adjectives'', ''adverbs, pronouns'' and ''auxiliary ~~webs~~'' (when separated).		# Capitalize all '''nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns''' and '''auxiliary verbs''' (when separated).
	# Keep lowercase all ''[[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Particles\|particles]],~~'' ''~~prepositions, [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Copulas\|copulas]]'' and ''[[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Suffixes\|suffixes]]'' (when hyphenated).		# Keep lowercase all '''[[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Particles\|particles]], prepositions, [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Copulas\|copulas]]''' and [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Suffixes\|'''suffixes''']] (when hyphenated).

	=== Word spacing, fusions and hyphenation ===		=== Word spacing, fusions and hyphenation ===

Boursk: Work in progress draft

2026-05-18T01:48:47Z

Work in progress draft

New page

{{Note
| type = error
| text = This is a work in progress. Please don't edit this page.
}}This is the style guide that MangaDex uses to Romanize Mandarin Chinese titles on the site. These have been adopted from MangaBaka's Romanization style guide who originally wrote the original text. The goal is to have titles consistently Romanized across MangaDex, by defining a standard that is easy to read and write, while staying true to the linguistic norms.

== Base Romanization ==

=== Hanyu Pinyin with adjustments ===
We follow standard [[wikipedia:Pinyin|Hanyu Pinyin]] with the following specific enhancements and deviations to align with our styling standards:

* Tonal diacritics: We strictly use tone marks (diacritics) for all syllables to ensure accurate identification (e.g., ''Mā'' vs ''Má'' vs ''Mǎ'' vs ''Mà).''
* [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Loanword restoration rule|Loanword restoration]]: Translate clear phonetic English/foreign loanwords into their standard spelling (e.g., 巴士 → '''Bus''', 粉丝 → '''Fans''') instead of strict transliteration (so not ''Bāshì'' ''and Fěnsī)''.
* '''之''' '''as a separator:''' The character 之 (Zhī) is treated as a delimiter (colon) when separating a main title from a subtitle.
* '''Agglutination''': We fuse compound words (polysyllabic words) according to standard orthography (e.g., 大学 → '''''Dàxué,''''' not ''Dà Xué''), but keep grammatical [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Particles|particles]] separate.

=== Capitalization ===
As we are Romanizing titles of Chinese literature, we use the following capitalization style:

# Capitalize all ''nouns'', ''verbs'', ''adjectives'', ''adverbs, pronouns'' and ''auxiliary webs'' (when separated).
# Keep lowercase all ''[[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Particles|particles]],'' ''prepositions, [[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Copulas|copulas]]'' and ''[[MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles#Suffixes|suffixes]]'' (when hyphenated).

=== Word spacing, fusions and hyphenation ===
Chinese characters (Hanzi) represent syllables, but Pinyin represents words (Ci). We standardize boundaries as follows:

* '''Compounds''': Fuse standard dictionary compounds. If a word is a single concept composed of multiple characters, it is one word (e.g., 朋友 → '''''Péngyǒu''','' not ''Péng Yǒu'').
* '''Names''': Surname first (capitalized) + given name (capitalized and fused). Unlike Korean, Chinese given names are '''fused''' without a hyphen (e.g., 毛泽东 → '''''Máo Zédōng''''').
* '''Erhua (R-coloring)''': The suffix '''儿 (-r)''' is fused to the preceding syllable (e.g., 花儿 → '''''Huār,''''' not ''Huā Er'').
* '''Separation''': Separate words that do not form a tight compound. Subject-verb-object structures are always separated.
* '''Apostrophes''': Use an apostrophe strictly to disambiguate syllable boundaries when a syllable starting with ''a'', ''o'', or ''e'' follows another syllable (e.g., 西安 → '''''Xī'ān''''' vs 仙 → '''''Xiān''''').
{{Note
| type = warn
| header = Tone in Romanization
| text = We Romanize using the original dictionary tone, not the sandhi (changed) tone.

* 你好 → '''Nǐ hǎo''', not Ní hǎo (even though it is pronounced with a rising tone on the first syllable).
* Yī (一) and Bù (不) retain their dictionary tones (yī, bù), regardless of the tone of the following word, to ensure search consistency.
}}

== Expanded explanation ==

=== Loanword restoration rule ===

=== Personal names ===

=== Prefixes ===

=== Suffixes ===

=== Arabic numerals with counters ===

=== Particles ===

==== Particles 的 / 地 / 得 (de) ====

=== Copulas ===

=== Special characters ===

MangaDex Style:Romanization for Chinese Titles - Revision history

Boursk: Styling

Boursk: Work in progress draft