Lessing-Othmer is a romanization of MandarinChinese that was introduced by F. Lessing[de] and Dr. W. Othmer[de], who in 1912 printed their book „Lehrgang der nordchinesischen Umgangssprache“ ("Course in the North Chinese Colloquial Language") through the „Deutsch-Chinesische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt“ in Qingdao while it was a German colony.
In 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China for Romanization ruled that translations of foreign-language publications should utilize Lessing-Othmer romanization in German-speaking countries, and Pinyin in English-speaking countries.[1]
Table
The sounds romanized differently from Pinyin are highlighted in blue.
