Definition: Herbert Giles was a British diplomat to China and linguist who modified the Chinese transliteration system of Thomas Wade into what is called the Wade-Giles transliteration system. His books include:
Chinese Without a Teacher (1872), Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1880), Gems of Chinese Literature (1884), A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (1898), A History of Chinese Literature (1901), An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art (1905; 2nd ed. 1918), and The Civilization of China (1911).
Giles made syllabic changes to Wade's work which became standard in English-speaking countries, among others. The Chinese themselves have preferred Pinyin romanization since 1979. Among its characteristics or limitations, Wade-Giles marks tones with superscripted numbers and does not distinguish all the sounds made by Pinyin.
