The Mandarin Primer

Moses Asch produced these recordings with Chao Yuan Ren to accompany his book, The Mandarin Primer, written in 1948. Chao Yuan Ren was an influential linguist in the United States. He conceived and developed Gwoyeu Romatzyh (abbreviated GR), which became the standard system for Romanizing Mandarin text in 1928 until it was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958. The notes that accompany this album utilize GR, demonstrating the use of “tone spelling” for Romanization. This album represents an important landmark in the development of the Romanization of the Chinese language.

摩西•艾什先生和赵元任先生一起制作的这套专辑是赵于1948年编写的《国语入门》教科书的配套教学用具。赵元任先生是一位在美国影响深远的语言学家。他所构思设计的国语罗马字系统（缩写为GR）于1928年成为国语罗马字化的标准体系，直到1958年才被汉语拼音所取代。专辑内页使用国语罗马字体系以展现罗马字化体系对音调拼写的运用。这张专辑是中文罗马字化发展史的重要里程碑。