Contrary to popular opinion, Gwoyeu Luomaatzyh, the Chinese government’s 1928 tonal spelling for Mandarin Chinese, is still alive in Taiwan. If you live in Taipei, this spelling appears from time to time, but you have to keep your eyes open (國語羅馬字 GR, is usually spelled Romatzyh; Pinyin: Guóyǔ Luómǎzì).
許多人認為『國語羅馬字』（中國政府1928年所頒布的官方羅馬拼音法）早就沒人用啦！事實上在台灣大有人用，只要睜開眼睛好好觀察周圍環境便會發現使用案例，而台北市特別容易！
Here are two examples of company names recently seen while walking around Taipei’s business district.
以下是筆者最近在台北市南京東路上看到的國羅招牌：
Base form spellings (no GR spelling change) appear in this photo taken from outside the offices of Shin Min Agency. Why is this?
這張照片是在一家保險公司外面拍攝的，『新民』兩個字都用『基本形式』拼寫，拼音不需改變以標調。原因很簡單：
The modern 1st and 2nd tones (平聲 píngshēng / pyngsheng and 陰平 yīnpíng / inpyng) in Mandarin evolved from Middle Chinese Level Tone 陽平 yángpíng / yangpyng syllables. Because 90% of syllables starting with MNLR are 2nd tone syllables, the base form is used for second tone.
For syllables starting with all other initials, the 1st tone is spelled using the plain, ordinary base form (initial consonant + rhyme, with no tone marking). 新民通訊處 Shinmin [Tongshiunnchuh] / Xīnmín [Tōngxùnchù] “Shinmin [Branch Office] (rough translation)”
中古漢語的平聲在現代漢語一分為二，清聲母音節演變成陰平（俗稱『一聲』），濁聲母音節演變成陽平（俗稱『二聲』）。MNLR 等濁音開頭的音節九成以上都是陽平字，為了讓拼音盡量精簡（不要額外增加標調字母），所以MNLR這幾個聲母的陽平字都是用『基本形式』拼寫，其餘的清聲母陰平字也是用『基本形式』: 新民通訊處 Shinmin [Tongshiunnchuh] / Xīnmín [Tōngxùnchù].
審美堂 Shěnměi Táng / Sheenmeei Tarng “Hall of Aesthetic Appreciation [loose translation]”
In this photo of an office building directory, GR marks tones by using modified spellings: -r- after the main vowel for 2nd tone tarng, and a doubled main vowel -ee- for the two third tone syllables, sheen and meei. The 3rd tone is the longest of the 4 tones in Mandarin, so using a doubled vowel makes a lot of sense.
這一棟辦公大樓的樓層索引牌發現了一則很典型的國羅招牌：審美堂尊寶銀樓 Sheenmeeitarng，這裡的 -r 代表『陽平』（右邊吐出來的那一塊代表揚調），而『上聲』是普通話四聲當中最長的聲調，因此拼成雙元音非常有道理！