My Chinese Romanization Scheme
Pinyin Romanization has always been a system that bothered me, due to the frequency of mispronouncing Chinese names. While Pinyin is “efficient” in that it doesn't use many letters, the ways they are used are objectively unintuitive for anyone who uses a Latin alphabet and does not know Pinyin. (If you love efficiency, you could reduce “ng” to a single letter, but no one would ever do that…)
I believe Tongyong Pinyin, the old Taiwanese Romanization system, has the right instinct in trying to be intuitive to non-native speakers, who arguably should be the target audience for Romanization schemes. Adding back the reduced vowels from “ui” (uei), “iu” (iou), and “un” (uen) combinations is helpful for learners, as is q -> c (for example, the spelling “ciao” for “qiao” is already familiar to most English speakers).
My Romanization system mostly uses Tongyong Pinyin as a base. Compared to Pinyin, the following changes are made:
q -> c
x -> s
zh -> jh
i -> ih for “buzzing” vowel (zhi, chi, shi, ri, etc.)
iu -> iou
ui -> uei
Yu/yong after a consonant do not lose y (e.g. nü -> nyu)
ian/yan -> ien/yen. Pinyin “yan” and “ye” have the same vowel sound and therefore should be represented with the same vowel.
c -> ts. Intuitiveness of pronunciation.
uo -> o. This is mostly for simplification of spelling, does not apply to "wo".
No change to Pinyin “wen” or “weng” as exists in Tongyong.
Tones marked as in Pinyin, not Tongyong.
yi -> i (initial only). For proper pronunciation.
wu -> u (initial only).
Some reservations of Tongyong:
Personally I don’t love jh, it doesn’t look nice, but would result in more accurate pronunciation than zh.
Double-purposing “s” can be confusing, but there is already a lot of double-purposing in Pinyin and we are all just used to it.
“Cyu” (Pinyin “qu”) is not a nice-looking syllable. It is also a sound entirely foreign to English, as neither of those sounds exists in English, so I'm willing to accept it.
Samples
Chinese National Anthem
Cǐlái! Bù yuèntzò núlì dè rénmén!
Bǎ wǒmén dè syuěròu jhùchéng wǒmén sīndè chángchéng!
Jhōnghuá Míntzǔ dàoliǎo zuèi weisiěndè shíhhòu
Měige rén bèi pòjhe fāchū zuèihòudè hǒushēng
Cǐlái! Cǐlái! Cǐlái!
Wǒmén wànjhōng īsīn,
Màojhè díréndè pàohǒ, ciénjìn!
Màojhè díréndè pàohǒ, ciénjìn!
Ciénjìn! Ciénjìn! Ciénjìn! Jìn!
Cing Ye Sih - Li Bai
Chuáng cién míng yuè guāng,
Ǐ shìh dì shàng shuāng.
Jyǔ tóu wàng míng yuè,
Dī tóu sīh gù siāng.
Jiang Jin Jiou - Li Bai
Jūn bù jièn, huánghé jhīh shuěi tiēn shànglái, bēnlióu dào hǎi bù fù huéi;
君不见黄河之水天上来，奔流到海不复回。
Jūn bù jièn, gāotáng míngjìng bēi bái fà, jhāo rú cīngsīh mù chéng syuě.
君不见高堂明镜悲白发，朝如青丝暮成雪。
Rénshēng déyì syū jìn huān, mò shǐh jīn zūen kōng dueì yuè.
人生得意须尽欢，莫使金樽空对月。
Tiēn shēng wǒ tsái bì yǒu yòng, ciēnjīn sàn jǐn hái fù lái.
天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来 。
Pēng yáng zǎi nióu ciě wéi lè, huèi syū yī ǐn sānbǎi bēi.
烹羊宰牛且为乐，会须一饮三百杯。
Tsén fūzǐh, Dān ciōu shēng, jiāng jìn jiǒu, bēi mò tíng.
岑夫子，丹丘生，将进酒，杯莫停。
Yǔ jūn gē ī cyū, cǐng jūn wèi wǒ cīng ěr tīng.
与君歌一曲，请君为我倾耳听。
Jhōng gǔ jhuàn yù bùzú guèi, dàn yuèn cháng zuèi bù fù sǐng.
钟鼓馔玉不足贵，但愿长醉不愿醒。
Gǔlái shèngsién jiē jìmò, wéiyǒu ǐn jhě lióu cí míng.
古来圣贤皆寂寞，惟有饮者留其名。
Chén wáng sī shíh yèn Pínglè, dǒujiǒu shíhciēn zìh huān syuè.
陈王昔时宴平乐，斗酒十千恣欢谑。
Jhǔrén hé wèi yén shǎo cién, jìng syū gū cyǔ duèi jūn jhó.
主人何为言少钱，径须沽取对君酌。
Ǔ huā mǎ, ciēnjīn cióu,
五花马、千金裘，
Hū ér jiāng chū huàn měijiǒu, yǔ ěr tóng siāo wàn gǔ chóu.
呼儿将出换美酒，与尔同销万古愁。