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Cantonese Pinyin (, also known as ) is a romanization system for
Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
developed by the Rev. Yu Ping Chiu (余秉昭) in 1971, and subsequently modified by the Education Department (merged into the
Education and Manpower Bureau The Education Bureau (EDB) is responsible for formulating and implementing education policies in Hong Kong. The bureau is headed by the Secretary for Education and oversees agencies including University Grants Committee and Student Fina ...
since 2003) of Hong Kong and Prof. Zhan Bohui (詹伯慧) of the Chinese Dialects Research Centre of the Jinan University, Guangdong, PRC, and honorary professor of the School of Chinese, University of Hong Kong. It is the only romanization system accepted by
Education and Manpower Bureau The Education Bureau (EDB) is responsible for formulating and implementing education policies in Hong Kong. The bureau is headed by the Secretary for Education and oversees agencies including University Grants Committee and Student Fina ...
of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. The formal and short forms of the system's Chinese names mean respectively "the ''Cantonese Pronunciation list of Chinese Characters in Common Use'' romanization system" and "the romanization system of the Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau".


Pinyin

The Cantonese Pinyin system directly corresponds to the S. L. Wong system, an
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners A ...
-based phonemic transcription system used in ''
A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton ''A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton'' () is a book written by Wong Shik-Ling () within a few years before being published in Hong Kong, 1941. It is one of the most influential books on the research of Cantonese p ...
'' by
Wong Shik Ling Wong Shik-Ling (also known as S. L. Wong) (1908–1959) was a prominent scholar in Cantonese research. He is famous for his authoritative book, ''A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton'' (), which is influential in Cant ...
. Generally, if an IPA symbol is also an English letter, the same symbol is used directly in the Romanization (with the exception of the IPA symbol "a"); and if the IPA symbol is not an English letter, it is Romanized using English letters. Thus, →aa, →a, →e, →o, →oe, →ng. This results in a system which is both easy to learn and type but is still useful for academics. In the following table, the first row inside a cell shows the Cantonese Pinyin, the second row shows a representative "narrow transcription" in IPA, while the third row shows the corresponding IPA "broad transcription" using the S. L. Wong system.


Initials


Finals

* The finals ''m'' and ''ng'' can only be used as standalone nasal syllables.


Tones

The system recognises nine tones in six distinct tone contours.


Comparison with Yale Romanization

Cantonese Pinyin and the Yale Romanization system represent Cantonese pronunciations with these same letters: * The
initial In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
s: ''b'', ''p'', ''m'', ''f'', ''d'', ''t'', ''n'', ''l'', ''g'', ''k'', ''ng'', ''h'', ''s'', ''gw'', ''kw'', ''w''. * The vowels: ''aa'' (except when used alone), ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u''. * The
nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majo ...
s: ''m'', ''ng''. * The
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
s: ''i'' (except for being the
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
in Yale), ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''. But they have these differences: * The vowels ''oe'' represent and in Cantonese Pinyin while the ''eu'' represents both vowels in Yale. * The vowel ''y'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while both ''yu'' (used in
nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: * Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucl ...
) and ''i'' (used in
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
) are used in Yale. * The
initial In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
''j'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while ''y'' is used instead in Yale. * The initial ''dz'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while ''j'' is used instead in Yale. * The initial ''ts'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while ''ch'' is used instead in Yale. * In Cantonese Pinyin, if no consonant precedes the vowel ''y'', then the initial ''j'' is appended before the vowel. In Yale, the corresponding initial ''y'' is never appended before ''yu'' under any circumstances. * Some new
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
s can be written in Cantonese Pinyin that are not contained in Yale Romanization schemes, such as: ''eu'' , ''em'' , and ''ep'' . These three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as ''deu6'' (掉), ''lem2'' (舐), and ''gep9'' (夾). * To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Cantonese Pinyin while Yale originally used tone marks together with the letter ''h'' (though tone numbers can be used in Yale as well).


Comparison with Jyutping

Cantonese Pinyin and Jyutping represent Cantonese pronunciations with these same letters: * The
initial In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
s: ''b'', ''p'', ''m'', ''f'', ''d'', ''t'', ''n'', ''l'', ''g'', ''k'', ''ng'', ''h'', ''s'', ''gw'', ''kw'', ''j'', ''w''. * The vowels: ''aa'', ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u''. * The
nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majo ...
s: ''m'', ''ng''. * The codas: ''i'' (except for being the
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
in Jyutping), ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''. But they have these differences: * The vowels ''oe'' represent and in Cantonese Pinyin while ''eo'' and ''oe'' represent and respectively in Jyutping. * The vowel ''y'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while both ''yu'' (used in
nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: * Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucl ...
) and ''i'' (used in
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
) are used in Jyutping. * The initial ''dz'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while ''z'' is used instead in Jyutping. * The initial ''ts'' represents in Cantonese Pinyin while ''c'' is used instead in Jyutping. * To represent tones, numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, although to use 1, 3, 6 to replace 7, 8, 9 is acceptable. However, only numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.


Examples

An old Chinese poem:


References


Further reading

* * {{cite book, last=Zhan, first=Bohui, title=廣州話正音字典 (Dictionary of Standard Cantonese Pronunciation), publisher=Guangdong People's Publishing House, date=2004


External links


Website of Standard Chinese in Hong Kong
Cantonese romanisation Languages of Hong Kong Pinyin