Barnett–Chao (abbreviated here as B–C) is a

Cantonese Romanisation Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While the t ...

system based on the principles of the

Gwoyeu Romatzyh Gwoyeu Romatzyh ( ; GR) is a system for writing Standard Chinese using the Latin alphabet. It was primarily conceived by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), who led a group of linguists on the National Languages Committee in refining the system betwe ...

system (GR) developed by

Yuen Ren Chao Yuen Ren Chao (Chinese: 趙元任; 3 November 189225 February 1982), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American linguist, educator, scholar, poet, and composer, who contributed to the modern study of Chinese phonology and grammar. Chao ...

in the 1920s, which he modified in 1947. The B-C system is a modification in 1950 by K. M. A. Barnett (an Administrative Officer of the Hong Kong Government) from . It was adopted by the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

, London (SOAS). Barnett-Chao was used in the Chinese Language Training Section (formerly the Government Language School) of the Government Training Division of the Hong Kong Government from 1963 to 1967 but its transcription was considered "over-complicated" for teaching Cantonese as a second language and abandoned in favour of Sidney Lau's version of Standard Romanisation. After appearing in only a handful of texts, it fell into disuse.

Description

Like GR spelling, B–C spelling uses contrasting unvoiced/voiced pairs of consonants to represent aspirated and unaspirated sounds. B–C also uses single versus double vowels letters to represent certain short + high versus long + low final vowels even in open syllables where the contrast does not exist: ''buk'', ''buut'', ''baa'', and different letters to represent the contrast in other cases: ''sek'', ''sin''. Some vowels are only long and do not use doubling to represent length: ''ea, o, y''. The Cantonese high and low pitch registers are indicated by inserting ''-h-'' or ''-r-'' after the initial: ''bhat'', ''brat''. Medium pitch register has no insert, and is considered the basic form: ''baa''.

Basic forms

The following two tables list the B–C spellings of initials and finals with their corresponding IPA values.

Initials

Finals

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

Tones

There are nine normal tones in six distinct

tone contour A tone contour or contour tone is a tone in a tonal language which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. Tone contours are especially common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, West Africa, Nilo-Saharan languages, K ...

s and two modified tones in Cantonese. B–C spelling represents the normal tones using the letters ''h'' and ''r'' before and after the main vowel of the final as well as spelling changes of certain finals as described below. Before the vowel of the final, ''h'' indicates that the start of the tone is high; after the vowel of the final, ''h'' indicates that the tone falls, however a falling contour is also indicated by a change in spelling in some finals: ''Vi'' > ''Vy'', ''Vu'' > ''Vw'', ''ng'' > ''nq'', ''n'' > ''nn'', ''m'' > ''mm'' for example ''saan'' "disperse" and ''shaann'' "mountain", ''sou'' "number" and ''show'' "whiskers", ''sai'' "small" and ''shay'' "west". Before the vowel of the final, ''r'' indicates that the start of the tone is low; after the vowel of the final, ''r'' indicates that the tone rises, however a rising contour is also indicated by a change in spelling in some finals: ''Vi'' > ''Ve'', ''Vu'' > ''Vo'' for example ''sai'' "small" and ''sae'' "wash", ''sou'' "number" and ''soo'' "count". The modified tones representing high-flat (高平) and modified mid-rising (高升) when the original tone is not mid-rising are indicated by adding an x'' or ''v'' after the end of the syllable. High-register syllables that end in a stop (entering tone) are already considered high-flat and cannot take ''x''.

Examples

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett-Chao Cantonese romanisation Writing systems introduced in 1950 1950 establishments in Hong Kong