The Institute of Language in Education Scheme () also known as the ''List of Cantonese Pronunciation of Commonly-used Chinese Characters'' romanization scheme (), ILE scheme, and Cantonese Pinyin, is a

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

system for

Cantonese 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 th ...

developed by Ping-Chiu Thomas Yu () in 1971, and subsequently modified by the Education Department of Hong Kong (now the

Education Bureau The Education Bureau (EDB) is a policy bureau 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 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 of Hong Kong and

Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), previously known as the Hong Kong Examinations Authority (HKEA) before 2002, is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Government responsible for the administration of public examinatio ...

. The Institute of Education in its name refers to the Institute of Language in Education (), which later became part of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now the

Education University of Hong Kong The Education University of Hong KongUniversity titl ...

Pinyin

The ILE system directly corresponds to the S. L. Wong system, an IPA-based phonemic transcription system used in ''

A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton #REDIRECT A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton {{R from other capitalisation ...

'' 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 Can ...

. Generally, if an IPA symbol is also a basic Latin 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 a basic Latin letter, it is romanized using basic Latin 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 (based on Zhan's variant), the first row inside a cell shows the ILE, 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 Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery * ...

syllables.

Tones

The system recognises nine 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 ...

Comparison with Yale romanization

ILE and the Yale romanization system represent Cantonese pronunciations with these same letters: * The

initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...

s: ''b'', ''p'', ''m'', ''f'', ''d'', ''t'', ''n'', ''l'', ''g'', ''k'', ''ng'', ''h'', ''s'', ''gw'', ''kw'', ''w''. * The

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s: ''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 major ...

s: ''m'', ''ng''. * The codas: ''i'' (except for being the coda in Yale), ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''. But they have these differences: * The

s ''oe'' represent and in ILE while the ''eu'' represents both vowels in Yale. * The vowel ''y'' represents in ILE 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 Nucleu ...

) and ''i'' (used in coda) are used in Yale. * The

''j'' represents in ILE while ''y'' is used instead in Yale. * The initial ''dz'' represents in ILE while ''j'' is used instead in Yale. * The initial ''ts'' represents in ILE while ''ch'' is used instead in Yale. * In ILE, if no

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

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 examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

s can be written in ILE 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

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

s, only tone numbers are used in ILE while Yale originally used tone marks together with the letter ''h'' (though tone numbers can be used in Yale as well).

Comparison with Jyutping

ILE and

Jyutping The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK). The name ''Jyutping'' (itself the Jyutping ro ...

represent Cantonese pronunciations with these same letters: * The

s: ''b'', ''p'', ''m'', ''f'', ''d'', ''t'', ''n'', ''l'', ''g'', ''k'', ''ng'', ''h'', ''s'', ''gw'', ''kw'', ''j'', ''w''. * The

s: ''aa'', ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u''. * The

s: ''m'', ''ng''. * The codas: ''i'' (except for being the coda in Jyutping), ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''. But they have these differences: * The

s ''oe'' represent and in ILE while ''eo'' and ''oe'' represent and respectively in Jyutping. * The vowel ''y'' represents in ILE while both ''yu'' (used in

) and ''i'' (used in coda) are used in Jyutping. * The initial ''dz'' represents in ILE while ''z'' is used instead in Jyutping. * The initial ''ts'' represents in ILE while ''c'' is used instead in Jyutping. * To represent

s, numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in ILE, although to use 1, 3, 6 to replace 7, 8, 9 is acceptable. However, only numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.

Examples

Sample transcription of one of the ''300 Tang Poems'' by

Meng Haoran Meng Haoran (; 689/691–740) was a Chinese poet and a major literary figure of the Tang dynasty. He was somewhat an older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career, Meng Haoran spent most of hi ...

References

External links

Website of Standard Chinese in Hong Kong

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

Languages of Hong Kong Pinyin Writing systems introduced in 1971 1971 establishments in Hong Kong