Romanization scheme for Cantonese
The
Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme
,
[note 1]
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 romanisation of its Chinese name,
??
) is a
contraction
of the official name, and it consists of the first
Chinese characters
of the terms
jyut6 jyu5
(
?語
, meaning "
Yue language
") and
ping3 jam1
(
?音
"phonetic alphabet", also pronounced as "
pinyin
" in
Mandarin
).
Despite being intended as a system to indicate pronunciation, it has also been employed in
writing Cantonese as an alphabetic language
?in effect, elevating Jyutping from its assistive status to a written language.
History
[
edit
]
The Jyutping system
[1]
departs from all previous Cantonese romanisation systems (approximately 12, including
Robert Morrison's
pioneering work of 1828, and the widely used
Standard Romanization
,
Yale
and
Sidney Lau
systems) by introducing z and c initials and the use of eo and oe in finals, as well as replacing the initial y, used in all previous systems, with j.
[2]
In 2018, it was updated to include the -a and -oet finals, to reflect syllables recognized as part of Cantonese phonology in 1997 by the Jyutping Work Group of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.
[3]
Initials
[
edit
]
b
/p/
巴
|
p
/p?/
?
|
m
/m/
?
|
f
/f/
花
|
|
d
/t/
打
|
t
/t?/
他
|
n
/n/
那
|
|
l
/l/
?
|
g
/k/
家
|
k
/k?/
?
|
ng
/ŋ/
牙
|
h
/h/
蝦
|
|
gw
/k?/
瓜
|
kw
/k??/
誇
|
|
|
w
/w/
蛙
|
z
/ts/
渣
|
c
/ts?/
叉
|
|
s
/s/
沙
|
j
/j/
也
|
Finals
[
edit
]
aa
/aː/
沙
|
aai
/aːi?/
徙
|
aau
/aːu?/
梢
|
aam
/aːm/
三
|
aan
/aːn/
山
|
aang
/aːŋ/
坑
|
aap
/aːp?/
?
|
aat
/aːt?/
?
|
aak
/aːk?/
客
|
a
/?/
[1]
|
ai
/?i?/
西
|
au
/?u?/
收
|
am
/?m/
心
|
an
/?n/
新
|
ang
/?ŋ/
笙
|
ap
/?p?/
濕
|
at
/?t?/
失
|
ak
/?k?/
塞
|
e
/?ː/
些
|
ei
/ei?/
四
|
eu
/?ːu?/
掉
[2]
|
em
/?ːm/
?
[3]
|
|
eng
/?ːŋ/
鄭
|
ep
/?ːp?/
夾
[4]
|
|
ek
/?ːk?/
石
|
i
/iː/
詩
|
|
iu
/iːu?/
消
|
im
/iːm/
閃
|
in
/iːn/
先
|
ing
/?ŋ/
星
|
ip
/iːp?/
攝
|
it
/iːt?/
洩
|
ik
/?k/
識
|
o
/?ː/
疏
|
oi
/?ːy?/
開
|
ou
/ou?/
蘇
|
|
on
/?ːn/
看
|
ong
/?ːŋ/
康
|
|
ot
/?ːt?/
喝
|
ok
/?ːk?/
索
|
u
/uː/
夫
|
ui
/uːy?/
灰
|
|
|
un
/uːn/
寬
|
ung
/?ŋ/
?
|
|
ut
/uːt?/
闊
|
uk
/?k/
叔
|
|
eoi
/?y?/
需
|
|
|
eon
/?n/
詢
|
|
|
eot
/?t?/
?
|
|
oe
/œː/
鋸
|
|
|
|
|
oeng
/œːŋ/
商
|
|
oet
/œːt?/
[5]
|
oek
/œːk?/
削
|
yu
/yː/
書
|
|
|
|
yun
/yːn/
孫
|
|
|
yut
/yːt?/
雪
|
|
|
|
|
m
/m?/
?
|
|
ng
/ŋ?/
吳
|
|
|
|
- Only the finals
m
and
ng
can be used as standalone
nasal
syllables.
- ^
Used for elided words in casual speech such as
a6
in 四十四 (
sei3 a6 sei3
), elided from
sei3 sap6 sei3
.
[3]
- ^
^
^
Referring to the colloquial pronunciation of these words.
- ^
Used for onomatopoeias such as
oet6
for belching or
goet4
for snoring.
Tones
[
edit
]
There are nine
tones
in six distinct
tone contours
in Cantonese. However, as three of the nine are
entering tones
(
入聲
;
jap6 sing1
), which only appear in syllables ending with
p
,
t
, and
k
, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping (though they do in
Cantonese Pinyin
; these are shown in parentheses in the table below). A mnemonic which some use to remember this is
「風水到時我?必發達」
;
fung1 seoi2 dou3 si4 ngo5 dei6 bit1 faat3 daat6
or "
Feng Shui
[dictates that] we will be lucky."
Tone name
|
jam1 ping4
(
陰平
)
|
jam1 soeng5
(
陰上
)
|
jam1 heoi3
(
陰去
)
|
joeng4 ping4
(
陽平
)
|
joeng4 soeng5
(
陽上
)
|
joeng4 heoi3
(
陽去
)
|
gou1 jam1 jap6
(
高陰入
)
|
dai1 jam1 jap6
(
低陰入
)
|
joeng4 jap6
(
陽入
)
|
Tone number
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
1 (7)
|
3 (8)
|
6 (9)
|
The tone name in English
|
high level or high falling
|
mid rising
|
mid level
|
low falling
|
low rising
|
low level
|
entering high level
|
entering mid level
|
entering low level
|
Contour
[4]
|
?
55 /
??
53
|
??
35
|
?
33
|
??
21 /
?
11
|
??
13
|
?
22
|
?
5
|
?
3
|
?
2
|
Character example
|
分/詩
|
粉/史
|
訓/試
|
焚/時
|
奮/市
|
?/是
|
忽/識
|
發/錫
|
佛/食
|
Example
|
fan1/si1
|
fan2/si2
|
fan3/si3
|
fan4/si4
|
fan5/si5
|
fan6/si6
|
fat1/sik1
|
faat3/sek3
|
fat6/sik6
|
Comparison with Yale romanisation
[
edit
]
Jyutping and the
Yale Romanisation of Cantonese
represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
- The
initials
:
b
,
p
,
m
,
f
,
d
,
t
,
n
,
l
,
g
,
k
,
ng
,
h
,
s
,
gw
,
kw
,
w
.
- The
vowel
:
aa
(except when used alone),
a
,
e
,
i
,
o
,
u
,
yu
.
- The
nasal stop
:
m
,
ng
.
- The
coda
:
i
,
u
,
m
,
n
,
ng
,
p
,
t
,
k
.
But they differ in the following:
- The
vowels
eo
and
oe
represent
/?/
and
/œː/
respectively in Jyutping, whereas the
eu
represents both vowels in Yale.
- The
initial
j
represents
/j/
in Jyutping whereas
y
is used instead in Yale.
- The initial
z
represents
/ts/
in Jyutping whereas
j
is used instead in Yale.
- The initial
c
represents
/ts?/
in Jyutping whereas
ch
is used instead in Yale.
- In Jyutping, if no
consonant
precedes the vowel
yu
, then the initial
j
is appended before the vowel. In Yale, the corresponding initial
y
is never appended before
yu
under any circumstances.
- Jyutping defines five
finals
not in Yale:
a
/?/
, eu
/?ːu/
,
em
/?ːm/
,
ep
/?ːp/
, oet
/œːt/
. These finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as
deu6
(
掉
),
lem2
(
?
), and
gep6
(
夾
).
- To represent
tones
, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter
h
(though tone numbers can be used in Yale as well).
Comparison with Cantonese pinyin
[
edit
]
Jyutping and
Cantonese Pinyin
represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
- The
initials
:
b
,
p
,
m
,
f
,
d
,
t
,
n
,
l
,
g
,
k
,
ng
,
h
,
s
,
gw
,
kw
,
j
,
w
.
- The
vowel
:
aa
,
a
,
e
,
i
,
o
,
u
.
- The
nasal stop
:
m
,
ng
.
- The
coda
:
i
(except for its use in the
coda
/y/
in Jyutping; see below),
u
,
m
,
n
,
ng
,
p
,
t
,
k
.
But they have some differences:
- The
vowel
oe
represents both
/?/
and
/œː/
in Cantonese Pinyin whereas
eo
and
oe
represent
/?/
and
/œː/
respectively in Jyutping.
- The vowel
y
represents
/y/
in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both
yu
(used in the
nucleus
) and
i
(used in the
coda
of the
final
-
eoi
) are used in Jyutping.
- The initial
dz
represents
/ts/
in Cantonese Pinyin whereas
z
is used instead in Jyutping.
- The initial
ts
represents
/ts?/
in Cantonese Pinyin whereas
c
is used instead in Jyutping.
- To represent
tones
, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, although the use of 1, 3, 6 to replace 7, 8, 9 for the
checked tones
is acceptable. However, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.
Examples
[
edit
]
Sample transcription of one of the
300 Tang Poems
:
春曉
孟浩然
|
ceon1 hiu2
maang6 hou6 jin4
|
春眠不覺曉,
|
ceon1 min4 bat1 gok3 hiu2,
|
處處聞啼鳥。
|
cyu3 cyu3 man4 tai4 niu5.
|
夜來風雨聲,
|
je6 loi4 fung1 jyu5 sing1,
|
花落知多少?
|
faa1 lok6 zi1 do1 siu2?
|
Jyutping input method
[
edit
]
The
Jyutping method
(
Chinese
:
??輸入法
) refers to a family of
input methods
based on the Jyutping romanization system.
The Jyutping method allows a user to input Chinese characters by entering the Jyutping romanization of a Chinese character (with or without tone, depending on the system) and then presenting the user with a list of possible characters with that pronunciation.
As of
macOS Ventura
, Jyutping input with
Traditional Chinese
now comes standard on
macOS
under the name "Phonetic ? Cantonese".
List of Jyutping keyboard input utilities
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
- ^
Chinese
:
香港語言學學會?語?音方案
;
Jyutping
:
hoeng1 gong2 jyu5 jin4 hok6 hok6 wui2 jyut6 jyu5 ping3 jam1 fong1 on3
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Zee, Eric (1999).
Handbook of the International Phonetic Association
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 58?60.
ISBN
0521652367
.
External links
[
edit
]