| Type: | Semisyllabary |
| Fam1: | Oracle bone script |
| Fam2: | Seal script |
| Fam3: | Clerical script |
| Fam4: | Bopomofo |
| Sisters: | Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols, Suzhou Phonetic Symbols, Hmu Phonetic Symbols |
| Time: | 1931 to 1958 in Mainland China |
Cantonese Bopomofo, or Cantonese Phonetic Symbols (Chinese: t=粵語注音符號|s=粤语注音符号|first=t|j=jyut6 jyu5 zyu3 jam1 fu4 hou6|cy=Yuht-yúh jyu-yām fùh-houh) is an extended set of Bopomofo characters used to transcribe Yue Chinese and, specifically, its prestige Cantonese dialect. It was first introduced in early 1930s, and then standardized in 1950. It fell into disuse along with the original Bopomofo for Mandarin Chinese in the late 1950s.
The first system of phonetic characters for Cantonese was introduced in "Phonetic vocabulary of Cantonese characters for instruction of literacy to the people", 1931, by Ziu Ngaating. His system became a basis for the modern one, accepted in 1950 by the Guangdong Culture and Education department. In 1932, however, a different system was published in a draft by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation with supplementary symbols for non-Mandarin Sinitic languages, including Cantonese.
Bopomofo for Cantonese contains additional characters to denote its specific sounds.
The original Bopomofo was based on a two vowel model of Mandarin phonology, it contains two sets of vowel signs, one for the /a/-nucleus and another one for the /ə/ nucleus. These characters were inherited, with /a/ set used to denote long pronounced as //aː// of Cantonese, and /ə/ set for short pronounced as //ɐ//. For the rhymes not found in Mandarin, Cantonese Bopomofo implements digraphs composed of a vowel character and a final consonants character. The monographs are highlighted in bold in the following table .
| ∅ | Chinese: ㄚ pronounced as /aː/ | Chinese: ㆿ pronounced as /ɐ/1 | Chinese: ㄧ pronounced as /iː/ | Chinese: ㄛ pronounced as /ɔː/ | Chinese: ㄨ pronounced as /uː/ | Chinese: ㆾ pronounced as /œː/ | Chinese: ㄩ pronounced as /yː/ | Chinese: ㄝ pronounced as /ɛː/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -n | Chinese: ㄢ pronounced as /aːn/ | Chinese: ㄣ pronounced as /ɐn/ | Chinese: ㄧ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /iːn/ | Chinese: ㄛ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /ɔːn/ | Chinese: ㄨ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /uːn/ | Chinese: ㆾ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /ɵn/ | Chinese: ㄩ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /yːn/ | Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /ɛːn/2 | |
| -t | Chinese: ㄚ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /aːt̚/ | Chinese: ㆿ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /ɐt̚/ | Chinese: ㄧ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /iːt̚/ | Chinese: ㄛ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /ɔːt̚/ | Chinese: ㄨ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /uːt̚/ | Chinese: ㆾ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /ɵt̚/ | Chinese: ㄩ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /yːt̚/ | Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /ɛːt̚/2 | |
| -i | Chinese: ㄞ pronounced as /aːi/ | Chinese: ㄟ pronounced as /ɐi/ | Chinese: ㄛㄧ pronounced as /ɔːi/ | Chinese: ㄨㄧ pronounced as /uːi/ | Chinese: ㆾㄧ pronounced as /ɵy/ | Chinese: ㄝㄧ pronounced as /ei/ | |||
| -ŋ | Chinese: ㄤ pronounced as /aːŋ/ | Chinese: ㄥ pronounced as /ɐŋ/ | Chinese: ㄧ<small>ㄫ</small> pronounced as /ɪŋ/ | Chinese: ㄛ<small>ㄫ</small> pronounced as /ɔːŋ/ | Chinese: ㄨ<small>ㄫ</small> pronounced as /ʊŋ/ | Chinese: ㆾ<small>ㄫ</small> pronounced as /œːŋ/ | Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄫ</small> pronounced as /ɛːŋ/ | ||
| -k | Chinese: ㄚ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /aːk̚/ | Chinese: ㆿ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /ɐk̚/ | Chinese: ㄧ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /ɪk̚/ | Chinese: ㄛ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /ɔːk̚/ | Chinese: ㄨ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /ʊk̚/ | Chinese: ㆾ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /œːk̚/ | Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄎ</small> pronounced as /ɛːk̚/ | ||
| -u | Chinese: ㄠ pronounced as /aːu/ | Chinese: ㄡ pronounced as /ɐu/ | Chinese: ㄧㄨ pronounced as /iːu/ | Chinese: ㄛㄨ pronounced as /ou/ | Chinese: ㄝㄨ pronounced as /ɛːu/2 | ||||
| -m | Chinese: ㄚ<small>ㄇ</small> pronounced as /aːm/ | Chinese: ㆿ<small>ㄇ</small> pronounced as /ɐm/ | Chinese: ㄧ<small>ㄇ</small> pronounced as /iːm/ | Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄇ</small> pronounced as /ɛːm/2 | |||||
| -p | Chinese: ㄚ<small>ㄆ</small> pronounced as /aːp̚/ | Chinese: ㆿ<small>ㄆ</small> pronounced as /ɐp̚/ | Chinese: ㄧ<small>ㄆ</small> pronounced as /iːp̚/ | Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄆ</small> pronounced as /ɛːp̚/2 |
Notes:
1 Final Chinese: ㆿ pronounced as /[ɐ]/ does not occur by itself.
2 Finals Chinese: ㄝㄨ pronounced as /[ɛːu]/, Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄇ</small> pronounced as /[ɛːm]/, Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄆ</small> pronounced as /[ɛːp̚]/, Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄊ</small> pronounced as /[ɛːt̚]/, Chinese: ㄝ<small>ㄋ</small> pronounced as /[ɛːn]/ only occur in colloquial readings, they were not included in the initial draft.
Tones can be left unmarked, but if necessary, you may mark them like in the table below.
| Tone name | dark flat (陰平) | dark rising (陰上) | dark departing (陰去) | light flat (陽平) | light rising (陽上) | light departing (陽去) | upper dark entering (上陰入) | lower dark entering (下陰入) | light entering (陽入) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tone number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 (or 1) | 8 (or 3) | 9 (or 6) | |
| Pitch Contour | ˥ 55 / ˥˧ 53 | ˧˥ 35 | ˧ 33 | ˩ 11 / ˨˩ 21 | ˨˧ 23 | ˨ 22 | ˥ 5 | ˧ 3 | ˨ 2 | |
| Tone Marker | ˉ (usually omitted) | ˇ | ˋ | ˊ | ˘ | ˆ | ˙ | (unmarked) | ʻ | |
| Example |
| Traditional | Simplified | Cantonese Bopomofo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 廣州話 | 广州话 | Chinese: ㆼㄛ<small>ㄫ</small>ˇ ㄐㄡˉ ㄨㄚˇ | |
| 粵語 | 粤语 | Chinese: ㄩ<small>ㄊ</small>ˆ ㄩ˘ | |
| 你好 | Chinese: ㄋㄝㄧ˘ ㄏㄛㄨˇ | ||
Sample transcription of one of the 300 Tang Poems:
| Chinese: 春 | Chinese: ㄑ<br>ㆾ<br>ㄋˉ | Chinese: 曉 | Chinese: ㄏ<br>ㄧ<br>ㄨˇ | ||||||||
| Chinese: 孟 | Chinese: ㄇ<br>ㄤˆ | Chinese: 浩 | Chinese: ㄏ<br>ㄛ<br>ㄨˆ | Chinese: 然 | Chinese: ㄧ<br><small>ㄫ</small>ˆ | ||||||
| Chinese: 春 | Chinese: ㄑ<br>ㆾ<br><small>ㄋ</small>ˉ | Chinese: 眠 | Chinese: ㄇ<br>ㄧ<br><small>ㄋ</small>ˊ | Chinese: 不 | Chinese: ㄅ<br>ㆿ<br><small>ㄊ</small>ˉ | Chinese: 覺 | Chinese: ㄍ<br>ㄛ<br><small>ㄎ</small>ˋ | Chinese: 曉 | Chinese: ㄏ<br>ㄧ<br>ㄨˇ | ， | |
| Chinese: 處 | Chinese: ㄑ<br>ㄩˋ | Chinese: 處 | Chinese: ㄑ<br>ㄩˋ | Chinese: 聞 | Chinese: ㄇ<br>ㄣˊ | Chinese: 啼 | Chinese: ㄊ<br>ㄟˊ | Chinese: 鳥 | Chinese: ㄋ<br>ㄧ<br>ㄨ˘ | ， | |
| Chinese: 夜 | Chinese: ㄧ<br>ㄝˆ | Chinese: 來 | Chinese: ㄌ<br>ㄛ<br>ㄧˊ | Chinese: 風 | Chinese: ㄈ<br>ㄨ<br><small>ㄫ</small>ˉ | Chinese: 雨 | Chinese: ㄩ˘ | Chinese: 聲 | Chinese: ㄒ<br>ㄧ<br><small>ㄫ</small>ˉ | ， | |
| Chinese: 花 | Chinese: ㄈ<br>ㄚˉ | Chinese: 落 | Chinese: ㄌ<br>ㄛ<br><small>ㄎ</small>ˆ | Chinese: 知 | Chinese: ㄐ<br>ㄧˉ | Chinese: 多 | Chinese: ㄉ<br>ㄛˉ | Chinese: 少 | Chinese: ㄒ<br>ㄧ<br>ㄨˇ | ？ |