pronounced as /notice/
Cantonese Pinyin (also known as Chinese: 教院式拼音方案) is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Rev. Yu Ping Chiu (余秉昭) in 1971,[1] [2] and subsequently modified by the Education Department (merged into the Education and Manpower Bureau since 2003) of Hong Kong 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 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".
The Cantonese Pinyin 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 by Wong Shik Ling. 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, pronounced as //a//→aa, pronounced as //ɐ//→a, pronounced as //ɛ//→e, pronounced as //ɔ//→o, pronounced as //œ//→oe, pronounced as //ŋ//→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.
| b pronounced as /[p]/ pronounced as /〔b〕/ | p pronounced as /[pʰ]/ pronounced as /〔p〕/ | m pronounced as /[m]/ pronounced as /〔m〕/ | f pronounced as /[f]/ pronounced as /〔f〕/ | ||
| d pronounced as /[t]/ pronounced as /〔d〕/ | t pronounced as /[tʰ]/ pronounced as /〔t〕/ | n pronounced as /[n]/ pronounced as /〔n〕/ | l pronounced as /[l]/ pronounced as /〔l〕/ | ||
| g pronounced as /[k]/ pronounced as /〔ɡ〕/ | k pronounced as /[kʰ]/ pronounced as /〔k〕/ | ng pronounced as /[ŋ]/ pronounced as /〔ŋ〕/ | h pronounced as /[h]/ pronounced as /〔h〕/ | ||
| gw pronounced as /[kʷ]/ pronounced as /〔ɡw〕/ | kw pronounced as /[kʷʰ]/ pronounced as /〔kw〕/ | w pronounced as /[w]/ pronounced as /〔w〕/ | |||
| dz pronounced as /[ts]/ pronounced as /〔dz〕/ | ts pronounced as /[tsʰ]/ pronounced as /〔ts〕/ | s pronounced as /[s]/ pronounced as /〔s〕/ | j pronounced as /[j]/ pronounced as /〔j〕/ |
| aa pronounced as /[aː]/ pronounced as /〔a〕/ | aai pronounced as /[aːi]/ pronounced as /〔ai〕/ | aau pronounced as /[aːu]/ pronounced as /〔au〕/ | aam pronounced as /[aːm]/ pronounced as /〔am〕/ | aan pronounced as /[aːn]/ pronounced as /〔an〕/ | aang pronounced as /[aːŋ]/ pronounced as /〔aŋ〕/ | aap pronounced as /[aːp]/ pronounced as /〔ap〕/ | aat pronounced as /[aːt]/ pronounced as /〔at〕/ | aak pronounced as /[aːk]/ pronounced as /〔ak〕/ | |
| ai pronounced as /[ɐi]/ pronounced as /〔ɐi〕/ | au pronounced as /[ɐu]/ pronounced as /〔ɐu〕/ | am pronounced as /[ɐm]/ pronounced as /〔ɐm〕/ | an pronounced as /[ɐn]/ pronounced as /〔ɐn〕/ | ang pronounced as /[ɐŋ]/ pronounced as /〔ɐŋ〕/ | ap pronounced as /[ɐp]/ pronounced as /〔ɐp〕/ | at pronounced as /[ɐt]/ pronounced as /〔ɐt〕/ | ak pronounced as /[ɐk]/ pronounced as /〔ɐk〕/ | ||
| e pronounced as /[ɛː]/ pronounced as /〔ɛ〕/ | ei pronounced as /[ei]/ pronounced as /〔ei〕/ | eu pronounced as /[ɛːu]/ pronounced as /〔ɛu〕/ | em pronounced as /[ɛːm]/ pronounced as /〔ɛm〕/ | eng pronounced as /[ɛːŋ]/ pronounced as /〔ɛŋ〕/ | ep pronounced as /[ɛːp]/ pronounced as /〔ɛp〕/ | ek pronounced as /[ɛːk]/ pronounced as /〔ɛk〕/ | |||
| i pronounced as /[iː]/ pronounced as /〔i〕/ | iu pronounced as /[iːu]/ pronounced as /〔iu〕/ | im pronounced as /[iːm]/ pronounced as /〔im〕/ | in pronounced as /[iːn]/ pronounced as /〔in〕/ | ing pronounced as /[eŋ]/ pronounced as /〔iŋ〕/ | ip pronounced as /[iːp]/ pronounced as /〔ip〕/ | it pronounced as /[iːt]/ pronounced as /〔it〕/ | ik pronounced as /[ek]/ pronounced as /〔ik〕/ | ||
| o pronounced as /[ɔː]/ pronounced as /〔ɔ〕/ | oi pronounced as /[ɔːy]/ pronounced as /〔ɔi〕/ | ou pronounced as /[ou]/ pronounced as /〔ou〕/ | on pronounced as /[ɔːn]/ pronounced as /〔ɔn〕/ | ong pronounced as /[ɔːŋ]/ pronounced as /〔ɔŋ〕/ | ot pronounced as /[ɔːt]/ pronounced as /〔ɔt〕/ | ok pronounced as /[ɔːk]/ pronounced as /〔ɔk〕/ | |||
| u pronounced as /[uː]/ pronounced as /〔u〕/ | ui pronounced as /[uːy]/ pronounced as /〔ui〕/ | un pronounced as /[uːn]/ pronounced as /〔un〕/ | ung pronounced as /[oŋ]/ pronounced as /〔uŋ〕/ | ut pronounced as /[uːt]/ pronounced as /〔ut〕/ | uk pronounced as /[ok]/ pronounced as /〔uk〕/ | ||||
| oe pronounced as /[œː]/ pronounced as /〔œ〕/ | oey pronounced as /[ɵy]/ pronounced as /〔œy〕/ | oen pronounced as /[ɵn]/ pronounced as /〔œn〕/ | oeng pronounced as /[œːŋ]/ pronounced as /〔œŋ〕/ | oet pronounced as /[ɵt]/ pronounced as /〔œt〕/ | oek pronounced as /[œːk]/ pronounced as /〔œk〕/ | ||||
| y pronounced as /[yː]/ pronounced as /〔y〕/ | yn pronounced as /[yːn]/ pronounced as /〔yn〕/ | yt pronounced as /[yːt]/ pronounced as /〔yt〕/ | |||||||
| m pronounced as /[m̩]/ pronounced as /〔m̩〕/ | ng pronounced as /[ŋ̩]/ pronounced as /〔ŋ̩〕/ |
The system recognises nine tones in six distinct tone contours.
| Tone name | Jam1 Ping4 (陰平) | Jam1 Soeng6 (陰上) | Jam1 Hoey3 (陰去) | Joeng4 Ping4 (陽平) | Joeng4 Soeng6 (陽上) | Joeng4 Hoey3 (陽去) | Jam1 Jap6 (陰入) | Dzong1 Jap6 (中入) | Joeng4 Jap6 (陽入) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tone Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 (1) | 8 (3) | 9 (6) | |
| Tone name according to Middle Chinese System | Dark Level | Dark Rising | Dark Departing | Light Level | Light Rising | Light Departing | Dark Entering | Middle Entering | Light Entering | |
| Tone name according to contour | 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 | 55 / 53 | 35 | 33 | 21 / 11 | 13 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Character Example | 分 | 粉 | 訓 | 焚 | 奮 | 份 | 忽 | 發 | 佛 | |
| Example | fan1 | fan2 | fan3 | fan4 | fan5 | fan6 | fat7 (fat1) | faat8 (faat3) | fat9 (fat6) |
Cantonese Pinyin and the Yale Romanization system represent Cantonese pronunciations with these same letters:
But they have these differences:
Cantonese Pinyin and Jyutping represent Cantonese pronunciations with these same letters:
But they have these differences:
| Traditional | Simplified | Romanization | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 廣東話 | 广东话 | gwong2 dung1 waa2 | |
| 粵語 | 粤语 | jyt9 jy5 | |
| 你好 | 你好 | nei5 hou2 |
An old Chinese poem:
| 春曉 (Chunxiao) 孟浩然 (Meng Haoran) | Tsoen1 Hiu2 Maang6 Hou6jin4 | |
| 春眠不覺曉， (Sleeping past sunrise in springtime.) | Tsoen1 min4 bat7 gok8 hiu2, | |
| 處處聞啼鳥。 (Everywhere one hears birdsong.) | Tsy3 tsy3 man4 tai4 niu5. | |
| 夜來風雨聲， (Night brings the sound of wind and rain,) | Je6 loi4 fung1 jy5 sing1, | |
| 花落知多少？ (I wonder how many flowers fell?) | faa1 lok9 dzi1 do1 siu2? |