| Yale | |
| T: | 耶魯 |
| S: | 耶鲁 |
| Y: | yèh lóuh |
| J: | je4 lou5 |
| Showflag: | y |
pronounced as /notice/
The Yale romanization of Cantonese was developed by Yale scholar Gerard P. Kok for his and Parker Po-fei Huang's textbook Speak Cantonese initially circulated in looseleaf form in 1952[1] but later published in 1958.[2] Unlike the Yale romanization of Mandarin, it is still widely used in books and dictionaries, especially for foreign learners of Cantonese. It shares some similarities with Hanyu Pinyin in that unvoiced, unaspirated consonants are represented by letters traditionally used in English and most other European languages to represent voiced sounds. For example, pronounced as /[p]/ is represented as b in Yale, whereas its aspirated counterpart, pronounced as /[pʰ]/ is represented as p.[3] Students attending The Chinese University of Hong Kong's New-Asia Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center are taught using Yale romanization.[4]
Some enthusiasts employ Yale romanisation to explore writing Cantonese as an alphabetic language.
| b pronounced as /link/ 巴 | p pronounced as /link/ 怕 | m pronounced as /link/ 媽 | f pronounced as /link/ 花 | ||
| d pronounced as /link/ 打 | t pronounced as /link/ 他 | n pronounced as /link/ 那 | l pronounced as /link/ 啦 | ||
| g pronounced as /link/ 家 | k pronounced as /link/ 卡 | ng pronounced as /link/ 牙 | h pronounced as /link/ 蝦 | ||
| gw pronounced as /[kʷ]/ 瓜 | kw pronounced as /[kʷʰ]/ 誇 | w pronounced as /link/ 蛙 | |||
| j pronounced as /link/ 渣 | ch pronounced as /link/ 叉 | s pronounced as /link/ 沙 | y pronounced as /link/ 也 |
| a pronounced as /link/ 沙 | aai pronounced as /[aːi̯]/ 晒 | aau pronounced as /[aːu̯]/ 筲 | aam pronounced as /[aːm]/ 三 | aan pronounced as /[aːn]/ 山 | aang pronounced as /[aːŋ]/ 省 | aap pronounced as /[aːp̚]/ 圾 | aat pronounced as /[aːt̚]/ 殺 | aak pronounced as /[aːk̚]/ 客 | |
| ai pronounced as /[ɐi̯]/ 西 | au pronounced as /[ɐu̯]/ 收 | am pronounced as /[ɐm]/ 心 | an pronounced as /[ɐn]/ 新 | ang pronounced as /[ɐŋ]/ 生 | ap pronounced as /[ɐp̚]/ 十 | at pronounced as /[ɐt̚]/ 失 | ak pronounced as /[ɐk̚]/ 塞 | ||
| e pronounced as /link/ 些 | ei pronounced as /[ei̯]/ 四 | eng pronounced as /[ɛːŋ]/ 聲 | ek pronounced as /[ɛːk̚]/ 石 | ||||||
| i pronounced as /link/ 司 | iu pronounced as /[iːu̯]/ 消 | im pronounced as /[iːm]/ 閃 | in pronounced as /[iːn]/ 先 | ing pronounced as /[ɪŋ]/ 星 | ip pronounced as /[iːp̚]/ 攝 | it pronounced as /[iːt̚]/ 舌 | ik pronounced as /[ɪk̚]/ 色 | ||
| o pronounced as /link/ 蔬 | oi pronounced as /[ɔːy̯]/ 鰓 | ou pronounced as /[ou̯]/ 酥 | on pronounced as /[ɔːn]/ 看 | ong pronounced as /[ɔːŋ]/ 康 | ot pronounced as /[ɔːt̚]/ 割 | ok pronounced as /[ɔːk̚]/ 各 | |||
| u pronounced as /link/ 夫 | ui pronounced as /[uːy̯]/ 灰 | un pronounced as /[uːn]/ 寬 | ung pronounced as /[ʊŋ]/ 風 | ut pronounced as /[uːt̚]/ 闊 | uk pronounced as /[ʊk̚]/ 福 | ||||
| eu pronounced as /link/ 靴 | eui pronounced as /[ɵy̯]/ 去 | eun pronounced as /[ɵn]/ 信 | eung pronounced as /[œːŋ]/ 上 | eut pronounced as /[ɵt̚]/ 摔 | euk pronounced as /[œːk̚]/ 削 | ||||
| yu pronounced as /link/ 書 | yun pronounced as /[yːn]/ 孫 | yut pronounced as /[yːt̚]/ 雪 | |||||||
| m pronounced as /link/ 唔 | ng pronounced as /link/ 吳 |
Modern Cantonese has up to seven phonemic tones. Cantonese Yale represents these tones using a combination of diacritics and the letter h.[5] [6] Traditional Chinese linguistics treats the tones in syllables ending with a stop consonant as separate "entering tones". Cantonese Yale follows modern linguistic conventions in treating these the same as the high-flat, mid-flat and low-flat tones, respectively.
| No. | Description | IPA & Chao tone numbers | Yale representation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | high-flat | pronounced as /˥/ 55 | sī | sīn | sīk | |
| high-falling | pronounced as /˥˨/ 52 | sì | sìn | |||
| 2 | mid-rising | pronounced as /˧˥/ 35 | sí | sín | ||
| 3 | mid-flat | pronounced as /˧/ 33 | si | sin | sik | |
| 4 | low-falling | pronounced as /˨˩/ 21 | sìh | sìhn | ||
| 5 | low-rising | pronounced as /˨˧/ 23 | síh | síhn | ||
| 6 | low-flat | pronounced as /˨/ 22 | sih | sihn | sihk | |
| Traditional | Simplified | Romanization | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 廣州話 | 广州话 | gwóng jàu wá | |
| 粵語 | 粤语 | yuht yúh | |
| 你好 | néih hóu | ||
Sample transcription of one of the 300 Tang Poems by Meng Haoran:
| width=200 | 春曉 [[Meng Haoran|孟浩然]] | chēun híu maahng houh yìhn |
|---|---|---|
| 春眠不覺曉， | , | |
| 處處聞啼鳥。 | . | |
| 夜來風雨聲， | , | |
| 花落知多少？ | ? |