Yale romanization of Cantonese

Chinese romanization
Mandarin
Standard Chinese Hanyu Pinyin (ISO standard) EFEO Gwoyeu Romatzyh Spelling conventions Latinxua Sin Wenz Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II Postal romanization Tongyong Pinyin Wade–Giles Yale romanization Lessing-Othmer Legge romanization Simplified Wade Comparison chart
Sichuanese Sichuanese Pinyin Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz
Wu
Shanghai and Suzhou dialects Long-short
Wenzhounese Wenzhounese romanization
Yue
Cantonese Jyutping Yale romanization Guangdong Romanization Hong Kong Government Macau Government Meyer–Wempe Sidney Lau S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols) S. L. Wong (romanization) Cantonese Pinyin Standard Romanization Barnett–Chao Comparison chart
Southern Min
Taiwanese, Amoy and related Pe̍h-ōe-jī Modern Literal Taiwanese Phofsit Daibuun Bbánlám pìngyīm Daighi tongiong pingim TLPA Tâi-lô Comparison chart
Teochew Peng'im
Eastern Min
Fuzhou dialect Foochow Romanized
Northern Min
Jian'ou dialect Kienning Colloquial Romanized
Pu-Xian Min
Putian dialect Hinghwa Romanized
Hainanese
Haikou dialect Hainan Romanized
Wenchang dialect Hainanhua Pinyin Fang'an
Hakka
Meixian dialect Kejiahua Pinyin Fang'an Hagfa Pinyim
Sixian dialect Pha̍k-fa-sṳ TLPA
Gan
Chang-Du dialect Pha̍k-oa-chhi
See also
Other transliterations General Chinese Cyrillization Xiao'erjing 'Phags-pa script Bopomofo Taiwanese kana Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols Mongolian transliteration of Chinese characters Manchu transliteration Transcription into Chinese
By place Romanization in Hong Kong Romanization in Singapore Romanization in Taiwan

The Yale romanization of Cantonese was developed by Parker Po-fei Huang and Gerald P. Kok and published in 1970.^[1] Unlike the Yale romanization of Mandarin, it is still widely used in books and dictionaries, especially for foreign learners. 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, [p] is represented as b in Yale, whereas its aspirated counterpart, [pʰ] is represented as p. Because of this, the Yale romanization is easy for English speakers to pronounce without much training.^[2]^[3] Students studying Cantonese at The University of Hong Kong learns the Sidney Lau romanisation from his three-volume textbooks, while those who attend The Chinese University of Hong Kong's New-Asia Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center are taught to use the Yale romanization.^[4]

Initials

b [p] 巴	p [pʰ] 怕	m [m] 媽	f [f] 花
d [t] 打	t [tʰ] 他	n [n] 那		l [l] 啦
g [k] 家	k [kʰ] 卡	ng [ŋ] 牙	h [h] 蝦
gw [kw] 瓜	kw [kʰw] 誇			w [w] 蛙
j [ts] 渣	ch [tsʰ] 叉		s [s] 沙	y [j] 也

Finals

a [a] 沙	aai [ai] 晒	aau [au] 筲	aam [am] 三	aan [an] 山	aang [aŋ] 省	aap [ap] 圾	aat [at] 殺	aak [ak] 客
	ai [ɐi] 西	au [ɐu] 收	am [ɐm] 心	an [ɐn] 新	ang [ɐŋ] 生	ap [ɐp] 十	at [ɐt] 失	ak [ɐk] 塞
e [ɛ] 些	ei [ei] 四				eng [ɛŋ] 聲			ek [ɛk] 石
i [i] 司		iu [iu] 消	im [im] 閃	in [in] 先	ing [ɪŋ] 星	ip [ip] 攝	it [it] 舌	ik [ɪk] 色
o [ɔ] 蔬	oi [ɔi] 鰓	ou [ou] 酥		on [ɔn] 看	ong [ɔŋ] 康		ot [ɔt] 割	ok [ɔk] 各
u [u] 夫	ui [ui] 灰			un [un] 寬	ung [ʊŋ] 風		ut [ut] 闊	uk [ʊk] 福
eu [œ] 靴	eui [ɵy] 去			eun [un] 信	eung [œŋ] 上		eut [ut] 摔	euk [œk] 削
yu [y] 書				yun [yn] 孫			yut [yt] 雪
			m [m̩] 唔		ng [ŋ̩] 吳

Only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables.

Tones

Graphical representation of the 6 tones of Cantonese.

Modern Cantonese has six phonetic tones. Cantonese Yale can represents these tones using tone marks with the letter h or tone numbers.^[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 tones 1, 3 and 6, respectively.

No.	Description	Chao tone number	Yale representation
1	high-flat	55	sī	sīn	sīk
2	mid-rising	35	sí	sín
3	mid-flat	33	si	sin	sik
4	mid-falling	21	sìh	sìhn
5	low-rising	23	síh	síhn
6	low-flat	22	sih	sihn	sihk

Examples

Traditional	Simplified	Romanization using Tone Marks	Romanization using Numbers
廣州話	广州话	Gwóngjāuwá	Gwong²jau¹wa²
粵語	粤语	Yuhtyúh	Yut⁶yu⁵
你好		Néih hóu	Nei⁵ hou²

Sample transcription of one of the 300 Tang Poems:

春曉孟浩然	Chēun Híu Maahng Houh Yìhn
春眠不覺曉，	Chēun mìhn bāt gok híu,
處處聞啼鳥。	chyu chyu màhn tàih níuh.
夜來風雨聲，	yeh lòih fūng yúh sīng,
花落知多少？	fā lohk jī dō síu?

References

↑ David Rossiter; Gibson Lam; Vivying Cheng (2005). "The Gong System: Web-Based Learning for Multiple Languages, with Special Support for the Yale Representation of Cantonese" (PDF). Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Advances in Web-Based Learning — ICWL 2005. Springer Verlag. pp. 209–220. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
↑ Brian Kwong. "Why Cantonese isn't as hard as you think". Fluent in 3 Months. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
↑ "Cantonese". Omniglot. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
↑ "CUHK Teaching Materials". Retrieved 2016-10-27.
↑ Ng Lam & Chik 2000: 515. "Appendix 3: Tones. The student of Cantonese will be well aware of the importance of tones in conveying meaning. Basically, there are seven tones which, in the Yale system, are represented by the use of diacritics and by the insertion of h for ..."
↑ Gwaan 2000: 7. "Basically, there are seven tones which, in the Yale system, are represented by the use of diacritics and by the insertion of h for the three low tones. The following chart will illustrate the seven tones: 3 Mid Level, 1 High Level, 5 Low Faliing, 6 Low Level..."

External links

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