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 Mandarin Sichuanese Pinyin Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz
Wu
Shanghai and Suzhou dialects Long-short
Wenzhounese Wenzhounese romanization
Yue
Cantonese Guangdong Romanization Hong Kong Government Jyutping Meyer–Wempe Sidney Lau S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols) S. L. Wong (romanization) Cantonese Pinyin Standard Romanization Yale romanization Barnett–Chao
Southern Min
Taiwanese, Amoy and related Pe̍h-ōe-jī Modern Literal Taiwanese Phofsit Daibuun Bbánlám pìngyīm Daighi tongiong pingim TLPA Tâi-lô Comparison chart
Hainanese Hainanhua Pinyin Fang'an
Teochew Peng'im
Eastern Min
Fuzhou dialect Foochow Romanized
Northern Min
Jian'ou dialect Kienning Colloquial Romanized
Pu-Xian Min
Putian dialect Hinghwa Romanized
Hakka
Moiyan dialect Kejiahua Pinyin Fang'an Hagfa Pinyim
Siyen 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 and other factors, Yale romanization is usually held to be easy for speakers of American English to pronounce without much training. In Hong Kong, more people use Cantonese Pinyin and Jyutping, as these systems are more localized to Hong Kongers. Foreign students of Cantonese who attend The University of Hong Kong learn with Sidney Lau's spelling of Cantonese 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 spelling of Cantonese and eventually learn to read those traditional English voiced consonants in a new unvoiced Cantonese way subconsciously, without realizing they are doing so or without usually being aware of the linguistic difference.

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]	aai [ai]	aau [au]	aam [am]	aan [an]	aang [aŋ]	aap [ap]	aat [at]	aak [ak]
	ai [ɐi]	au [ɐu]	am [ɐm]	an [ɐn]	ang [ɐŋ]	ap [ɐp]	at [ɐt]	ak [ɐk]
e [ɛ]	ei [ei]				eng [ɛŋ]			ek [ɛk]
i [i]		iu [iu]	im [im]	in [in]	ing [eŋ]	ip [ip]	it [it]	ik [ek]
o [ɔ]	oi [ɔy]	ou [ou]		on [ɔn]	ong [ɔŋ]		ot [ɔt]	ok [ɔk]
u [u]	ui [uy]			un [un]	ung [oŋ]		ut [ut]	uk [ok]
eu [œ]	eui [uy]			eun [un]	eung [œŋ]		eut [ut]	euk [œk]
yu [y]				yun [yn]			yut [yt]
			m [m̩]		ng [ŋ̩]

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

Tones

Historically, there were seven phonemically distinct tones in Guangzhou Cantonese. Cantonese Yale represents these tones using tone marks and the letter h, as shown in the following table:^[2]^[3]

No.	Description	Chao tone number	Yale representation
1^[4]	high-flat	55	sī	sīn	sīk
1^[4]	high-falling	53	sì	sìn
2	mid-rising	35	sí	sín
3	mid-flat	33	si	sin	sik
4	mid-falling	21	sìh	sìhn
5	low-rising	13	síh	síhn
6	low-flat	22	sih	sihn	sihk

Tones can also be written using the tone number instead of the tone mark and h.
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.

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	你好	Néih hóu	Nei5 hou2

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.
↑ 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..."
1 2 Modern Standard Cantonese has only six tones. The high-flat and high-falling tones are allophones of the same phoneme.

External links

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