Macau Government Cantonese Romanization

The Macau Government Cantonese Romanization refers to the mostly consistent system for romanizing Cantonese as employed by the Government of Macau and other non-governmental organizations based in Macau. The system has been employed by the Macau Government since the Portuguese colonial period and continues to be used after the 1999 handover of the territory. Similarly to its counterpart romanization system in Hong Kong, the method is not completely standardized and thus is not taught in schools, but rather employed by government agencies to accurately display the correct pronunciation of Cantonese in public signage and official usage.[1]

The Macau Government romanization of Cantonese uses a similar convention to that of the Hong Kong Government's but is based on Portuguese pronunciation rather than English, given the colonial history of Macau.[2] Therefore, the two governmental standards have differing orthographies for the same Cantonese pronunciation.

Usage

For most of Macau's colonial history, the Portuguese government lacked a consistent way of romanizing Cantonese into Portuguese but adopted a de facto standard for transliterating proper names such as geographical locations and surnames. The 1985 publication of the Silabário Codificado de Romanização do Cantonense created a phonetic table and tonal chart of Cantonese based on Portuguese phonology and afterwards became the basis for Cantonese to Portuguese romanization. Prior to this adoption, individuals who studied or conducted business frequently in nearby British Hong Kong would have a tendency to adopt an English-based Hong Kong transliteration for romanizing Cantonese.[3]

Orthography

While the system is not officially standardized, the Macau Government romanization system more or less follows consistent patterns and uses the Portuguese alphabet as its basis. This results in the substitution of letters found in other Cantonese romanization methods for their closest Portuguese equivalents, such as the letter 'v' for 'w' (/w/). As with the system used by the Hong Kong Government, all tones and distinctions between long and short vowels are omitted.[4]

Consanants

Initials

IPA Macau government Jyutping Yale Cantonese Hong Kong government
pʰ p p p p
p p b b p
tʰ t t t t
t t d d t
kʰ k k k k
k k g g k
kʷʰ ku kw kw kw
kʷ ku gw gw kw
m m m m m
n n n n n
ŋ ng ng ng ng
l l l l l
f f f f f
s s s s s, sh
h h h h h
j i j y y
w v, w* w w w
tsʰ ch c ch ch, ts
ts ch z j ts

Finals

IPA Macau government Jyutping Yale Cantonese Hong Kong government
-p -p -p -p -p
-t -t -t -t -t
-k -c, -k* -k -k -k
-m -m -m -m -m
-n -n -n -n -n
-ŋ -ng -ng -ng -ng

Note: *Denotes non-governmental standard but may be used as an alternative

Vowels, diphthongs, and syllabic consonants

IPA Macau government Jyutping Yale Cantonese Hong Kong government
aː a, ah aa aa a, ah
ɐ e a a a, o, u
ɛː/e e e e e
iː i i i i, ze, ee
o o, e o o o
uː u u u u, oo
œː eu oe eu eu, eo
ɵ eu eo eu u
yː iu yu yu yu, u, ue
aːi ai aai aai ai
ɐi ai ai ai ai
aːu ao aau aau au
ɐu ao au au au
ei ei ei ei ei, ee, ay, ai, i
iːu io iu iu iu
ɔːy oi oi oi oi, oy
uːy ui ui ui ui
ɵy oi eoi eui ui
ou ou ou ou o
m̩ m m m
ŋ̩ ng ng ng ng

References

  1. ↑ Cheng, Siu-Pong and Tang, Sze-Wing. The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language: Cantonese Romanization (London: Routledge, 2016), p.42.
  2. ↑ Cheng, Siu-Pong and Tang, Sze-Wing. The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language: Cantonese Romanization (London: Routledge, 2016), p.48.
  3. ↑ Cheng, 2014 港澳兩地的政府粵語拼音 (Hong Kong and Macau Differences in Official Cantonese Transliteration) (in Chinese), p. 27
  4. ↑ Cheng, Siu-Pong and Tang, Sze-Wing. The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language: Cantonese Romanization (London: Routledge, 2016), p.49.
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