Cantonese Romanization

Penkyamp (拼音 in Jyutping[?]: ping1 jam1) or Cantonese pinyin, is a transliteration system for writing Cantonese Chinese with the Latin alphabet. This system of Cantonese Romanization serves as the standard in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Vancouver and San Francisco. On the other hand, the Linguistic Society Hong Kong adopts another Cantonese Romanization called Jyutping[?] (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) (粵拼), that is used in some recently published Cantonese-English or English-Cantonese dictionaries.

The two systems are improvements from previous systems. The features of Penkyamp includes:

• reflects the vowel system of Cantonese more systematically than Jyutping by recognizing all long-short vowel contrasts,
  • whereas Jyutping only recognizes short a and long a.
• indicates long and short vowels using the unique orthographic feature of altering the ending consonant of the shengmu[?].
• does not have the ambiguous distinction between "oe" and "eu" (as in Jyutping).
• treats the two (not three) front-round vowels using the same silent vowel letter "e", placed before the substantial vowel
• categorizes the other front-round vowel (an underdeveloped one) as a short "o".
• does not use the consonant "j", which is used in traditional Cantonese anglicization as "z" instead of "y" (as in Jyutping).

In terms of practicality and visual esthetics Jyutping is not a clumsy or ugly system.

Drawing a parallel between Cantonese and Japanese, Penkyamp is analogous to the Nihon system, whereas Jyutping to the Hepburn system.

The following descriptions applies to Penkyamp.

Table of contents 1 Alphabet 2 Yunmus 3 Orthography 4 Tones 5 Sample 6 External Links

Alphabet

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P (q) S T U W Y Z

Shengmus[?] (Consonants aided by International Phonetic Alphabets. In order to see proper display of IPA, you must download a Unicode font)

• B [p] unaspirated
• C [ts'] aspirated
• D [t] un...
• F [f]
• G [k] un...
• H [h]
• K [k'] asp...
• L [l]
• M [m]
• N [n]
• P [p'] asp...
• S [s]
• T [t'] asp...
• W [w]
• Y [j]
• Z [ts] un...

---

Special Attention

• C is [ts'] as "tz" in Politzer.
• Z [tz] is the unaspirated form of C.
• q is a glottal stop, Arabic "hamsa", as it appears in Cantonese interjection lâq, which is interchangeable with lâg.

Yunmus

Vowels:

• long: A E I O U Eo Eu
• short: Ah Eh Oh
• diphthongs1: Ai Oi Ui Au Iu Ay Ey Oy Aw Ow
• diphthongs2: single vowels and diphthongs1 preceded by semi-vowel u, such as uay as in guây (expensive)

Yunmus aided by International Phonetic Symbols

long

• A [a] ("a" alone or followed by "g", "b", "d", "ng", "m", "n", "i", "u")
• E [ɛ] open-mid front unrounded
• I [i]
• O [ɔ]open-mid back rounded
• U [u]
• Eo [ɶ] open-mid front rounded
• Eu [y]

short

• Ah [ɠ]open-mid back unrounded ("a" followed by "h", "k", "p", "t", "nk", "mp", "nt", "y", "w")
• Eh [e] close-mid front unrounded ("e" followed by above)
• Oh [o] close-mid back rounded ("o" followed by above)

diphthongs

• Ai [ai]
• Oi [ɔy]
• Ui [uy]
• Au [au]
• Iu [iw]
• Ay [ɠj]
• Ey [ej]
• Oy [øy] (ø is mid-close front rounded)
• Aw [ɠu]
• Ow [ow]

Short vowels are those in short yunmus, and long vowels in long yunmus. All short vowels are pronounced with tighter, smaller enclosure of lips than are their long counterparts.

Orthography

Long yunmus followed by consonants:

• Ru:
  • Ab Ad Ag
• Ping/shang/qu:
  • Am An Ang
  • Eg Eng
  • Ib Id Im In
  • Od Og On Ong
  • Ud Un

Short yunmus followed by consonants:

• Ru:
  • Ap At Ak
• P/S/Q:
  • Amp Ant Ank
  • Ek Enk
  • Ot Ok Ont Onk

Tones

1. Yin1Ping2 or high Yin1Ru4 (Yamp1Penk4 cum high Yamp1Yap6): a1, ä (umlaut)
2. Yin1Shang3(Yamp1Seong5): a2, ã (tilde)
3. Yin1Qu4 or low Yin1Ru4 (Yamp1Hoy3 cum low Yamp1Yap6): a3, â (circumflex)
4. Yang2Ping2(Yeong4Penk4): a4, a (plain)
5. Yang2Shang3(Yeong4Seong5): a5, á (acute)
6. Yang2Qu4(Yeong4Hoy3): a6, à (grave)

6 tones represented by numerical scales of pitch, "1" being the lowest, "6" the highest"

• First: "Zäw" tone, scale= 66
• Second: "Hãw" tone, scale= 35
• Third: "Dîm" tone, scale= 44
• Fourth: "Ho" tone, scale= 11
• Fifth: "Mów", scale=24
• Sixth: "Dòw", scale=22

Either the tone numbers 1-6 or the diacritic marks may be used

• note: a shortcut for memorizing all 6 of them is a couplet:

Zaw1 Haw2 Dim3, Ho4 Mow2 Dow6

Zhou1 Kou3 Dian4, He2 Mu3 Du4 (Mandarin)

(周口店, 河姆渡)

Zhoukoudian is an archeological site near Beijing containing a 500,000 year old Homo Erectus habitat; Hemudu is a Zhejiang archeological site of Neolithic human activities

Sample

Text sample in the Standard Cantonese Penk3yamp1 (simplified chinese text are place holders for now):

trad.[?]	simp.	pinyin	Penkyamp	meaning
北京	北京	Bei3 jing1	Bak1 genk1	Beijing
花	花	Hua1	Fa1	flower
寫	寫	Xie3	Se3	write
字	字	Zi4	Zi6	chinese character
我	我	Wo3	Ngo5	I, me
湖	湖	Hu2	Wu4	lake
靴	靴	Xue1	Heo1	boot
柱	柱	Zhu4	Ceu5	pillar
t	s	ba4	lah1	one of the interjections at the end of a sentence
壞	壞	Huai4	Wai6	bad
外	外	Wai4	Ngoi6	outside
背	背	Bei4	Bui3	back
教	教	Jiao1	Gau3	teach
腰	腰	Yao1	Yiu1	waist
肺	肺	Fei4	Fay3	lung
地	地	Di4	Dey6	ground
t	s	Zhui1	Zoy1	persue
狗	狗	Gou3	Gaw2	dog
路	路	Lu4	Low6	road
鴨	鴨	Ya1	Ngab3	duck
殺	殺	Sha1	Sad3	kill
百	百	Bai3	Bag3	hundred
三	三	San1	Sam1	three
慢	慢	Man4	Man6	slow
行	行	Xing2	Hang4	walk
劇	劇	Ju4	Keg6	drama
鏡	鏡	Jing4	Geng3	mirror
頁	頁	Ye4	Yib6	page
熱	熱	Re4	Yid6	hot
劍	劍	Jian4	Gim3	sword
線	線	Xian4	Sin3	thread
渴	渴	Ke3	Hod3	thirst
國	國	Guo2	Guog3	state,nation
岸	岸	An4	Ngon6	shore
幫	幫	Bang1	Bong1	help
活	活	Huo2	Wud6	to live
換	換	Huan4	Wun6	exchange, replace
急	急	Ji2	Gap1	hasty
失	失	Shi1	Sat1	lost
得	得	De2	Dak1	gain
心	心	Xin1	Samp1	heart
新	新	Xin1	Sant1	new
生	生	Sheng1	Sank1	student
食	食	Shi2	Sek6	to eat
精	精	Jing1	Zenk1	essence
出	出	Chu1	Cot1	outside
哭	哭	Ku1	Hok1	to cry, weep
信	信	Xin4	Sont3	to trust
中	中	Zhong1	Zonk1	middle

External Links

• Jyutping scheme (http://www.hku.hk/linguist/lshk/Jyutping/scheme.html)
• Jyutping (http://www.chinalanguage.com/CCDICT/Support/jyutpin.php)