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Jyutping

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Jyutping
Jyutping Romanization
Traditional Chinese粵拼
Simplified Chinese粤拼
Jyutpingjyut6 ping3
Cantonese YaleYuhtping
Literal meaningYue (i.e. Cantonese) spelling
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinYuèpīn
Bopomofoㄩㄝˋ　ㄆㄧㄣ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhYuehpin
Wade–GilesYüeh4-pʻin1
Tongyong PinyinYuè-pin
IPA[ɥê.pʰín]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationYuhtping
Jyutpingjyut6 ping3
Canton Romanizationyüd6 ping3
IPA[jyt̚˨.pʰɪŋ˧]
This article is part of the series on the
Cantonese language
Yue Chinese
Grammar
Phonology
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme,[note 1] also known as Jyutping, is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK).

The name Jyutping (itself the Jyutping romanisation of its Chinese name, 粵拼) is a contraction of the official name, and it consists of the first Chinese characters of the terms jyut6 jyu5 (粵語, meaning "Yue language") and ping3 jam1 (拼音 "phonetic alphabet", also pronounced as "pinyin" in Mandarin).

Despite being intended as a system to indicate pronunciation, it has also been employed in writing Cantonese as an alphabetic language—in effect, elevating Jyutping from its assistive status to a written language.

Transliteration of Chinese
Mandarin
Modern Standard Mandarin
Late imperial Mandarin
Sichuanese
Wu
General Wu
Wenzhounese
Yue
Cantonese
Min
Hokkien
Teochew
Fuzhounese
Northern Min
Pu-Xian Min
Hainanese
Shao–Jiang Min
Gan
Chang-Du
Hakka
Meixian
Sixian
Xiang
Chang–Yi
Polylectal
General Chinese
See also
Other transliterations
By place

History

[edit]

The Jyutping system[1] departs from all previous Cantonese romanisation systems (approximately 12, including Robert Morrison's pioneering work of 1828, and the widely used Standard Romanization, Yale and Sidney Lau systems) by introducing z and c initials and the use of eo and oe in finals, as well as replacing the initial y, used in all previous systems, with j.[2]

In 2018, it was updated to include the -a and -oet finals, to reflect syllables recognized as part of Cantonese phonology in 1997 by the Jyutping Work Group of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.[3]

Initials

[edit]
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
/kʷʰ/
誇 		w
/w/
蛙
z
/ts/
渣 		c
/tsʰ/
叉 		s
/s/
沙 		j
/j/
也

Finals

[edit]
aa
/aː/
沙 		aai
/aːi̯/
徙 		aau
/aːu̯/
梢 		aam
/aːm/
三 		aan
/aːn/
山 		aang
/aːŋ/
坑 		aap
/aːp̚/
圾 		aat
/aːt̚/
剎 		aak
/aːk̚/
客
a
/ɐ/
[1] 		ai
/ɐi̯/
西 		au
/ɐu̯/
收 		am
/ɐm/
心 		an
/ɐn/
新 		ang
/ɐŋ/
笙 		ap
/ɐp̚/
濕 		at
/ɐt̚/
失 		ak
/ɐk̚/
塞
e
/ɛː/
些 		ei
/ei̯/
四 		eu
/ɛːu̯/
掉[2] 		em
/ɛːm/
舐[3] 		  eng
/ɛːŋ/
鄭 		ep
/ɛːp̚/
夾[4] 		et
/ɛːt̚/
噼 		ek
/ɛːk̚/
石
i
/iː/
詩 		  iu
/iːu̯/
消 		im
/iːm/
閃 		in
/iːn/
先 		ing
/ɪŋ/
星 		ip
/iːp̚/
攝 		it
/iːt̚/
洩 		ik
/ɪk/
識
o
/ɔː/
疏 		oi
/ɔːy̯/
開 		ou
/ou̯/
蘇 		  on
/ɔːn/
看 		ong
/ɔːŋ/
康 		  ot
/ɔːt̚/
喝 		ok
/ɔːk̚/
索
u
/uː/
夫 		ui
/uːy̯/
灰 		    un
/uːn/
寬 		ung
/ʊŋ/
鬆 		  ut
/uːt̚/
闊 		uk
/ʊk/
叔
  eoi
/ɵy̯/
需 		    eon
/ɵn/
詢 		    eot
/ɵt̚/
摔 		 
oe
/œː/
鋸 		        oeng
/œːŋ/
商 		  oet
/œːt̚/
[5] 		oek
/œːk̚/
削
yu
/yː/
書 		      yun
/yːn/
孫 		    yut
/yːt̚/
雪 		 
      m
/m̩/
唔 		  ng
/ŋ̩/
吳 		     
  • Only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables.
  • ^ Used for elided words in casual speech such as a6 in 四十四 (sei3 a6 sei3), elided from sei3 sap6 sei3.[3]
  • ^ ^ ^ Referring to the colloquial pronunciation of these words.
  • ^ Used for onomatopoeias such as oet6 for belching or goet4 for snoring.

Tones

[edit]
Main article: Cantonese phonology § Tones

There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese. However, as three of the nine are entering tones (入聲; jap6 sing1), which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping (though they do in Cantonese Pinyin; these are shown in parentheses in the table below). A mnemonic which some use to remember this is 「風水到時我哋必發達」; fung1 seoi2 dou3 si4 ngo5 dei6 bit1 faat3 daat6 or "Feng Shui [dictates that] we will be lucky."

Tone name jam1 ping4
(陰平) 		jam1 soeng5
(陰上) 		jam1 heoi3
(陰去) 		joeng4 ping4
(陽平) 		joeng4 soeng5
(陽上) 		joeng4 heoi3
(陽去) 		gou1 jam1 jap6
(高陰入) 		dai1 jam1 jap6
(低陰入) 		joeng4 jap6
(陽入)
(In English) high level or high falling mid rising mid level low falling low rising low level entering high level entering mid level entering low level
Tone number 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 (7) 3 (8) 6 (9)
Contour[4] ˥ 55 ˥˧ 53 ˧˥ 35 ˧ 33 ˨˩ 21 ˩ 11 ˩˧ 13 ˨ 22 ˥ 5 ˧ 3 ˨ 2
Character example 分 詩 粉 史 訓 試 焚 時 奮 市 份 是 忽 識 發 錫 佛 食
fan1 si1 fan2 si2 fan3 si3 fan4 si4 fan5 si5 fan6 si6 fat1 sik1 faat3 sek3 fat6 sik6

Comparison with Yale romanisation

[edit]

Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:

  • The initials: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw, w.
  • The vowel: aa (except when used alone), a, e, i, o, u, yu.
  • The nasal stop: m, ng.
  • The coda: i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k.

But they differ in the following:

  • The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, whereas the eu represents both vowels in Yale.
  • The initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale.
  • The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale.
  • The initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale.
  • In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel. In Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances.
  • Jyutping defines five finals not in Yale: a /ɐ/, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, ep /ɛːp/, oet /œːt/. These finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6 (掉), lem2 (舐), and gep6 (夾).
  • To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h (though tone numbers can be used in Yale as well).

Comparison with Cantonese pinyin

[edit]

Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:

  • The initials: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw, j, w.
  • The vowel: aa, a, e, i, o, u.
  • The nasal stop: m, ng.
  • The coda: i (except for its use in the coda /y/ in Jyutping; see below), u, m, n, ng, p, t, k.

But they have some differences:

  • The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping.
  • The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu (used in the nucleus) and i (used in the coda of the final -eoi) are used in Jyutping.
  • The initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping.
  • The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping.
  • To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, although the use of 1, 3, 6 to replace 7, 8, 9 for the checked tones is acceptable. However, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.

Examples

[edit]
Traditional Simplified Romanization
廣州話 广州话 gwong2 zau1 waa2
粵語 粤语 jyut6 jyu5
你好 你好 nei5 hou2

Sample transcription of one of the 300 Tang Poems:

春曉
孟浩然		 ceon1 hiu2
maang6 hou6 jin4
春眠不覺曉， ceon1 min4 bat1 gok3 hiu2,
處處聞啼鳥。 cyu3 cyu3 man4 tai4 niu5.
夜來風雨聲， je6 loi4 fung1 jyu5 sing1,
花落知多少？ faa1 lok6 zi1 do1 siu2?

Jyutping input method

[edit]

The Jyutping method (Chinese: 粵拼輸入法) refers to a family of input methods based on the Jyutping romanization system.

The Jyutping method allows a user to input Chinese characters by entering the Jyutping romanization of a Chinese character (with or without tone, depending on the system) and then presenting the user with a list of possible characters with that pronunciation.

As of macOS Ventura, Jyutping input with Traditional Chinese now comes standard on macOS under the name "Phonetic – Cantonese".

List of Jyutping keyboard input utilities

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ Chinese: 香港語言學學會粵語拼音方案; Jyutping: hoeng1 gong2 jyu5 jin4 hok6 hok6 wui2 jyut6 jyu5 ping3 jam1 fong1 on3

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "The Jyutping Scheme". The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 26 April 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  2. ^ Kataoka, Shin; Lee, Cream (2008). "A System without a System: Cantonese Romanization Used in Hong Kong Place and Personal Names". Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics: 94–98.
  3. ^ a b Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. "Jyutping Cantonese Romanization Scheme 粵拼方案制定的背景". Archived from the original on 2024-03-16. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  4. ^ Matthews, S.; Yip, V. Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar; London: Routledge, 1994
  5. ^ FAQ: How to select Cantonese Phonetic IME (CPIME) in Windows 10

Further reading

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  • Zee, Eric (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN 0521652367.
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