Introduction

There are many romanization schemes for Cantonese. One of the most difficult things for learners is to handle the multiple systems. Unfortunately there has been no well-established standard like Hanyu Pinyin. Here's a brief listing of common schemes:

* Yale: Used by many textbooks for second language learners of Cantonese. It is easily recognized by the use of a silent "h" to represent syllables that have tones in the low register and the use of tone diacritics similar to Hanyu Pinyin. This website uses a version that was modified by Matthews and Yip (1994). * Sidney Lau: Another method based on the Yale system that has been used in textbooks but not as popular as Yale. * Jyutping: Promoted by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong to be the standard romanization scheme. One of the pluses of this scheme is that it only uses the letters of the English alphabet and numbers. Thus, it is easy to type. But few people have adopted this system and it has some characteristics which makes it unintuitive to English speakers. * IPA: Also known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. This is a romanization system used by linguists and is designed to transcribe any language in the world. Because it is a stadard system, it can be useful to compare other romanization schemes to. However, it does not make the ideal system for learners because it often requires memorizing more symbols than needed. * Hong Kong Government:Not suitable for foreign language training because there is no one to one mapping of sounds and symbols. Nevertheless, this is the romanization you will see on street signs and place names in Hong Kong.

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Comparitive Chart of Romanization Schemes

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Initials

Yale	Sidney Lau	Jyutping	IPA
b	b	b	p
p	p	p	pʰ
m	m	m	m
f	f	f	f
d	d	d	t
t	t	t	tʰ
n	n	n	n
l	l	l	l
g	g	g	k
k	k	k	kʰ
ng	ng	ng	ŋ
h	h	h	h
j	j	z	ts
ch	ch	c	tsʰ
s	s	s	s
gw	gw	gw	kw
kw	kw	kw	kʰw
y	y	j	j
w	w	w	w

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Finals

Yale	Sidney Lau	Jyutping	IPA
aa	aa	aa	ɑː
aai	aai	aai	ɑːi
aau	aau	aau	ɑːu
aam	aam	aam	ɑːm
aan	aan	aan	ɑːn
aang	aang	aang	ɑːŋ
aap	aap	aap	ɑːp
aat	aat	aat	ɑːt
aak	aak	aak	ɑːk
ai	ai	ai	ɐi
au	au	au	ɐu
am	am	am	ɐm
an	an	an	ɐn
ang	ang	ang	ɐŋ
ap	ap	ap	ɐp
at	at	at	ɐt
ak	ak	ak	ɐk
e	e	e	ɛː
ei	ei	ei	ei
eng	eng	eng	ɛːŋ
ek	ek	ek	ɛːk
i	i	i	iː
iu	iu	iu	iːu
im	im	im	iːm
in	in	in	iːn
ing	ing	ing	ɪŋ
ip	ip	ip	iːp
it	it	it	iːt
ik	ik	ik	ɪk
o	oh	o	ɔː
oi	oi	oi	ɔːi
ou	o	ou	ɔːu
on	on	on	ɔːn
ong	ong	ong	ɔːŋ
ot	ot	ot	ɔːt
ok	ok	ok	ɔːk
u	oo	u	uː
ui	ooi	ui	uːi
un	un	un	uːn
ung	ung	ung	uːŋ
ut	ut	ut	uːt
uk	uk	uk	uːk
eu	euh	oe	œː
eung	eung	oeng	œːŋ
euk	euk	oek	œːk
eui	ui	eoi	ɵy
eun	un	eon	ɵn
eut	ut	eot	ɵt
yu	ue	yu	yː
yun	uen	yun	yːn
yut	uet	yut	yːt
m	m	m	m̩
ng	ng	ng	ŋ