Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK promotes the use of this romanization system.

The name ''Jyutping'' is a consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms ''jyut jyu'' and ''ping jam'' .


Note that the "j" used by this romanization system is the "j" used by IPA, which is equivalent to the "y" used by English speakers or most Chinese romanization systems.

Jyutping input method is the only Cantonese input method available in Microsoft's products.

Initials

Finals

* The finals ''m'' and ''ng'' can only be used as standalone syllables.
* Referring to the colloquial pronunciation of these words.

Tones

There are nine in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese. However, as three of the nine are tones , which only appear in syllables ending with ''p'', ''t'', and ''k'', they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping .

Comparison with Yale Romanization

Jyutping and the represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
* The s: ''b'', ''p'', ''m'', ''f'', ''d'', ''t'', ''n'', ''l'', ''g'', ''k'', ''ng'', ''h'', ''s'', ''gw'', ''kw'', ''w''.
* The vowel: ''aa'' , ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u'',''yu''.
* The nasal consonant: ''m'', ''ng''.
* The : ''i'', ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''.
But they have difference with the following exceptions:
* The vowels ''eo'' and ''oe'' represent and respectively in Jyutping, while the ''eu'' represents both vowels in Yale.
* The ''j'' represents in Jyutping while ''y'' is used instead in Yale.
* The initial ''z'' represents in Jyutping while ''j'' is used instead in Yale.
* The initial ''c'' represents in Jyutping while ''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 three s not in Yale: ''eu'' , ''em'' , and ''ep'' . These three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as ''deu6'' , ''lem2'' , and ''gep6'' .
* To represent s, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping while Yale originally uses tone marks together with the letter ''h'' .

Comparison with Standard Cantonese Pinyin

Jyutping and the Standard Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
* The s: ''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 consonant: ''m'', ''ng''.
* The : ''i'' , ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''.
But they have some differences:
* The vowels ''oe'' represent and in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while the ''eo'' and ''oe'' represent and respectively in Jyutping.
* The vowel ''y'' represent in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while both ''yu'' and ''i'' is used in Jyutping.
* The initial ''dz'' represents in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while ''z'' is used instead in Jyutping.
* The initial ''ts'' represents in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while ''c'' is used instead in Jyutping.
* To represent , numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Standard Cantonese Pinyin , though substituting 1, 3, and 6 for 7, 8, and 9 is acceptable. However, only numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.

Examples

Try to write an old Chinese poem:

Jyutping input method

The Jyutping method refers to a family of based on the Jyutping romanization system.

The Jyutping method allows a user to input Chinese characters by entering the jyutping of a Chinese character and then presenting the user with a list of possible characters with that pronunciation.

List of Cantonese phonetic methods

*
*
*
* for Macintosh Mac OS X
*
* for Macintosh Mac OS X and OS 9
*
*
*
*
*