Standard Cantonese Pinyin

Standard Cantonese Pinyin is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by Yu Bingzhao in 1971, and subsequently modified by the Education Department and Zhan Bohui . It was used by ''Tongyin zihui'' , ''Cantonese Pronunciation list of Chinese Characters in Common Use'' , ''Dictionary of Standard Cantonese Pronunciation'' , and ''List of Chinese Characters in Common Use for Primary education'' . It is the only romanization system accepted by Education and Manpower Bureau of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.

Note that the formal and short forms of the system’s Chinese names mean respectively “the ''Cantonese Pronunciation list of Chinese Characters in Common Use'' romanization system” and “the romanization system of the Education Bureau”.

Pinyin System

The Standard Cantonese Pinyin system directly corresponds to the , an -based phonemic transcription system used in ''A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton'' by Wong Shik Ling. Generally, if an IPA symbol is also an , the same symbol is used directly in the romanization ; and if the IPA symbol is not an English letter, it is romanized using English letters. Thus, →aa, →a, →e, →o, /?/→oe, →ng. This results in a system which is both easy to learn and type, but at the same time still useful for academics.

In the following table, the first row inside a square shows the Standard Cantonese Pinyin, the second row shows a representative “narrow transcription” in IPA, while the third row shows the corresponding IPA “broad transcription” using the S. L. Wong system.

Initials

Finals

* The finals ''m'' and ''ng'' can only be used as standalone syllables.

Tones

Standard Cantonese has nine in six distinct tone contours.

Compare with Yale Romanization

Standard Cantonese Pinyin 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''.
* The nasal consonant: ''m'', ''ng''.
* The : ''i'' , ''u'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ng'', ''p'', ''t'', ''k''.
But they have difference with the following exceptions:
* The vowels ''oe'' represent and in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while the ''eu'' represents both vowels in Yale.
* The vowel ''y'' represent in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while both ''yu'' and ''i'' is used in Yale.
* The ''j'' represents in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while ''y'' is used instead in Yale.
* The initial ''dz'' represents in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while ''j'' is used instead in Yale.
* The initial ''ts'' represents in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while ''ch'' is used instead in Yale.
* In Standard Cantonese Pinyin, if no consonant precedes the vowel ''y'', then the initial ''j'' is appended before the vowel. In Yale, the corresponding initial ''yu'' is never appended before ''yu'' under any circumstances.
* Some new s can be written in Standard Cantonese Pinyin is not contained in Yale romanization schemes, such as: ''eu'' , ''em'' , and ''ep'' . These three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as ''deu6'' , ''lem2'' , and ''gep9'' .
* To represent s, only tone numbers are used in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while Yale originally uses tone marks together with the letter ''h'' .

Compare with Jyutping

Standard Cantonese Pinyin and Jyutping 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 difference with the following exceptions:
* 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 s, number 1 to 9 are usually used in Standard Cantonese Pinyin, although use 1, 3, 6 to replace 7, 8, 9 is acceptable. However, only number 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.

Examples

Try to write an old Chinese poem: