Jyutping

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Jyutping
Jyutping Romanization
Traditional Chinese	粵拼
Simplified Chinese	粤拼
Jyutping	Jyut6ping3
Cantonese Yale	Yuhtping
Literal meaning	Yue (i.e. Cantonese) spelling
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yuèpīn Bopomofo ㄩㄝˋ　ㄆㄧㄣ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Yuehpin Wade–Giles Yüeh⁴-pʽin¹ IPA [ɥê.pʰín] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Yuhtping Jyutping Jyut6ping3 Canton Romanization yüd6 ping3 IPA [jỳːt̚.pʰēŋ]

This article is part of the series on the
Cantonese language
Yue Chinese
Grammar
Measure words Pronouns
Orthography
Cantonese Braille Cantonese Bopomofo Cantonese Pinyin Yale romanization of Cantonese Jyutping
Phonology
Nasal-stop alternation Wikipedia IPA for Cantonese
v t

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.

Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK advocates for and promotes the use of this romanisation system.

The name Jyutping (itself the Jyutping romanisation of its Chinese name, 粵拼) is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5 (粵語, meaning "Yue language") and ping3jam1 (拼音 "phonetic alphabet", also pronounced as "pinyin" in Mandarin).

Despite being a romanisation system to indicate pronunciations, some enthusiasts actually employ Jyutping to explore writing Cantonese as an alphabetic language, elevating it from its assistive status to a written language in effect.

Chinese romanization
Mandarin
Standard Beijing Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin (ISO standard) EFEO Gwoyeu Romatzyh Spelling conventions Latinxua Sin Wenz Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II Postal romanization Tongyong Pinyin Wade–Giles Yale romanization Lessing-Othmer Legge romanization Simplified Wade Comparison chart
Sichuanese Sichuanese Pinyin Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz
Wu
General Wu Romanization of Wu Chinese
Wenzhounese Wenzhounese romanization
Yue
Cantonese Jyutping Yale romanization Guangdong Romanization Hong Kong Government Macau Government Meyer–Wempe Sidney Lau S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols) S. L. Wong (romanization) Cantonese Pinyin Standard Romanization Barnett–Chao Comparison chart
Min
Taiwanese, Amoy and related Pe̍h-ōe-jī Modern Literal Taiwanese Phofsit Daibuun Habhunwe Latinxua Sin Bhundzi Bbánlám pìngyīm Daighi tongiong pingim TLPA Tâi-lô Comparison chart
Teochew Peng'im Pe̍h-ūe-jī
Fuzhounese Foochow Romanized Fuzhou Transliteration Scheme
Minbei Kienning Colloquial Romanized
Putianese Hinghwa Romanized
Hainanese Hainan Romanized (Haikou dialect) Hainanese Transliteration Scheme (Wenchang dialect)
Gan
Chang-Du dialect Pinfa Pha̍k-oa-chhi
Hakka
Meixian dialect Pinfa Hagfa Pinyim
Sixian dialect Pha̍k-fa-sṳ TLPA
Xiang
Chang–Yi dialects Pinfa
See also
Other transliterations General Chinese Cyrillization Xiao'erjing 'Phags-pa script Bopomofo Taiwanese kana Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols Mongolian transliteration of Chinese characters Manchu transliteration Transcription into Chinese
By place Romanization in Hong Kong Romanization in Singapore Romanization in Taiwan
v t

History[]

The Jyutping system^[1] marks a departure 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, the Jyutping system was updated to include the -a and -oet finals, to reflect syllables recognized to be part of Cantonese phonology in 1997 by the Jyutping Work Group of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.^[3]

Initials[]

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[]

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]		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.
• ^ ^ ^ Referring to the colloquial pronunciation of these words.
• ^ Used for elided words in casual speech such as a⁶ in 四十四 (sei³a⁶ sei³), elided from sei³ sap⁶ sei³.^[3]
• ^ Used for onomatopoeias such as oet6 for belching or goet4 for snoring.

Tones[]

There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese. However, as three of the nine are entering tones (Chinese: 入聲; Jyutping: jap6sing1), 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」or “Feng Shui [dictates that] we will be lucky.”

Tone name	jam1ping4 (陰平)	jam1soeng5 (陰上)	jam1heoi3 (陰去)	joeng4ping4 (陽平)	joeng4soeng5 (陽上)	joeng4heoi3 (陽去)	gou1jam1jap6 (高陰入)	dai1jam1jap6 (低陰入)	joeng4jap6 (陽入)
Tone number	1	2	3	4	5	6	1 (7)	3 (8)	6 (9)
The tone name 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
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
Example	fan1／si1	fan2／si2	fan3／si3	fan4／si4	fan5／si5	fan6／si6	fat1/7／sik1/7	faat3/8／sek3/8	fat6/9／sik6/9

Comparison with Yale romanisation[]

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 three finals not in Yale: eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/. These three 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[]

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[]

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[]

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 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.

List of Jyutping keyboard input utilities[]

• Online Jyutping Input Method (網上粵拼輸入法)
• MDBG Type Chinese
• Red Dragonfly (紅蜻蜓粵語��音詞語輸入法)
• LSHK Jyutping for Macintosh Mac OS X and OS 9 (The page also includes Yale input version 0.2)
• Hong Kong Cantonese 2010 (via Microsoft Office IME 2010)
• Canton Easy Input (粵語拼音輸入法)
• Cantonese Phonetic IME (廣東話拼音輸入法) (also called 'Cantonese Phonetic IME (CPIME) Jyutping' in Windows 10^[5])
• RIME (小狼毫輸入法引擎)
• Gboard

See also[]

• Cantonese phonology

Footnotes[]

Further reading[]

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

External links[]

• Jyutping Pronunciation Guide
• 粵語拼盤: Learning the phonetic system of Cantonese
• Chinese Character Database (Phonologically Disambiguated According to the Cantonese Dialect)
• The CantoDict Project is a dedicated Cantonese-Mandarin-English online dictionary which uses Jyutping by default
• MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary (supports both Jyutping and Yale romanization)