Yale romanization of Cantonese

The Yale romanization of Cantonese was developed by Gerard P. Kok for his and Parker Po-fei Huang's textbook Speak Cantonese initially circulated in looseleaf form in 1952^[1] but later published in 1958.^[2] Unlike the Yale romanization of Mandarin, it is still widely used in books and dictionaries, especially for foreign learners of Cantonese. It shares some similarities with Hanyu Pinyin in that unvoiced, unaspirated consonants are represented by letters traditionally used in English and most other European languages to represent voiced sounds. For example, [p] is represented as b in Yale, whereas its aspirated counterpart, [pʰ] is represented as p.^[3] Students attending The Chinese University of Hong Kong's New-Asia Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center are taught using Yale romanization.^[4]

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
j [ts] 渣	ch [tsʰ] 叉		s [s] 沙	y [j] 也

Finals

a [aː] 沙	aai [aːi̯] 晒	aau [aːu̯] 筲	aam [aːm] 三	aan [aːn] 山	aang [aːŋ] 省	aap [aːp] 圾	aat [aːt] 殺	aak [aːk] 客
	ai [ɐi̯] 西	au [ɐu̯] 收	am [ɐm] 心	an [ɐn] 新	ang [ɐŋ] 生	ap [ɐp] 十	at [ɐt] 失	ak [ɐk] 塞
e [ɛː] 些	ei [ei̯] 四				eng [ɛːŋ] 聲			ek [ɛːk] 石
i [iː] 司		iu [iːu̯] 消	im [iːm] 閃	in [iːn] 先	ing [eŋ] 星	ip [iːp] 攝	it [iːt] 舌	ik [ek] 色
o [ɔː] 蔬	oi [ɔːy̯] 鰓	ou [ou̯] 酥		on [ɔːn] 看	ong [ɔːŋ] 康		ot [ɔːt] 割	ok [ɔːk] 各
u [uː] 夫	ui [uːy̯] 灰			un [uːn] 寬	ung [oŋ] 風		ut [uːt] 闊	uk [ok] 福
eu [œː] 靴	eui [ɵy̯] 去			eun [ɵn] 信	eung [œːŋ] 上		eut [ɵt] 摔	euk [œːk] 削
yu [yː] 書				yun [yːn] 孫			yut [yːt] 雪
			m [m̩] 唔		ng [ŋ̩] 吳

Only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables.

Tones

Graphical representation of the 6 tones of Cantonese.

Modern Cantonese has six phonetic tones. Cantonese Yale represents these tones using a combination of diacritics and the letter h.^[5]^[6] Traditional Chinese linguistics treats the tones in syllables ending with a stop consonant as separate "entering tones". Cantonese Yale follows modern linguistic conventions in treating these the same as tones 1, 3 and 6, respectively.

No.	Description	Chao tone number	Yale representation
1	high-flat	55	sī	sīn	sīk
2	mid-rising	35	sí	sín
3	mid-flat	33	si	sin	sik
4	low-falling	21	sìh	sìhn
5	low-rising	23	síh	síhn
6	low-flat	22	sih	sihn	sihk

Examples

Traditional	Simplified	Romanization using Tone Marks	Romanization using Numbers
廣州話	广州话	Gwóngjāuwá	Gwong²jau¹wa²
粵語	粤语	Yuhtyúh	Yut⁶yu⁵
你好		Néih hóu	Nei⁵ hou²

Sample transcription of one of the 300 Tang Poems by Meng Haoran:

春曉孟浩然	Chēun Híu Maahng Houh Yìhn
春眠不覺曉，	Chēun mìhn bāt gok híu,
處處聞啼鳥。	chyu chyu màhn tàih níuh.
夜來風雨聲，	yeh lòih fūng yúh sīng,
花落知多少？	fā lohk jī dō síu?

References

↑ Huang, Parker Po-fei (1965). Cantonese Sounds and Tones. New Haven, CT: Far Eastern Publications, Yale University. p. Foreword.
↑ The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language, p. 40.
↑ "Cantonese". Omniglot. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
↑ "CUHK Teaching Materials". Retrieved 2016-10-27.
↑ Ng Lam & Chik 2000: 515. "Appendix 3: Tones. The student of Cantonese will be well aware of the importance of tones in conveying meaning. Basically, there are seven tones which, in the Yale system, are represented by the use of diacritics and by the insertion of h for ..."
↑ Gwaan 2000: 7. "Basically, there are seven tones which, in the Yale system, are represented by the use of diacritics and by the insertion of h for the three low tones. The following chart will illustrate the seven tones: 3 Mid Level, 1 High Level, 5 Low Falling, 6 Low Level..."

External links

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[1] Huang, Parker Po-fei (1965). Cantonese Sounds and Tones. New Haven, CT: Far Eastern Publications, Yale University. p. Foreword.

[2] The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language, p. 40.

[3] "Cantonese". Omniglot. Retrieved 2016-10-27.

[4] "CUHK Teaching Materials". Retrieved 2016-10-27.

[5] Ng Lam & Chik 2000: 515. "Appendix 3: Tones. The student of Cantonese will be well aware of the importance of tones in conveying meaning. Basically, there are seven tones which, in the Yale system, are represented by the use of diacritics and by the insertion of h for ..."

[6] Gwaan 2000: 7. "Basically, there are seven tones which, in the Yale system, are represented by the use of diacritics and by the insertion of h for the three low tones. The following chart will illustrate the seven tones: 3 Mid Level, 1 High Level, 5 Low Falling, 6 Low Level..."