User:Wikipean/Modified Yale romanization of Cantonese
I suggest a modified version of Yale romanization of Cantonese to improve the original scheme.
Initials
[edit]| 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 |
Additional initials
[edit]Sibilant initials may distinguish their plain and palatalized allophones:
- ch → ts [tsʰ] and ch [tɕʰ]
- j → z [ts] and j [tɕ]
- s → s [s] and sh [ɕ]
Finals
[edit]| aa [aː] 沙 |
aai [aːi̯] 晒 |
aau [aːu̯] 筲 |
aam [aːm] 三 |
aan [aːn] 山 |
aang [aːŋ] 省 |
aap [aːp̚] 圾 |
aat [aːt̚] 殺 |
aak [aːk̚] 客 |
| ai [ɐi̯] 西 |
au [ɐu̯] 收 |
am [ɐm] 心 |
an [ɐn] 新 |
ang [ɐŋ] 生 |
ap [ɐp̚] 十 |
at [ɐt̚] 失 |
ak [ɐk̚] 塞 | |
| e [ɛː] 些 |
ei [ei̯] 四 |
eŭ [ɛːu̯] 掉* |
em [ɛːm] 舐* |
eng [ɛːŋ] 聲 |
ep [ɛːp̚] 夾* |
ek [ɛːk̚] 石 | ||
| i [iː] 司 |
iu [iːu̯] 消 |
im [iːm] 閃 |
in [iːn] 先 |
ing [ɪŋ] 星 |
ip [iːp̚] 攝 |
it [iːt̚] 舌 |
ik [ɪk̚] 色 | |
| o [ɔː] 蔬 |
oi [ɔːy̯] 鰓 |
ou [ou̯] 酥 |
on [ɔːn] 看 |
ong [ɔːŋ] 康 |
ot [ɔːt̚] 割 |
ok [ɔːk̚] 各 | ||
| u [uː] 夫 |
ui [uːy̯] 灰 |
un [uːn] 寬 |
ung [ʊŋ] 風 |
ut [uːt̚] 闊 |
uk [ʊk̚] 福 | |||
| eu [œː] 靴 |
eui [ɵy̯] 去 |
eun [ɵn] 信 |
eung [œːŋ] 上 |
eut [ɵt̚] 摔 |
euk [œːk̚] 削 | |||
| yu [yː] 書 |
yun [yːn] 孫 |
yut [yːt̚] 雪 |
||||||
| m [m̩] 唔 |
ng [ŋ̍] 吳 |
- Chinese characters with an asterisk (*) refer to their colloquial pronunciations.
- Eu represents [œː]~[ɵ]. The colloquial final [ɛːu̯] is represented by eŭ (capital counterpart: EŬ) with the breve (˘).
- Bold letters refer that they are different to original Yale romanization of Cantonese.
- Only the finals m and ng may be used as standalone nasal syllables.
- If a syllable begins with i or u without any initial, y or w should be added before the i or u, respectively (e.g. yī, yīn, wū, wūn).
- [ɪ] and [ʊ] is almost identically pronounced to [e] and [o] in Cantonese. However, they are not merged in this document due to allophones.
Additional finals
[edit]Short allophones of some syllabic vowels may be represented by the breve (˘):
- e → e [ɛː] and ĕ (capital counterpart: Ĕ) [e]
- i → i [iː] and ĭ (capital counterpart: Ĭ) [ɪ]
- o → o [ɔː] and ŏ (capital counterpart: Ŏ) [o]
- u → u [uː] and ŭ (capital counterpart: Ŭ) [ʊ]
Both [yː] and [juː]~[jʊ] is written as yu in Yale. The former may be represented by the umlaut (¨):
- yu → yü (capital counterparts: YÜ) [yː] and yu [juː]~[jʊ]
- The latter may be also distinguished to yu [juː] and yŭ (capital counterpart: YŬ) [jʊ]
Eu may be also distinguished to long/front and short/central allophones like as in Jyutping:
- eu → oe [œː] and eo [ɵ]
Tones
[edit]| No. | Description | IPA & Chao tone numbers |
Yale representation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | high-flat | ˥ 55 | sī | sīn | sīk |
| high-falling | ˥˨ 52 | sì | sìn | ||
| 2 | mid-rising | ˨˥ 25 | 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 |
- Diacritics for tones (ˉ, ` and ´) should be written above syllabic letters (e.g. lē, sēn, hēi, m̀h). If the syllabic letters are digraphs (such as aa, eu/oe/eo, ng), diacritics should be written above the first letter (e.g. māai, ēun/ēon, ēung/ōeng, ǹgh). However, if the syllabic digraph is yu, diacritics should be written above the u exceptionally (e.g. yūn).
- The h is added to syllables of the fourth to sixth tones. The h should be written after the last vowel letter in the syllable. If the final is a standalone syllabic nasal consonant (such as m or ng), the h should be written after the last letter of the syllable (e.g. m̀h, ǹgh).
- Diacritics for tones should be written above other optional diacritics (e.g. sĕ̄i, yǖ).
- By default, the first tone should be written with the macron (ˉ) if it does not needed to distinguish its two allophones (high-flat ˥ 55 and high-falling ˥˨ 52).
Syllable separator
[edit]The apostrophe (’ or ') is the syllable separator for resolving ambiguous situations.
Simplified spellings in handwriting
[edit]
aa, ch/ts, eo/eu/oe, ng and yu/yü/yŭ may be replaced with α (Greek small letter alpha; capital counterpart: α, enlarged Greek small letter alpha; See also Latin alpha), c, ö (capital counterpart: Ö), ŋ (capital counterpart: Ŋ) and ü (capital counterpart: Ü) respectively. The shape of the capital letter Ŋ may be written as both of the capital N with a tail of opentail g and the enlarged ŋ, but the latter is preferrable.
The diacritics with an additional h may be replaced with diacritics below the letters without an additional h:
| No. | Description | IPA & Chao tone numbers |
Simplified Yale | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | low-falling | ˨˩ 21 | si̖ | si̖n | |
| 5 | low-rising | ˨˧ 23 | si̗ | si̗n | |
| 6 | low-flat | ˨ 22 | si̱ | si̱n | si̱k |