Yale romanization of Cantonese

Yale
Yale
Traditional Chinese	耶魯
Simplified Chinese	耶鲁
Cantonese Yale	yèh lóuh
Yale Romanization
Transcriptions
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	yèh lóuh
Jyutping	je4 lou5
IPA	[jɛ˩ lɔw˩˧]

The Yale romanization of Cantonese was developed by Yale scholar 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]

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.

Some enthusiasts employ Yale romanisation to explore writing Cantonese as an alphabetic language.^{[citation needed]}

Initials

b [p] 巴ともえ	p [pʰ] 怕	m [m] 媽	f [f] 花はな
d [t] 打だ	t [tʰ] 他た	n [n] 那な		l [l] 啦
g [k] 家いえ	k [kʰ] 卡	ng [ŋ] 牙きば	h [h] 蝦えび
gw [kʷ] 瓜ふり	kw [kʷʰ] 誇ほこ			w [w] 蛙かえる
j [ts] 渣	ch [tsʰ] 叉また		s [s] 沙すな	y [j] 也

Finals

a [aː] 沙すな	aai [aːi̯] 晒さらし	aau [aːu̯] 筲	aam [aːm] 三さん	aan [aːn] 山やま	aang [aːŋ] 省しょう	aap [aːp̚] 圾	aat [aːt̚] 殺ころせ	aak [aːk̚] 客きゃく
	ai [ɐi̯] 西にし	au [ɐu̯] 收おさむ	am [ɐm] 心しん	an [ɐn] 新しん	ang [ɐŋ] 生せい	ap [ɐp̚] 十じゅう	at [ɐt̚] 失しつ	ak [ɐk̚] 塞ふさが
e [ɛː] 些	ei [ei̯] 四よん				eng [ɛːŋ] 聲こえ			ek [ɛːk̚] 石いし
i [iː] 司つかさ		iu [iːu̯] 消けし	im [iːm] 閃	in [iːn] 先さき	ing [ɪŋ] 星ほし	ip [iːp̚] 攝と	it [iːt̚] 舌した	ik [ɪk̚] 色いろ
o [ɔː] 蔬	oi [ɔːy̯] 鰓えら	ou [ou̯] 酥		on [ɔːn] 看み	ong [ɔːŋ] 康かん		ot [ɔːt̚] 割わり	ok [ɔːk̚] 各かく
u [uː] 夫おっと	ui [uːy̯] 灰はい			un [uːn] 寬ひろし	ung [ʊŋ] 風ふう		ut [uːt̚] 闊	uk [ʊk̚] 福ぶく
eu [œː] 靴くつ	eui [ɵy̯] 去さ			eun [ɵn] 信しん	eung [œːŋ] 上うえ		eut [ɵt̚] 摔	euk [œːk̚] 削そぎ
yu [yː] 書しょ				yun [yːn] 孫まご			yut [yːt̚] 雪ゆき
			m [m̩] 唔		ng [ŋ̩] 吳ご

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

Tones

Graphical representation of the tones of six-tone Cantonese.

Modern Cantonese has up to seven phonemic 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 the high-flat, mid-flat and low-flat tones, respectively.

No.	Description	IPA & Chao tone numbers	Yale representation
1	high-flat	˥ 55	sī	sīn	sīk
1	high-falling	˥˨ 52	sì	sìn
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
廣州こうしゅう話ばなし	广州话	gwóng jàu wá
粵語	粤语	yuht yúh
你好		néih hóu

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

春曉しゅんぎょう孟はじめ浩然こうぜん	chēun híu maahng houh yìhn
春眠しゅんみん不覺ふかく曉あかつき，	chēun mìhn bāt gok híu,
處處ところどころ聞啼鳥とり。	chyu chyu màhn tàih níuh.
夜來やらい風雨ふうう聲ごえ，	yeh lòih fūng yúh sīng,
花落はなおち知ち多少たしょう？	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

[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..."

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