Cantonese Pronunciation & Romanization Schemes

Unlike Standard Mandarin, there has never been a globally accepted romanization scheme for modern Cantonese. As a matter of fact, a dozen of different romanization schemes have been developed by various entities ranging from individual linguists to government agencies.^[1] The usage of such romanization schemes also differs widely, ranging from educational publications to official transcriptions and even formal linguistic annotations.

Below is a list of the few most common Cantonese romanization schemes in use to-day. (Despite being a native Cantonese speaker myself, I’m ashame that I cannot even use any of these schemes effortlessly... @_@

Initials/Onsets (initial consonant)
Finals/Rhymes (nucleus, necleus + coda, syllabic nasal)
Tones
» References

Initials/Onsets (initial consonant)
Articulation					IPA^†	X-SAMPA	Cantonese Romanization Schemes							Examples^‡
Place			Manner				S. L. Wong	Guangdong	Jyutping	HK Govt.	Yale	Sidney Lau	Meyer-Wempe
Active gesture	Active & passive place		Manner				S. L. Wong	Guangdong	Jyutping	HK Govt.	Yale	Sidney Lau	Meyer-Wempe
† IPA phonetic symbols may require Unicode support in your browser. ‡ Audio samples were mirrored from S. L. Wong’s A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton (electronic edition).
N.B.: Cantonese characters whose pronunciations begins in [ɑː], [ɐ], [ɔː] or [uː] (without any initial consonant) are sometimes pronounced with a [ŋ] initial, too. For example, the character “拗” may be pronounced as either [ɑːu˧˥] or [ŋɑːu˧˥]. N.B.: Modern Cantonese no longer distinguishes the alveolo-palatal sibilants ([ɕ], [ʨ] or [ʨʰ]). But they still continue to occur in complementary distribution with the alveolar sibilants ([s], [ʦ] or [ʦʰ]), making both groups allophones. Native Cantonese speakers usually pronounce the alveolar sibilants unless the following vowel is [iː], [ɪ] or [yː], in which case the alveolo-palatal is pronounced.
Labial	Bilabial		Stop	plain	[p]	p	b	b	b	p	b	b	p	波
			Stop	aspirated	[pʰ]	p_h	p	p	p	p	p	p	p'	婆
			Nasal		[m]	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	摸
	Labiodental		Fricative		[f]	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	f	科
Coronal	Apical alveolar		Stop	plain	[t]	t	d	d	d	t	d	d	t	多
			Stop	aspirated	[tʰ]	t_h	t	t	t	t	t	t	t'	拖
			Nasal		[n]	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	挪
			Lateral approximant		[l]	l	l	l	l	l	l	l	l	罗
			Fricative	sibilant	[s]	s	s₂	s	s	s/sh	s	s	s	梳
			Affricate	plain	[ʦ]	ts	dz₂	z	z	ch/ts	j	j	ts	左
			Affricate	aspirated	[ʦʰ]	ts_h	ts₂	c	c	ch/ts	ch	ch	ts'	初
	Palatalized postalveolar		Fricative	sibilant	[ɕ]	s\	s	x	s	s	s	s	sh	思
			Affricate	plain	[ʨ]	ts\	dz	j	z	ch/ts	j	j	ch	知
			Affricate	aspirated	[ʨʰ]	ts\_h	ts	q	c	ch/ts	ch	ch	ch'	雌
Dorsal	Velar	plain	Stop	plain	[k]	k	g	g	g	k	g	g	k	哥	缸
			Stop	aspirated	[kʰ]	k_h	k	k	k	k	k	k	k'	卡	抗
			Nasal		[ŋ]	N	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	我
		labialized	Stop	plain	[kʷ]	k_w	gw	gu	gw	kw	gw	gw	kw	姑	光
			Stop	aspirated	[kʷʰ]	k_w_h	kw	ku	kw	kw	kw	kw	k'w	箍	狂
			Approximant		[w]	w	w	w	w	w	w	w	w/oo	华
	Palatal		Approximant		[j]	j	j	y	j	y	y	y	y/i	也
Laryngeal	Glottal		Fricative		[h]	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	何

Different from that in Standard Mandarin, finals in Standard Cantonese consists of two kinds, depending on vowel length. Furthermore, the bilabial nasal coda [m] and plosive codas [p], [t] and [k] from Middle Chinese are preserved in Cantonese.

Finals/Rhymes (nucleus, necleus + coda, syllabic nasal)
Articulation					IPA^†	X-SAMPA	Cantonese Romanization Schemes							Examples^‡^*
Tongue Position		Shape of Lips	Length	Coda			S. L. Wong	Guangdong	Jyutping	HK Govt.	Yale	Sidney Lau	Meyer-Wempe
Height	Backness	Roundedness	Length	Coda			S. L. Wong	Guangdong	Jyutping	HK Govt.	Yale	Sidney Lau	Meyer-Wempe
† IPA phonetic symbols may require Unicode support in your browser. ‡ Audio samples were mirrored from S. L. Wong’s A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton (electronic edition). * Example characters in parentheses (‘(’ and ‘)’) shall be considered for their final rhymes only, whereas those in brackets (‘[’ and ‘]’) shall be considered for their colloquial pronunciation variants only.
Open	Back	Unrounded	Long		[ɑː]	A:	aa	a	aa	a/ah	a	a	a	呀	桠)
				-i	[ɑːi]	A:i	aai	ai	aai	ai	aai	aai	aai	挨
				-u	[ɑːu]	A:u	aau	ao	aau	au	aau	aau	aau	拗
				-m	[ɑːm]	A:m	aam	am	aam	am	aam	aam	aam	监)	三)
				-n	[ɑːn]	A:n	aan	an	aan	an	aan	aan	aan	晏	山)
				-ŋ	[ɑːŋ]	A:N	aang	ang	aang	ang	aang	aang	aang	罂	盲)
				-p̚	[ɑːp̚]	A:p_}	aap	ab	aap	ap	aap	aap	aap	鸭
				-t̚	[ɑːt̚]	A:t_}	aat	ad	aat	at	aat	aat	aat	押	压
				-k̚	[ɑːk̚]	A:k_}	aak	ag	aak	ak	aak	aak	aak	轭	客)
Near-open	Central	Unrounded	Short	-i	[ɐi]	6i	ai	ei	ai	ai	ai	ai	ai	矮
				-u	[ɐu]	6u	au	eo	au	au	au	au	au	欧
				-m	[ɐm]	6m	am	em	am	om	am	am	am/om	庵
				-n	[ɐn]	6n	an	en	an	an/un	an	an	an	恩)	分)
				-ŋ	[ɐŋ]	6N	ang	eng	ang	ung	ang	ang	ang	莺	盟)
				-p̚	[ɐp̚]	6p_}	ap	eb	ap	ap/up	ap	ap	ap/op	急)
				-t̚	[ɐt̚]	6t_}	at	ed	at	at/ut	at	at	at	不)
				-k̚	[ɐk̚]	6k_}	ak	eg	ak	ak/uk	ak	ak	ak	德)
Open-mid	Front	Unrounded	Long		[ɛː]	E:	e	é	e	e	e	e	e	诶	爹)
				-u	[ɛːu]	E:u	–	–	eu	–	–	–	–	[掉]
				-m	[ɛːm]	E:m	–	–	em	–	–	–	–	[舐]
				-ŋ	[ɛːŋ]	E:N	eng	éng	eng	eng	eng	eng	eng	镜)	赢)
				-p̚	[ɛːp̚]	E:p_}	–	–	ep	–	–	–	–	[夹]
				-t̚	[ɛːt̚]	E:t_}	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	(坺)
				-k̚	[ɛːk̚]	E:k_}	ek	ég	ek	ek	ek	ek	ek	尺)
Close-mid			Short	-i	[ei]	ei	ei	éi	ei	ei/ee/ay/ai	ei	ei	ei	非)	你)
Close	Front	Unrounded	Long		[iː]	i:	i	i	i	i/ze/z/ee	i	i	i	衣
				-u	[iːu]	i:u	iu	iu	iu	iu	iu	iu	iu	妖	腰
				-m	[iːm]	i:m	im	im	im	im	im	im	im	淹	艳
				-n	[iːn]	i:n	in	in	in	in	in	in	in	烟	燕
				-p̚	[iːp̚]	i:p_}	ip	ib	ip	ip	ip	ip	ip	叶
				-t̚	[iːt̚]	i:t_}	it	id	it	it	it	it	it	热
Near-close	Near-front		Short	-ŋ	[ɪŋ]	IN	ing	ing	ing	ing	ing	ing	ing	英
Near-close	Near-front		Short	-k̚	[ɪk̚]	Ik_}	ik	ig	ik	ik	ik	ik	ik	益	式)
Open-mid	Back	Rounded	Long		[ɔː]	O:	o	o	o	o	o	oh	oh	柯
				-i	[ɔːi]	O:i	oi	oi	oi	oi/oy	oi	oi	oi	哀	爱
				-n	[ɔːn]	O:n	on	on	on	on	on	on	on	安
				-ŋ	[ɔːŋ]	O:N	ong	ong	ong	ong	ong	ong	ong	康)	丧)
				-t̚	[ɔːt̚]	O:t_}	ot	od	ot	ot	ot	ot	ot	渴)
				-k̚	[ɔːk̚]	O:k_}	ok	og	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	恶
Close-mid			Short	-u	[ou]	ou	ou	ou	ou	o	ou	o	o	奥
Close	Back	Rounded	Long		[uː]	u:	u	u	u	u/oo	u	oo	oo	乌
				-i	[uːi]	u:i	ui	ui	ui	ui	ui	ooi	ooi	煨	杯)
				-n	[uːn]	u:n	un	un	un	un	un	oon	oon	碗
				-t̚	[uːt̚]	u:t_}	ut	ud	ut	ut	ut	oot	oot	活	阔)
Near-close	Near-back		Short	-ŋ	[ʊŋ]	UN	ung	ung	ung	ung	ung	ung	ung	瓮
Near-close	Near-back		Short	-k̚	[ʊk̚]	Uk_}	uk	ug	uk	uk	uk	uk	uk	屋
Open-mid	Front	Rounded	Long		[œː]	9:	oe	ê	oe	eu/eo	eu	euh	oeh	靴)
				-ŋ	[œːŋ]	9:N	eung	êng	oeng	eung/eong	eung	eung	eung	(香)
				-t̚	[œːt̚]	9:t_}	-	-	oet	-	-	-	-	(coet⁷)
				-k̚	[œːk̚]	9:k_}	euk	êg	oek	euk/eok	euk	euk	euk	约)	脚)
Close-mid	Central		Short	-y	[ɵy]	8y	eue	êu	eoi	ui	eui	ui	ui	(去)
				-n	[ɵn]	8n	eun	ên	eon	un	eun	un	un	春)	津)
				-t̚	[ɵt̚]	8t_}	eut	êd	eot	ut	eut	ut	ut	律)	卒)
Close	Front	Rounded	Long		[yː]	y:	ue	ü	yu	yu/u/ue	yu	ue	ue	于
				-n	[yːn]	y:n	uen	ün	yun	un/uen	yun	uen	uen	冤
				-t̚	[yːt̚]	y:t_}	uet	üd	yut	ut/uet	yut	uet	uet	月
Syllabic bilabial nasal					[m̩]	m=	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	唔	呣
Syllabic velar nasal					[ŋ̩]	N=	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	ng	五	吴

In spoken English, tones may be used to differentiate statements from questions: A falling tone at the end of a sentence usually denotes a statement (e.g., You are.), while a rising tone at the end usually denotes a question (e.g., You are?). Tones in Cantonese, like in Mandarin, however, are a lot more complicated. Tones are an integral part of each character’s pronunciation, which have to be maintained or varied throughout a sentence.

Traditionally, Cantonese pronunciation can be divided into nine (or even up to 14 to 15) tones. Due to the subtle differences between some falling and level stones, however, many annotation systems reduce the total count to six. The contours of these six tones are illustrated on the right.

Tones
Syllable Type	Name	Articulation		IPA^†		X-SAMPA	Cantonese Romanization Schemes								Examples^‡^*
Syllable Type	Name	Contour	Description	Tone Letters	Diacritics	X-SAMPA	S. L. Wong		Guangdong	Jyutping	HK Govt.	Yale	Sidney Lau	Meyer-Wempe	Examples^‡^*
† IPA phonetic symbols may require Unicode support in your browser. ‡ Audio samples were mirrored from S. L. Wong’s A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton (electronic edition). * Example characters in brackets (‘[’ and ‘]’) shall be considered for their colloquial pronunciation variants only. § Tone annotations and romanizations are demonstrated with the syllable [siː]. ¶ Tone annotations and romanizations are demonstrated with the syllable [sɪk̚], except the Upper Entering Rising tone. # This tone appears only in some colloquial pronunciation variants like 笛 ([tɛk̚]).
Open syllable^§	Upper Level	55	high level	[si˥˥]	[sí]	si_T_T	ˈsi	1	1	1	-	sī	1⁰	si	诗	芬	三
	Upper Level	53	high falling	[si˥˧]	[sî]	si_T_M	ˈsi	1	1	1		sì	1	si		婚	三
	Upper Rising	35	medium rising	[si˧˥]	[sǐ]	si_M_T	ˊsi	2	2	2		sí	2	sí	史	粉	九
	Upper Departing	33	medium level	[si˧˧]	[sī]	si_M_M	ˉsi	3	3	3		si	3	sì	试	训	四
	Lower Level	21	low falling	[si˨˩]	[si̖]	si_L_B	ˌsi	4	4	4		sìh	4	sī	时	焚	零
	Lower Level	11	very low level	[si˩˩]	[sȉ]	si_B_B	ˌsi	4	4	4		sīh	4	sī	时	焚	零
	Lower Rising	23	low rising	[si˨˧]	[si̗]	si_L_M	ˏsi	5	5	5		síh	5	sǐ	市	奋	五
	Lower Rising	13	low rising	[si˩˧]	[si̗]	si_B_M	ˏsi	5	5	5		síh	5	sǐ	市	奋	五
	Lower Departing	22	low level	[si˨˨]	[sì]	si_L_L	ˍsi	6	6	6		sih	6	sî	事	份	二
Stopped syllable^¶	Upper Entering #1	5	high level	[sɪk̚˥]	[sík̚]	sik_}_T	ˈsik	7	1	1		sīk	1	sik	色	忽	七
	Upper Entering #2	3	medium level	[sɪk̚˧]	[sīk̚]	sik_}_M	ˉsik	8	3	3		sik	3	sìk	锡	发	八
	Lower Entering	2	low level	[sɪk̚˨]	[sìk̚]	sik_}_L	ˍsik	9	6	6		sihk	6	sîk	食	佛	六	十
	Upper Entering Rising^#	45	high rising	[tɛːk̚˦˥]	-	tE:k_}_H_T	-	10	-	-		-	-	-	[笛]

References:

《广州音字典：修订版（普通话对照）》，饶秉才编，广东人民出版社，2003年9月，ISBN-13：978-7-218-00050-3。
Chinese Character Database: With Word-formations, Phonologically Disambiguated According to the Cantonese Dialect. Research Centre for Humanities Computing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
S. L. Wong’s A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton. Research Centre for Humanities Computing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
《实用广州音字典（同音字并列·普通话对照）》，苏翰翀编著，中山大学出版社，1994年1月，ISBN-10：7-306-00670-3/H.35。
Standard Cantonese, Wikipedia, January 2009.
粤语拼音对照表，维基百科，2009年1月。
粵語網路課堂，香港中文大學語文自學中心，2009年3月。
MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary.
User:Stewart/Cantonese, Wikipedia, January 2009.
广东话拼音，百度百科，2009年1月。
The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. UCLA Department of Linguistics, Los Angeles, CA, 2007.

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正體中文

注意：发音以[ɑː]、[ɐ]、[ɔː]或[uː]开始（没有声母）的字，在广州话里有时也会加上疑母（声母[ŋ]）发音。譬如，“拗”字既可以念[ɑːu˧˥]，也可以念[ŋɑːu˧˥]。

注意：發音以[ɑː]、[ɐ]、[ɔː]或[uː]開始（沒有聲母）的字，在廣州話裡有時也會加上疑母（聲母[ŋ]）發音。譬如，「拗」字既可以念[ɑːu˧˥]，也可以念[ŋɑːu˧˥]。

注意：现代广州话里已不再区分齿龈后音（[ɕ]、[ʨ]、[ʨʰ]）了。但这些辅音仍经常作为齿龈音（[s]、[ʦ]、[ʦʰ]）的音位变体，以互补分布的形式出现。现在，人们通常只发齿龈音。只有在齿龈音与[iː]、[ɪ]、[yː]等韵母相拼时，人们才会发齿龈后音。

注意：现代廣州話裡已不再區分齒齦後音（[ɕ]、[ʨ]、[ʨʰ]）了。但這些輔音仍經常作為齒齦音（[s]、[ʦ]、[ʦʰ]）的同位異音，以互補分佈的形式出現。現在，人們通常只發齒齦音。只有在齒齦音與[iː]、[ɪ]、[yː]等韻母相拼時，人們才會發齒齦後音。

参考资料參考資料广州话拼读系统廣州話拼讀系統声母聲母声母聲母韵母（韵腹，韵腹＋韵尾，鼻音独立韵）韻母（韻腹，韻腹＋韻尾，鼻音獨立韻）韵母_{（韵腹，韵腹＋韵尾，鼻音独立韵）} 韻母_{（韻腹，韻腹＋韻尾，鼻音獨立韻）} 声调聲調声调聲調发音方式發音方式部位方法主动发音部位主動發音部位主动与被动发音部位主動與被動發音部位舌位唇形脣形高度前后前後圆唇／展唇圓脣／展脣元音长度母音長度韵尾韻尾音节类型音節類型调名調名调值調值英文描述音标字符音標字符发音符号發音符號国际音标國際音標扩展音标字母评估法擴展音標字母評估法广州话拼音方案廣州話拼音方案广州话拼音廣州話拼音粤拼粵拼香港政府拼音耶鲁粤语拼音耶魯粵語拼音黄锡凌罗马拼音黃錫凌羅馬拼音刘锡祥拼音劉錫祥拼音 Meyer-Wempe 汉字举例漢字舉例唇脣双唇雙脣唇齿脣齒舌面前舌尖齿龈齒齦舌面软颚軟齶唇颚脣齶硬颚硬齶颚音化齶音化齿龈后齒齦後正常喉头喉頭声门聲門塞音不送气不送氣送气送氣鼻音擦音塞擦音近音边音邊音咝音噝音开開次开次開半开半開半闭半閉次闭次閉闭閉前次前央次后次後后後圆唇圓脣不圆唇不圓脣长長短双唇鼻音独立韵雙脣鼻音獨立韻软颚鼻音独立韵軟齶鼻音獨立韻开音节開音節促音节促音節阴平陰平阴上陰上阴去陰去阳平陽平阳上陽上阳去陽去上阴入（阴入）上陰入（陰入）下阴入（中入）下陰入（中入）阳入陽入阴上入陰上入正确地显示国际音标可能需要支持Unicode的浏览器。正确地顯示國際音標可能需要支援Unicode的瀏覽器。音频文件下载自黄锡凌《粤音韵汇》电子版。聲音文檔下載自黃錫凌《粵音韻彙》電子版。用圆括号括起来的字例只取其韵母的发音；用方括号括起来的则只取其在口语中的发音。用圓括號括起來的字例只取其韻母的發音；用方括號括起來的則只取其在口語中的發音。用方括号括起来的则只取其在口语中的发音。用方括號括起來的則只取其在口語中的發音。声调拼写皆借用音节[siː]以作示范。聲調拼寫皆藉用音節[siː]以作示範。除阴上入外，声调拼写皆借用音节[sɪk̚]以作示范。除陰上入外，聲調拼寫皆藉用音節[sɪk̚]以作示範。此声调只出现在某些字口语发音的变调中，如“笛（[tɛk̚]）”。此聲調只出現在某些字口語發音的變調中，如「笛（[tɛk̚]）」。《粵語審音配词字庫》，香港中文大學人文電算研究中心，香港。黃錫凌《粵音韻彙》電子版，香港中文大學人文電算研究中心，香港。