Cantonese

Cantonese
廣東話 Gwóngdūng wá gwong2 dung1 waa2
Gwóngdūng wá written in traditional Chinese (left) and simplified Chinese (right) characters
Native to	China, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas communities
Region	Guangdong, eastern Guangxi
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese Eastern Han Chinese Middle Chinese
Dialects	Xiguan Hong Kong
Writing system	Written Cantonese Cantonese Braille Written Chinese
Official status
Official language in	Hong Kong  Macau
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yue (superset for all Yue dialects)
Glottolog	cant1236
Linguasphere	79-AAA-ma
Parts of China where Cantonese is spoken.

This article is part of Cantonese language
Yue Chinese
Grammar
Measure words Pronouns
Orthography Transcription
Fanchit Braille Bopomofo Pinyin Yale Jyutping
Phonology
Nasal-stop alternation Changed tone IPA
v t e

Cantonese (

.

Cantonese is viewed as a vital and inseparable part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swaths of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in overseas communities. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong (being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta) and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. It is also the dominant and co-official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is also widely spoken among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent), the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Although Cantonese shares much vocabulary with

Names of Cantonese

Cantonese
Traditional Chinese	廣東話
Cantonese Yale	Gwóngdùng wá
Transcriptions Hanyu Pinyin Guǎngdōnghuà Bopomofo ㄍㄨㄤˇ ㄉㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˋ Wade–Giles Kuang3-tung1-hua4 Tongyong Pinyin Guǎngdong-huà IPA [kwàŋ.tʊ́ŋ.xwâ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwóngdùng wá Jyutping Gwong2 dung1 waa2 IPA [kʷɔːŋ˧˥ toŋ˥ waː˧˥]
'Canton speech' or 'Guangzhou speech'
Traditional Chinese	廣州話
Cantonese Yale	Gwóngjàu wá
Transcriptions Hanyu Pinyin Guǎngzhōuhuà Bopomofo ㄍㄨㄤˇ ㄓㄡ ㄏㄨㄚˋ Wade–Giles Kuang3-chou1-hua4 Tongyong Pinyin Guǎngjhou-huà IPA [kwàŋ.ʈʂóʊ.xwâ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwóngjàu wá Jyutping Gwong2 zau1 waa2 IPA [kʷɔːŋ˧˥.tsɐu˥ waː˧˥]

In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. "Cantonese" as used to refer to the language native to the city of Canton, which is the traditional English name of Guangzhou, was popularized by An English and Cantonese Pocket Dictionary (1859), a bestseller by the missionary John Chalmers.^[5] Before 1859, this variant was often referred to in English as "the Canton dialect".^[6][5]

However, "Cantonese" may also refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as

" (粵語; 粤语; Jyut6 jyu5; Yuhtyúh). In this article, "Cantonese" is used for Cantonese proper.

Historically, speakers called this variety "Canton speech" (廣州話; 广州话; Gwong2 zau1 waa2; Gwóngjàu wá), although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people also call it "provincial capital speech" (省城話; 省城话; Saang2 seng4 waa2; Sáangsèhng wá) or "plain speech" (白話; 白话; Baak6 waa2; Baahkwá). In academic linguistic circles, it is also referred to as "Canton prefecture speech" (廣府話; 广府话; Gwong2 fu2 waa2; Gwóngfú wá).[7]

In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, the language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province Speech" (廣東話; 广东话; Gwong2 dung1 waa2; Gwóngdùng wá) or simply as "Chinese" (中文; Zung1 man2; Jùngmán).^[8][9]

History

During the

As Guangzhou became China's key commercial center for foreign trade and exchange in the 1700s, Cantonese became the variety of Chinese interacting most with the Western world.[11] Much of the sources for this period of early Cantonese, such as the 18th century rime dictionary Fenyun Cuoyao (分韻撮要; Fēnyùn Cuòyào; Fan1 wan5 Cyut3 jiu3) and the 1828 Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect by the missionary Robert Morrison, were written in Guangzhou during this period of prosperity.^[16]

After the

Throughout the 19th century and continuing into the 1900s, the ancestors of most of the population of Hong Kong and Macau arrived from Guangzhou and surrounding areas after they were ceded to Britain and Portugal, respectively.^[18] The influx of such migrants into Hong Kong established Cantonese as the main language of the city, supplanting local Yue Chinese varieties, which were closer to the dialects of neighboring Shenzhen and Dongguan, as well as the Hakka and Southern Min varieties of the region.^[12] With subsequent waves of migration into Hong Kong, even as late as the 1950s, the proportion of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong had not yet surpassed 50%; nonetheless, this figure has risen to above 90% since the 1970s.^[12] On the other hand, the indigenous variety of Yue Chinese in Macau had been close to that of Zhongshan, and this has had an effect on the tonal phonology of the Cantonese spoken in Macau.^[19][12]

As a significant proportion of the entertainment industry in China migrated to Hong Kong in the early decades of the 20th century, the Hong Kong-based entertainment industry underwent a transformation to suit overseas as well as domestic audiences.^[20] With the bifurcation of the film industry into Cantonese and Mandarin,^[20] the use of the Xiguan accent of Guangzhou as a conservative prestige accent of standard Cantonese was maintained in mass media, with films from the 1930s making prominent use of it. However, during this time many phonological changes can be detected, indicating the change from Early Cantonese to Modern Cantonese.^[16]

In mainland China, Standard Mandarin has been heavily promoted as the medium of instruction in schools and as the official language, especially after the communist takeover in 1949. Meanwhile, Cantonese has remained the official variety of Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau, both during and after the colonial period, under the policy of 'biliteracy and trilingualism' (Chinese: 兩文三語; pinyin: liǎngwén sānyǔ; Jyutping: loeng3 man4 saam1 jyu5).^[21] Government and law still function predominantly in Cantonese in these jurisdictions, and officials speak Cantonese even at the most formal occasions.^[12]

Geographic distribution

Hong Kong and Macau

The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law.^[22] The Chinese language has many different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals. It is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English.

A similar situation also exists in neighboring

, although there exist some minor differences in accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

Mainland China

Cantonese first developed around the port city of

Despite the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 and Macau to Portugal in 1887, the ethnic Chinese population of the two territories largely originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories. On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi even after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in the early 1900s.^[23] Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Mandarin Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region.^[24]

While the Chinese government encourages the use of Standard Mandarin rather than local varieties of Chinese in broadcasts,^[25] Cantonese enjoys a relatively higher standing than other Chinese languages, with its own media and usage in public transportation in Guangdong province. Furthermore, it is also a medium of instruction in select academic curricula, including some university elective courses and Chinese as a foreign language programs.^[26][27] The permitted usage of Cantonese in mainland China is largely a countermeasure against Hong Kong's influence, as the autonomous territory has the right to freedom of the press and speech and its Cantonese-language media have a substantial exposure and following in Guangdong.^[21]

Nevertheless, the place of local Cantonese language and

Taiwan

Cantonese is one of the Chinese languages in Taiwan. Cantonese is spread by Waishengren who have backgrounds in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau.

Cantonese is mainly spoken by immigrants from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, and Macau. Various Cantonese-speaking communities exist throughout Taiwan, and the use of the language in Taiwan continues to increase.

There are a reported 87,719

Southeast Asia

Cantonese has historically served as a lingua franca among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, who speak a variety of other forms of Chinese including

Additionally, Cantonese media and popular culture from Hong Kong is popular throughout the region.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, Cantonese is the dominant language of the main ethnic Chinese community, usually referred to as Hoa, which numbers about one million people and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the country.^[35] Over half of the ethnic Chinese population in Vietnam speaks Cantonese as a native language and the variety also serves as a lingua franca between the different Chinese dialect groups.^[36] Many speakers reflect their exposure to Vietnamese with a Vietnamese accent or a tendency to code-switch between Cantonese and Vietnamese.

Malaysia

In

in the district of , Johor.

Although

Due to the popularity of

Cantonese spoken in Malaysia and Singapore often exhibits influences from Malay and other Chinese varieties spoken in the country, like Hokkien and Teochew.^[41]

Singapore

The Singapore government uses Mandarin as the official Chinese variety and has a Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) seeking to actively promote using Mandarin at the expense of other Chinese varieties. A little over 15% of Chinese households in Singapore speak Cantonese. Despite the government actively promoting SMC, the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community has been relatively successful in preserving its language from Mandarin compared with other dialect groups.^[42]

Notably, all nationally produced non-Mandarin Chinese TV and radio programs were stopped after 1979.^[43] The prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, then, also stopped giving speeches in Hokkien to prevent giving conflicting signals to the people.^[43] Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Taiwanese dramas are unavailable in their untranslated form on free-to-air television, though drama series in non-Chinese languages are available in their original languages. Cantonese drama series on terrestrial TV channels are instead dubbed in Mandarin and broadcast without the original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. However, originals may be available through other sources like cable television and online videos.

Furthermore, an offshoot of SMC is the translation to

Nevertheless, since the government restriction on media in non-Mandarin varieties was relaxed in the mid-1990s and 2000s, presence of Cantonese in Singapore has grown substantially. Forms of popular culture from Hong Kong, like

Cambodia

Cantonese is widely used as the inter-communal language among

Thailand

While

Indonesia

In

North America

United States

458,840 Americans spoke Cantonese at home according to a 2005–2009 American Community Survey.^[52]

Over a period of 150 years,^[specify] Guangdong has been the place-of-origin for most Chinese emigrants to Western nations; one coastal county, Taishan (or Tóisàn, where the Sìyì or sei yap variety of Yue is spoken), alone may be the origin of the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. before 1965.^[53] As a result, Yue languages such as Cantonese and the closely related variety of Taishanese have been the major Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in the United States.

The Zhongshan variant of Cantonese, which originated from the western Pearl River Delta, is spoken by many Chinese immigrants in Hawaii, and some in San Francisco and the Sacramento River Delta (see Locke, California). It is a Yuehai variety much like Guangzhou Cantonese but has "flatter" tones. Chinese is the second most widely spoken non-English language in the United States when both Cantonese and Mandarin are combined, behind Spanish.^[54] Many institutes of higher education have traditionally had Chinese programs based on Cantonese, with some continuing to offer these programs despite the rise of Mandarin. The most popular romanization for learning Cantonese in the United States is Yale romanization.

The majority of Chinese emigrants have traditionally originated from Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Hong Kong and Macau (beginning in the latter half of the 20th century and before the

, etc. As a result, Mandarin is becoming more common among the Chinese American community.

The increase of Mandarin-speaking communities has resulted in the rise of separate neighborhoods or enclaves segregated by the primary Chinese variety spoken. Socioeconomic statuses are also a factor.

In

emergent Chinese American enclaves

in eastern Los Angeles County and other areas of the metropolitan region.

While a number of more-established Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster relations with the traditional Cantonese-speaking Chinese American population, more recent arrivals and the larger number of mainland Chinese immigrants have largely continued to use Mandarin as the exclusive variety of Chinese. This has led to a linguistic discrimination that has also contributed to social conflicts between the two sides, with a growing number of Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese) of Cantonese background defending the historic Chinese-American culture against the impacts of increasing Mandarin-speaking new arrivals.^[57][66]

Canada

Cantonese is the most common Chinese variety spoken among

.

As in the United States, the Chinese Canadian community traces its roots to early immigrants from Guangdong during the latter half of the 19th century.

1989 Tiananmen Square protests

and impending handover to the People's Republic of China. Chinese-speaking immigrants from conflict zones in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam, arrived as well, beginning in the mid-1970s and were also largely Cantonese-speaking.

Western Europe

United Kingdom

The overwhelming majority of Chinese speakers in the United Kingdom use Cantonese, with about 300,000 British people claiming it as their first language.

also have origins in the former British colonies in Southeast Asia of Singapore and Malaysia.

France

Among the

Portugal

Cantonese is spoken by ethnic Chinese in Portugal who originate from Macau, the most established Chinese community in the nation with a presence dating back to the 16th century and Portuguese colonialism. Since the late-20th century, however, Mandarin- and Wu-speaking migrants from mainland China have outnumbered those from Macau, although Cantonese is still retained among mainstream Chinese community associations.^[70]

Australia

Cantonese has been the dominant Chinese language of the

Cultural role

Spoken Chinese has numerous regional and local varieties, many of which are

broadcasts today.

Nevertheless, there have been recent attempts to minimize the use of Cantonese in China. The most notable has been the 2010 proposal that

Due to the linguistic history of Hong Kong and Macau, and the use of Cantonese in many established overseas Chinese communities, the use of Cantonese is quite widespread compared to the presence of its speakers residing in China. Cantonese is the predominant Chinese variety spoken in Hong Kong and Macau. In these areas, public discourse takes place almost exclusively in Cantonese, making it the only variety of Chinese other than Mandarin to be used as an official language in the world. Because of their dominance in Chinese diaspora overseas, standard Cantonese and its dialect Taishanese are among the most common Chinese languages that one may encounter in the West.

Increasingly since the

A similar identity issue exists in the United States, where conflicts have arisen among Chinese-speakers due to a large recent influx of Mandarin-speakers. While older Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster integration within the traditional Chinese American populations, more recent arrivals from the mainland continue to use Mandarin exclusively. This has contributed to a segregation of communities based on linguistic cleavage. In particular, some Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese) of Cantonese background emphasise their non-mainland origins (e.g. Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, etc.) to assert their identity in the face of new waves of immigration.^[57][66]

Along with Mandarin and Hokkien, Cantonese has its own popular music, Cantopop, which is the predominant genre in Hong Kong. Many artists from the mainland and Taiwan have learned Cantonese to break into the market.^[78] Popular native Mandarin-speaking singers, including Faye Wong, Eric Moo, and singers from Taiwan, have been trained in Cantonese to add "Hong Kong-ness" to their performances.^[78]

Cantonese films date to the early days of Chinese cinema, and the first Cantonese talkie, White Gold Dragon ^[zh], was made in 1932 by the Tianyi Film Company.^[79] Despite a ban on Cantonese films by the Nanjing authority in the 1930s, Cantonese film production continued in Hong Kong which was then under British colonial rule.^[73][80] From the mid-1970s to the 1990s, Cantonese films made in Hong Kong were very popular in the Chinese speaking world.

Phonology

Initials and finals

The de facto standard Cantonese pronunciation is that of Canton (Guangzhou). Hong Kong Cantonese has some minor phonology variations but is almost identical to standard Guangzhou Cantonese.

Hong Kong and Macau merge certain phoneme pairs. Although termed as "lazy sound/pronunciation" (懶音) and considered substandard to Guangzhou pronunciation, the phenomenon has been widespread in the territories since the early 20th century. The most notable difference between Hong Kong and Guangzhou pronunciation is substituting liquid nasal /l/ for nasal initial /n/ in many words.^[81] An example is manifested in the word for you (你), pronounced as [nei˩˧] in Guangzhou and as [lei˩˧] in Hong Kong.

Another key feature of Hong Kong Cantonese is the two syllabic nasals /ŋ̩˨˩/ and /m̩˨˩/ merging. This can be exemplified in the elimination of the contrast of sounds between 吳 (

Lastly, the initials /kʷ/ and /kʷʰ/ are merging into /k/ and /kʰ/ when followed by /ɔː/. An example is in the word for country (國), pronounced in standard Guangzhou as [kʷɔk] but as [kɔk] with the merge. Unlike the above two differences, this merge is alongside the standard pronunciation in Hong Kong rather than being replaced. Educated speakers often stick to the standard pronunciation but can exemplify the merged pronunciation in casual speech. In contrast, less educated speakers pronounce the merge more frequently.[82]

Less prevalent, but still notable differences found among a number of Hong Kong speakers include:

• Merging /ŋ/ initial into null initial
• Merging /ŋ/ and /k/ codas into /n/ and /t/ codas respectively, eliminating contrast between these pairs of finals (except after /e/ and /o/^{[clarification needed]}): /aːn/-/aːŋ/, /aːt/-/aːk/, /ɐn/-/ɐŋ/, /ɐt/-/ɐk/, /ɔːn/-/ɔːŋ/ and /ɔːt/-/ɔːk/.
• Merging the rising tones (陰上 2nd and 陽上 5th).^[83]

Cantonese vowels tend to be traced further back to Middle Chinese than their Mandarin analogues, such as M. /aɪ/ vs. C. /ɔːi/; M. /i/ vs. C. /ɐi/; M. /ɤ/ vs. C. /ɔː/; M. /ɑʊ/ vs. C. /ou/ etc. For consonants, some differences include M. /ɕ, tɕ, tɕʰ/ vs. C. /h, k, kʰ/; M. /ʐ/ vs. C. /j/; and a greater syllable coda diversity in Cantonese (like syllables ending in -p, -t or -k).

Tones

Generally speaking, Cantonese is a

with six phonetic tones, two more than the four in Standard Chinese Mandarin. This makes Cantonese in general harder to master due to required ability of users to readily be able to process two additional phonetic tones. People who grew up using Cantonese tones can usually hear the tonal differences with no problem, but adults who were brought up speaking non-tonal languages like English and most Western European languages may not be able to distinguish the tonal differences quick enough to optimally use the language. This difficulty also applies to tonal language speakers with fewer tones attempting to master languages with more tones such as Mandarin natives trying to learn spoken Cantonese as adults.

Historically, finals that end in a

Syllable type
Tone name	dark flat (陰平)	dark rising (陰上)	dark departing (陰去)	light flat (陽平)	light rising (陽上)	light departing (陽去)
Description	high falling, high level	medium rising	medium level	low falling, very low level	low rising	low level
Yale or Jyutping tone number	1	2	3	4	5	6
Example	詩	史	試	時	市	是
Tone letter	siː˥˧, siː˥	siː˧˥	siː˧	siː˨˩, siː˩	siː˩˧	siː˨
IPA diacritic	sîː, síː	sǐː	sīː	si̖ː, sı̏ː	si̗ː	sìː
Yale diacritic[85]	sì	sí	si	sìh	síh	sih

Written Cantonese

As Cantonese is used primarily in Hong Kong, Macau, and other overseas Chinese communities, it is usually written with traditional Chinese characters. However, it has extra characters as well as characters with different meanings from written vernacular Chinese due to the presence of words that either are not in standard Chinese or correspond with spoken Cantonese. This written Cantonese system often appear in colloquial contexts like entertainment magazines, social media and advertisements.

In contrast, formal literature, professional and government documents, television and movie subtitles, and news media continues to be use standard written Chinese. Nevertheless, colloquial characters may be present in formal written communications such as legal testimonies and newspapers when an individual is being quoted, rather than paraphrasing spoken Cantonese into standard written Chinese.

Romanization

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cantonese" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

	It has been suggested that this section be Yale, Meyer–Wempe, and Standard Romanization. Jyutping and Yale are the two most used and taught systems today in the West,[86] and they do not differ greatly from one another except in how they mark tones. Additionally, Hong Kong linguist Sidney Lau modified the Yale system for his popular Cantonese-as-a-second-language course, and his variant is another system in use today. Hong Kong's and Macau's governments use systems of romanization for proper names and geographic locations, but they transcribe some sounds inconsistently. These systems are not taught in schools. Macau's system differs slightly from Hong Kong's in that the spellings are influenced by Portuguese language due to colonial history. For example, while many words in Macau's system are the same as Hong Kong's (e.g. surnames Lam 林, Chan 陳), instances of the letter ⟨u⟩ under Hong Kong's system are often replaced by ⟨o⟩ in Macau's (e.g. Chau vs. Chao 周, Leung vs Leong 梁). Neither the spellings of Hong Kong's system nor of Macau's look very similar to mainland China's system called pinyin, chiefly because it distinguishes between Mandarin's two series of stops while they, although the pronunciation of Standard Cantonese's two series is similar to the Mandarin, do not generally distinguish them, they thus rendering not only /pʰ/, /tʰ/, and so forth, but also /p/, /t/, and the remaining non-aspirates, by the simple spellings ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, etc. vs. it rendering the latter series by ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, and the like. Early Western efforts Systematic efforts to develop an alphabetic representation of Cantonese began with Protestant missionaries arriving in China early in the nineteenth century. Romanization was considered both a tool to help new missionaries learn the variety more easily and a quick route for the unlettered to achieve gospel-literacy. Earlier Catholic missionaries, mostly Portuguese, had developed romanization-schemes for the pronunciation current in the court and capital city of China but made few efforts to romanize other varieties. Protestant missionary in China, published a Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect (1828) with a rather unsystematic romanized pronunciation. Elijah Coleman Bridgman and Samuel Wells Williams in their Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton Dialect (1841) were the progenitors of a long-lived lineage of related romanizations that with minor variations are embodied in the works of James Dyer Ball, Ernst Johann Eitel, and Immanuel Gottlieb Genähr (1910). Bridgman and Williams based their system on the phonetic alphabet and diacritics proposed by Sir William Jones for South Asian languages. Their system of romanization embodied the phonological system of a local-dialect rhyme-dictionary, the Fenyun cuoyao, which was widely used and easily obtainable at the time and is still available today. Samuel Wells Willams' Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect (Yinghua fenyun cuoyao, 1856) is an alphabetic rearrangement, translation, and annotation of this Fenyun. To adapt the system to the needs of users in an era when there was no standard, but rather only a range of local variants—although the speech of the western suburbs (Xiguan 西關) of Guangzhou was the prestige variety—Williams suggested that users learn and follow their teacher's pronunciation of his chart of Cantonese syllables. It was apparently Bridgman's innovation to mark the tones with (for the upper-register ones) open circles vs. (for the lower-register tones) underlined open circles, in either case at the four corners of the romanized word in analogy with the traditional Chinese system of marking the tone of a character with a circle (lower left for "even", upper left for "rising", upper right for "going", and lower right for "entering" tones). Yale romanization , where however, importantly, instead of the upper-register tones being marked by italics, the lower-register ones are marked by an 'h' (which comes after whatever letter spells the last vocalic element in the syllable). Another innovation of Chalmers in this dictionary was to eliminate acute/grave accents on top of vowels by adding more distinctions of vowel-spelling (e.g. a/aa, o/oh), so that the presence vs. absence of an accent over the vowel was no longer needed to distinguish different pronunciations of it. This new style of romanization still embodied the phonology of the Fenyun, and the name of Meyer-Wempe 's dictionary, (even more faithfully) by Cowles' dictionaries (of 1917 & 1965), by O'Melia's textbook, and by many other works in the first two thirds of the twentieth century. It reigned without serious challenge as the standard spelling until Yale's system was devised and became an important rival to it. The major linguist Barnett-Chao romanization system.[87] The B–C system was used in a handful of texts, including textbooks published by the Hong Kong government, such as Cantonese Conversation Grammar, published in 1963. Cantonese romanization in Hong Kong Main article: Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation An influential work on Cantonese, Barnett–Chao system as being the one used by the Hong Kong Government Language School. The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) has advocated the romanization it devised (and named Jyutping). An arguable advantage of it is that its particular use of J for instance (as at the beginning of its name) matches IPA in contrast to most other systems' using Y, resembling English. Some effort has been made to promote Jyutping, but it has yet to be examined how successfully this has caused use of it to proliferate in the region. Another popular scheme is Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority . Books and studies for teachers and students in primary and secondary schools usually use this scheme, but some teachers and students use S.L. Wong's system of transcription. Those learning Cantonese may feel frustrated that, despite efforts to standardize Cantonese romanizations, most native Cantonese speakers, regardless of their level of education, are unfamiliar with any romanization beyond the conventional, Latin-letter spellings of Cantonese names. Because Cantonese is primarily a spoken language, meaning that its speakers do not in most genres of writing use its own writing-system (instead, in most of their writing, despite having some Chinese characters unique to Cantonese, primarily following modern standard Chinese, which is closely tied to Mandarin), therefore, it is not taught in schools.[citation needed] As a result, locals do not learn any of these systems. In contrast to the general use of romanization in Mandarin-speaking areas of China, systems of romanization for Cantonese are excluded from the educational systems of both Hong Kong and the Province of Guangdong. In practice, Hong Kong follows a loose, unnamed romanization-scheme used by the Government of Hong Kong. Google's Cantonese input uses Yale, Jyutping, or Cantonese Pinyin, the Yale being the first standard.[88][89] Comparison Differences between the three main standards are highlighted in bold. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin recognize certain sounds used in a few colloquial words (like /tɛːu˨/ 掉, /lɛːm˧˥/ 舔, and /kɛːp˨/ 夾) but have not been officially recognized in other systems like Yale.[90][91] Initials Romanization system Initial consonant Labial Dental/Alveolar Sibilant Velar Labial–velar Glottal Approximant IPA 幫 p 滂 pʰ 明 m 非 f 端 t 透 tʰ 泥 n 來 l 精 ts 清 tsʰ 心 s 見 k 溪kʰ 我 ŋ 古 kʷ 困 kʷʰ 曉 h 以 j 云 w Yale b p m f d t n l j ch s g k ng gw kw h y w Cantonese Pinyin b p m f d t n l dz ts s g k ng gw kw h j w Jyutping b p m f d t n l z c s g k ng gw kw h j w Finals Romanization system Main vowel /aː/ /ɐ/ /ɛː/, /e/ /iː/, /ɪ/ IPA aː aːi aːu aːm aːn aːŋ aːp aːt aːk ɐ[note 1] ɐi ɐu ɐm ɐn ɐŋ ɐp ɐt ɐk ɛː ei ɛːu ɛːm ɛːŋ ɛːp ɛːk iː iːu iːm iːn ɪŋ iːp iːt ɪk Yale a aai aau aam aan aang aap aat aak a[note 1] ai au am an ang ap at ak e ei eng ek i iu im in ing ip it ik Cantonese Pinyin aa aai aau aam aan aang aap aat aak aa[note 1] ai au am an ang ap at ak e ei eu em eng ep ek i iu im in ing ip it ik Jyutping aa aai aau aam aan aang aap aat aak a[note 1] ai au am an ang ap at ak e ei eu em eng ep ek i iu im in ing ip it ik Romanization system Main vowel Syllabic consonant /ɔː/, /o/ /uː/, /ʊ/ /œː/ /ɵ/ /yː/ IPA ɔː ɔːi ou ɔːn ɔːŋ ɔːt ɔːk uː uːi uːn ʊŋ uːt ʊk œː œːŋ œːt œːk ɵy ɵn ɵt yː yːn yːt m̩ ŋ̩ Yale o oi ou on ong ot ok u ui un ung ut uk eu eung euk eui eun eut yu yun yut m ng Cantonese Pinyin o oi ou on ong ot ok u ui un ung ut uk oe oeng oek oey oen oet y yn yt m ng Jyutping o oi ou on ong ot ok u ui un ung ut uk oe oeng oet oek eoi eon eot yu yun yut m ng ^ a b c d Jyutping recognizes the distinction between final "short a" /ɐ/ and "long a" /aː/. The "short a" can occur in elided syllables such as the 十 in 四十四 (sei3-a6-sei3), which the other systems would transcribe with same spelling as the "long a".[90] Tones Romanization system Tone Dark (陰) Light (陽) Checked (入聲) Chao Tone Contour 53, 55 35 33 21, 11 24, 13 22 5 3 2 IPA Tone Letters[92] ˥˧, ˥ ˧˥ ˧ ˨˩, ˩ ˨˦, ˩˧ ˨ ˥ ˧ ˨ Yale[85] à á a àh áh ah āk ak ahk Cantonese Pinyin 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Jyutping 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 3 6 Sample text The following is a sample text in Cantonese of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with English. Cantonese[93] 人人生而平等，喺尊嚴同埋權利上一律平等。佢哋有理性同埋良心，而且應當以兄弟關係嘅精神相對待。 IPA /jɐn˨˩ jɐn˨˩ sɐŋ˥˧ ji:˨˩ pʰɪŋ˨˩ tɐŋ˧˥, hɐi˧˥ tsy:n˥˧ jiːm˨˩ tʰʊŋ˨˩ ma:i˨˩ kʰyːn˨˩ lei˨ sœ:ŋ˨ jɐt˥ lɵt˨ pʰɪŋ˨˩ tɐŋ˧˥. kʰɵy˩˧ tei˨ jɐu˩˧ lei˩˧ sɪŋ˧ tʰʊŋ˨˩ ma:i˨˩ lœ:ŋ˨˩ sɐm˥˧, ji:˨˩ tsʰɛ:˧˥ jɪŋ˥ tɔ:ŋ˥˧ ji:˩˧ jy:˩˧ hɪŋ˥˧ tɐi˨ kʷaːn˥˧ hɐi˨ kɛ:˧ tsɪŋ˥˧ sɐn˨˩ sœ:ŋ˥˧ tɵy˧ tɔ:i˨./ Yale romanisation[85] yàhnyàhn sàng yìh pìhngdáng, hái jyùnyìhm tùhngmàaih kyùhn leih seuhng yātleuht pìhngdáng. kéuihdeih yáuh léihsing tùhngmàaih lèuhngsàm, yìhché yìngdòng yíh hìngdaih gwàanhaih ge jìngsàhn sèung deui doih. Cantonese Pinyin jan4 jan4 sang1 ji4 ping4 dang2, hai2 dzyn1 jim4 tung4 maai4 kyn4 lei6 soeng6 jat7 loet9 ping4 dang2. koey5 dei6 jau5 lei5 sing3 tung4 maai4 loeng4 sam1, ji4 tse2 jing1 dong1 ji5 hing1 dai6 gwaan1 hai6 ge3 dzing1 san4 soeng1 doey3 doi6. Jyutping romanisation jan4 jan4 sang1 ji4 ping4 dang2, hai2 zyun1 jim4 tung4 maai4 kyun4 lei6 soeng6 jat1 leot6 ping4 dang2. keoi5 dei2 jau5 lei5 sing3 tung4 maai4 loeng4 sam1, ji4 ce2 jing1 dong1 ji5 hing1 dai6 gwaan1 hai6 ge3 zing1 san4 soeng1 deoi3 doi6. English original: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." See also Cantonese grammar Cantonese profanity Cantonese slang Cantonese nationalism Languages of China List of English words of Cantonese origin List of varieties of Chinese Protection of the Varieties of Chinese References Citations ^ Cantonese at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020) ^ a b Matthews & Yip (1994), p. 5. ^ ISBN 9789622097094. Archived from the original on 2016-04-24. Retrieved 2015-11-09. hdl:10397/98877 . ^ a b Kataoka, Shin; Lee, Yin-Ping Cream (2022). 晚清民初歐美傳教士書寫的廣東話文獻精選 [Selected Cantonese Publications by Western Missionaries in China (1828–1927)] (PDF). Chinese University of Hong Kong. p. 25. ^ "Han-fung's Record". The Sacred Edict: Containing Sixteen Maxims of the Emperor Kang-Hi. Translated by Milne, William. 1817. pp. xxvii–xxviii. Archived from the original on 2007-04-30. bought with him the Paraphrase on the Sacred Edict [廣訓衍], which the minister Wang-yew-poh [王又樸], formerly over the salt revenue in Shen-See, had printed. This interpretation was written in the northern dialect, [...] on the first and fifteenth of the each moon, they might proclaim the original text in the Canton dialect. OL 18035405W . ^ The Hong Kong Observatory is one of the examples of the Hong Kong Government officially adopting the name "廣東話", see "Audio Web Page". Hong Kong Observatory. Archived from the original on 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2021-05-08. ^ Cantonese program at Chinese University of Hong Kong, designating standard Cantonese as 廣東話, see Chinese as a FSL (Cantonese) Curriculum (PDF), Yale-China Chinese Language Centre, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, retrieved 29 January 2018 ^ a b Yue-Hashimoto (1972), p. 4. ^ a b Li (2006), p. 126. ^ S2CID 244518738 . Retrieved 25 January 2024. ^ Yue-Hashimoto (1972), pp. 5–6. ^ Ramsey (1987), p. 99. ^ Yue-Hashimoto (1972), p. 5. ^ S2CID 219427314 . Retrieved 25 January 2024. ^ Chan, Marjorie K.M. (2023). Lin, Chien-Jer Charles; Cherici, Alex; Chen, Bihua (eds.). "Challenges in D2 and D3 Acquisition: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's 1924 Cantonese and Mandarin Audiorecordings" (PDF). Proceedings of the 34th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics. Retrieved 25 January 2024. ^ Yue-Hashimoto (1972), p. 70. S2CID 197998897 . ^ ISBN 0-674-00214-8 . ^ a b Zhang & Yang (2004), p. 154. ^ Basic Law, Chapter I : General Principles, archived from the original on 29 January 2018, retrieved 29 January 2018 – via basiclaw.gov.hk ^ Coblin (2000), pp. 549–550. ^ Ramsey (1987), pp. 3–15. Guojia guangbo dianying dianshì zongju. 2005-02-07. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-07-26. ^ "Chinese Language Programes". South China University of Technology. Archived from the original on 2016-02-29. ^ "Chinese Language". South China Normal University. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. ^ "The Slow Death of China's Dialects". The McGill International Review. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 2021-09-11. ^ Wong, Edward (2010-07-26). "Move to Limit Cantonese on Chinese TV Is Assailed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2018-09-24. ^ "Canton's Unease: As Mandarin Spreads, Locals Face Identity Crisis". 10 November 2021. doi:10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20180304 . ^ "100 Nián 12 yuè" 100年12月 [December 2011]. Nèizhèng bù rù chūguó jí yímín shǔ (in Chinese). 2012-01-20. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 2010-07-12. ^ "Hong Kong: Beijing Dismantles a Free Society". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 11 October 2021. ISBN 978-1438119137 . ^ "Report on Results of the 2019 Census". General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Retrieved 1 May 2020. ^ Khanh (1993), p. 31. ^ Sin, Ka Lin (2009). ""Mǎláixīyà de sān gè hànyǔ fāngyán" zhōng zhī jílóngpō Guǎngdōnghuà yuè tán" 《马来西亚的三个汉语方言》中之 吉隆坡广东话阅谭 [A Review on Kuala Lumpur's Cantonese in Part of "The Three Chinese Dialects in Malaysia"] (PDF). Xīnjìyuán xuéyuàn xuébào / New Era College Academic Journal (in Simplified Chinese). 6: 83–131. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 29 January 2018. ^ Sim, Tze Wei (2012). "Why are the Native Languages of the Chinese Malaysians in Decline". Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular. 4 (1): 75. ^ "Malaysian Cantonese". IPS Community. 2014-05-27. Archived from the original on 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2019-08-01. ^ Sim, Tze Wei (2012). "Why are the Native Languages of the Chinese Malaysians in Decline". Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular. 4 (1): 74. ^ Wee, Kek Koon (2018-11-01). "Why Cantonese Spoken in Malaysia Sounds Different to Hong Kong Cantonese, and No it's Not 'Wrong'". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2018-11-15. ^ Lee, Edmond Eu Fah, "Profile of the Singapore Chinese Dialect Groups" (PDF), Statistics Singapore Newsletter, archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-02-05 ^ a b "Use of Dialects Interfere with Learning of Mandarin & English". channelnewsasia.com. 2009-03-06. Archived from the original on 2009-03-07. Retrieved 2012-01-20. ^ "Speak Mandarin Campaign". Singapore Promote Mandarin Council. Archived from the original on 2012-04-03. Retrieved 2010-10-07. ^ Chua, Beng Huat (2003). Life is Not Complete Without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press. pp. 89–90. ^ "Cambodia – The Chinese". Countrystudies.us. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2016-04-22. ^ Chan, Sambath (2005). The Chinese Minority in Cambodia: Identity Construction and Contestation (PDF) (Master's thesis). Concordia University. p. 34. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2018. ISBN 9789812304827 – via Google Books. ISBN 0-472-11280-5 . ISBN 9789812101426 . ^ Lewis (2005), p. 391. ^ "How Many People Speak "What Languages" in America". Mongabay.com. Archived from the original on April 29, 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017. ^ Bryson, Bill. Made in America.[page needed] ^ "Top Languages Other than English Spoken in 1980 and Changes in Relative Rank, 1990–2010". United States Census Bureau. US Census. ^ "Mandarin Use Up in Chinese American Communities". HSK Tests Online. Associated Press. December 29, 2003. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018. ^ "As Mandarin Language Becomes Standard, Chinatown Explores New Identity". Medill Reports – Chicago. Archived from the original on 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2012-01-20. ^ a b c Tan, Chee-Beng, ed. (2007). Chinese Transnational Networks. Taylor & Francis. p. 115. ^ Semple, Kirk (October 21, 2009). "In Chinatown, Sound of the Future Is Mandarin". The New York Times. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2017-10-19. Retrieved March 22, 2014. ^ Nelson, Katie (September 15, 2011). "Asian Boom in Brooklyn Along N-Lline Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Census Data Shows". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2021-05-08. ^ Robbins, Liz (April 15, 2015). "With an Influx of Newcomers, Little Chinatowns Dot a Changing Brooklyn". The New York Times. ^ Chinese Population by Census Tract – New York City, 2010 (PDF), New York City Department of City Planning ^ "Mapping America: Every City, Every Block". The New York Times. 2010-12-13. Retrieved 2020-05-14. ^ New York City Department of City Planning (2013). "Immigrant Settlement Patterns in New York City" (PDF). The Newest New Yorkers: Characteristics of the City's Foreign-Born Population (Report) (2013 ed.). pp. 23–94. ^ Beekman, Daniel (August 5, 2011). "The Changing Chinatowns: Move Over Manhattan, Sunset Park Now Home to Most Chinese in NYC". New York Daily News. ^ Pierson, David (2006-03-31). "Dragon Roars in San Gabriel". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2014-11-21. ^ a b Him Mark Lai; Madeline Y. Hsu (2010). Chinese American Transnational Politics. University of Illinois Press. pp. 49–51. ISBN 0-14-011763-6 . ^ "Cantonese Speakers in the UK". Ethnologue.com. Archived from the original on 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2012-01-20. ^ Laurent, Annabelle (28 June 2010). ""Chinois de France" ne veut rien dire" ["Chinese from France" means nothing]. Slate.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 15 February 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018. SSRN 464682, archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-20 ^ "What are the most common languages spoken in Australia?". Language Professionals Australia Translation and Interpreting. 26 November 2018. ISBN 978-1402080388. Archived from the original on 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2015-11-09. ^ ISBN 978-0804735728. Archived from the original on 2016-05-10. Retrieved 2015-11-09. ISBN 978-1438446455 . ^ "Xuéxiào yāoqiú xuéshēng jiǎng pǔtōnghuà zǔ sūn liǎ jìng biàn"jī tóng yā jiǎng"" 学校要求学生讲普通话 祖孙俩竟变"鸡同鸭讲" [Grandma and Granddaughter Can't Communicate Each Other Due to School Rules]. Yángchéng wǎnbào (in Chinese). 2010-07-09. Archived from the original on 2010-07-12. Retrieved 2010-07-27. ^ "Yuèyǔ bòyīn xū bào zhǔn mín hōng 'ruòzhì'" 粵語播音須報准 民轟「弱智」. Píngguǒ rìbào (in Chinese). 2011-12-19. Archived from the original on 2012-01-11. Retrieved 2012-01-06. ^ McLean-Dreyfus, Marie-Alice (2014-11-06). "Say It Loud: Language and Identity in Taiwan and Hong Kong". Thinking Taiwan. Archived from the original on 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2018-09-24. ^ ISBN 978-0-7007-1614-2 . ISBN 978-1932643015 . ISBN 978-0810855205 . ^ Matthews & Yip (2011), p. 4. ^ a b Matthews & Yip (2011), p. 37. S2CID 145563867 . ^ Bauer & Benedict (1997:119–120) ^ a b c Kwaan, Choi Wah; et al. (2004). English-Cantonese Dictionary 英粵字典: Cantonese in Yale Romanization. Sha Tin: New Asia-Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991; "first copublished edition", The Chinese University Press, The Chinese University of Hong; New Asia-Yale-in-China Language Center, 2000; second printing. Note that, in Yale-Romanization, tone 1 is marked by the (down-sloping =) grave accent even in the situation that it gets realised as its high flat variant, which occurs (automatically) in Canton-standard pronunciation wherever the tone 1 immediately precedes any syllable whose tone is or begins high, as within for example the 應當 that occurs in the sample text near the end of this article. ^ Kataoka, Shin; Lee, Cream (2008). "A System without a System: Cantonese Romanization Used in Hong Kong Place and Personal Names". Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics. 11: 83–84. ^ A Transcription for Cantonese: Notes on Mr. Yuen Ren Chao's "Cantonese Primer" ^ "Google Cantonese Input". 28 August 2017. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018 – via Google Play. Google Hong Kong (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018. ^ a b Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. "Jyutping 粵拼". Archived from the original on 2021-01-06. Retrieved 2020-10-07. ^ "粵音節表 (Table of Cantonese Syllables)". Retrieved 2021-07-20. ^ Matthews & Yip (1994), p. [page needed]. ^ "OHCHR | Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Cantonese". OHCHR. Retrieved 2023-07-24. Works cited Bauer, Robert S.; Benedict, Paul K. (1997). Modern Cantonese Phonology. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-014893-0 . JSTOR 606615 . Khanh, Tran (1993). The Ethnic Chinese and Economic Development in Vietnam. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 978-981-3016-66-8 . Kwaan, Choi Wah; et al. (2004). English-Cantonese Dictionary 英粵字典: Cantonese in Yale Romanization. New Asia-Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991; "first copublished edition", The Chinese University Press, The Chinese University of Hong; New Asia-Yale-in-China Language Center, 2000; second printing. ISBN 962-201-970-6 . Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2005), "Indonesia", Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.), Dallas, T.X.: ISBN 978-1-55671-159-6 , retrieved 26 January 2010. Li, Qingxin (2006). Maritime Silk Road. trans. William W. Wang. China Intercontinental Press. ISBN 978-7-5085-0932-7 . Matthews, Stephen; Yip, Virginia (1994). Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780203420843 . Matthews, Stephen; Yip, Virginia (2011). Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar (2nd ed.). Ramsey, S. Robert (1987). The Languages of China. ISBN 978-0-691-01468-5 . Yue-Hashimoto, Anne Oi-Kan (1972). Studies in Yue Dialects 1: Phonology of Cantonese. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-08442-0 . Zhang, Bennan; Yang, Robin R. (2004). "Putonghua Education and Language Policy in Postcolonial Hong Kong". In Zhou, Minglang (ed.). Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice Since 1949. Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 143–161. ISBN 978-1-4020-8038-8 . Further reading Benoni, Lanctot (1867). Chinese and English Phrase Book: With the Chinese Pronunciation Indicated in English. San Francisco: A. Roman & Company. OL 13999723M . Bridgman, Elijah Coleman (1841). A Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton Dialect. Macao: S. Wells Williams. OL 6542029M . Matthew, W. (1880). The Book of a Thousand Words: Translated, Annotated and Arranged So As to Indicate the Radical Number and Pronunciation (in Mandarin and Cantonese) of Each Character in the Text. Stawell: Thomas Stubbs. OL 13996959M . OCLC 17203540 . OL 14002589M . Zee, Eric (1991). "Chinese (Hong Kong Cantonese)". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 21 (1): 46–48. doi:10.1017/S0025100300006058 . External links "Multi-function Chinese Character Database" 漢語多功能字庫 (in Chinese). The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Cantonese-English Online Dictionary Hong Kong Government site on the HK Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) (archived 22 May 2011) Cantonese Tools 粵語/廣東話參考資料 Yue References by wordshk – GitHub Pages. GitHub.
Braille	Cantonese Mainland Chinese Taiwanese Two-cell
Phonetic	Cyrillization Dungan Cyrillic Romanization Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hanyu Pinyin MPS II Postal Tongyong Pinyin Wade–Giles Yale Bopomofo Cantonese Bopomofo Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols Taiwanese kana Taiwanese Hangul Xiao'erjing Nüshu