Jyutping Cantonese Romanization Scheme

Introduction

The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme, or known as Jyutping, was designed and proposed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Jyutping is a new Cantonese romanization system which has many advantages. It is multifunctional, systematic, user-friendly, compatible with all possible modern Cantonese sounds, and solely based on alphanumeric characters without any diacritics and strange symbols. Jyutping can also be used as a Chinese computer input method. Its basic principles are simple, easy to learn, and professional.

粵拼方案制定的背景

鑑於香港粵語並沒有一套普及而簡單、合理、易學、易用的拼音轉寫方案,香港語言學學會第四屆理事會考慮了上述建議,決定成立「粵語拼音方案工作組」,任務包括:(一)向本會推薦一套粵語拼音方案;(二)編寫方案說明;(三)就如何推廣本方案作出建議;和(四)在第四屆粵方言研討會中推介本方案。

經過一年的討論,本會制定的拼音方案在一九九三年底定案,定名為「香港語言學學會粵語拼音方案」,簡稱「粵拼」。

香港語言學學會的目的是要制定一套簡單、合理、易學、易用的粵語語音轉寫方案,以統一現在粵語拼音使用上的混亂情況。我們要求字母的形式是國際上通用的拉丁字母,而代表聲調的符號則要求是 ASCII字符,以方便各方面的應用,包括電腦鍵盤輸入等。


The Jyutping Scheme

Onset, Nuclei and Tone in Jyutping 粵拼的聲、韻、調

(1) Onset 聲母

b
p
m
f
d
t
n
l
g
k
ng
h
gw
kw
w
z
c
s
j

* Null initial is not represented, e.g. 呀 is only spelt as “aa”.
零聲母不用字母作標記,如「呀」只拼作 aa

(2) Nuclei 韻腹

aa
i
詩 / 星 / 識
u
夫 / 風 / 福
e
些 / 四
o
疏 / 蘇
yu
oe
a
eo

(3) Coda 韻尾

p
t
k
m
n
ng
i
西 / 需
u

(4) Syllabic nasal 鼻音單獨成韻

m
ng

(5) Tone 字調

1
夫 / 福
2
3
副 / 霍
4
5
6
父 / 服

Tone marks appear at the end of the syllables. 聲調標在音節後。 
Examples / 舉例:fu1 (夫), fu2 (虎), fu3 (副), fu4 (扶), fu5 (婦), fu6 (父)

Finals illustrated with Chinese characters 韻母字例

i
ip
it
ik
im
in
ing
iu
yu
yut
yun
u
up
ut
uk
um
un
ung
ui
e
ep
et
ek
em
en
eng
ei
eu
eot
eon
eoi
oe
oet(*)
oek
oeng
o
ot
ok
on
ong
oi
ou
a(*)
ap
at
ak
am
an
ang
ai
au
aa
aap
aat
aak
aam
aan
aang
aai
aau

(*) a and oet were added in 2018. Please see here for further information.
aoet 於 2018 年新增,詳情參看這裏


(2022.03.05)

It has come to our attention that the Jyutping tone numbers (1-6) are displayed as superscript or subscript in some materials. We would like to emphasise that the tone numbers should be represented as ASCII numerals. Using superscript or subscript styling or markup (such as <sup></sup> or CSS classes) is also going to render the tone less legible, and this practice is not recommended. We have no objection to using bold, italic or text colour to display the letters and the tone number separately.

我們留意到某些出版物之中粵拼的聲調數字(1-6)顯示為上標或下標。本會重申,粵拼的設計原意是用英數字(alphanumeric)轉寫粵語,因此聲調數字應為 ASCII 字元。即使使用 ASCII 字元,若將聲調數字以顯示功能或標記形式(如 <sup></sup> 或 CSS 類別)上標或下標,也會降低聲調數字的可讀性,因此不推薦此做法。本會並不反對使用粗體、斜體或其他顏色將字母和聲調數字作區分顯示。