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Cantonese Beginner Classes: Jyutping Romanization

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LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie

PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:31 pm


Please do not post.


Jyutping
Jyut = "Yoot" (Yue (Cantonese dialect) | Ping = "Ping Yum" (Phonetic writing)

As one may already know, Cantonese can be really hard to speak, with the different tones and different pronunciations. There is also no official romanization scheme - however, there are a few that have been developed. Yale is the most popular, and Sidney Lau is used in some colleges. However, they have inconsistencies that make romanization a bit confusing and challenging.

Jyutping Romanization (formally the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Jyutping Romanization Scheme, and pronounced "yoot ping") addresses these matters. Plus, instead of using symbols or accents to represent tones, it uses numbers instead. It is recommended to use this romanization when learning Cantonese.

It can be pretty hard to understand at first, but remember to hang in there if you really want to learn and use Cantonese! Jyutping is also very useful when you are using a Cantonese Input Method, such as the Cantonese input in Windows Vista or NJStar Communicator.

In the "Letters..." sections, I will explain how to pronounce romanized letters as best as possible, except for letters that are pronounced the same as in English. Then, I will go further into detail on how to speak Cantonese so that it is understandable. Please note that Jyutping, and these lessons are designed to help you speak with a Hong Kong accent, which is understandable to most Cantonese speakers.

Note: these lessons are based on the romanization scheme straight from the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong's website, which can be quite confusing to those who do not have a medium-level ability to speak and read Cantonese. I have tried to make it easier. As well, I have based content from the information on or link to information/educational tools on http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk, http://cantonese.ca/, or http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php. No copyright infringement intended.

I wish you all good luck in your quests to learn Cantonese. If there are any questions, suggestions, or constructive criticism, please PM me.


Table of Contents:
1. Letters at the Beginning of Words
2. Letters at the Middle of Words
3. Letters at the End of Words
4. Other Nasal Sounds
5. Tones
6. Beware of These..
 
PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:29 pm


Letters at the Beginning of Words
On sets

  • b
  • p
  • m
  • f
  • d
  • t
  • n
  • l
  • g
  • k
  • ng - use your throat to try to pronounce "gnaw" without any tongue movement, as this is a nasal sound -- listen to the sound clip for 我(a word meaning "I, me, or my" which sounds like "gnaw") on on this page of Chinese-Lessons.com
  • h
  • gw
  • kw
  • w
  • z - a cross between "z" and "j," and sounds like the "ts" in "tsetse fly" - listen to the "zung" (中) on this page of Chinese-Lessons.com
  • c - similar to the "ch" sound, but put more emphasis on the "c;" this sound is similar to the above letter and the "ts" in "tsetse" -- listen to 親戚(jyutping: can cik) on this page of Chinese-Lessons.com
  • s
  • j - pronounced like "y" as in "you"


Note: the romanizations on Chinese-Lessons.com are in the Yale Romanization scheme

LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie


LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie

PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:31 pm


Letters in the Middle of Words
Nuclei
These letters may also occur at the end of the words, without the ending letters in the next section, as these are the main parts of words. As well, they may not even have any on sets (letters in the beginning of words).


  • aa - pronounced "ah"
  • i - pronounced "ee"
  • u - kind of like the Jyutping two bullets below, except there is a more of an "oo" sound - listen to 風 (jyutping: fung) on this page of MDBG.net
  • e - like the "eh" sound in "credit"
  • o - shape your lips like an "oh" and pronounce "oh" without moving your lower lip back up; like the "oh" sound in "oo" of the word "door" -- listen to 多(jyutping: do) on this page of MDBG.net
  • a - pronounced "uh" as in "sun"
  • yu - pronounced "oo" as in "choose" - listen to 書 (jyutping: syu) on this page of MDBG.net
  • oe - kind of like the "ur" in "burn" - listen to 腳 [jyutping: goek) on this page of Chinese-Lessons.com
  • eo - try to pronounce the almost "uh" sound in "er" - listen to 信(jyutping: seon) on this page of MDBG.net
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:03 pm


Letters at the End of Words
Codas

  • p
  • t
  • k
  • m
  • n
  • ng - imagine a word with an "ng" on the end - for example, listen to (jyutping: sang) on this page of MDBG.net
  • i - imagine a word with an "i" on the end - for example, listen to (jyutping: sai) on this page of MDBG.net
  • u - bring the middle vowel (if there is one) in a word to an end with a nasal "oo" sound, which can usually be a very or extremely brief shaping of the lips - listen to siu and jau on these pages of MDBG.net's Chinese-English Dictionary

LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie


LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:25 pm


Other Nasal Sounds

  • m - a nasal "mm" sound - listen to (jyutping: m) on this page of MBDG.net
  • ng - by itself, it is a nasal sound very similar to "m," except with the chin kind of lower - listen to (jyutping: ng) on this page of MDBG.net
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:04 pm


Tones
Once you have mastered the pronunciations of Cantonese, you should know how to pronounce the Cantonese words with the correct tones, which can define a word from another. In order to speak with tones, you need to know that you should be able to omit the tones while still speaking normally. For example, for tone 1, you do not need a high squeaky voice. You should still be able to recognize your normal voice in it, at least a bit.

  • Tone 1 - a flat high level tone - listen to tin1 (天, or sky) and dang1 (燈, or lantern/light) on these pages of MDBG.net
  • Tone 2 - Rising to Tone 1 (the high level) - listen to fu2 (付, or government/prefecture) and gau2 (九, or nine) on these pages of MDBG.net
  • Tone 3 - a flat middle, normal level tone - listen to gau3 (夠, or enough) and go3 (個, a unnecessary word in between a number and a word, used to signify "piece" or "single" - adjuncts used to count a number of ".." are common in Cantonese)
  • Tone 4 - a low tone falling to Tone 6 - listen to naam4 (南, or south/男, or boy) and tai4 (提, or "hold or lift in hand) on these pages of MDBG.net
  • Tone 5 - a low tone rising to the middle, normal level Tone 3 - listen to nei5 (你, or you) and ngo5 (我, or me/I) from these pages of MDBG.net
  • Tone 6 - a flat low level tone - listen to din6 (電, or electricity) and hai6 (係, a colloquial term meaning "yes" as in "it relates, yes") from these pages of MDBG.net


Note: a word can be pronounced the same, with the same tone, as another word (or homophone)

LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie


LeftoverCornflakesSoYumie

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:40 pm


Beware of These..

Finals

  • ik = pronounced "ik," like the "ick" in "sick"
  • ing = pronounced "ing," like the "ing" in "singing"
  • ut/un/ui = there is more of an "oo" sound than other finals with an "u" followed by an ending letter - listen to fun1 (歡, or happy/joy) on this page of MDBG.net
  • eoi = the middle letters "eo" are given the very light beginning of the ending letter "i" - listen to seoi2 (水, or water) and keoi5 (佢, a colloquial term for "he/she/it") on these pages of MDBG.net
  • ou = pronounced "oh"


Initials

  • n and l - words with the beginning letter "n" can have the "n" switched to an "l" while still being recognizable; words beginning with "l" cannot have the "l" switched to an "n" - for example, nei5 (你, or you) can be changed to lei5, and still be the same word; laat6 (辣, or spicy) can not be changed to naat6 (捺, or press down forcefully with fingers) -- Note: the initial "n" is traditional, while the "l" initial replacing the "n" initial is relatively new, and some traditional Chinese may think the "l" accent is lazy (Source: learnchineseez.com)
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