Standard Romanization (Cantonese)

Transliteration of Chinese
Mandarin
Modern Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Gwoyeu Romatzyh Spelling conventions Latinxua Sin Wenz Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II Tongyong Pinyin Wade–Giles Yale romanization Lessing-Othmer Simplified Wade Comparison chart
Late imperial Mandarin Morrison romanization Legge romanization Postal romanization EFEO
Sichuanese Sichuanese Pinyin Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz
Wu
General Wu Romanization of Wu Chinese
Wenzhounese Wenzhounese romanization
Yue
Cantonese Jyutping Yale romanization Cantonese Transliteration Scheme Hong Kong Government Macau Government Meyer–Wempe Sidney Lau S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols) S. L. Wong (romanization) ILE romanization Standard Romanization Barnett–Chao Comparison chart
Min
Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī Modern Literal Taiwanese Phofsit Daibuun Habhunwe Latinxua Sin Bhundzi Bbánlám pìngyīm Daighi tongiong pingim TLPA Tâi-lô Comparison chart
Teochew Peng'im Pe̍h-ūe-jī
Fuzhounese Foochow Romanized Fuzhou Transliteration Scheme
Northern Min Kienning Colloquial Romanized
Pu-Xian Min Hinghwa Romanized
Hainanese Hainan Romanized (Haikou dialect) Hainanese Transliteration Scheme (Wenchang dialect)
Shao–Jiang Min Romanized Shaowu (Shaowu dialect)
Gan
Chang-Du Pinfa
Hakka
Meixian Pinfa Hagfa Pinyim
Sixian Pha̍k-fa-sṳ TLPA
Xiang
Chang–Yi Pinfa
Polylectal
General Chinese Romanized General Chinese
See also
Other transliterations Character-based General Chinese Cyrillization Xiao'erjing ʼPhags-pa script Bopomofo Taiwanese kana Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols Transcription into Chinese
By place Romanization in Hong Kong Romanization in Singapore Romanization in Taiwan
v t e

Standard Romanization is a system of romanisation for Cantonese developed by Christian missionaries in southern China in 1888, particularly relying upon the work of John Morrison Chalmers.^[1]^: 82 By 1914, it had become well established in Canton (Guangzhou) and Hong Kong (there being no other system of significance in published literature, and publications using it having been issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society, the China Baptist Publication Society,^[2] and the Pakhoi Mission Press^[3]^: iv from as early as 1906). It is the foundation of the current system of romanisation used by the Hong Kong Government.

p [p]	p‘ [pʰ]	f [f]	m [m]
t [t]	t‘ [tʰ]		n [n]
ts [ts]	ts‘ [tsʰ]	s [s]	l [l]
ch [tɕ]	ch‘ [tɕʰ]	sh [ɕ]	y [j]
k [k]	k‘ [kʰ]	h [h]	ng [ŋ]
kw [kw]	kw‘ [kʰw]		w [w]

Note that the following initials are left unspelt: [j] preceding i(m/n/p/t/u) or ue(n/t), [w] preceding oo(i/n/t), and zero-initial (which only occurs preceding finals other than these just-mentioned ones where the accompanying [j] or [w] is not written).

Finals

a [aː]	aai [aːi]	aau [aːu]	aam [aːm]	aan [aːn]	aang [aːŋ]	aap [aːp̚]	aat [aːt̚]	aak [aːk̚]
	ai [ɐi]	au [ɐu]	am [ɐm]	an [ɐn]	ang [ɐŋ]	ap [ɐp̚]	at [ɐt̚]	ak [ɐk̚]
e [ɛː]	ei [ei]				eng [ɛːŋ]			ek [ɛːk̚]
i [iː]		iu [iːu]	im [iːm]	in [iːn]	ing [eŋ]	ip [iːp̚]	it [iːt̚]	ik [ek̚]
oh [ɔː]	oi [ɔːj]	o [ou]	om [om]	on [ɔːn]	ong [ɔːŋ]	op [op̚]	ot [ɔːt̚]	ok [ɔːk̚]
oo [uː]	ooi [uːj]			oon [uːn]	ung [oŋ]		oot [uːt̚]	uk [ok̚]
eu [œː]	ui [ɵy]			un [ɵn]	eung [œːŋ]		ut [ɵt̚]	euk [œːk̚]
ue [yː]				uen [yːn]			uet [yːt̚]
z [ɨː]			m [m̩]		ng [ŋ̍]

The finals m and ng can only be used as stand-alone nasal syllables.
The finals om and op occur only with the initials k and h. (And these finals are now pronounced differently from am and ap by just a conservative minority of speakers, who consequently have for example 柑 kom ‘mandarin orange’ distinct from 金 kam ‘gold’.)^[4]
Only when ts, ts‘, or s is the initial can z occur as the final, and these initials are among the ones with which i as final does not occur (these two circumstances together meaning that a complementary distribution exists between the two finals).
When [j] is the initial, and i, im, in, ip, it, or iu is used with it as the final, the spelling does not bother to write an initial y (because zero-initial preceding these finals does not occur), which results in the spellings being merely i, im, in, ip, it, and iu; however, in yik and ying, the y is nonetheless redundantly written.
When [j] is the initial, and ue, uen, or uet is the final, the y is for the same reason omitted.
When [w] is the initial, and oo, ooi, oon, or oot is the final, the w is in parallel omitted.
Unlike most modern systems of Cantonese romanization, a distinction is made between two series of sibilants, which means there is still a difference between for example 卅 and 沙, the former being represented by sa while the latter is written as sha.

Standard Romanization	Yale equivalent	tone-numbers standard in Chinese linguistics	IPA & Chao tone-numbers	Jyutping tone-numbers
x{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	x̀{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	1	˥˨ 52	1
x̄{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	x̀{hm,hn,hng,uh,ih,h}	2	˨˩ 21	4
x́{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	x́{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	3	˧˥ 35	2
x̆{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	x́{hm,hn,hng,uh,ih,h}	4	˨˧ 23	5
x̀{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	x{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	5	˧ 33	3
x̂{m,n,ng,u,i,nothing}	x{hm,hn,hng,uh,ih,h}	6	˨ 22	6
x{p,t,k}	x̄{p,t,k}	7	˥ 55	7 (1)
x̄{p,t,k}	x{hp,ht,hk}	8	˨ 22	9 (6)
x̊{p,t,k}	x{p,t,k}	9	˧ 33	8 (3)

Traditional	Simplified	Romanization
廣州	广州	kwóng-chau
粵語	粤语	uēt-uĕ
你好	你好	neĭ hó

Standard Romanization (Cantonese)

Finals

Tones

References

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