1. The Elements of “JyutPing”

2. 2 What is “JyutPing” ?  “JyutPing” is the Cantonese Romanization Scheme of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong  It is a phonetic transcription scheme for Cantonese, a dialect of Chinese in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.  It uses Latin letters for the romanization of Chinese characters and uses numbers to denote the tones e.g. ： the Cantonese Pinyin of the word 「天」 (sky) is tin1

3. 3 Why learning “JyutPing” ?  The “Hong Kong style” of Cantonese Romanization is too confusing and difficult to learn because it is unsystematic and inaccurate.  翠： can be transcribed as “ tsui ” can also be transcribed as “ chui ”  “ chai ” ： can be the transcription of 柴 (as in Chai Wan [ 柴灣 ], a district of Hong Kong island) can also be the transcription of 仔 (as in Wan Chai “ 灣仔 ”, also a district on Hong Kong island)  “ tai ” ： can be the transcription of 大 (as in Tai Po “ 大埔 ”) can also be the transcription of 太 (as in Tai Wo “ 太和 ”)

4. 4 Why learning “JyutPing” ?  “JyutPing” has the following advantages:  Jointly developed by the linguists from 5 universities in Hong Kong (therefore, academically authoritative)  Developed according to systematic Cantonese phonological principles  Reflecting the distinctive features of Cantonese accurately  The advantages of knowing “JyutPing”:  Minimizing the possibility of pronouncing inaccurately or inadequately  Getting to know the differences between Cantonese and the other languages more consciously  Making use of it in the other domains: e.g. Chinese Input Method in the Computer, loan words into English (kungfu)

5. 5 Character and Syllable  In Chinese, characters form the writing system  Usually, the pronunciation of a character is a syllable long, unlike English, e.g. father, apple  A character represents a meaningful unit in the language and a syllable is its spoken representation  A character, however, may be pronounced in different syllables, e.g. hong4 行 as in ‘row’ or haang4 行 as in ‘walk’ e.g. ：人 (person) 、車 (car) 、水 (water) …… exception ：「葡萄」 (grape) 、「霹靂」 (thunderbolt) …… (cannot be split ， the two Chinese characters should be joined together in order to express one meaning)

6. 6 The Syllable in Cantonese  There are two parts in a Cantonese syllable:  Initial (the onset of the syllable, which is a consonant or nothing)  Final (the rhyming part of the syllable) which consists of Nucleus (a vowel) Coda (a consonant or semi- vowel)  Each syllable may be pronounced in six different tones 天 (sky) tin1 Initial nucleus coda tone final

7. 7 Initial  Try to read the JyutPing of the following characters, and see what is common in the pronunciation is: 沙 (sand) ; 西 (west); 思 (think); 星 (star); 宵 (night); 蘇 (Sou – surname) ; 相 (together); 鬆 (loose)

8. 8 Initial  Answer:  These characters have the same initial  Their initials are all “ s ” 沙 saa 西 sai 思 si 星 sing 宵 siu 蘇 sou 相 soeng 鬆 sung

9. 9 Initial  Basically, the initial in a Cantonese syllable is either a single consonant or nothing Little knowledge When pronouncing most of the consonants, the airflow in the vocal tract will somehow be blocked.

10. 10 Initial

11. 11 Final  Try to read the JyutPing of the following characters, and see what is common in the pronunciation: 邦 (country); 當 (when); 方 (square); 江 (river); 桑 (mulberry); 湯 (soup); 汪 (vast); 莊 (farmstead)

12. 12 Final  Answer  The pronunciation is the same except for the initials  the finals are the same  All the finals are “ ong ”. The syllables rhyme. 邦 bong 當 dong 方 fong 江 gong 桑 song 湯 tong 汪 wong 莊 zong

13. 13 Final  The final in Cantonese can be divided into a nucleus with or without a coda  Nuclei are all pure vowels, whereas codas are consonants or semi-vowels Little knowledge When pronouncing a vowel, the vocal cords vibrate and the airstream in the vocal tract will not be blocked as much as in consonants.

14. 14 Final (Con’t on next page)

15. 15 Final

16. 16 Nasal Sound as Final  m 唔 (not)  ng 吳 (Ng: surname)

17. 17 春曉 孟浩然 春眠不覺曉， 處處聞啼鳥。 夜來風雨聲， 花落知多少？ Rhymed  In poems or songs, the final characters of certain verses have more or less the same finals, making the poems or songs rhyme and sound better.  Listen to the following Tang Poem and see which characters rhyme.

18. 18 春曉 孟浩然 春眠不覺曉， ceon1 min4 bat1 gok3 hiu2 處處聞啼鳥。 cyu3 cyu3 man4 tai4 niu5 夜來風雨聲， je6 loi4 fung1 jyu5 sing1 花落知多少？ faa1 lok6 zi1 do1 siu2 Rhyming

19. 19 Tone  There are six tones in Cantonese  to show the rising and falling of the pitch  to distinguish the meaning between syllables  Tone Mark  1 ( 夫 / 福 ) 、 2 ( 虎 ) 、 3 ( 副 / 霍 ) 、 4 ( 扶 ) 、 5 ( 婦 ) 、 6 ( 父 / 服 )

20. 20 Tone

21. 21 Tone  Guess what is in common of the following expressions: 朝 早 去 晨 下 運 (in the morning go work out a bit) 三 碗 細 牛 腩 飯 (three small bowls of beef brisket rice)

22. 22 Tone  Answer  The tones of these two expressions are from 1 to 6 朝 早 去 晨 下 運 ziu1 zou2 heoi3 san4 haa5 wan6 三 碗 細 牛 腩 飯 saam1 wun2 sai3 ngau4 naam5 faan6