Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation

The Hong Kong Government uses an unpublished system of Romanisation of Cantonese for public purposes which is based on the 1888 standard described by Roy T Cowles in 1914 as Standard Romanisation. The primary need for Romanisation of Cantonese by the Hong Kong Government is in the assigning of names to new streets and places. It has not formally or publicly disclosed its method for determining the appropriate Romanisation in any given instance.

Method

Currently, government departments, particularly the Survey and Mapping Office of the Lands Department, consult the Chinese Language Department of the Civil Service Bureau before gazetting names and the latter vet proposed names using the Three Way Chinese Commercial/Telegraphic Code Book, originally published by the Royal Hong Kong Police Force Special Branch for internal government use in 1971. The code book system is devoid of any tone indications and, being grossly simplified, is susceptible to confusion.

Although the code book has only been available for several decades, the Romanisation approach for place names in Hong Kong has been broadly consistent since before 1888. This can be seen in maps of the period and in the government's publication A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories of 1960.

Typical features

For place names, the type of the place in English (e.g., "Street" and "Road") are often used instead of a romanisation (which would have been "Kai" and "Lo" in the previous example), with just a handful of rare exceptions (for example, the "Fong" in "Lan Kwai Fong", which would have been a "Square" if a translation were used). "Wan" and "Bay", "Tsuen" (or "Chuen") and "Estate" (or "Village"), are, however, equally common. Some places, such as "Un Long", was later renamed as "Yuen Long" according to this standard, with the exception "Un Chau Estate" / "Un Chau Street Estate". Nonetheless, the names "Hong Kong" and "Kowloon" are not transliterated based on this system, as they were already named as such prior to the founding of the colony.

Spelling

All tones are omitted as are distinctions between aspirated and unaspirated stops. The distinctions between the long vowel [a] and the short vowel [ɐ] are omitted like Fat (發, [fat]) and Fat (佛, [fɐt]).

Some of the inconsistencies are due to a distinction that has been lost historically (a distinction between palatal and alveolar sounds, viz. ch versus ts, sh versus s, and j versus z). These consonants are no longer distinguished in present-day speech.

Under the following table, geographical names are used to illustrate. (Biographical names are not used as people have the right to decide how their names be romanised, although the same rule usually applies.)

Consonants

Initials

IPA	Yale	HKG	Example	in Chinese
pʰ	p	p	Sai Ying Pun	西營盤
p	b	p	Po Lam	寶琳
tʰ	t	t	Tuen Mun	屯門
t	d	t	Tai O	大澳
kʰ	k	k	Kai Tak	啟德
k	g	k	Tai Kok Tsui	大角咀
kʰw	kw	kw	Kwai Chung	葵涌
kw	gw	kw	Cha Kwo Ling	茶果嶺
m	m	m	Yau Ma Tei	油麻地
n	n	n	Nam Cheong	南昌
ŋ	ng	ng	Ngau Tau Kok	牛頭角
l	l	l	Lam Tin	藍田
f	f	f	Fo Tan	火炭
s	s	s	So Kon Po	掃捍埔
		sh	Shau Kei Wan	筲箕灣
h	h	h	Hang Hau	坑口
j	y	y	Yau Tong	油塘
w	w	w	Wong Tai Sin	黃大仙
tsʰ	ch	ch	Heng Fa Chuen	杏花邨
		ts	Yau Yat Tsuen	又一村
ts	j	ts	Tsim Sha Tsui	尖沙咀

Finals

IPA	Yale	HKG	Example	in Chinese
-p	-p	-p	Ap Lei Chau	鴨脷洲
-t	-t	-t	Tsat Tsz Mui	七姊妹
-k	-k	-k	Shek O	石澳
-m	-m	-m	Sham Shui Po	深水埗
-n	-n	-n	Tsuen Wan	荃灣
-ŋ	-ng	-ng	Tsing Yi	青衣

Vowels, diphthongs, and syllabic consonants

IPA	Yale	HKG	Example	in Chinese
aː	aa	a	Ma Tau Wai	馬頭圍
		ah	Wah Fu Estate	華富邨
ɐ	a	a	Tsz Wan Shan	慈雲山
		o	Hung Hom	紅磡
		u	Sham Chun River	深圳河
ɛː/e	e	e	Che Kung Miu	車公廟
iː/e	i	i	Lai Chi Kok	荔枝角
		ze	Sheung Sze Wan	相思灣
		z	Tung Tsz	洞梓
		ee	Tat Chee Avenue	達之路
ɔː/o	o		Wo Che	禾輋
uː/o	u	u	Kwu Tung	古洞
		oo	Mei Foo	美孚
œː	eu	eu	Sheung Wan	上環
		eo	Nam Cheong Street	南昌街
ɵ	eu	u	Shun Lee Estate	順利邨
yː	yu	yu	Yu Chau Street	汝州街
		u	Kau U Fong	九如坊
		ue	Yung Shue Wan	榕樹灣
aːj	aai	ai	Chai Wan	柴灣
ɐj	ai	ai	Mai Po	米埔
aːw	aau	au	Shau Kei Wan	筲箕灣
ɐw	au	au	Sau Mau Ping	秀茂坪
ej	ei	ei	Lei Yue Mun	鯉魚門
		ee	Lee On	利安
		ay	Kam Hay Court	錦禧苑
		ai	Shui Hau Sai Ngan Ma	水口四眼馬
		i	To Li Terrace	桃李台
iːw	iu	iu	Siu Sai Wan	小西灣
ɔːj	oi	oi	Choi Hung Estate	彩虹邨
		oy	Choy Yee Bridge	蔡意橋
uːj	ui	ui	Pui O	貝澳
ɵj	eui	ui	Ma Liu Shui	馬料水
ow	ou	o	Tai Mo Shan	大帽山
m̩	m
ŋ̩	ng	ng	Ng Fan Chau	五分州[1]

• ^ The standard pronunciation of 五 is [ŋ̩]. However, a more common pronunciation in Hong Kong is [m̩] and many [ŋ̩] words are merging with it. The only word that was originally pronounced as m̩ is "唔" (not) and it is not used in place names.

See also

• List of common Chinese surnames shows how they are romanised in this scheme.

External links

• 粵語拼盤: Learning the Phonetic System of Cantonese
• Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK)
• Jyutping Pronunciation Guide