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User:Wikipean/Modified Yale romanization of Cantonese

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I suggest a modified version of Yale romanization of Cantonese to improve the original scheme.

Initials

[edit]
b
[p]
p
[]
m
[m]
f
[f]
d
[t]
t
[]
n
[n]
l
[l]
g
[k]
k
[]
ng
[ŋ]
h
[h]
gw
[kʷ]
kw
[kʷʰ]
w
[w]
j
[ts]
ch
[tsʰ]
s
[s]
y
[j]

Additional initials

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Sibilant initials may distinguish their plain and palatalized allophones:

  • chts [tsʰ] and ch [tɕʰ]
  • jz [ts] and j [tɕ]
  • ss [s] and sh [ɕ]

Finals

[edit]
aa
[]
aai
[aːi̯]
aau
[aːu̯]
aam
[aːm]
aan
[aːn]
aang
[aːŋ]
aap
[aːp̚]
aat
[aːt̚]
aak
[aːk̚]
  ai
[ɐi̯]
西
au
[ɐu̯]
am
[ɐm]
an
[ɐn]
ang
[ɐŋ]
ap
[ɐp̚]
at
[ɐt̚]
ak
[ɐk̚]
e
[ɛː]
ei
[ei̯]

[ɛːu̯]
*
em
[ɛːm]
*
  eng
[ɛːŋ]
ep
[ɛːp̚]
*
  ek
[ɛːk̚]
i
[]
  iu
[iːu̯]
im
[iːm]
in
[iːn]
ing
[ɪŋ]
ip
[iːp̚]
it
[iːt̚]
ik
[ɪk̚]
o
[ɔː]
oi
[ɔːy̯]
ou
[ou̯]
  on
[ɔːn]
ong
[ɔːŋ]
  ot
[ɔːt̚]
ok
[ɔːk̚]
u
[]
ui
[uːy̯]
    un
[uːn]
ung
[ʊŋ]
  ut
[uːt̚]
uk
[ʊk̚]
eu
[œː]
eui
[ɵy̯]
    eun
[ɵn]
eung
[œːŋ]
  eut
[ɵt̚]
euk
[œːk̚]
yu
[]
      yun
[yːn]
    yut
[yːt̚]
 
      m
[]
  ng
[ŋ̍]
     
  • Chinese characters with an asterisk (*) refer to their colloquial pronunciations.
  • Eu represents [œː]~[ɵ]. The colloquial final [ɛːu̯] is represented by (capital counterpart: ) with the breve (˘).
  • Bold letters refer that they are different to original Yale romanization of Cantonese.
  • Only the finals m and ng may be used as standalone nasal syllables.
  • If a syllable begins with i or u without any initial, y or w should be added before the i or u, respectively (e.g. , yīn, , wūn).
  • [ɪ] and [ʊ] is almost identically pronounced to [e] and [o] in Cantonese. However, they are not merged in this document due to allophones.

Additional finals

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Short allophones of some syllabic vowels may be represented by the breve (˘):

  • ee [ɛː] and ĕ (capital counterpart: Ĕ) [e]
  • ii [iː] and ĭ (capital counterpart: Ĭ) [ɪ]
  • oo [ɔː] and ŏ (capital counterpart: Ŏ) [o]
  • uu [uː] and ŭ (capital counterpart: Ŭ) [ʊ]

Both [yː] and [juː]~[jʊ] is written as yu in Yale. The former may be represented by the umlaut (¨):

  • yu (capital counterparts: ) [yː] and yu [juː]~[jʊ]
    • The latter may be also distinguished to yu [juː] and (capital counterpart: ) [jʊ]

Eu may be also distinguished to long/front and short/central allophones like as in Jyutping:

  • euoe [œː] and eo [ɵ]

Tones

[edit]
No. Description IPA & Chao
tone numbers
Yale representation
1 high-flat ˥ 55 sīn sīk
high-falling ˥˨ 52 sìn
2 mid-rising ˨˥ 25 sín
3 mid-flat ˧ 33 si sin sik
4 low-falling ˨˩ 21 sìh sìhn
5 low-rising ˨˧ 23 síh síhn
6 low-flat ˨ 22 sih sihn sihk
  • Diacritics for tones (ˉ, ` and ´) should be written above syllabic letters (e.g. lē, sēn, hēi, h). If the syllabic letters are digraphs (such as aa, eu/oe/eo, ng), diacritics should be written above the first letter (e.g. māai, ēun/ēon, ēung/ōeng, ǹgh). However, if the syllabic digraph is yu, diacritics should be written above the u exceptionally (e.g. n).
  • The h is added to syllables of the fourth to sixth tones. The h should be written after the last vowel letter in the syllable. If the final is a standalone syllabic nasal consonant (such as m or ng), the h should be written after the last letter of the syllable (e.g. h, ǹgh).
  • Diacritics for tones should be written above other optional diacritics (e.g. sĕ̄i, yǖ).
  • By default, the first tone should be written with the macron (ˉ) if it does not needed to distinguish its two allophones (high-flat ˥ 55 and high-falling ˥˨ 52).

Syllable separator

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The apostrophe ( or ') is the syllable separator for resolving ambiguous situations.

Simplified spellings in handwriting

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The glyphs on the right are the preferrable forms of Ŋ and ŋ.

aa, ch/ts, eo/eu/oe, ng and yu// may be replaced with α (Greek small letter alpha; capital counterpart: α, enlarged Greek small letter alpha; See also Latin alpha), c, ö (capital counterpart: Ö), ŋ (capital counterpart: Ŋ) and ü (capital counterpart: Ü) respectively. The shape of the capital letter Ŋ may be written as both of the capital N with a tail of opentail g and the enlarged ŋ, but the latter is preferrable.

The diacritics with an additional h may be replaced with diacritics below the letters without an additional h:

No. Description IPA & Chao
tone numbers
Simplified Yale
4 low-falling ˨˩ 21 si̖ si̖n
5 low-rising ˨˧ 23 si̗ si̗n
6 low-flat ˨ 22 si̱ si̱n si̱k