Everything about Guangdong Romanization totally explained
Guangdong Romanization refers to the four romanization schemes published by the
Guangdong Provincial Education Department in 1960 for transliterating the
Standard Cantonese,
Teochew,
Hakka, and
Hainanese spoken varieties of Chinese. The schemes utilized similar elements with some differences in order to adapt to their respective spoken varieties.
In certain respects, Guangdong romanization resembles the Mandarin
Hanyu pinyin in its distinction of the
alveolar initials
z,
c,
s from the
alveolo-palatal initials
j,
q,
x, and in its use of
b,
d,
g to represent the unaspirated
plosive consonants /p t k/. In addition, it makes use of the
medial u in the
final before the
rime rather than representing it as
w in the initial when it follows
g or
k.
Guangdong romanization makes use of
diacritics to represent certain vowels. This includes the use of the
circumflex,
acute accent, and
umlaut in the letters
ê,
é, and
ü, respectively. In addition, it uses
-b,
-d,
-g to represent the
coda consonants /p t k/ rather than
-p,
-t,
-k like other romanization schemes in order to be consistent with their use as unaspirated plosives in the initial.
Tones are marked by
superscript numbers rather than by diacritics.
Cantonese
The scheme for
Standard Cantonese is outlined in "The Cantonese Transliteration Scheme" . It is referred to as the
Canton Romanization on the
LSHK character database
. Although not as popular as other Cantonese romanization schemes such as
Yale,
Standard Cantonese Pinyin Schemes and
Jyutping, it's still used in certain publications, particularly in works released in the
People's Republic of China regarding Cantonese.
Initials
b
/p/ |
p
/pʰ/ |
m
/m/ |
f
/f/ |
d
/t/ |
t
/tʰ/ |
n
/n/ |
l
/l/ |
g
/k/ |
k
/kʰ/ |
ng
/ŋ/ |
h
/h/ |
z
/ts/ |
c
/tsʰ/ |
s
/s/ |
|
j
/tɕ/ |
q
/tɕʰ/ |
x
/ɕ/ |
|
| |
|
y
/j/ |
w
/w/ |
Unlike the other Cantonese romanziation schemes, Guangdong romanization indicates a difference between the
alveolar consonants
z,
c,
s and the
alveolo-palatal consonants
j,
q,
x. Standard Cantonese typically doesn't differentiate these two types of consonants because they're
allophones that occur in
complementary distributions. However, speech patterns of most Cantonese speakers do utilize both types of consonants and the romanization scheme attempts to reflect this.
- z, c, and s are used before finals beginning with a, e, o, u, ê, and é.
- j, q, and x are used before finals beginning with i and ü.
Some publications may not bother with this distinction and will choose just one set or the other to represent these consonants.
Finals
Finals consist of an optional medial and an obligatory rime.
Medials
The only recognized medial
glide in the Cantonese Guangdong romanization is
u, which occurs in syllables with initials
g or
k and rimes that begin with
a,
e,
i, or
o. In other romanization schemes, this medial is usually grouped along with the initial as
gw and
kw, but Guangdong romanization attempts to preserve it as a medial. For simplicity, the
u is sometimes grouped with the initials anyway as
gu and
ku.
The
u medial can occur without an initial, but in that case it's considered the same as the initial
w. The same is true for the medial
i, which is only recognized as the initial
y.
Rimes
a
/aː/ |
ai
/aːi/ |
ao
/aːu/ |
am
/aːm/ |
an
/aːn/ |
ang
/aːŋ/ |
ab
/aːp/ |
ad
/aːt/ |
ag
/aːk/ |
|
ei
/ɐi/ |
eo
/ɐu/ |
em
/ɐm/ |
en
/ɐn/ |
eng
/ɐŋ/ |
eb
/ɐp/ |
ed
/ɐt/ |
eg
/ɐk/ |
é
/ɛː/ |
éi
/ei/ |
|
|
|
éng
/ɛːŋ/ |
|
|
ég
/ɛːk/ |
i
/iː/ |
|
iu
/iːu/ |
im
/iːm/ |
in
/iːn/ |
ing
/ɪŋ/ |
ib
/iːp/ |
id
/iːt/ |
ig
/ɪk/ |
o
/ɔː/ |
oi
/ɔːi/ |
ou
/ou/ |
|
on
/ɔːn/ |
ong
/ɔːŋ/ |
|
od
/ɔːt/ |
og
/ɔːk/ |
u
/uː/ |
ui
/uːi/ |
|
|
un
/uːn/ |
ung
/ʊŋ/ |
|
ud
/uːt/ |
ug
/ʊk/ |
ê
/œː/ |
|
êü
/ɵy/ |
|
ên
/ɵn/ |
êng
/œːŋ/ |
|
êd
/ɵt/ |
êg
/œːk/ |
ü
/yː/ |
|
|
|
ün
/yːn/ |
|
|
üd
/yːt/ |
|
|
|
|
m
/m̩/ |
|
ng
/ŋ̩/ |
|
|
|
When i begins a rime in a syllable that has no initial, y is used as the initial.
When u begins a rime in a syllable that has no initial, w is used as the initial.
When ü begins a rime in a syllable that has no initial, y is used as the initial and the umlaut is omitted.
When ü begins a rime in a syllable with initial j, q, or x, the umlaut is omitted.
The rime êü can be written as êu, without the umlaut over the u.
The rimes m and ng can only be used as standalone nasal syllables.
Tones
There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese.
In Guangdong Romanization, on may represent the entering (入 rù) tones either together with tones 1, 3, and 6, as in the other Cantonese romanization schemes, or separately as tones 7, 8, and 9. Syllables with entering tones correspond to those ending in -b, -d, or -g.
| Tone name |
Yīn Píng
(陰平) |
īn Shàng
(陰上) |
īn Qù
(陰去) |
Yáng Píng
(陽平) |
áng Shàng
(陽上) |
áng Qù
(陽去) |
Yīn Rù
(陰入) |
hōng Rù
(中入) |
áng Rù
(陽入) |
| Tone name in English | high level or high falling |
mid rising |
mid level |
low falling |
low rising |
low level |
entering high level |
entering mid level |
entering low level
|
| Contour | 55 / 53 |
35 |
33 |
21 / 11 |
13 |
22 |
5 |
3 |
2
|
| Number | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
1 (7) |
3 (8) |
6 (9)
|
| Character Example | 分 |
粉 |
訓 |
焚 |
奮 |
份 |
忽 |
發 |
佛
|
| Example | fen1 |
fen² |
fen³ |
fen4 |
fen5 |
fen6 |
fed1 |
fad³ |
fed6
|
Examples
Teochew
The scheme for the Teochew dialect of Min Nan is outlined in "The Teochew Transliteration Scheme" . This scheme (and another similar scheme which is based upon this scheme) is often referred to as Peng'im, which is the Teochew pronunciation of pinyin.
This scheme is the romanization scheme currently described in the Teochew (dialect) article.
Hakka
The scheme for Hakka is outlined in "The Hakka Transliteration Scheme" . The scheme describes the Meixian dialect, which is generally regarded as the de facto standard dialect of Hakka.
This scheme is the romanization scheme currently described in the Hakka (linguistics) article.
Hainanese
The scheme for Hainanese is outlined in "The Hainanese Transliteration Scheme" .
Further Information
Get more info on 'Guangdong Romanization'.
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