Jyutping

Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. Its formal name is "The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme". The LSHK promotes the use of this romanization system.

The name "Jyutping" is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms "jyut jyu" (, meaning "Cantonese") and "ping jam" ( "phonetic alphabet").

Note that the "j" used by this romanization system is the "j" used by IPA, which is equivalent to the "y" used by English speakers or most Chinese romanization systems.

Jyutping input method is the only Cantonese input method available in Microsoft's Vista products.

Initials

Comparison with Yale Romanization

Jyutping and the Yale romanization system represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
* The initials: "b", "p", "m", "f", "d", "t", "n", "l", "g", "k", "ng", "h", "s", "gw", "kw", "w".
* The vowel: "aa" (except when using alone), "a", "e", "i", "o", "u","yu".
* The nasal consonant: "m", "ng".
* The coda: "i", "u", "m", "n", "ng", "p", "t", "k".But they have difference with the following exceptions:
* The vowels "eo" and "oe" represent IPA|/ɵ/ and IPA|/œː/ respectively in Jyutping, while the "eu" represents both vowels in Yale.
* The initial "j" represents IPA|/j/ in Jyutping while "y" is used instead in Yale.
* The initial "z" represents IPA|/ts/ in Jyutping while "j" is used instead in Yale.
* The initial "c" represents IPA|/tsʰ/ in Jyutping while "ch" is used instead in Yale.
* In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel "yu", then the initial "j" is appended before the vowel. In Yale, the corresponding initial "y" is never appended before "yu" under any circumstances.
* Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale: "eu" IPA|/ɛːu/, "em" IPA|/ɛːm/, and "ep" IPA|/ɛːp/. These three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as "deu6" (掉), "lem2" (舐), and "gep6" (夾).
* To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping while Yale originally uses tone marks together with the letter "h" (though tone numbers can be used in Yale as well).

Comparison with Standard Cantonese Pinyin

Jyutping and the Standard Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters in:
* The initials: "b", "p", "m", "f", "d", "t", "n", "l", "g", "k", "ng", "h", "s", "gw", "kw", "j", "w".
* The vowel: "aa", "a", "e", "i", "o", "u".
* The nasal consonant: "m", "ng".
* The coda: "i" (except of being the coda IPA|/y/ in Jyutping), "u", "m", "n", "ng", "p", "t", "k".But they have some differences:
* The vowels "oe" represent IPA|/ɵ/ and IPA|/œː/ in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while the "eo" and "oe" represent IPA|/ɵ/ and IPA|/œː/ respectively in Jyutping.
* The vowel "y" represent IPA|/y/ in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while both "yu" (use in nucleus) and "i" (use in coda) is used in Jyutping.
* The initial "dz" represents IPA|/ts/ in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while "z" is used instead in Jyutping.
* The initial "ts" represents IPA|/tsʰ/ in Standard Cantonese Pinyin while "c" is used instead in Jyutping.
* To represent tone, numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Standard Cantonese Pinyin (as in Yale), though substituting 1, 3, and 6 for 7, 8, and 9 is acceptable. However, only numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping.

Examples

Try to write an old Chinese poem:

Jyutping input method

The Jyutping method (zh-t|t=粵拼輸入法) refers to a family of input methods based on the Jyutping romanization system.

The Jyutping method allows a user to input Chinese characters by entering the jyutping of a Chinese character (with or without tone, depending on the system) and then presenting the user with a list of possible characters with that pronunciation.

List of Cantonese phonetic methods

* [http://hk.dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries_and_Regions/Hong_Kong/Computers_and_Internet/Software/System_Utilities/Input_Methods/Chinese_Input/Cantonese_Input/ Yahoo's list of Cantonese IME]
* [http://www.cantoneseinput.com Online Cantonese Input Method] (網上廣東話輸入法)
* [http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/webime_select.php MDBG]
* [http://home.comcast.net/~jbmbweb/cantoinput/index.html CantoInput]
* [http://homepage.mac.com/yung/cantonim/index.html CantonIM] for Macintosh Mac OS X
* [http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/kkl_cime.htm Red Dragonfly]
* [http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~domingo2/Chinese.html LSHK Jyutping] for Macintosh Mac OS X and OS 9 (The page also includes Yale input version 0.2)
* [http://www.langcomp.com.hk/chinese/products/smartjpime.htm Smart Jyutping IME]
* [http://www.waisek.com/ Waisek Chinese Input Method] (緯石廣東話拼音中文輸入法)
* [http://lshk.ctl.cityu.edu.hk/ LSHK?] (輕鬆粵語輸入法)
* [http://free.ys168.com/?sxgpic Simplified phonetic?] (粵語簡拼輸入法)
*Microsoft Office Hong Kong Cantonese IME 2007 (微軟香港粵語輸入法2007)

External links

* [http://lshk.ctl.cityu.edu.hk/cantonese.php LSHK Cantonese Romanization Scheme]
* [http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/essays/jyutping.htm Jyutping Pronunciation Guide]
* [http://input.foruto.com/ccc/jyt/ 粵語拼盤] : Learning the phonetic system of Cantonese
* [http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-can/ Chinese Character Database (Phonologically Disambiguated According to the Cantonese Dialect)]
* [http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chardict MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary (supports both Jyutping and Yale romanization)]
* [http://www.cantodict.org The CantoDict Project] is a dedicated Cantonese-Mandarin-English online dictionary which uses Jyutping by default
* [http://158.132.20.133:443/jp/ Jyutping exercises and other resources] (only partially English as of 2006-12-17; temporary website)
* [http://cpime.hk/ Cantonese Phonetic IME (with Jyutping)]