FCAC Cantonese Romanization
Summary of the difference between this romanization and Jyutping
- "eo" and "oe" are now "ø" and "œ", but you can still use "eo" and "oe" if you want.
- All "j"s are now "y".
- "yu" before "z" "c" and "j" are written as "u"; and also, "z" and "c" before "yu" are written as "j" and "ch" (so it's "jun" but not "zyun", "chun" but not "cyun", "yut" but not "jyut" or "yyut").
- "zoe" and "coe" are now "joe" and "choe" (which are in turn "jœ" and "chœ").
- Tones are now diacritics instead of numbers, so it's sî sí si sï sǐ sĩ instead of si1 si2 si3 si4 si5 si6.
Letters used
The following is a list of letters used in this romanization.
- Letters that are used in the main language. This category consists of: Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Ss Tt Uu Ww Yy Zz
- Extensions of the latin alphabet that are used in the main language. This category consists of: Øø Œœ
- While Øø and Œœ are the proper letters, it is also acceptable to write them as EO eo and OE oe, respectively. If, for whatever reasons these substitution needs to be capitalized, they need to be treated as if it is one character, e.g. "eoken" (which is NOT an existing word in Cantonese and is only used for demonstration here; it would be "øken" if written properly) shoudld be capitalized as "EOken" ("Øken" when written properly) instead of "Eoken".
- Letters that are only used to transliterate foreign words. This category consists of: Rr Xx Vv
Letters and the sounds they represent
| Letters | IPA |
| a | [ɐ] |
| aa | [aː] |
| b | [p] |
| c | [tsʰ] |
| ch | [tsʰʲ] ~ [tɕʰ] |
| d | [t] |
| e | [ɛː], [e] (see [2]) |
| ø, eo | [ɵ] |
| f | [f] |
| g | [k] |
| gw | [kʷ] |
| h | [h] |
| i | [iː], [ɪ] (see [3]) |
| j | [tɕʲ] ~ [tɕ] |
| k | [kʰ] (see [1]) |
| kw | [kʷʰ] |
| l | [l] |
| m | [m] |
| n | [n] |
| ng | [ŋ] |
| o | [ɔː], [o] (see [4]) |
| œ, oe | [œː] (see [7]) |
| p | [pʰ] (see [1]) |
| s | [s] ~ [sʲ] ~ [ɕ] (see [5]) |
| t | [tʰ] (see [1]) |
| u | [uː], [ʊ] (see [6]) |
| y | [j] |
| yu | [yː] (see [7]) |
| z | [ts] |
Notes:
- These consonants when used at the end of a syllable become their no-audible-release counterparts, i.e. [pʰ] [tʰ] [kʰ] becomes [p̚], [t̚], [k̚].
- [e] only happens in dipthong "ei".
- [ɪ] only happens in the combination "ing" [ɪŋ] and "ik" [ɪk̚].
- [o] only happens in dipthong "ou".
- All three could happen depending on the following phoneme, e.g. the "s" in 上 "sœ̃ng" could be pronounced as [sʲ] or [ɕ].
- [ʊ] only happens in the combination "ung" [ʊŋ] and "uk" [ʊk̚].
- Could trigger other characters to be written differently under certain circumstances; see below.
A table of possible finals is listed below:
(This table is taken from Wikipedia.)
aa
/aː/
沙
|
aai
/aːi̯/
徙
|
aau
/aːu̯/
梢
|
aam
/aːm/
三
|
aan
/aːn/
山
|
aang
/aːŋ/
坑
|
aap
/aːp̚/
圾
|
aat
/aːt̚/
剎
|
aak
/aːk̚/
客
|
a
/ɐ/
[1]
|
ai
/ɐi̯/
西
|
au
/ɐu̯/
收
|
am
/ɐm/
心
|
an
/ɐn/
新
|
ang
/ɐŋ/
笙
|
ap
/ɐp̚/
濕
|
at
/ɐt̚/
失
|
ak
/ɐk̚/
塞
|
e
/ɛː/
些
|
ei
/ei̯/
四
|
eu
/ɛːu̯/
掉
|
em
/ɛːm/
舐
|
|
eng
/ɛːŋ/
鄭
|
ep
/ɛːp̚/
夾
|
|
ek
/ɛːk̚/
石
|
i
/iː/
詩
|
|
iu
/iːu̯/
消
|
im
/iːm/
閃
|
in
/iːn/
先
|
ing
/ɪŋ/
星
|
ip
/iːp̚/
攝
|
it
/iːt̚/
洩
|
ik
/ɪk/
識
|
o
/ɔː/
疏
|
oi
/ɔːy̯/
開
|
ou
/ou̯/
蘇
|
|
on
/ɔːn/
看
|
ong
/ɔːŋ/
康
|
|
ot
/ɔːt̚/
喝
|
ok
/ɔːk̚/
索
|
u
/uː/
夫
|
ui
/uːy̯/
灰
|
|
|
un
/uːn/
寬
|
ung
/ʊŋ/
鬆
|
|
ut
/uːt̚/
闊
|
uk
/ʊk/
叔
|
|
|
øi
/ɵy̯/
需
|
|
|
øn
/ɵn/
詢
|
|
|
øt
/ɵt̚/
摔
|
|
œ
/œː/
鋸
|
|
|
|
|
œng
/œːŋ/
商
|
|
œt
/œːt̚/
|
œk
/œːk̚/
削
|
yu
/yː/
書
|
|
|
|
yun
/yːn/
孫
|
|
|
yut
/yːt̚/
雪
|
|
The phoneme "yu" and "œ" are special in this romanization:
- When "yu" is preceded by the consonant "z", "c" or "y", the consonant shall be written as "j", "ch" "y" respectively, and the "y" in "yu" should be dropped. e.g. "jun" but not "zyun" or "jyun", "chun" but not "cyun" or "chyun", "yut" but not "yyut".
- When "œ" (or "oe") is preceded by the consonant "z" or "c", the consonant shall be written as "j" and "ch" respectively. e.g. "jœng" but not "zœng", "chœng" but not "cœng".
The letter Rr Xx Vv are used as follows:
- Rr is used for any R that's not a tap (which is transliterated as "l").
- A single R r is for alveolar or retroflex approximant (or anything that are similar)
- RR rr for any kind of trill;
- RX rx for uvular approximant;
- Xx, when used singularly, represents any dorsal fricatives (e.g. voiceless velar fricative [x], or the "ch" in "loch")
- Vv is used to represent a voiced "f".
Tones
A comparison of tone markers is listed as follow:
| Tone |
Jyutping |
Yale |
FCAC |
(Notes) |
| 1 (High flat) |
si1 |
sī |
sî |
|
| 1 (High falling) |
si1 |
sì |
sì/sîh |
Modern Cantonese does not discern high flat and high falling most of the time, so one may replace sïh with sï. |
| 2 (High rising) |
si2 |
sí |
sí |
|
| 3 (Medium flat) |
si3 |
si |
si |
|
| 4 (Low flat) |
si4 |
sìh |
sï/sìh |
|
| 5 (Low rising) |
si5 |
síh |
sǐ/sỉ/síh |
A previous version of this draft used the "hook above" diacritics, which can be hard to differentiate when the text is tiny. |
| 6 (Medium-low flat) |
si6 |
sih |
sĩ/sih |
|
| 7 (High flat entering) |
sek1 |
sēk |
sêk |
|
| 8 (Medium flat entering) |
sek3 |
sek |
sek |
|
| 9 (Medium-low flat entering) |
sek6 |
sehk |
sẽk |
|
Tone marks are added and only added to the first "vowel letter", which are: Aa Ee Øø Ii Oo Œœ Uu. e.g. it's "gäa" but not "gää", it's "kǿih" but not "kǿíh". When "h" is used, it is added after the last vowel letter, e.g. it's "søih" but not "søhi" or "shøi".
Word separation
Each syllable should be separated by a space or a en-dash (-). When to use a dash instead of a space is determined by whether the characters combine into one single meaningful word. One should not use dashes after things like suffixes and conjunctions.
Syllables without vowel letters but require tone accent marks
For the syllable m:
- The syllable "m4" (in Jyutping) is written as "m̀h", "m' " or "m̈".
- The syllable "m2" (in Jyutping) is written as "ḿ".
For the syllable ng:
- The syllable "ng4" (in Jyutping) is written as "ǹgh" or "n̈g".
- The syllable "ng5" (in Jyutping) is written as "ńgh", "ňg" or "n̉g".
- The syllable "ng6" (in Jyutping) is written as "ñg".
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