The Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation (not an official name) is the more or less consistent way for romanising Cantonese proper nouns employed by the Hong Kong Government departments and many non-governmental organisations in Hong Kong. It is not known whether there are strict guidelines for the method circulating in the government, or the method has just established itself and become a common practice over time. The system has been widely used by the Hong Kong Government from the very early days of British rule, and has since gone through some changes between the two World Wars. A romanization or latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, where the original word or language used a different writing system. ... Cantonese (Traditional Chinese: 粵語; Simplified Chinese: 粤语]], Cantonese: Yuet6yue5; Mandarin pinyin: Yuèyǔ, lit. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... On July 1, 1997, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) resumed its exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, ending more than 150 years of British colonial control. ... This article will detail the history of Colonial Hong Kong. ...

The convention is similar to the one devised by Ernst Johann Eitel, which is likely German-based. Ernst Johann Eitel (歐德理) or alternatively Ernest John Eitel (13th February, 1838-1908) was a German missionary born in Württemberg, Germany. ...

Since the method is not standardised, Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau has approved Standard Cantonese Pinyin system for teachers in primany and secondary schools. Besides, Linguistic Society of Hong Kong promotes their own Jyutping system. The Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau (ch. ... Standard Cantonese Pinyin is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Yu Bingzhao (ch. ... The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) is a non-profit academic association, which was formally registered as a charitable organization in Hong Kong on March 8, 1986. ... Jyutping (Traditional Chinese: 粵拼; Simplified Chinese: 粤拼; pinyin: yuèpīn; Yale: yuhtpīng; Jyutping: jyut6ping3; sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ...

This article illustrate and explain how the proper nouns in Hong Kong are transcribed and romanised, and the corresponding pronunciations of the spellings with respect to IPA and Jyutping. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ...

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ...

Usage

It is used in romanising names of people, when the applicant does not produce one by her/himself, and geographical names, for places which do not have an English name.

For place names, the type of the place in English (e.g., "Street" and "Road") are often used instead of a romanization (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.

When the romanisations are spoken in an English conversation, they are pronounced in a somewhat anglicised manner. All words are consistently pronounced in tone equivalent to the Yin Ping tone or tone 1. A good everyday example is the broadcast of station names on MTR trains. Mass Transit Railway or MTR (地下鐵路, literally underground railway; usually abbreviated to 地鐵 or 地下鐵) is the main rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. ...

Some instant messaging users, having problem to type in Chinese characters, model this rule of romanisation for communication but more properly voicing letters, such as using 'b', 'd' or 'g' where this system may have used 'p', 't' or 'k'. A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface Instant messaging is the act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the Internet. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

Spelling

It is not a fully standardised system, and many of the phonemes correspond to more than one letter combination, or the other way round. All tones are omitted. Distinctions between aspirated and unaspirated stops are also omitted. The distinctions between long vowel [ɑ] and short vowel [ɐ] are omitted like Fat (發, [fɑt]) and Fat (佛, [fɐt]). In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ...

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

Finals The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Jyutping (Traditional Chinese: 粵拼; Simplified Chinese: 粤拼; pinyin: yuèpīn; Yale: yuhtpīng; Jyutping: jyut6ping3; sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ...

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Jyutping (Traditional Chinese: 粵拼; Simplified Chinese: 粤拼; pinyin: yuèpīn; Yale: yuhtpīng; Jyutping: jyut6ping3; sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ...

Vowels, diphthongs, and syllabic consonants

• ↑  The standard pronunciation for 五 is [ŋ̩]. The most prevalent pronuniation in Hong Kong is [m̩] as many [ŋ̩] words are merging with it.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Jyutping (Traditional Chinese: 粵拼; Simplified Chinese: 粤拼; pinyin: yuèpīn; Yale: yuhtpīng; Jyutping: jyut6ping3; sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ... Standard Cantonese is a variant, and is generally considered the prestige dialect of Cantonese Chinese. ...

Pronunciation in English

The romanized words are normally pronounced in a somewhat anglicized way, with the following characteristics which are different than what the above discussion on spelling might indicate:

Initial consonants

• The letters p, t, k, plus the combinations kw and ts, are normally aspirated as per English; some English speakers in Hong Kong (including radio announcers) may choose to pronounce them unaspirated if the original Cantonese sounds are known to be unaspirated.
• The sound ng is pronounced as in Cantonese; however, because initial nasal consonants do not occur in English, English speakers usually have difficulty with them. (It is possible for it to be mispronounced as /n/.)
• The sound sh is pronounced as English sh (IPA: /ʃ/).
• The sound ts is to be pronounced as English ts (German z), but in practice might be pronounced as English ch (IPA: /tʃ/); however, because this sound does not normally occur at the initial position in English, English speakers will have difficulty pronouncing the sound. In Canada, ts is usually mispronounced as a simple /s/ or /z/ even among the Chinese.

Final consonants

• The letters p, t, k are pronounced as in English.

Vowels, diphthongs, and consonants

• The letter a, when followed by a consonant, is pronounced /æ/ as in English
• The letter a is to be pronounced /ɑ/ elsewhere; however, English speakers not familiar with the romanization (e.g., Canadians) may pronounce it differently according to English pronunciation rules, for example ai as /ei/.
• The letter u is to be pronounced as in German (i.e., like oo as in foot in English); before a consonant, English speakers not familiar with the romanization (e.g., Canadians) may pronounce it as /ʌ/ as in English.
• The digraph eu is to be pronounced as in Cantonese (i.e., like er of her in English English); however, as this sound does not exist in English, it may end up being pronounced as /ʌ/ (e.g., in Canada)
• The letter u (when after y) or the digraph ue is pronounced /y/ as in Cantonese (which can be produced from lip-rounded /i/); however, as this sound does not exist in English, it may end up being pronounced as /u/ (e.g., in Canada)
• The diphthong ui is to be pronounced a diphthong /ui/ (e.g., similar to Finnish); however, as this sound does not exist in English, it may end up being pronounced as a succession of two vowels /u:i:/, as in ooey.
• The syllabic consonant m and ng are pronounced as in Cantonese. However, as these sound do not exist in English, English speakers will have difficulty pronouncing it. Even many Hong Kong locals and Mandarin speakers (syllabic consonants are rare in Mandarin) have trouble distinguishing [m̩] and [ŋ̩]. This results in a phonological shift in Hong Kong Cantonese that sees a merge of [ŋ̩] into [m̩]. In fact, articulation is the only way to distinguish the surnames 伍 [m̩] and 吳 [ŋ̩] in Hong Kong speech. Both are anglicised as Ng, and appear as "wu" in Mandarin. Note that the Standard Cantonese pronunciation for 伍 is actually [ŋ̩] and it appears its phonologic shift has occurred "faster" than 吳.

Standard Cantonese is a variant, and is generally considered the prestige dialect of Cantonese Chinese. ...

References

• sci.lang article <3caa4b0f$0$17316$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>

See also

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

This is a list of the top 100 most common Chinese surnames according to a study published in 2006. ... Standard Cantonese is a variant, and is generally considered the prestige dialect of Cantonese Chinese. ...

External links

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