http://www.cantonese.org.cn/bbsxp/ Cantonese Association forum runned by a few Cantonese enthusiastists in Canton and Hongkong.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cantonese_script/ cantonese_script · Cantonese Script
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages#Traditional_Chinese_Script_Cantonese_Wikipedia Traditional Chinese Script Cantonese Wikipedia
Penkyamp (Chinese: 拼音; Yale: ping1 yam1, Jyutping: ping1 jam1) or Cantonese pinyin, is a romanization system for transliterating Cantonese Chinese. It is a joint effort of enthusiasts in Guangzhou with a goal of devicing an alternative script to write Cantonese, replacing the standard Chinese characters plus the Cantonese folk characters. It is an attempt to standardize the language spoken by large number of residents in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Auckland, Vancouver and San Francisco, from the status of a vernacular to that of a literary language.
On the other hand, the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong adopts another Cantonese Romanization called Jyutping, which is not yet popularized among Cantonese-English or English-Cantonese dictionaries. The current most widely accepted system for Cantonese Romanization are Meyer-Wempe and Yale.
Both Penkyamp and Jyutping are attempts to improve from previous systems. The features of Penkyamp includes:
- reflects the vowel system of Cantonese more systematically than Jyutping by recognizing all long-short vowel contrasts,
- whereas Jyutping only recognizes short a and long a.
- indicates long and short vowels using the unique orthographic feature of altering the ending consonant of the shengmu.
- does not have the ambiguous distinction between "oe" and "eu" (as in Jyutping).
- treats the two (not three) front-round vowels using the same silent vowel letter "e", placed before the substantial vowel
- categorizes the other front-round vowel (an underdeveloped one) as a short "o".
- does not use the consonant "j", which is used in traditional Cantonese anglicization as "z" instead of "y" (as in Jyutping).
The following descriptions applies to Penkyamp.
Alphabet
editA B C D E F G H I K L M N O P (q) S T U W Y Z
Shengmus (Consonants aided by International Phonetic Alphabets. In order to see proper display of IPA, you must download a Unicode font)
- B [p] unaspirated
- C [tsʰ] aspirated
- D [t] unaspirated
- F [f]
- G [k] unaspirated
- H [h]
- K [kʰ] aspirated
- L [l]
- M [m]
- N [n]
- P [pʰ] aspirated
- S [s]
- T [tʰ] aspirated
- W [w]
- Y [j]
- Z [ts] unaspirated
Special Attention
- C is [tsʰ] as "tz" in Politzer.
- Z [tz] is the unaspirated form of C.
- q is a glottal stop [ʔ], Arabic "hamsa", as it appears in Cantonese interjection lâq, which is interchangeable with lâg.
Vowels:
- long: A E I O U Eo Eu
- short: Ah Eh Oh
- diphthongs1: Ai Oi Ui Au Iu Ay Ey Oy Aw Ow
- diphthongs2: single vowels and diphthongs1 preceded by semi-vowel u, such as uay as in guây (expensive)
Yunmus aided by International Phonetic Symbols
long
- A [a] ("a" alone or followed by "g", "b", "d", "ng", "m", "n", "i", "u")
- E [ɛ] open-mid front unrounded
- I [i]
- O [ɔ]open-mid back rounded
- U [u]
- Eo [ɶ] open-mid front rounded
- Eu [y]
short
- Ah [ɐ]open-mid back unrounded ("a" followed by "h", "k", "p", "t", "nk", "mp", "nt", "y", "w")
- Eh [e] close-mid front unrounded ("e" followed by above)
- Oh [o] close-mid back rounded ("o" followed by above)
diphthongs
- Ai [ai]
- Oi [ɔy]
- Ui [uy]
- Au [au]
- Iu [iw]
- Ay [ɐj]
- Ey [ej]
- Oy [øy] (ø is mid-close front rounded)
- Aw [ɐu]
- Ow [ow]
Short vowels are those in short yunmus, and long vowels in long yunmus. All short vowels are pronounced with tighter, smaller enclosure of lips than are their long counterparts.
Orthography
editLong yunmus followed by consonants:
- Ru:
- Ab Ad Ag
- Ping/shang/qu:
- Am An Ang
- Eg Eng
- Ib Id Im In
- Od Og On Ong
- Ud Un
Short yunmus followed by consonants:
- Ru:
- Ap At Ak
- P/S/Q:
- Amp Ant Ank
- Ek Enk
- Ot Ok Ont Onk
Tones
edit- Yin1Ping2 or high Yin1Ru4 (Yamp1Penk4 cum high Yamp1Yap6): a1, ä (umlaut)
- Yin1Shang3(Yamp1Seong5): a2, ã (tilde)
- Yin1Qu4 or low Yin1Ru4 (Yamp1Hoy3 cum low Yamp1Yap6): a3, â (circumflex)
- Yang2Ping2(Yeong4Penk4): a4, a (plain)
- Yang2Shang3(Yeong4Seong5): a5, á (acute)
- Yang2Qu4(Yeong4Hoy3): a6, à (grave)
6 tones represented by numerical scales of pitch, "1" being the lowest, "6" the highest"
- First: "Zäw" tone, scale= 66
- Second: "Hãw" tone, scale= 35
- Third: "Dîm" tone, scale= 44
- Fourth: "Ho" tone, scale= 11
- Fifth: "Mów", scale=24
- Sixth: "Dòw", scale=22
Either the tone numbers 1-6 or the diacritic marks may be used
- note: a shortcut for memorizing all 6 of them is a couplet:
- Zaw1 Haw2 Dim3, Ho4 Mow2 Dow6
- Zhou1 Kou3 Dian4, He2 Mu3 Du4 (Mandarin)
- (周口店, 河姆渡)
Zhoukoudian is an archeological site near Beijing containing a 500,000 year old Homo Erectus habitat; Hemudu is a Zhejiang archeological site of Neolithic human activities
Sample
editText sample in the Standard Cantonese Penk3yamp1 (simplified Chinese text are place holders for now):
| trad. | simp. | pinyin | Penkyamp | meaning |
| 北京 | 北京 | Bei3 jing1 | Bak1 genk1 | Beijing |
| 花 | 花 | Hua1 | Fa1 | flower |
| 寫 | 寫 | Xie3 | Se3 | write |
| 字 | 字 | Zi4 | Zi6 | Chinese character |
| 我 | 我 | Wo3 | Ngo5 | I, me |
| 湖 | 湖 | Hu2 | Wu4 | lake |
| 靴 | 靴 | Xue1 | Heo1 | boot |
| 柱 | 柱 | Zhu4 | Ceu5 | pillar |
| 吧(?) | 啦(?) | ba4 | lah1 | one of the interjections at the end of a sentence |
| 壞 | 壞 | Huai4 | Wai6 | bad |
| 外 | 外 | Wai4 | Ngoi6 | outside |
| 背 | 背 | Bei4 | Bui3 | back |
| 教 | 教 | Jiao1 | Gau3 | teach |
| 腰 | 腰 | Yao1 | Yiu1 | waist |
| 肺 | 肺 | Fei4 | Fay3 | lung |
| 地 | 地 | Di4 | Dey6 | ground |
| 追 | 追 | Zhui1 | Zoy1 | pursue |
| 狗 | 狗 | Gou3 | Gaw2 | dog |
| 路 | 路 | Lu4 | Low6 | road |
| 鴨 | 鴨 | Ya1 | Ngab3 | duck |
| 殺 | 殺 | Sha1 | Sad3 | kill |
| 百 | 百 | Bai3 | Bag3 | hundred |
| 三 | 三 | San1 | Sam1 | three |
| 慢 | 慢 | Man4 | Man6 | slow |
| 行 | 行 | Xing2 | Hang4 | walk |
| 劇 | 劇 | Ju4 | Keg6 | drama |
| 鏡 | 鏡 | Jing4 | Geng3 | mirror |
| 頁 | 頁 | Ye4 | Yib6 | page |
| 熱 | 熱 | Re4 | Yid6 | hot |
| 劍 | 劍 | Jian4 | Gim3 | sword |
| 線 | 線 | Xian4 | Sin3 | thread |
| 渴 | 渴 | Ke3 | Hod3 | thirst |
| 國 | 國 | Guo2 | Guog3 | state,nation |
| 岸 | 岸 | An4 | Ngon6 | shore |
| 幫 | 幫 | Bang1 | Bong1 | help |
| 活 | 活 | Huo2 | Wud6 | to live |
| 換 | 換 | Huan4 | Wun6 | exchange, replace |
| 急 | 急 | Ji2 | Gap1 | hasty |
| 失 | 失 | Shi1 | Sat1 | lost |
| 得 | 得 | De2 | Dak1 | gain |
| 心 | 心 | Xin1 | Samp1 | heart |
| 新 | 新 | Xin1 | Sant1 | new |
| 生 | 生 | Sheng1 | Sank1 | student |
| 食 | 食 | Shi2 | Sek6 | to eat |
| 精 | 精 | Jing1 | Zenk1 | essence |
| 出 | 出 | Chu1 | Cot1 | outside |
| 哭 | 哭 | Ku1 | Hok1 | to cry, weep |
| 信 | 信 | Xin4 | Sont3 | to trust |
| 中 | 中 | Zhong1 | Zonk1 | middle |
Fonts
editCantonese font:
- ÀÁAÂÃÄ, ÈÉEÊẼË, ÌÍIÎĨÏ, ÒÓOÔÕÖ, ÙÚUÛŨÜ;
- àáaâãä, èéeêẽë, ìíiîĩï, òóoôõö, ùúuûũü;
http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/ti/guide_test_unicode_utf8_B.html
Missing from common Western fonts:
- E-tilde Ẽ ẽ
- I-tilde Ĩ ĩ
- U-tilde Ũ ũ
They are obtainable from Vietnamese font.
Example of Penkyamp
edit"Nanhai Chao" (pinyin for 南海潮, penkyamp Nam4 Hoi2 Ciu4), or "Southern Sea Tides", is a song of the overseas Cantonese. Its melody is based on the folk songs of the boat people in the Pearl River Delta and its adjacent coasts.
- 紅霞满洒粤天東破曉
- 蒸蒸日上序華章
- 紅棉紫荆又添千百朶
- 欣欣萬世象
- 我見江潮依然推起那舢板
- 卻是穿過玉宇瓊樓新靚景
- 我叫海潮波淘不要這洶涌
- 隔住一片萬里大洋帰心切
Translation:
- Red clouds are overtaking the Cantonese sky at daybreak,
- The rising sun preludes an elegant prose;
- The silk trees (symbolizing Guangzhou) and redbuds (symbolizing Hong Kong) adds hundreds and thousands of blooms again,
- What a prosperous picture to last forever!
- I see river tides still pushing that "sampan" (an Asian boat),
- But it rafts through a refreshing scene of edifaces of jade.
- I tell the ocean not to be so turbulant,
- Across from thousands of miles of ocean I am home sick.
Penkyamp transliteration:
- Honkha mún sã Yeùd tïn dönk pôhiũ
- Zënkzënkyàtseóng zòy wazeöng
- Honkmin zĩgënk yàw tïm cïnbâg dõ
- Yäntyänt mànsây zeòng
- Ngó gîn göngciu yïyin töy hẽy ná sänbãn
- Keôgsì ceün guô yôkyeúkenklaw sänt lêng gẽnk
- Ngó gîu hõiciu bötow bätyîu zé hönkyõnk
- Gâg zeù yät pîn mànléy dàiyeong guäysämpcîd
Variant
editThere were complaints that using final consonants to determine vowel length was counter-intuitive and that "eu" and "eo" were unconventional. So a variant called "Gwohngdongwaa pengyam" was created. These were the changes:
Initial "z" was replaced by "j".
Vowels:
- long: aa(ah) eh(ee) i oh(oo) u oe ue
- short: a e o
- diphthongs1: aay(ai) ooy(oi) uy aaw(au) iw ay ey oy aw ow
- diphthongs2: single vowels and diphthongs were preceded by semi-vowel w, such as way as in gwây (expensive)
Consonant endings were made consistent: m n ng p t k