WHAT'S JYUTPING?
Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese. It uses letters of the Latin alphabet and numbers to represent the pronunciation of each character.
JYUTPING: THREE PARTS
Generally, Jyutping syllables consist of three parts: initial, final, and tone.
INITIALS
In most cases, a syllable starts with an initial. There are 19 initials in Cantonese.
| Initial | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| father | ||
| to lie on one's stomach | ||
| mom | ||
| flower | ||
| dozen | ||
| it | ||
| which | ||
| to pull | ||
| home | ||
| card | ||
| teeth | ||
| shrimp | ||
| melon, gourd | ||
| exaggerate | ||
| frog | ||
| dregs | ||
| fork | ||
| sand | ||
| twenty |
FINALS
The final follows the initial in a syllable. Jyutping finals can be further divided into the nucleus (main vowel) and coda (terminal sound). There are 9 nuclei and 8 codas.
Nuclei (Main vowels)
| Final | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sand | ||
| west | ||
| few, little | ||
| poem | ||
| vegetable | ||
| mushroom | ||
| boots | ||
| need | ||
| book |
Codas (Terminal sounds)
| Final | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| to bow | ||
| vegetable, dish | ||
| to wrap | ||
| high, tall | ||
| sound | ||
| to add | ||
| real | ||
| sour | ||
| sir | ||
| to help | ||
| tower | ||
| wet | ||
| one | ||
| to go out | ||
| north | ||
| congee |
TONES
Cantonese is a tonal language, which means that syllables with identical initials and finals but different tones will mean different things. There are six tones in Cantonese.
| Tone | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| High flat tone (highest tone; starts high and stays high) | ||
| High rising tone (starts at middle pitch and rises to highest pitch) | ||
| Mid flat tone (starts at middle pitch and stays there) | ||
| Low falling tone (starts at low pitch, then goes even lower) | ||
| Low rising tone (starts at lowest pitch, then rises to middle pitch) | ||
| Low flat tone (starts at low pitch and stays there) |