Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation

Encyclopedia : H : HO : HON : Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation

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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.

The convention is similar to the one devised by Ernst Johann Eitel, which is likely German-based.

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.

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.

Usage

It is used in romanising names of people, when the applicant do 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 "To" 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.

Some Internet instant messenger 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'.

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]).

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

IPA	Jyutping	Romanisation	Example	in Chinese
	p	p	Sai Ying Pun	西營盤
	b	p	Po Lam	寶琳
	t	t	Tuen Mun	屯門
	d	t	Tai O	大澳
	k	k	Kai Tak	啟德
	g	k	Tai Kok Tsui	大角嘴
	kw	kw	Kwai Chung	葵涌
	gw	kw	Kwun Tong	觀塘
	m	m	Yau Ma Tei	油麻地
	n	n	Nam Cheong	南昌
	ng	ng	Ngau Tau Kok	牛頭角
	l	l	Lam Tin	藍田
	f	f	Fo Tan	火炭
s	s	s	So Kon Po	掃捍埔
		sh	Shau Kei Wan	筲箕灣
	h	h	Hang Hau	坑口
	j	y	Yau Tong	油塘
	w	w	Wong Tai Sin	黃大仙
tsʰ	c	ch	Heng Fa Chuen	杏花邨
		ts	Yau Yat Tsuen	又一村
ts	z	ch	Cheung Sha Wan	長沙灣
		ts	Tsim Sha Tsui	尖沙嘴

Finals

IPA	Jyutping	Romanisation	Example	in Chinese
>	-p	-p	Ap Lei Chau	鴨脷洲
>	-t	-t	Tsat Tsz Mui	七姊妹
>	-k	-k	Shek O	石澳
>	-m
Sham Shui Po	深水埗
>	-n	-n	Tsuen Wan	荃灣
>	-ng	-ng	Tsing Yi	青衣

Vowels, diphthongs, and syllabic consonants

IPA	Jyutping	Romanisation	Example	in Chinese
ɑ	aa	a	Ma Tau Wai	馬頭圍
		ah	Wah Fu Estate	華富邨
ɐ	a	a	Tsz Wan Shan	慈雲山
		o	Hung Hom	紅磡
		u	Sham Chun River	深圳河
	e	e	Che Kung Miu	車公廟
ɪ/i	i	i	Lai Chi Kok	荔枝角
		ze	Sheung Sze Wan	相思灣
		z	Tung Tsz	洞梓
		ee	Tat Chee Avenue	達之路
	o	o	Wo Che	禾輋
ʊ/u	u	u	Kwu Tung	古洞
		oo	Mei Foo	美孚
œ	eo	eu	Sheung Wan	上環
		eo	Nam Cheong Street	南昌街
	oe	u	Shun Lee Estate	順利邨
y	yu	yu	Yu Chau Street	汝州街
		u	Kau U Fong	九如坊
		ue	Yung Shue Wan	榕樹灣
	aai	ai	Chai Wan	柴灣
	ai	ai	Mai Po	米埔
	aau	au	Shau Kei Wan	筲箕灣
	au	au	Sau Mau Ping	秀茂坪
eɪ	ei	ei	Lei Yue Mun	鯉魚門
		ee	Lee On	利安
		ay	Kam Hay Court	錦禧苑
		ai	Shui Hau Sai Ngan Ma	水口四眼馬
	iu	iu	Siu Sai Wan	小西灣
ɔɪ	oi	oi	Choi Hung Estate	彩虹邨
		oy	Choy Yee Bridge	蔡意橋
	ui	ui	Pui O	貝澳
	eoi	ui	Ma Liu Shui	馬料水
oʊ	ou	o	Tai Mo Shan	大帽山
	u	u	Tung Chung	東涌
	m	m	Ng Fan Chau
	ng	ng	Ng Tung River	梧桐河

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

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.

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

External links

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

 

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