Wong Shik-Ling (also known as S. L. Wong) published a

romanisation Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

scheme accompanying a set of phonetic symbols for

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

based on

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

(IPA) in the book ''

A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton ''A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton'' () is a book written by Wong Shik-Ling () within a few years before being published in Hong Kong, 1941. It is one of the most influential books on the research of Cantonese pro ...

''.

Phonology

Cantonese, like a number of other

varieties of Chinese Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of ma ...

is monosyllabic. Each syllable is divided into initial (consonant), final (vowel and following consonant) and tone.

Finals

Chinese phonology traditionally stresses on finals because it is related to rhymes in the composition of poems, proses and articles. There are 53 finals in Cantonese.

Vowels

The ten basic

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

symbols � i � u � � and in the scheme mean following: ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Vowels.''

Falling diphthong finals

All vowel phonemes except ''a'' formed vowel 9 finals themselves. Some vowel phonemes can followed by vowel phonemes -i, -u or -ue to form 8 falling diphthong finals: # The combination of ''eu'' and ''ue'' is ''euue''. The double u is reduced to a single u and the combination becomes eue. ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Falling diphthong finals.''

Nasal phoneme finals

The nasal consonants and �in finals can be written as: Some vowel phonemes can followed by nasal consonants -m, -n or -ng to form 17 nasal phoneme finals: ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Nasal phoneme finals.''

Plosive phoneme finals

The plosive final can be written and as: Some vowel phonemes can followed by unaspirated plosive consonants -p, -t or -k to form 17 plosive phoneme finals: ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Plosive phoneme finals.''

Nasal consonantoids fully voiced finals

For the nasal consonantoids fully voiced finals and �in voiced form ̩and �̩are also two finals in Cantonese. ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Nasal consonantoids fully voiced finals.''

Initials

Initials are made up of consonants. Most of characters are preceding finals with initials while some characters are pronounced without initials. There are 19 initials in total. ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Initials.''

Tones

There are basically nine tones in Cantonese. Tones play an important role to distinguish meanings in Cantonese. Tones also forms melodies in poem and prose composition. There are two ways to mark tones in the scheme. One is by number and another by marks. It is hard to type the tones by typewriters. It therefore simply uses the one in the phonetic symbols for reference. ''For detail explanation of the phonetic system, see S. L. Wong (phonetic symbols)#Tones.''

References

#{{cite book, title=A CHINESE SYLLABARY PRONOUNCED ACCORDING TO THE DIALECT OF CANTON, first=S. L., last=Wong, publisher=Chung Hwa Book Co.,(H.K.) Ltd., year=1941, location=Hong Kong

External links

Cukda Cantonese IME
Languages of Hong Kong Cantonese language Cantonese romanisation