Penkyamp
Penkyamp (
Chinese: 拼音;
Yale: ping1 yam1,
Jyutping: ping1 jam1) or
Cantonese pinyin, is a
romanization system for transliterating
Cantonese Chinese. A series of romanization efforts of Cantonese seek 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.
The two systems are improvements from previous systems. The features of Penkyamp includes:\n* reflects the vowel system of Cantonese more systematically than Jyutping by recognizing all long-short vowel contrasts, \n** whereas Jyutping only recognizes short
a and long
a. \n* indicates long and short
vowels using the unique orthographic feature of altering the ending
consonant of the shengmu. \n* does not have the ambiguous distinction between "oe" and "eu" (as in Jyutping).\n* treats the two (not three) front-round vowels using the same silent vowel letter "e", placed before the substantial vowel\n* categorizes the other front-round vowel (an underdeveloped one) as a short "o". \n* does not use the consonant "j", which is used in traditional Cantonese anglicization as "z" instead of "y" (as in Jyutping).
In terms of practicality and visual esthetics Jyutping is not a clumsy or ugly system.
Drawing a parallel between Cantonese and
Japanese, Penkyamp is analogous to the
Kunrei system, whereas Jyutping to the
Hepburn system.
The following descriptions applies to Penkyamp.
Alphabet
A 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\n*C [ts'] aspirated\n*D [t] un...\n*F [f]\n*G [k] un...\n*H [h]\n*K [k'] asp...\n*L [l] \n*M [m]\n*N [n]\n*P [p'] asp...\n*S [s]\n*T [t'] asp...\n*W [w]\n*Y [j]\n*Z [ts] un...
Special Attention
- C is [ts'] as "tz" in Politzer.\n*Z [tz] is the unaspirated form of C.\n*q is a glottal stop, Arabic "hamsa", as it appears in Cantonese interjection lâq, which is interchangeable with lâg.
Yunmus
Vowels:\n*long: A E I O U Eo Eu\n*short: Ah Eh Oh\n*diphthongs1: Ai Oi Ui Au Iu Ay Ey Oy Aw Ow\n*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")\n*E [ɛ] open-mid front unrounded\n*I [i]\n*O [ɔ]open-mid back rounded\n*U [u]\n*Eo [ɶ] open-mid front rounded\n*Eu [y]
short
- Ah [ɐ]open-mid back unrounded ("a" followed by "h", "k", "p", "t", "nk", "mp", "nt", "y", "w") \n*Eh [e] close-mid front unrounded ("e" followed by above) \n*Oh [o] close-mid back rounded ("o" followed by above)
diphthongs
- Ai [ai]\n*Oi [ɔy]\n*Ui [uy]\n*Au [au]\n*Iu [iw]\n*Ay [ɐj]\n*Ey [ej]\n*Oy [øy] (ø is mid-close front rounded)\n*Aw [ɐu]\n*Ow [ow]
Short vowels are those in short yunmus, and long vowels in long yunmus. All short vowels are pronounced with tighter, smaller \nenclosure of lips than are their long counterparts.
Orthography
\nLong yunmus followed by consonants:\n*Ru:\n**Ab Ad Ag \n*Ping/shang/qu:\n**Am An Ang\n**Eg Eng\n**Ib Id Im In\n**Od Og On Ong\n**Ud Un
Short yunmus followed by consonants:\n*Ru:\n**Ap At Ak \n*P/S/Q:\n**Amp Ant Ank\n**Ek Enk\n**Ot Ok Ont Onk
Tones
\n# Yin1Ping2 or high Yin1Ru4 (Yamp1Penk4 cum high Yamp1Yap6): a1, ä (umlaut)\n# Yin1Shang3(Yamp1Seong5): a2, ã (tilde)\n# Yin1Qu4 or low Yin1Ru4 (Yamp1Hoy3 cum low Yamp1Yap6): a3, â (circumflex)\n# Yang2Ping2(Yeong4Penk4): a4, a (plain)\n# Yang2Shang3(Yeong4Seong5): a5, á (acute)\n# 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\n*Second: "Hãw" tone, scale= 35\n*Third: "Dîm" tone, scale= 44\n*Fourth: "Ho" tone, scale= 11\n*Fifth: "Mów", scale=24\n*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:\n:Zaw1 Haw2 Dim3, Ho4 Mow2 Dow6\n:Zhou1 Kou3 Dian4, He2 Mu3 Du4 (Mandarin)\n:(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
\nText sample in the Standard Cantonese Penk3yamp1 (simplified chinese text are place holders for now):
\n\n| trad | simp | pinyin | Penkyamp | meaning\n |
\n| 北京 | 北京 | Bei3 jing1 | Bak1 genk1 | Beijing\n |
\n| 花 | 花 | Hua1 | Fa1 | flower\n |
\n| 寫 | 寫 | Xie3 | Se3 | write\n |
\n| 字 | 字 | Zi4 | Zi6 | chinese character\n |
\n| 我 | 我 | Wo3 | Ngo5 | I, me\n |
\n| 湖 | 湖 | Hu2 | Wu4 | lake\n |
\n| 靴 | 靴 | Xue1 | Heo1 | boot\n |
\n| 柱 | 柱 | Zhu4 | Ceu5 | pillar\n |
\n| 吧(?) | 啦(?) | ba4 | lah1 | one of the interjections at the end of a sentence\n |
\n| 壞 | 壞 | Huai4 | Wai6 | bad\n |
\n| 外 | 外 | Wai4 | Ngoi6 | outside\n |
\n| 背 | 背 | Bei4 | Bui3 | back\n |
\n| 教 | 教 | Jiao1 | Gau3 | teach\n |
\n| 腰 | 腰 | Yao1 | Yiu1 | waist\n |
\n| 肺 | 肺 | Fei4 | Fay3 | lung\n |
\n| 地 | 地 | Di4 | Dey6 | ground\n |
\n| 追 | 追 | Zhui1 | Zoy1 | pursue\n |
\n| 狗 | 狗 | Gou3 | Gaw2 | dog\n |
\n| 路 | 路 | Lu4 | Low6 | road\n |
\n| 鴨 | 鴨 | Ya1 | Ngab3 | duck\n |
\n| 殺 | 殺 | Sha1 | Sad3 | kill\n |
\n| 百 | 百 | Bai3 | Bag3 | hundred\n |
\n| 三 | 三 | San1 | Sam1 | three\n |
\n| 慢 | 慢 | Man4 | Man6 | slow\n |
\n| 行 | 行 | Xing2 | Hang4 | walk\n |
\n| 劇 | 劇 | Ju4 | Keg6 | drama\n |
\n| 鏡 | 鏡 | Jing4 | Geng3 | mirror\n |
\n| 頁 | 頁 | Ye4 | Yib6 | page\n |
\n| 熱 | 熱 | Re4 | Yid6 | hot\n |
\n| 劍 | 劍 | Jian4 | Gim3 | sword\n |
\n| 線 | 線 | Xian4 | Sin3 | thread\n |
\n| 渴 | 渴 | Ke3 | Hod3 | thirst\n |
\n| 國 | 國 | Guo2 | Guog3 | state,nation\n |
\n| 岸 | 岸 | An4 | Ngon6 | shore\n |
\n| 幫 | 幫 | Bang1 | Bong1 | help\n |
\n| 活 | 活 | Huo2 | Wud6 | to live\n |
\n| 換 | 換 | Huan4 | Wun6 | exchange, replace\n |
\n| 急 | 急 | Ji2 | Gap1 | hasty\n |
\n| 失 | 失 | Shi1 | Sat1 | lost
|
\n| 得 | 得 | De2 | Dak1 | gain\n |
\n| 心 | 心 | Xin1 | Samp1 | heart\n |
\n| 新 | 新 | Xin1 | Sant1 | new\n |
\n| 生 | 生 | Sheng1 | Sank1 | student\n |
\n| 食 | 食 | Shi2 | Sek6 | to eat\n |
\n| 精 | 精 | Jing1 | Zenk1 | essence\n |
\n| 出 | 出 | Chu1 | Cot1 | outside\n |
\n| 哭 | 哭 | Ku1 | Hok1 | to cry, weep\n |
\n| 信 | 信 | Xin4 | Sont3 | to trust\n |
\n| 中 | 中 | Zhong1 | Zonk1 | middle\n |
Fonts
Cantonese Font:
http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ressources/ti/guide_test_unicode_utf8_B.html
ÀÁAÂÃÄ, ÈÉEÊ(Ẽ)Ë, ÌÍIÎ(Ĩ)Ï, ÒÓOÔÕÖ, ÙÚUÛ(Ũ)Ü;
àáaâãä, èéeê(ẽ)ë, ìíiî(ĩ)ï, òóoôõö, ùúuû(ũ)ü;
From Common Western Font missing: E-tilde I-tilde U-tilde
http://www.xuquang.com/trungdao/unicode.htm
- E-tilde is obtainable from Vietnamese font Ẽ ẽ\n* I-tilde is obtainable from Vietnamese font Ĩ ĩ\n* U-tilde is obtainable from Vietnamese font Ũ ũ
Ẽ Ĩ Ũ \nũ ĩ ẽ
http://www.xuquang.com/trungdao/unicode.htm