# Cantonese bopomofo

Cantonese Bopomofo, or Cantonese Phonetic Symbols (traditional Chinese: 粵語注音符號; simplified Chinese: 粤语注音符号; Jyutping: jyut6 jyu5 zyu3 jam1 fu4 hou6; Cantonese Yale: Yuht-yúh jyu-yām fùh-houh) is an extended set of Bopomofo characters used to transcribe Yue Chinese and, specifically, its prestige Cantonese dialect. It was first introduced in early 1930s, and then standardized in 1950. It fell into disuse along with the original Bopomofo for Mandarin Chinese in the late 1950s.

## History

The first system of phonetic characters for Cantonese was introduced in "Phonetic vocabulary of Cantonese characters for instruction of literacy to the people", 1931, by Ziu Ngaating. His system became a basis for the modern one, accepted in 1950 by the Guangdong Culture and Education department. In 1932, however, a different system was published in a draft by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation with supplementary symbols for non-Mandarin Sinitic languages, including Cantonese.

## Symbols

Bopomofo for Cantonese contains additional characters to denote its specific sounds.
| Initial consonants | Initial consonants | Initial consonants | Initial consonants | Initial consonants | Semi-vowels | Vowels | Vowels | Vowels | Vowels | Final consonants | Final consonants |
| ㄅ [p] | ㄉ [t] | ㄍ [k] | ㄐ [t͡s] | ㆼ [kʷ] | ㄧ [iː], [j-] | ㄚ [aː] | ㄞ [aːi] | ㄢ [aːn] | ㄇ [m̩] | ㄇ [-m] | ㄆ [-p̚] |
| ㄆ [pʰ] | ㄊ [tʰ] | ㄎ [kʰ] | ㄑ [t͡sʰ] | ㆽ [kʷʰ] | ㄨ [uː], [w-] | ㄛ [ɔː] | ㄟ [ɐi] | ㄣ [ɐn] | ㄫ [ŋ̩] | ㄋ [-n] | ㄊ [-t̚] |
| ㄇ [m] | ㄋ [n] | ㄫ [ŋ] | | | ㄩ [y], [jy-] | ㄝ [ɛː] | ㄠ [aːu] | ㄤ [aːŋ] | | ㄫ [-ŋ] | ㄎ [-k̚] |
| ㄈ [f] | ㄌ [l] | ㄏ [h] | ㄒ [s] | | | ㆿ [ɐ] | ㄡ [ɐu] | ㄥ [ɐŋ] | | | |
| | | | | | | ㆾ [œː] | | | | | |

### Combined rhymes

The original Bopomofo was based on a two vowel model of Mandarin phonology, it contains two sets of vowel signs, one for the /a/-nucleus and another one for the /ə/ nucleus. These characters were inherited, with /a/ set used to denote long /aː/ of Cantonese, and /ə/ set for short /ɐ/. For the rhymes not found in Mandarin, Cantonese Bopomofo implements digraphs composed of a vowel character and a final consonants character. The monographs are highlighted in bold in the following table .
| | aː | a | i | o | u | œ | ü | e |
| ∅ | ㄚ aː | ㆿ ɐ$^1$ | ㄧ iː | ㄛ ɔː | ㄨ uː | ㆾ œː | ㄩ yː | ㄝ ɛː |
| -n | ㄢ aːn | ㄣ ɐn | ㄧㄋ iːn | ㄛㄋ ɔːn | ㄨㄋ uːn | ㆾㄋ ɵn | ㄩㄋ yːn | ㄝㄋ ɛːn$^2$ |
| -t | ㄚㄊ aːt̚ | ㆿㄊ ɐt̚ | ㄧㄊ iːt̚ | ㄛㄊ ɔːt̚ | ㄨㄊ uːt̚ | ㆾㄊ ɵt̚ | ㄩㄊ yːt̚ | ㄝㄊ ɛːt̚$^2$ |
| -i | ㄞ aːi | ㄟ ɐi | | ㄛㄧ ɔːi | ㄨㄧ uːi | ㆾㄧ ɵy | | ㄝㄧ ei |
| -ŋ | ㄤ aːŋ | ㄥ ɐŋ | ㄧㄫ ɪŋ | ㄛㄫ ɔːŋ | ㄨㄫ ʊŋ | ㆾㄫ œːŋ | | ㄝㄫ ɛːŋ |
| -k | ㄚㄎ aːk̚ | ㆿㄎ ɐk̚ | ㄧㄎ ɪk̚ | ㄛㄎ ɔːk̚ | ㄨㄎ ʊk̚ | ㆾㄎ œːk̚ | | ㄝㄎ ɛːk̚ |
| -u | ㄠ aːu | ㄡ ɐu | ㄧㄨ iːu | ㄛㄨ ou | | | | ㄝㄨ ɛːu$^2$ |
| -m | ㄚㄇ aːm | ㆿㄇ ɐm | ㄧㄇ iːm | | | | | ㄝㄇ ɛːm$^2$ |
| -p | ㄚㄆ aːp̚ | ㆿㄆ ɐp̚ | ㄧㄆ iːp̚ | | | | | ㄝㄆ ɛːp̚$^2$ |
Notes:
$^1$ Final ㆿ [ɐ] does not occur by itself.
$^2$ Finals ㄝㄨ [ɛːu], ㄝㄇ [ɛːm], ㄝㄆ [ɛːp̚], ㄝㄊ [ɛːt̚], ㄝㄋ [ɛːn] only occur in colloquial readings, they were not included in the initial draft.

### Tonal Marks

Tones can be left unmarked, but if necessary, you may mark them like in the table below.
| Tone name | dark flat (陰平) | dark rising (陰上) | dark departing (陰去) | light flat (陽平) | light rising (陽上) | light departing (陽去) | upper dark entering (上陰入) | lower dark entering (下陰入) | light entering (陽入) |
| Tone number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 (or 1) | 8 (or 3) | 9 (or 6) |
| Pitch Contour | ˥ 55 / ˥˧ 53 | ˧˥ 35 | ˧ 33 | ˩ 11 / ˨˩ 21 | ˨˧ 23 | ˨ 22 | ˥ 5 | ˧ 3 | ˨ 2 |
| Tone Marker | ˉ (usually omitted) | ˇ | ˋ | ˊ | ˘ | ˆ | ˙ | (unmarked) | ʻ |
| Example | | | | | | | | | |

### Examples

| Traditional | Simplified | Cantonese Bopomofo |
| 廣州話 | 广州话 | ㆼㄛㄫˇ ㄐㄡˉ ㄨㄚˇ |
| 粵語 | 粤语 | ㄩㄊˆ ㄩ˘ |
| 你好 | 你好 | ㄋㄝㄧ˘ ㄏㄛㄨˇ |
Sample transcription of one of the 300 Tang Poems:
| 春 | ㄑ ㆾ ㄋˉ | 曉 | ㄏ ㄧ ㄨˇ |
| 孟 | ㄇ ㄤˆ | 浩 | ㄏ ㄛ ㄨˆ | 然 | ㄧ ㄫˆ |
| 春 | ㄑ ㆾ ㄋˉ | 眠 | ㄇ ㄧ ㄋˊ | 不 | ㄅ ㆿ ㄊˉ | 覺 | ㄍ ㄛ ㄎˋ | 曉 | ㄏ ㄧ ㄨˇ | ， |
| 處 | ㄑ ㄩˋ | 處 | ㄑ ㄩˋ | 聞 | ㄇ ㄣˊ | 啼 | ㄊ ㄟˊ | 鳥 | ㄋ ㄧ ㄨ˘ | ， |
| 夜 | ㄧ ㄝˆ | 來 | ㄌ ㄛ ㄧˊ | 風 | ㄈ ㄨ ㄫˉ | 雨 | ㄩ˘ | 聲 | ㄒ ㄧ ㄫˉ | ， |
| 花 | ㄈ ㄚˉ | 落 | ㄌ ㄛ ㄎˆ | 知 | ㄐ ㄧˉ | 多 | ㄉ ㄛˉ | 少 | ㄒ ㄧ ㄨˇ | ？ |