Sn PingYum

Sn Ping Yum (aka SPY) is a cantonese romanisation system based on intuitive English phonetics. Mandarin already has its well-established PinYin system, and although there do exist several for Cantonese (e.g. Yale or Jyutping), unlike its predecessors, SPY was created with digital media in mind to better facilitate communication in Cantonese Chinese online. In particular, aiding and bridging the gap between the following two groups: 1. Cantonese speakers who do not know how to use any methods of Chinese character input. 2. Cantonese speakers who cannot fluently read or write the Chinese language. With British English being the second language in Hong Kong, there has already been a perceived phenomenon of Cantonese-speaking internet users communicating in this way, thus laying the foundations for the system. However, misinterpretations arise with too many loose variations and a lack of structure. And so whilst taking into consideration the vernacular, each of the sounds were carefully matched with British English phonetics, and the spellings chosen so as to greatly minimise miscommunication. The system is composed of 19 initial sounds, 44 final sounds and 3 accents, making it an accessible system on any standard keyboard. Desktop wallpapers also exist as an educational tool targetting specific areas of SPY which may need more time to adjust to. Simply follow the link below for free downloads available in a wide variety of screen resolutions.

CANTONESE ROMANISATION

Initials Finals Tonal accents SPY guidelines Final particles Heteronym finals ah&u distinction Accent setup SPY overview

2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Downloaded and printed via http://bit.ly/sunpingyum

Sn PingYum
An initial is often the first sound of a character. There are 19 in this system. Presented here are Chinese characters with their corresponding initials highlighted, showing their role in the character composition. initial

DAD

BIG

FAST

SONG

BONE

GOOD

DO

HE

MAD

MILK

MUM

GIRL

ba dai fai gor gwut hoh jzoh keoi kwong lai ma neoi

final

EYE

CLAP

HEART

HEAD

CAR

CROW

ONE

ngahn pak sum taow tchair wu yut

Combined consonants form new sounds which are not available using standard English phonetics.

Sn PingYum
initial final

A final is the ending sound of a character. There are 44 in total in this system, thus making the derivatives slightly more complex than those of the initials.

DAD

BIG

LATE

GUEST

BOY

BUT

COLD

TOWER

KILL

LAMP

BREAD

GAS

ba dai y air hahk n ahm dahn l ahng t ahp s aht dang baow h ay

TWO

FLUTE

LICK

OWE

SEE

PLATE

METAL

WIN

LEG

GOAT

PETAL

GIRL

y ee d ek l em h eem g een d eep t eet y eng g erk y erng d eur n eoi

EAT

ICE

CALL

s ik bing giu

N.B. Instead of always alphabetically ordered, these lists are grouped in a way to aid familiarisation and learning.

Sn PingYum
initial final

GOOD

SEA

THIN

DRY

TRUST

SUGAR

HALF

SHORT

WIDE

SNOW

SONG

CUT

h oh h oi bok gon s on t ong b oon doon f oot s oot gor got

LAW

GUESS

TREE

CUP

NORTH

GOLD

MAN

WITH

IN

DAY

l ot gu su b uoi b uk gum y un t ung y up y ut

Some Cantonese sounds have no equivalent in the English language, so an apostrophe has been used to separate sounds and aid pronunciation. Luckily this only concerns two finals: eoi and uoi.

Some sounds have slight distinctions, yet they have been grouped with one spelling. See the page 8 for more on these heteronyms.

circumflex

grave

represents peaked tone

represents fall in tone

acute

represents rise in tone

There are 6 distinct tones in Hong Kong Cantonese, and so romanisation systems in the past have allocated either numbers or accents for each of the 6 tones. However with fluent speakers the tones come naturally and so it proves taxing and timewasting to decipher each one separately. This is where the SPY system is most innovative in comparison to its predecessors. It relies only on three accents to hint at the rhythm of tones in a sentence or phrase, all of which are visual cues in itself, such as the grave ` as a fall in tone. In general, use of the accents are flexible dependent on the context, the following pages will go into more detail on how best to use them. N.B. See page 10 for help on accessing accents on the keyboard.

Nay deem ar?

?
HOWS IT GOING?

Some sentences do not call for accents, in particular common phrases like this. The ends of Cantonese phrases are dotted with final particles, like these. As such, they are distinctive enough individually without requiring accents. Some are also anomalies to the system, such as ar here. See page 7 for a comprehensive list.

Gyhh, ny ne?
, ?
ALRIGHT THANKS, AND YOU?

Fysrng hoh!
!
EXCELLENT

The highest/peak tone is the easiest to distinguish in the language, making it helpful in mapping the sentences tone.

SPY guidelines
Following these 4 guidelines ensures the best way to make use of SPY for an easier, faster and more reliable way of Cantonese communication. 1. Compound words

Yeeg sen sik?

?
YOURE ONLY EATING NOW?

Since a lot of Cantonese words are often made from two or more characters combined, the system should also be representative of this; as shown by yee and ga joined together to make yeeg meaning now.

2. Negation

Dk-m-dak ar?
?
IS THAT OK?

m-dk!
!
NO!

The word crops up a lot in the languag. It sounds similar to saying mmm in English, however is also distinctive for Chinese, so a single lowercase m suffices. Applying hyphens around it is a comfortable way of grouping the negative phrase, instead of making it a compound as in the first guideline.

3. English words

Tchr JEEP heoi.

JEEP.
WERE GOING IN THE JEEP.

Occasionally English words are used in Chinese speech, like get or keep. To keep these from mixing with the romanised words and avoid confusion, its best to type these in all caps.

4. Numerals

Ngor yow 3 gr.

.
I HAVE THREE.

Any short-hand which isnt ambiguous or misleading should be welcomed, so try using figure numerals rather than writing out shm (i.e. 3) the long way.

Nay deem ar?

ar* bor ga ge* gwa ha hor jza jzek la lak lor

me* ne* teem wor ar-ma* ga-ma jza-ma jzi-ma* la-ma

Final particles are an integral part of Cantonese, and often even when typing in Chinese characters, these have been expressed using English spellings. This list provides the long-established conventional ways of spelling them, some of which may be an anomaly to the standard finals as seen on pages 3 and 4. Such ones are marked with asterisks.

u, ot, oot, on, oon

u
fu gu wu

BITTER GUESS LAKE

These 5 finals all have dualsounds. They are heteronyms, first introduced on page 4. Since context is sufficient to deduct the meaning, it is more beneficial to keep the SPY system simpler with less variations. This page works as a comprehensive reference table to help with differentiation at first.

oon
jzu su tchu yu

LIVE TREE PILLAR RAIN

on
on gon hon ngon

PEACE DRY LOOK SHORE

boon foon goon moon poon woon

HALF HAPPY TUBE DOOR BASIN BOWL

don jzon lon son tchon ton yon

STUPID ENTER WHEEL TRUST SPRING SHIELD MOIST

oot
boot doot foot koot moot poot woot

WIPE SWIPE WIDE

doon goon hoon jzoon koon loon noon soon toon tchoon yoon doot hoot jzoot koot loot soot toot yoot

SHORT DONATE CANINE DOOR BASIN BOWL WARM SHIP SNAP VILLAGE PILL

SEIZE BLOOD SUCK LACK BAD SNOW REMOVE MOON

ot
jzot lot sot tchot

RUB LAW ART EXIT

INCLUDE WIPE SPLASH LIVE

got hot

CUT THIRST

ah&u distinction

WHITE

DILUTE

CLASS

PIT

SIP

EIGHT

bahk tahm bahn hahng hahp baht

NORTH

PUDDLE

GUEST

HUM

JOIN

PEN

buk tum bun hung hup but

In standard English, the words gam and gum sound extremely similar. Because of this SPY places an h after a to distinguish the long ah sounds between the short u sound. At first this may take some getting used to, so this page shows comparisons between the two. All characters chosen share the same initial and, where possible, the same tone, thus focusing on the difference in finals.

ccnt setup
The acute accent is made with the apostrophe key. For example: The simplest way to type accented characters like and is by using the US International keyboard layout on your computer. It uses the standard QWERTY keys, however allows for intuitive access to accented characters using the method shown here.

10

+a=
The grave accent is made with the grave key. For example:

Windows
Setup the US International keyboard layout with one simple click by going to: http://support.microsoft.com/ kb/306560

`+e=
The circumflex accent is made with the caret key, i.e. shift+6. For example:

Mac (up to Snow Leopard)

1. Access the following: System Preferences Language & Text Input Sources 2. Select U.S. International in the scrollable list

^+i=
N.B. In the case of wanting to type heoi, for example, it may appear as hei. To prevent this, press the space bar after the apostrophe. This rule also applies to the grave and circumflex.

Mac (Lion)
1. Press and hold the character that requires an accent. 2. A pop-up menu of numbered options should appear. 3. Key in the number of the accented character required. These steps also work with Apple devices.

Sn PingYum
19 INITIALS
b gw d jz f g kw h ng k l tch m n p s t

11

OVERVIEW

+ 44 FINALS
a ai air ahm em eem oi uk ang ahn aow ahng erk eep oon ung ay ahp aht eoi ing ot uoi iu oot ahk ek ee oh u eng een on un erng eet ong up eur ik or ut

ok um

+ 3 ACCENTS
cute grve crcumflex