Sidney Lau romanisation

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Sidney Lau romanisation is a system of romanisation for Cantonese that was developed in the 1970s by Sidney Lau for Cantonese textbooks, glossaries, and dictionary.

Innovation

Lau's romanisation indicates tonality with superscript numbers, so no diacritics are required.^[1] He uses an English style of writing the vowels, as had some romanizations before him.^[2] His system was a plain attempt at simplification^{[citation needed]} which proved popular with western learners of Cantonese as a second language^{[citation needed]} and was initially the system of romanisation adopted by the University of Hong Kong.^[2] However, the university now employs the Jyutping system for its Cantonese courses.^[3]

Initials

b /p/ 巴	p /pʰ/ 怕	m /m/ 媽	f /f/ 花
d /t/ 打	t /tʰ/ 他	n /n/ 那		l /l/ 啦
g /k/ 家	k /kʰ/ 卡	ng /ŋ/ 牙	h /h/ 蝦
gw /kʷ/ 瓜	kw /kʷʰ/ 誇			w /w/ 蛙
j /ts/ 渣	ch /tsʰ/ 叉		s /s/ 沙	y /j/ 也

Finals

In his system, Lau treats /ɵ/ and /o/ as allophones of one phoneme represented with "u", while they are often respectively regarded as allophones of /œ:/ and /u:/ in other systems.^[4]

		Coda
		∅	/i/	/u/	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	/p̚/	/t̚/	/k̚/
Vowel	/aː/	a /aː/ 沙	aai /aːi̯/ 徙	aau /aːu̯/ 梢	aam /aːm/ 三	aan /aːn/ 山	aang /aːŋ/ 坑	aap /aːp̚/ 圾	aat /aːt̚/ 剎	aak /aːk̚/ 客
	/ɐ/		ai /ɐi̯/ 西	au /ɐu̯/ 收	am /ɐm/ 心	an /ɐn/ 新	ang /ɐŋ/ 笙	ap /ɐp̚/ 濕	at /ɐt̚/ 失	ak /ɐk̚/ 塞
	/ɛː/ /e/	e /ɛː/ 些	ei /ei̯/ 四				eng /ɛːŋ/ 鄭			ek /ɛːk̚/ 石
	/iː/	i /iː/ 詩		iu /iːu̯/ 消	im /iːm/ 閃	in /iːn/ 先	ing /eŋ/ 星	ip /iːp̚/ 攝	it /iːt̚/ 洩	ik /ek̚/ 識
	/ɔː/	oh /ɔː/ 疏	oi /ɔːy̯/ 開	o /ou̯/ 蘇		on /ɔːn/ 看	ong /ɔːŋ/ 康		ot /ɔːt̚/ 喝	ok /ɔːk̚/ 索
	/uː/	oo /uː/ 夫	ooi /uːy̯/ 灰			oon /uːn/ 寬			oot /uːt̚/ 闊
	/ɵ/ /ʊ/		ui /ɵy̯/ 需			un /ɵn/ 詢	ung /ʊŋ/ 鬆		ut /ɵt̚/ 摔	uk /ʊk̚/ 叔
	/œː/	euh /œː/ 靴					eung /œːŋ/ 商			euk /œːk̚/ 削
	/yː/	ue /yː/ 書				uen /yːn/ 孫			uet /yːt̚/ 雪
	∅				m /m̩/ 唔		ng /ŋ̍/ 五

Tones

Tone symbol	Tone description	Example
Tone symbol	Tone description	Romanization	Word	Meaning
1° or N°	high flat	si¹°	詩	poem
1° or N°	high flat	ga¹ je²°	家姐	elder sister
1	high falling	tim¹	添	final particle expressing the idea of addition or regret.
2 or N*	mid rising	si²	史	history
2 or N*	mid rising	dik¹ si⁶*	的士	taxi
3	mid flat	si³	試	try
4	low falling	si⁴	時	time
5	low rising	si⁵	市	city
6	low flat	si⁶	是	is

1° indicates the high flat tone. If ° appears after any other tones, it signifies a changed tone and that the word is to be pronounced as 1°, but 1° is not the original/normal tone of the word. Similar to °, if * appears after any tones apart from tone 2, it indicates that the word is to be pronounced as tone 2, but tone 2 is not the original/normal tone of the word.^[5] When the asterisk and small circle are applied to a superscript number, they are not superscripted further.^[6]

References

↑ "Pronunciation Guide – Initials". Sidney Lau. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
1 2 Kataoka, Shin; Lee, Cream (2008). "A System without a System: Cantonese Romanization Used in Hong Kong Place and Personal Names". Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics. 11. Chinese University of Hong Kong.
↑ "Certificate in Chinese Language courses for foreign students". School of Chinese. University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
↑ "Pronunciation Guide – Finals". Sidney Lau. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
↑ "Pronunciation Guide – Tones". Sidney Lau. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
↑ A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary : Sidney Lau. p. xix. Note that this does not explain High Level Tone, but it is still used in the dictionary.

External links

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[1] "Pronunciation Guide – Initials". Sidney Lau. Retrieved 3 April 2017.

[sys-2] 1 2 Kataoka, Shin; Lee, Cream (2008). "A System without a System: Cantonese Romanization Used in Hong Kong Place and Personal Names". Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics. 11. Chinese University of Hong Kong.

[3] "Certificate in Chinese Language courses for foreign students". School of Chinese. University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 2019-01-21.

[4] "Pronunciation Guide – Finals". Sidney Lau. Retrieved 3 April 2017.

[5] "Pronunciation Guide – Tones". Sidney Lau. Retrieved 3 April 2017.

[pract24-6] A Practical Cantonese-English Dictionary : Sidney Lau. p. xix. Note that this does not explain High Level Tone, but it is still used in the dictionary.

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