This chart presents the phonemic system of Cantonese (Traditional, Hong Kong) – yue-Hant-HK, using the Jyutping romanization system, which is widely adopted for linguistic and educational purposes in Hong Kong. Each entry includes a Jyutping syllable onset or rime, an example character, and the full tonal transcription.
Cantonese is a tonal language with six contrastive tones, and each syllable's meaning depends on its tone. Tones are represented with numerals 1–6 placed after the syllable. This chart includes initial consonants, final vowels and diphthongs, and some common syllables, making it a practical reference for learners, educators, and developers building TTS or speech applications.
Note: When using Cantonese phonemes, thealphabetfield must be set tojyutping.
Example:<phoneme alphabet="jyutping" ph="sik6 faan6">食饭</phoneme>
Chinese IPA, Cantonese (Traditional, Hong Kong) – yue-Hant-HK
| Jyutping | Example | Transcription |
|---|---|---|
| p | 怕 | paa3 |
| b | 巴 | baa1 |
| t | 他 | taa1 |
| d | 打 | daa2 |
| k | 卡 | kaa1 |
| g | 家 | gaa1 |
| f | 花 | faa1 |
| s | 沙 | saa1 |
| h | 蝦 | haa1 |
| m | 媽 | maa1 |
| n | 那 | naa5 |
| ng | 牙 | ngaa4 |
| c | 叉 | caa1 |
| z | 渣 | zaa1 |
| l | 啦 | laa1 |
| kw | 誇 | kwaa1 |
| gw | 瓜 | gwaa1 |
| w | 汚 | wu1 |
| j | 廿 | jaa6 |
| ng | 伍 | ng5 |
| m | 唔 | m4 |
| a | 新 | san1 |
| o | 疏 | so1 |
| e | 些 | se1 |
| i | 詩 | si1 |
| u | 夫 | fu1 |
| yu | 書 | syu1 |
| aa | 沙 | saa1 |
| oe | 鋸 | goe3 |
Tone Descriptions (Jyutping)
| Tone | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Top tone |
| 2 | High Rising tone |
| 3 | Mid tone |
| 4 | Low Falling tone |
| 5 | Low Rising tone |
| 6 | Low tone |
Multiple syllables should be spaced, e.g., /gong2 waa6/ for 講話.