SPY

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Sûn PingYum
Sûn 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

Sûn 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

2


DAD


BIG


FAST


SONG


BONE


GOOD


DO


HE


MAD


MILK


MUM


GIRL

ba dai fai gor gwut hoh jzoh ke’oi kwong lai ma ne’oi

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.

Sûn PingYum
initial final

3

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 e’oi


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.

Sûn PingYum
initial final

4


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 u’oi 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: e’oi and u’oi.

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

5

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?
你點呀?
HOW’S 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.

Gáyhòh, náy ne?
幾好, 你呢?
ALRIGHT THANKS, AND YOU?

Fâysèrng hoh!
非常好!
EXCELLENT

The highest/peak tone is the easiest to distinguish in the language, making it helpful in mapping the sentence’s 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

6

Yeegâ sêen sik?
而家食飯?
YOU’RE 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 yeegâ meaning now.

2. Negation

Dâk-m-dak ar?
得唔得呀?
IS THAT OK?

m-dâk!
唔得!
NO!

The word 唔 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

Tchòr JEEP he’oi.
坐JEEP去.
WE’RE 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, it’s best to type these in all caps.

4. Numerals

Ngor yáow 3 gòr.
我有三個.
I HAVE THREE.

Any short-hand which isn’t ambiguous or misleading should be welcomed, so try using figure numerals rather than writing out sâhm (i.e. 3) the long way.

Nay deem ar?
呀 噃 㗎 嘅 啩 吓 呵 咋 啫 啦 嘞 囉

7

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

咩 呢 添 喎 呀嘛 咖嘛 咋嘛 之嘛 啦嘛

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
苦 估 胡
BITTER GUESS LAKE

8

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
住 樹 柱 雨
LIVE TREE PILLAR RAIN

on
on gon hon ngon
安 乾 看 岸
PEACE DRY LOOK SHORE

boon foon goon moon poon woon

半 歡 管 門 盆 碗

HALF HAPPY TUBE DOOR BASIN BOWL

don jzon lon son tchon ton yon

鈍 進 輪 信 春 盾 潤

STUPID ENTER WHEEL TRUST SPRING SHIELD MOIST

oot
boot doot foot koot moot poot woot
撥 嘟 闊 括 抹 潑 活
WIPE SWIPE WIDE

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

短 捐 犬 門 盆 碗 暖 船 斷 村 丸

SHORT DONATE CANINE DOOR BASIN BOWL WARM SHIP SNAP VILLAGE PILL

奪 血 啜 缺 劣 雪 脫 月

SEIZE BLOOD SUCK LACK BAD SNOW REMOVE MOON

ot
jzot lot sot tchot
捽 律 術 出
RUB LAW ART EXIT

INCLUDE WIPE SPLASH LIVE

got hot

割 渴

CUT THIRST

ah&u distinction

WHITE

9


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.

áccênt setup
The acute accent is made with the apostrophe key. For example: The simplest way to type accented characters like á and é 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=á
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=è
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=î
N.B. In the case of wanting to type he’oi, for example, it may appear as heói. 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.

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

11

OVERVIEW

w

y

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

ok um

+ 3 ACCENTS
ácute gràve cîrcumflex

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