The romanization system used in this article is Jyutping.
Initials
Standard Cantonese has 20 phonemic initial consonants. Although many people do mix up several pairs like /n/ and /l/, /ŋ/ and /ʔ/ ~ ∅.
| Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unaspirated Plosive | b /p/ | d /t/ | g /k/ | gw /kʷ/ | ∅ /ʔ/ ~ ∅ | |
| Aspirated Plosive | p /pʰ/ | t /tʰ/ | k /kʰ/ | kw /kʰʷ/ | ||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ng /ŋ/ | |||
| Unaspirated Affricate | z /ts/ ~ /tʃ/ | |||||
| Aspirated Affricate | c /tsʰ/ ~ /tʃʰ/ | |||||
| Fricative | f /f/ | s /s/ ~ /ʃ/ | h /h/ | |||
| Lateral | l /l/ | j /j/ | w /w/ |
Alveolar and postalveolar affricates seems to be either allophones or free variation. Some people pronounce /ts/, /tsʰ/, /s/ before unrounded vowels, and /tʃ/, /tʃʰ/, /ʃ/ before rounded vowels, while some people only pronounce the alveolar variant in all positions. Linguistic materials suggest that these two sets of initial consonants are actually distinguished in pre-1950s Cantonese, however. See my other post “A Brief Discussion on Several Chinese Dialectal Phenomena” for further information.
Rhymes
There are usually considered 8 main vowel phonemes in standard Cantonese, although there are about 11 realizations of these phonemes. Items marked with an asterisk * are rare rhymes.
| aː | ɐ | ɛː | iː | ɔː | œː | uː | yː | ∅ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -∅ | aa /aː/ | a* /ɐ/ | e /ɛː/ | i /iː/ | o /ɔː/ | oe /œː/ | u /uː/ | yu /yː/ | |
| -i | aai /aːi/ | ai /ɐi/ | ei /ei/ | oi /ɔːi/ | eoi /ɵy/ | ui /uːi/ | |||
| -u | aau /aːu/ | au /ɐu/ | eu /ɛːu/ | iu /iːu/ | ou /ou/ | ||||
| -m | aam /aːm/ | am /ɐm/ | em /ɛːm/ | im /iːm/ | om* /om/ | m /m̩/ | |||
| -p | aap /aːp/ | ap /ɐp/ | ep /ɛːp/ | ip /iːp/ | op* /op/ | ||||
| -n | aan /aːn/ | an /ɐn/ | en* /ɛːn/ | in /iːn/ | on /ɔːn/ | eon /ɵn/ | un /uːn/ | yun /yːn/ | |
| -t | aat /aːt/ | at /ɐt/ | et* /ɛːt/ | it /iːt/ | ot /ɔːt/ | eot /ɵt/ | ut /uːt/ | yut /yːt/ | |
| -ŋ | aang /aːŋ/ | ang /ɐŋ/ | eng /ɛːŋ/ | ing /ɪŋ/ | ong /ɔːŋ/ | oeng /œːŋ/ | ung /ʊŋ/ | ng /ŋ̩/ | |
| -k | aak /aːk/ | ak /ɐk/ | ek /ɛːk/ | ik /ɪk/ | ok /ɔːk/ | oek /œːk/ | uk /ʊk/ |
Older Cantonese also has /om/ and /op/, though they are usually merged into /ɐm/ and /ɐp/ today.
/aː/, /ɐ/, /ɛː/ and /iː/ are considered as unrounded vowels, while /ɔː/, /œː/, /uː/ and /yː/ are considered as rounded vowels. The roundness of the vowel may determine whether the /ts/, /tsʰ/, /s/ or /tʃ/, /tʃʰ/, /ʃ/ set of initial is used.
All stop codas (i.e. -p, -t and -k) are unreleased, unlike most European languages.
Tones
| Tone number | Traditional name | Description | Value | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/7 | 陰平／短陰入 | high level/high falling | 55/53 | ˥˥/˥˧ |
| 2 | 陰上 | medium rising | 35 | ˧˥ |
| 3/8 | 陰去／長陰入 | medium level | 33 | ˧˧ |
| 4 | 陽平 | low falling/very low level | 11/21 | ˩˩/˨˩ |
| 5 | 陽上 | low rising | 23 | ˨˧ |
| 6/9 | 陽去／陽入 | low level | 22 | ˨˨ |
短陰入 and 長陰入 are also referred as 高陰入 and 低陰入 respectively.
Fun factCantonese is one of the handful Chinese variant that preserves the 陽上 tone. Most modern Chinese variant just merge it in 陽去 or 陰上.