Romanization Conversion

Because Cantonese is a colloquial language, there is a lot of inconsistency on how to write it in Latin letters. For this site, we have developed our own Romanization, along with IPA-style tone symbols.

Kisa: Romanization used on this website (www.cantonese.ca)
IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet (Handbook of the International Phonetic Association)
Lau: Sidney Lau Cantonese Series
Yale: English-Cantonese in Yale Romanization
Jyutping: yüt pIng standardized by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong
CPB: Lonely Planet Cantonese Phrasebook

Tones

Kisa/IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
	1, o	à,	1	à
	2, *	á	2	á
	3	a	3
	4	àh	4	a
	5	áh	5
	6	ah	6

Initials

Finals

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
a	a	a	a	aa	a
ai	ai	aai	aai	aai	aai
au	au	aau	aau	aau	aau
am	am	aam	aam	aam	aam
an	an	aan	aap	aan	aan
ang	a	aang	aang	aang	aang
ap	ap	aap	aap	aap	aap
at	at	aat	aat	aat	aat
ak	ak	aak	aak	aak	aak

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
i	i	ai	ai	ai	ai
u	u	au	au	au	au
m		am	am	am	am
n	n	an	an	an	an
ng		ang	ang	ang	ang
p	p	ap	ap	ap	ap
t	t	at	at	at	at
k	k	ak	ak	ak	ak

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
o		oh	o	o	oh
oi	i	oi	oi	oi	oi
ou	ou	o	ou	ou	o
on	n	on	on	on	on
ong		ong	ong	ong	ong
ot	t	ot	ot	ot	ot
ok	k	ok	ok	ok	ok

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
e		e	e	e	e
ei	ei	ei	ei	ei	ei
eu	u			eu
eng		eng	eng	eng	eng
ek	k	ek	ek	ek	ek

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
i	i	i	i	i	i
iu	iu	iu	iu	iu	iu
im	im	im	im	im	im
in	in	in	in	in	in
Ing		ing	ing	ing	ing
ip	ip	ip	ip	ip	ip
it	it	it	it	it	it
Ik	k	ik	ik	ik	ik

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
œ	oe	euh	eu	oe	euh
öü	y	ui	eui	eoi	ui
ön	n	un	eun	eon	un
œng	oe	eung	eung	oeng	eung
öt	t	ut	eut	eot	ut
œk	oek	euk	euk	oek	euk

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
u	u	oo	u	u	oo
ui	ui	ooi	ui	ui	ooi
un	un	oon	un	un	oon
Ung		ung	ung	ung	ung
ut	ut	oot	ut	ut	oot
Uk	k	uk	uk	uk	uk

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
ü	y	ue	yu	yu	ue
ün	yn	uen	yun	yun	uen
üt	yt	uet	yut	yut	uet

Kisa	IPA	Lau	Yale	Jyutping	CPB
m	m	m	m	m	m
ng		ng	ng	ng	ng

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