Written Cantonese

Written Cantonese
Script type	Logographic
Period	1910s (or earlier) to present
Languages	Yue Chinese
Related scripts
Sister systems	Written Hokkien

Written Cantonese is the most complete written form of a Chinese language after that for Mandarin Chinese and Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese was the main literary language of China until the 19th century. Written vernacular Chinese first appeared in the 17th century, and a written form of Mandarin became standard throughout China in the early 20th century. Cantonese is a common language in places like Hong Kong and Macau. While the Mandarin form can to some extent be read and spoken word for word in other Chinese varieties, its intelligibility to non-Mandarin speakers is poor to incomprehensible because of differences in idioms, grammar and usage. Modern Cantonese speakers have therefore developed new characters for words that do not have characters for them and have retained others that have been lost in standard Chinese.

With the advent of the computer and standardization of character sets specifically for Cantonese, many printed materials in predominantly Cantonese-speaking areas of the world are written to cater to their population with these written Cantonese characters.

Written Cantonese on the packaging of Hong Kong beverage brand Vitasoy

History

Early history

Before the 20th century, the standard written language of China was Classical Chinese, with a grammar and vocabulary based on the Old Chinese of the Spring and Autumn period, of the 8th to the 5th century BCE. While this written standard remained essentially static for over two thousand years, the actual spoken language diverged ever further. The formation of Yue Chinese occurred among the Han population in the Pearl River Delta across many centuries, with the main linguistic influences being the Middle Chinese of the tenth century CE, corresponding to the end of the Tang dynasty, and that of the thirteenth century CE or late Song dynasty, as well as the Tai-Kadai substrate and some influence from pre-Tang Sinitic varieties.

The first Cantonese writings belong to a literary form specific to Canton, called mukjyusyu (木魚書, Jyutping: muk⁶ jyu⁴ syu¹, Hanyu Pinyin: mùyúshū, lit. 'wooden fish book'), that supposedly has its roots in Buddhist chants accompanied by wooden fish. Mukjyu texts were popular light reading, their primary audience were women, as female (and overall) literacy was unusually high in that region. The mukjyus were intended to be sung, similar to other genres such as naamyam, although without musical instruments.

The earliest known mukjyusyu work with elements of written Cantonese, Faazin Gei (花箋記, Jyutping: Faa¹zin¹ Gei³, Hanyu Pinyin: Huājiān Jì, lit. 'The Flowery Paper'), was composed by an unknown author during the late Ming dynasty; its oldest extant edition is dated to 1713. The Faazin Gei is an example of the "scholar and beauty" genre popular at the time, with its story set in Suzhou. Its text, while still being close to Literary Chinese, contains a lot of specific Cantonese wording and even Cantonese vernacular characters, especially in the dialogue sentences, but also in the narrative text. Other such renowned early works include Ji-Hofaa Si (二荷花史, Jyutping: Ji⁶ Ho⁴faa¹ Si², "The Two Lotus Flowers") and Gamso-Jyunjoeng Saanwusin Gei (金鎖鴛鴦珊瑚扇記, Jyutping: Gam¹so² Jyun¹joeng¹ Saan¹wu⁴sin³ Gei³, "Coral Fan and Golden-lock Mandarin-ducks Pendant").

The naamyam (南音; Jyutping: naam⁴ jam¹, Hanyu Pinyin: nányīn, literally "southern songs"), a genre of song that flourished from the late Ming dynasty and frequently sung in Canton's brothels with accompanying string instruments, possessed language that was generally very literary, with only occasional instances of colloquial Cantonese words. The purpose of such inclusions is debated; they were likely added purely for rhythmic purposes. An example of such practice is Haaktou Cauhan (客途秋恨, Jyutping: Haak³tou⁴ Cau¹han⁶, "The Traveler's Autumn Regrets") written in the first decade of 1800s, which is considered one of the most outstanding examples of the naamyam genre.

Written Cantonese vocabulary was used much more extensively in the lungzau (龍舟, Jyutping: lung⁴zau¹, "Dragon boat") songs, performed mainly by beggars on the streets. These songs were considered the least prestigious genre and were rarely published, and then only after careful editing to make them less vernacular in style.

An important landmark in the history of written Cantonese was the publication of Jyut-au (粵謳, Jyutping: jyut⁶au¹, Hanyu Pinyin: yuè'ōu, literally: "Cantonese love songs") by Zhao Ziyong (招子庸, Jyutping: Ziu¹ Zi²jung⁴, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāo Zǐyōng) in 1828, marking the beginning of an extremely popular genre. Being an educated juren, Zhao Ziyong earned some prestige and respect for the previously rejected "heavy" vernacular literature.

Modern times

In the early 20th century, Chinese reformers like Hu Shih saw the need for language reform and championed the development of a vernacular that allowed modern Chinese to write the language the same way they speak. The vernacular language movement took hold, and the written language was standardized as vernacular Chinese. Mandarin was chosen as the basis for the new standard.

The standardization and adoption of written Mandarin preempted the development and standardization of vernaculars based on other varieties of Chinese. No matter which dialect one spoke, they still wrote in standardized Mandarin for everyday writing. However, Cantonese is unique amongst the non-Mandarin varieties in having a widely used written form. Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong used to be a British colony isolated from mainland China before 1997, so most HK citizens do not speak Mandarin. Written Cantonese has developed as a means of informal communication. Still, Cantonese speakers must use standard written Chinese, or even literary Chinese, in most formal written communications, since written Cantonese may be unintelligible to speakers of other varieties of Chinese.

Written Cantonese banner advertising peanut and sesame brittles in mainland China, with the slogan "If you never eat it, you will never know how it tastes. The more you eat it, the more tasty it is"

By the 1920s, with the rise of fully written libretti (Chinese: 劇本; pinyin: jùběn; Jyutping: kek6 bun2) for Cantonese opera, a well-recognised system had arisen for the use of written Cantonese. The theatrical art form became popularised further through the 1950s with the post-war Hong Kong film industry, during which one third of all cinema production was devoted to Cantonese opera. With the consistent use of on-screen subtitles, the film-going audiences regularly encountered written Cantonese at the cinema, as well as on the backs of phonograph records and later audiocassette and CD cases.

Historically, written Cantonese has been used in Hong Kong for legal proceedings in order to write down the exact spoken testimony of a witness, instead of paraphrasing spoken Cantonese into standard written Chinese. However, its popularity and usage has been rising in the last two decades, the late Wong Jim being one of the pioneers of its use as an effective written language. Written Cantonese has become quite popular in certain tabloids, online chat rooms, instant messaging, and even social networking websites; this would be even more evident since the rise of localism in Hong Kong from the 2010s, where the articles written by those localist media are written in Cantonese. Although most foreign movies and TV shows are subtitled in Standard Chinese, some, such as The Simpsons, are subtitled using written Cantonese. Newspapers have the news section written in Standard Chinese, but they may have editorials or columns that contain Cantonese discourses, and Cantonese characters are increasing in popularity on advertisements and billboards.

It has been stated that written Cantonese remains limited outside Hong Kong, including other Cantonese-speaking areas in Guangdong Province. However, colloquial Cantonese advertisements are sometimes seen in Guangdong, suggesting that written Cantonese is widely understood and is regarded favourably, at least in some contexts. Attitudes toward written Cantonese in Guangzhou have been found to be in general positive, though this was limited to the informal and casual domains of life, where the social value of written Cantonese as a marker of cultural solidarity is highest.

Some sources will use only colloquial Cantonese forms, resulting in text similar to natural speech. However, it is more common to use a mixture of colloquial forms and standard Chinese forms, some of which are alien to natural speech. Thus the resulting "hybrid" text lies on a continuum between two norms: standard Chinese and colloquial Cantonese as spoken. It has been found that female gender and a middle class-income are demographic factors that promote a clear separation between standard written Chinese and written Cantonese. On the other hand, men, and both blue-collar workers and college-educated high-income demographics, are factors that tend towards a convergence to standard written Chinese.

Cantonese characters

Early sources

A good source for well documented written Cantonese words can be found in the scripts for Cantonese opera. Readings in Cantonese colloquial: being selections from books in the Cantonese vernacular with free and literal translations of the Chinese character and romanized spelling (1894) by James Dyer Ball has a bibliography of printed works available in Cantonese characters in the last decade of the nineteenth century. A few libraries have collections of so-called "wooden fish books" written in Cantonese characters. Facsimiles and plot precis of a few of these have been published in Wolfram Eberhard's Cantonese Ballads. See also Cantonese love-songs, translated with introduction and notes by Cecil Clementi (1904) or a newer translation of these by Peter T. Morris in Cantonese love songs : an English translation of Jiu Ji-yung's Cantonese songs of the early 19th century (1992). Cantonese character versions of the Bible, Pilgrims Progress, and Peep of Day, as well as simple catechisms, were published by mission presses. The special Cantonese characters used in all of these were not standardized and show wide variation.

Characters today

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  A Hong Kong billboard in Written Cantonese with a mixture of English words in the typical code switch style of Hong Kong speech.
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  A Hong Kong political advertisement for Professional Commons in Written Cantonese
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  Political banner for the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong in Written Cantonese

Written Cantonese contains many characters not used in standard written Chinese in order to transcribe words not present in the standard lexicon, and for some words from Old Chinese when their original forms have been forgotten. Despite attempts by the government of Hong Kong in the 1990s to standardize this character set, culminating in the release of the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS) for use in electronic communication, there is still significant disagreement about which characters are correct in written Cantonese, as many of the Cantonese words existed as descendants of Old Chinese words, but are being replaced by some new invented Cantonese words.

Vocabulary

General estimates of vocabulary differences between Cantonese and Mandarin range from 30 to 50 percent. Donald B. Snow, the author of Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular, wrote that "It is difficult to quantify precisely how different" the two vocabularies are. Snow wrote that the different vocabulary systems are the main difference between written Mandarin and written Cantonese. Ouyang Shan made a corpus-based estimate concluding that one third of the lexical items used in regular Cantonese speech do not exist in Mandarin, but that between the formal registers the differences were smaller. He analyzed a radio news broadcast and concluded that of its lexical items, 10.6% were distinctly Cantonese. Here are examples of differing lexical items in a sentence:

Written Cantonese and standard written Chinese equivalents with corresponding Jyutping romanization

Gloss	Written Cantonese	Standard Written Chinese
is	係 hai6	是 si6 (Mandarin: shì)
not	唔 m4	不 bat1 (Mandarin: bù)
they/them	佢哋 keoi5-dei6	他們 taa1-mun4 (Mandarin: tāmen)
(possessive marker)	嘅 ge3	的 dik1 (Mandarin: de)
Is it theirs?	係唔係佢哋嘅？ hai6-m4-hai6 keoi5-dei6 ge3?	是不是他們的？ Si6-bat1-si6 taa1-mun4 dik1? (Mandarin: Shì bùshì tāmen de?)

The two Chinese sentences are grammatically identical, using an A-not-A question to ask "Is it theirs?" (referring to an aforementioned object). Though the characters correspond 1:1, the actual glyphs used are all different.

Cognates

There are certain words that share a common root with standard written Chinese words. However, because they have diverged in pronunciation, tone, and/or meaning, they are often written using a different character. One example is the doublet 來 loi⁴ (standard) and 嚟 lei⁴ (Cantonese), meaning "to come." Both share the same meaning and usage, but because the colloquial pronunciation differs from the literary pronunciation, they are represented using two different characters. Some people argue that representing the colloquial pronunciation with a different (and often extremely complex) character is superfluous, and would encourage using the same character for both forms since they are cognates (see Cabtonese character classification below).

Native words

Some Cantonese words have no equivalents in Mandarin, though equivalents may exist in classical or other varieties of Chinese. Cantonese writers have from time to time reinvented or borrowed a new character if they are not aware of the original one. For example, some suggest that the common word 靚 leng³, meaning pretty in Cantonese but also looking into the mirror in Mandarin, is in fact the character 令 ling³.

Today those characters can mainly be found in ancient rime dictionaries such as Guangyun. Some scholars have made some "archaeological" efforts to find out what the "original characters" are. Often, however, these efforts are of little use to the modern Cantonese writer, since the characters so discovered are not available in the standard character sets provided to computer users, and many have fallen out of usage.

In Southeast Asia, Cantonese people may adopt local Malay words into their daily speech, such as using the term 鐳 leoi¹ to mean money rather than 錢 cin², which would be used in Hong Kong.

Particles

Further information: Cantonese grammar

Cantonese particles may be added to the end of a sentence or suffixed to verbs to indicate aspect. There are many such particles; here are a few.

• 咩 – "me¹" is placed at the end of a sentence to indicate disbelief, e.g. 乜你花名叫八兩金咩？ Is your nickname really Raymond Lam?
• 呢 – "ne¹" is placed at the end of a sentence to indicate a question, e.g. 你叫咩名呢？ What is your name?
• 未 – "mei⁶" is placed at the end of a sentence to ask if an action is done yet, e.g. 你做完未？ Are you done yet?
• 吓 – "haa⁵" is placed after a verb to indicate a little bit, e.g. 食吓 Eat a little bit; "haa²" is used singly to show uncertainty or unbelief, e.g. 吓？乜係咁㗎? What? Is that so?
• 緊 – "gan²" is placed after a verb to indicate a progressive action, e.g. 我食緊蘋果。 I'm eating an apple.
• 咗 – "zo²" placed after a verb to indicate a completed action, e.g. 我食咗蘋果。 I ate an apple.
• 晒 – "saai³" placed after a verb to indicate an action to all of the targets, e.g. 我食晒啲蘋果。 I ate all the apples.
• 埋 – "maai⁴" is placed after a verb to indicate an expansion of the target of action, or that the action is an addition to the one(s) previously mentioned, e.g. 我食埋啲嘢就去。 I'll go after I finish eating the rest. ("eating the rest" is an expansion of the target of action from the food eaten to the food not yet eaten); 你可以去先，我食埋嘢先去。 You can go first. I'll eat before going. (The action "eating" is an addition to the action "going" which is previously mentioned or mutually known.)
• 哇/嘩 – "waa¹ / waa³" interjection of amazement, e.g. 嘩！好犀利呀！ Wow! That's amazing!
• 㗎啦 – "gaa³ laa¹" is used when the context seems to be commonplace, e.g., 個個都係咁㗎啦。 Everyone is like that.
• 啫嘛 – "ze¹ maa³" translates as "just", e.g. 我就剩兩頁功課啫嘛。 I just have two pages of homework left to do.

Loanwords

Some Cantonese loanwords are written in existing Chinese characters.

Examples

Written Cantonese	Jyutping	Cantonese pronunciation	English word	English Pronunciation	Written Mandarin
巴士	baa1 si2	/paː˥ɕiː˧˥/	bus	/bʌs/	公車 (Taiwan) 公共汽車、公交車 (Mainland China)
的士	dik1 si2	/tɪk˥ɕiː˧˥/	taxi	/ˈtæksi/	計程車 (Taiwan) 出租車 (Mainland China) 德士 (Singapore/Malaysia)
多士	do1 si6	/tɔ˥ːɕi˨ː/	toast	/ˈtɘʊst/	吐司
朱古力	zyu1 gu1 lik1	/tɕyː˥kuː˥lɪk˥/	chocolate	/ˈtʃɒklɪt/	巧克力
三文治	saam1 man4 zi6	/saːm˥mɐn˨˩tɕiː˨/	sandwich	/ˈsænwɪdʒ/	三明治
士多	si6 do1	/ɕiː˨tɔː˥/	store	/stɔː/	商店
士巴拿	si6 baa1 naa2	/ɕiː˨paː˥naː˧˥/	spanner (wrench)	/ˈspæn.ə(ɹ)/	扳手
士多啤梨	si6 do1 be1 lei2	/ɕiː˨tɔː˥pɛː˥lei˧˥/	strawberry	/ˈstrɔːbəri/	草莓
啤梨	be1 lei2	/pɛː˥lei˧˥/	pear	/peər/	梨子
沙士	saa1 si6	/saː˥ɕiː˨/	SARS	/sɑːz/	嚴重急性呼吸道症候群 非典 (Mainland China)
拜拜	baai1 baai3	/paːi˥paːi˧/	bye bye	/ˈbaɪbaɪ/	再見
BB	bi4 bi1	/piː˨˩piː˥/	baby	/ˈbeɪbi/	嬰兒
菲林	fei1 lam2	/fei˥lɐm˧˥/	film	/fɪlm/	膠卷
菲屎	fei1 si2	/fei˥ɕiː˧˥/	face (reputation)	/feɪs/	面子
三文魚	saam1 man4 jyu4	/saːm˥mɐn˨˩jyː˨˩/	salmon	/ˈsæmən/	鮭魚
沙律	saa1 leot6	/sa˥ːlɵ˨t̚/	salad	/ˈsæləd/	沙拉
褒呔	bou1 taai1	/po˥utʰa˥ːi/	bowtie	/bəʊˈtaɪ/	蝴蝶型領結
飛	fei1	/fei˥/	fee (ticket)	/fiː/	票
波	bo1	/pɔ˥ː/	ball	/bɔːl/	球
哈囉	haa1 lou3	/ha˥ːlou˧/	hello	/həˈləʊ/	哈囉
迷你	mai4 nei2	[mɐj˩.nej˧˥]	mini	/ˈmɪni/	小
摩登	mo1 dang1	/mɔː˥tɐŋ˥/	modern	/ˈmɒdən/	時尚、現代
肥佬	fei4 lou2	[fej˩lɔw˧˥]	fail	/feɪl/	不合格
咖啡	gaa3 fe1	/kaː˧fɛː˥/	coffee	/ˈkɒfi/	咖啡
OK	ou1 kei1	/ʔou˥kʰei˥/	okay	/ˌəʊˈkeɪ/	可以
咭	kaak1	/kʰaːk̚˥/	card	/kɑːd/	卡
啤牌	pe1 paai2	/pʰɛː˥ pʰaːi˧˥/	poker	/ˈpəʊkə/	樸克
基	gei1	/kei˥/	gay	/ɡeɪ/	同性戀
(蛋)撻	(daan6) taat1	(/taːn˨/) /tʰaːt̚˥/	(egg) tart	/tɑːt/	(蛋)塔
可樂	ho2 lok6	/hɔ˧˥ː.lɔːk̚˨/	cola	/ˈkəʊ.lə/	可樂
檸檬	ning4 mung1	[nɪŋ˩mɪŋ˥]	lemon	/ˈlɛmən/	檸檬
扑成	buk1 sing4	[pʊk̚˥.sɪŋ˩]	boxing	/ˈbɒksɪŋ/	拳擊
刁時	diu1 si2	[tiw˥.si˧˥]	deuce		(before the final game of tennis) 平分
干邑	gon1 jap1	[kɔn˥.jɐp̚˥]	cognac		法國白蘭地酒
沙展	saa1 zin2	[sa˥.tsin˧˥]	sergeant		警長
士碌架	si3 luk1 gaa2	[si˧lʊk̚˥.ka˧˥]	snooker		彩色檯球
士撻(打)	si3 taat1 (daa2)	[si˧.tʰat̚˥ ta˧˥]	starter		啟輝器
士啤	si3 be1	[si˧.pɛ˥]	spare		後備，備用
士啤呔	si3 be1 taai1	[si˧.pɛ˥ tʰaj˥]	spare tire		備用輪胎 Often used to describe people with waist and abdomen fat
士的	si3 dik1	[si˧.tɪk̚˥]	stick		手杖，拐杖
士多房	si3 do1 fong4	[si˧.tɔ˥ fɔŋ˩]	storeroom		貯藏室
山埃	saan1 aai1	[san˥ ʔaj˥]	cyanide		氰化物
叉(電)	caa1 (din3)	[tsʰa˥.tin˧]	(to) charge		充電
六式碼	luk3 sik1 maa2	[lʊk̚˧.sɪk̚˥ ma˧˥]	Six Sigma		六西格瑪
天拿水	tin1 naa4 seoi2	[tʰin˥na˩ sɵɥ˧˥]	(paint) thinner		稀釋劑，溶劑
比高	bei2 gou1	[pej˧˥kɔw˥]	bagel		過水麵包圈 (Mainland China) 貝果 (Taiwan)
比堅尼	bei2 gin1 nei4	[pej˧˥kin˥nej˩]	bikini		比基尼泳裝
巴士德消毒	baa1 si1 dak1 siu1 duk6	/paː˥.si˥ tɐk̚˥.siːu˥.tʊk̚˨/	pasteurized		用巴氏法消毒過的
巴打	baa1 daa2	[pa˥.ta˧˥]	brother		兄弟
巴黎帽	baa1 lai4 mou2	[pa˥lɐj˩mɔw˧˥]	beret		貝雷帽
巴仙	baa1 sin1 / pat6 sen1	[pa˥sin˥] / /pʰɐt̚˨.sɛːn˥/	percent		百分之 趴(Taiwan)
古龍水	gu2 lung4 seoi2	[ku˧˥.lʊŋ˩ sɵɥ˧˥]	cologne		科隆香水 (Mainland China)
布冧	bou3 lam1	[pɔw˧lɐm˥]	plum		洋李，李子，梅
布甸	bou3 din1	[pɔw˧.tin˥]	pudding		布丁
打令	daa1 ling2	[ta˥.lɪŋ˧˥]	darling		心愛的人
打比(打吡)	daa2 bei2	[ta˧˥.pej˧˥]	derby		德比賽馬
卡	kaa1	[kʰa˥]	car		（火車）車廂
卡式機	kaa1 sik1 gei1	[kʰa˥.sɪk̚˥ kej˥]	cassette		盒式錄音機
卡士	kaa1 si2	[kʰa˥.si˧˥]	1. cast 2. class		1. 演員陣容 2. 檔次，等級；上品，高檔，有品味
卡通	kaa1 tung1	[kʰa˥.tʰʊŋ˥]	cartoon		動畫片，漫畫
卡巴	kaa1 baa1	[kʰa˥.pa˥]	kebab		烤腌肉串
甲巴甸	gaap3 baa1 din1	[kap̚˧.pa˥.tin˥]	gabardine		華達呢
呢	le1	[lɛ˥]	level		級，級別
叻㗎	lek1 gaa4	[lɛk̚˥.ka˩]	lacquer		清漆
仙	sin1	[sin˥]	cent		分
他菲亞酒	taa1 fei1 aa3 zau2	[tʰa˥.fej˥ ʔa˧.tsɐw˧˥]	tafia		塔非亞酒
冬甩	dung1 lat1	[tʊŋ˥.lɐt̚˥]	doughnut		炸麵餅圈 (Mainland China)
奶昔	naai2 sik1	[naj˧˥.sɪk̚˥]	milkshake		牛奶冰淇淋
安士	on1 si2	[ʔɔn˥si˧˥]	ounce		盎司，英兩，啢
安哥	on1 go1	[ʔɔn˥kɔ˥]	encore		再來一個，再演奏（Song）一次

Cantonese character classification

Cantonese characters are classified into one of several types:

Shared-Character Cognates

Refers to characters that are used in both Standard Chinese and Cantonese, with the Cantonese meaning sharing the same root or etymology with the Chinese meaning, although differing slightly in meaning.

Character	Jyutping	Meaning in Written Cantonese	Literal Meaning in Standard Chinese	Notes
仔	zai2	pron. child, boy	"young animal"
係	hai5	copular verb, to be, is, am, are	"to tie"
		affirmation, yes
使	sai2	v. to need; typically used in words like 唔使 "no need"	"to cause something to happen"
估	gu2	v. to guess	"to estimate"
住	zyu6	continuous aspect marker, used to indicate an ongoing action or a current state (e.g. 我戴住眼鏡 "I'm wearing glasses"	"to stay"	from the sense that the verb is still "staying" in action
愛	oi1	v. to want	"to love"
整	zing2	v. to do, to make, to fix	"to gather, to make tidy, whole"
曉	hiu2	v. to know	"dawn"	from a metaphorical usage of 曉 to mean "to understand"
除	ceoi4	v. to take off (clothes or accessories)	"to remove, to exclude, (arithmetic) to divide"
掉	deu6	v. to throw away	"to fall"
搞	gaau2	v. to play with	"to do (usually bad things)"
擠	zai1	v. to place	"to squeeze"	probably from the sense of "to squeeze into place"
鍾	zung1	used in "鍾意“; v. to like	"vessel for containing alcohol"	from a metaphorical usage of 鍾 to mean "to concentrate one's love or attention"
嬲	nau1/lau1	v. to be annoyed at; to be angry at	"to make fun of; to pester"
鬧	naau6/laau6	v. to scold	"to be noisy"
岋/岌	ngap6	used in "岋頭/岌頭"; v. to nod	"shaky"	from the sense of "shaking your head"
企	kei5	v. to stand	short for 企业 "enterprise" , also used in compounds such as 企望 ”to hope for", 企图 "to attempt to".	from the original meaning of 企 "to to stand on one's tiptoes"
褪	tan3	v. to back away	"to take off one's clothes; to discolour; to fade"	linguist 孔仲南 explained in his 1933 book《廣東俗語考》that when people took off traditional Chinese garments in the past, they always did so by slipping the clothes backward off their shoulders, hence "褪" was colloquially adapted to mean "retreating" or "stepping back".
執	zap1	v. to pick up	"to hold"
		v. to tidy up
		v. to close down (e.g. 執笠 "to go bankrupt and close down")
		classifier, a pinch of something
吟沉	ngam4 cam4	v. to mutter or grumble to oneself	"chant submerge"
度	dou6	n. place	"degree"
細	sai3	adj. small	"thin"
平	peng4	adj. cheap	"flat"	平 also means "fair" in Mandarin, so the meaning of "cheap" probably stemmed from "fair", as in "fair price"
耐	noi6/loi6	adj. taking a long time to happen	"to endure"
成	sing4	adj. entire	"to become"	成 also means "to complete" and "to reach a certain level of"
		adv. almost, nearly
齊	cai4	adv. together	"identical, complete"
先	sin1	adv. only then, as in 我做嗮先幫你 "Once I have finished, only then will I help you"	"first"	the word 先 is used differently in some southern Chinese languages. In Standard Mandarin, 先 comes before the verb, whereas in Cantonese and Teochew, it comes after the verb. For example in Standard Chinese, one would say 我先做完后帮你 "I'll first do finish, then i'll help you", whereas in Cantonese one world say 我做嗮先幫你 "I'll do finish first, then i'll help you". Therefore, "先" in Cantonese can be understood as "only then", and is also therefore a synonym to the Chinese "才".
尋	cam4	used in "尋日" and "尋晚"; prep. yesterday	"to search"	from the literary meaning of 尋 "before long"
啖	daam6	classifier, a mouthful	"to eat"
		classifier, for kisses
拃	zaa6	classifier, a handful of	"a handspan"

Borrowings

Refers to characters that are borrowed into Cantonese for their pronunciation (a phonetic loan character, 語音假借字). Since Cantonese was historically a spoken rather than a written language, the original characters corresponding to many native Cantonese words have largely been lost. Consequently, when speakers sought to represent the language in writing, they often adopted substitute characters with identical or similar pronunciations. Alternatively, some Cantonese words may not have had original written characters to begin with, necessitating the borrowing of existing characters as substitutes.

Character	Jyutping	Meaning in Written Cantonese	Literal Meaning in Standard Chinese	Etymology
呢	nei1	demonstrative pronoun, this	sentence final particle with many uses	substrate word, possible origins: From Proto-Tai *najꟲ From Proto-Mon-Khmer *niʔ ~ nih From Proto-Mon-Khmer *naaj From Proto-Hmong-Mien *ʔneinˣ From Proto-Austronesian *nay
吓	haa6	adv. a brief moment	"to scare" (in Simplified Chinese)	variant writing of 下 as in "一下"
		adj. quite
		sentence final particle, indicates a question
緊	gan2	progressive aspect marker, used to indicate an ongoing action that is not yet finished (e.g. 我讀緊書 "I'm reading a book")	"tight; to worry"	probably a modification and contraction of 近處 (gan6 cyu3), which was used to indicate that something was happening soon, but later came to be understood as something that was ongoing and not yet finished
邊	bin1	interrogative word, which, where, how	"a side"	-
響	hoeng2	v. / prep. to be at	"to ring; to sound"	from 向
仲	zung6	adv. still	"second in seniority"	from 重 or 尚
聽	ting1	used in "聽日"; n. / adv. tomorrow	"to listen"	uncertain, possible theories: From elision of 天光日 From 天日, where the final -n in 天 has assimilated with 日, which used to have a /ɲ̟/ initial.
企	kei5	used in "屋企" n. a house	short for 企业 "enterprise" , also used in compounds such as 企望 ”to hope for", 企图 "to attempt to".	probably from taboo avoidance of Hakka "屋下", replacing "下" with "起 hei2“, which came to be written as ”企“, likely due to a pronunciation shift
批	pai1	v. to cut into thin slices, to peel (fruits), to shape with a knife or blade	to judge, to approve, to criticize, to slap, or classifier for batches of something	from 𠜱 or 劈
篤/督	duk1	v. to poke; prod	篤: "sincere" 督: "to supervise"	from 厾, 𧰵, or 㧻
		classifier, for faeces		from 㞘, 𡱂, 𡰪 or 䐁
		used in "尾篤/尾督" n. the very back
梗	gang2	adv. certainly; definitely adj. stiff, fixed	"stem; stalk"	probably from 亙 "completely; thoroughly"
埋	maai4	v. to approach	"to bury", also used in 埋怨 "to grumble about; to complain"	probably from 摩 “to approach, to draw near"
		v. to close off
		adv. close to; e.g. 坐埋一齊 "sit close together"
		adv. to completion; e.g. 食埋啲飯 "to eat the rest of the rice"
		adv. away; e.g. 收埋 "to hide away"
		adv. as well; e.g. 加埋呢個 ”add this as well"
淨間	zing6 gaan1	adv. a while	"clean between"	variant pronunciation of 陣間 (zan6 gaan1)
傾偈	king1 gai2	v. to chat	"to pour out gatha"	possibly from 謦欬, also could just be from surface analysis of the characters themselves: 傾 (“to pour out" > "to chat") 偈 ("gatha" > "words")
論盡	leon6 zeon6	adj. clumsy	"discuss finish"	probably from 遴鈍 遴: "difficulty in travel" 鈍: "dull-witted"
巴閉	baa1 bai3	adj. arrogant	"desire close"	uncertain, possibly a transliteration of Hindi बाप रे (baap re) "Oh my god", or from Chinese 把柄 "information that can be used against someone"
		adj. impressive
奄尖	jim1 zim1	adj. picky; fussy	"sudden sharp"	possibly a Kra-Dai substrate word, maybe cognate with Zhuang "yimxcimx"
核突	wat6 dat6	adj. disgusting	"nuclear sudden"	perhaps from 鶻突 "unclear"
撈哨	laau4 saau4	adj. dressed untidily, sloppily	"to fish out whistle"	probably from "髝髞", a term used to describe something that was tall, or someone that had a rough temper, later evolving to describe the appearance of messy hair, from which the meaning of "dressed untidily" is derived
咧啡/哩啡	le4 fe4	adj. dressed untidily, sloppily; synonym of 撈哨	-	uncertain; from "褦裶"? 褦: "foolish" 裶: "the appearance of long clothes"
鹹濕	haam4 sap1	adj. lecherous, lewd	"salty wet"	uncertain, many possible etymologies
屎忽	si2 fat1	n. buttocks	"poop suddenly"	variant writing of 屎窟
雲吞	wan4 tan1	n. wonton (Chinese stuffed dumpling)	"cloud swallow"	from 餛飩
馬騮	ma5 lau1	n. a monkey	"a horse that is a bay horse with a black mane and a black tail"	unknown, possible theories: A Kra-Dai substrate cognate with Zhuang "maxlaeuz", Lingao "ma² lu²", and Gelao mu⁶ lau²", all meaning "monkey" From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m(j/r)uk. Cognate with Burmese မျောက် myauk “monkey” and possibly 猱 "yellow-haired monkey”
運吉	wan6 gat1	adj. a waste of time	"to transport lucky"	variant writing of 混吉, theories of origin include: Originating from a Hong Kong café in the 1970s. At the time, waiters would serve customers a free bowl of plain soup called “Lucky Soup” (吉湯) as soon as they sat down. Because the economy was poor, some people would drink the free soup and leave without ordering anything. Waiters called these people “混吉”, meaning "freeloading off the lucky soup; freeloaders" Originating from a Guangzhou restaurant in the 1960s. The restaurant gave customers free plain chicken soup, but since the word “plain, empty” (空) sounded like 凶 (inauspicious), they changed the name to “Lucky Water” (吉水). Some customers would drink the free soup and leave immediately, so waiters began calling this behavior “混吉”
麻麻地	maa4 maa2 dei2	adj. so-so, mediocre	"hemp hemp land"	-

There is also one other type of borrowing, that being of a character borrowed into Cantonese for its meaning rather than its pronunciation (a semantic loan character, 語意假借字), an example being "歪 waai¹", meaning "slanted, crooked", which acts as the character for the colloquial Cantonese word "me²", also meaning "slanted, crooked". The origin of this term is believed by Cantonese linguist Mai Yun (麦耘) to be from "佊 (MC pjeX)", which means "evil, crooked person".

Phono-Semantic Compounds

The majority of characters used in Standard Chinese are phono-semantic compounds – characters formed using two parts, or radicals; one hinting at its meaning, and one hinting at its pronunciation. Written Cantonese continues this practice, most often via putting the "mouth" radical 口 (which indicates that it is a colloquial word) next to a character that indicates its pronunciation. As an example, the character 噉 uses the mouth radical with a 敢, which means "brave", but has no relation to the meaning of 噉 and only indicates it's pronunciation. An exception is 咩, which is not pronounced like its radical 羊 (joeng⁴); 羊 means "sheep" and was chosen as the radical of 咩 because the pronunciation of 咩 (me¹) resembles the sound that sheep make.

Character	Jyutping	Meaning	Standard Chinese Equivalent
啲	di1	a bit, a bit more; e.g. 快啲 "faster!"	点, 些
嘅	ge3	possessive particle, similar to 's	的
		sentence final particle, expresses agreement or surprise
吖	a1	sentence final particle, [1] dialectical form of 啊 or 呀	啊, 呀
㗎	gaa2/gaa3/gaa4	sentence final particle, contraction of 嘅啊, 嘅呀, or 嘅吖	的啊, 的呀
喇	laa3	sentence final particle, indicates a change of state/the beginning of an action or expresses surprise	了, 了啊
嘞	laak3	sentence final particle, used for confirmation or expresses polite refusal	的, 了
喔	wo1	sentence final particle, indicating surprise	哦
喎	wo3	sentence final particle, used as a casual reminder or for emphasis, to express realization, to emphasise a truth that contradicts an incorrect assumption, to express sarcasm, or used for reported speech	哦
啩	gwaa3	sentence final particle, indicating uncertainty	吧
嗬	ho2	sentence final particle, used to ask for confirmation; for example in "你今晚會嚟嗰個晚會㗎嗬?" (you're coming to the party tonight, right?)	-
啫	ze1	sentence final particle, only, simply	而已, 罢了
		sentence final particle, used to form critical questions, e.g. "你今日去邊度啫?" (Where did you really go to today?)	了
囉	lo1/lo3	sentence final particle, used to indicate that something should be obvious	-
		sentence final particle, used to express impatience; for example in "快啲咁多囉" ("hurry up!")	-
		sentence final particle, used to invite agreement or sympathy; for example in "我唔知點算好囉" ("I really don't know what do to...)	-
噉	gam2	function word, like this, e.g. "噉就死喇"	这样
咗	zo2	function word, indicates past tense	了
咩	me1	function word [2], also a contraction of 乜嘢	吗
哋	dei6	function word, indicates the plural form of a pronoun	们
嗮	saai3	function word, indicates completion, e.g. 搬嗮 "moved all, finished moving"	完了
咪	mai6	copular verb, to not be, is not, am not, are not; contraction of 唔係 m4 hai6	否, 非
	mai2	imperative, no need to, don't; possibly a contraction of 唔使 m4 sai2	不要
喐	juk1	v. to move	动
呃	ngak2	v. to deceive	骗
喊	haam3	v. to cry	哭
唞	tau2	v. to rest	休息
嘥	saai1	v. to waste	浪费
嗌	aai3/ngaai3	v. to yell	喊
		v. to order food	订购
噏	ap1/ngap1	v. to babble; used in compounds like 發噏瘋 "to talk nonsense"	说废话
嚟	lei4/lai4	v. to come	来
		particle, used to emphasise that the identity of the subject is the object, e.g. "呢隻係狗嚟嘅" (This is a dog)
		adv. to, for (a purpose)
唔	m4	adv. not, no, cannot; indicates negation.	不
啱	ngaam1	adv. just, nearly	刚
		adv. correct, suitable	对
咁	gam3	adj. so; e.g. "做咩你咁黐線?" ("why are you so out of your mind?")	这么
叻	lek1	adj. smart	聪明
嚡	haai4	adj. (often referring to food) very rough, coarse	粗糙
		interjection. sigh	唉
嗱	naa4	interjection. used when giving something to someone; equivalent to "Here!"	-
		interjection. used when calling someone's attention to something; equivalent to "Look!"	-
		interjection. used to remind someone of a warning; equivalent to "See!"
喺	hai2	prep. at, in, during (time), at, in (place)	在
嗰	go2	demonstrative pronoun, that, those	那
嘢	je5	n. / pron. thing, stuff	东西, 事物
𡃁	leng1	n. a follower, underling	-
		adj. young	-
嚿	gau6	classifier, for chunks of something	块
𠹻	zam6	classifier, for smells	股
𠹌	lang1	only used in the compound 半𠹌𠼰 "halfway"	一半
𠼰	kang1
咭	kaat1	n. a card; transliteration of English "card"	卡
嘜	mak1	n. mark, trademark; from English "mark"	马克
		n. a mug; from English "mug"
呔	taai1	n. a necktie; from English "tie"	領帶
		n. a tyre; from English "tyre"	胎
嗗	gut4	onomatopoeia. sound of gulping; v. to gulp down	咕嘟

Other phono-semantic characters which are not formed with the "mouth" radical (口) include:

Character	Jyutping	Meaning	Standard Chinese Equivalent
佢	keoi5	pron. he / she / it	他, 她, 它
佬	lou2	pron. guy / dude	男人
偋	beng3	v. to hide	藏
睇	tai2	v. to see	看
瞓	fan3	v. to sleep (Originally 睏)	睡
䁪	zaam2	v. to blink	眨
𥋇	caang3	v. to open the eyes wide	睁大
	caang4	adj. dazzling, blinding	刺眼
攞	lo2	v. to take / to get / to hold	拿
拎	ling1	v. to carry / to hold (usually for bags)	拿
搦	nik1/lik1	v. to hold (usually for lighter objects)	拿
揸	zaa1	v. to grasp	握
		v. to drive	驾
		v. to squeeze	挤
擳	zit1	v. to squeeze out	挤
搵	wan2	v. to find	找
摷	caau3	v. to rummage through with one's hands	翻找
揀	gaan2	v. to pick	选
掹	mang1	v. to pull	拉
掂	dim3	v. to touch	触碰
	dim6	adj. straight, upright	直
		adj. good; for example "呢個人做嘢唔掂" (This person is not really good at his work")	好
揈	fing6	v. to fling	甩
掟	deng3	v. to throw	扔
擗	pek6	v. to throw away / to discard	丢
抌	dam2	v. to throw / to discard	丢
		v. to drop someone off	送下车
		v. to pound	捶打
𢱕	dap6	v. to pound	捶打
扑/㩧	pok1	v. to hit / to strike	打
搉	kok1	v. to knock	敲
擁	ung2	v. to push	推
搲	waa2/we2	v. to scratch with one's hands	搔, 抓
𢯎	ngaau1	v. to scratch an itch	搔, 抓
		v. to seek	找
		v. to steal	偷
捽	zeot1	v. to rub	擦
揩	haai1	v. to brush against (e.g. "個嗰架的士揩到我架車")	碰到而擦到
搣	mit1	v. to tear / to peel	撕, 削
		v. to pinch with one's fingers	捏
撳/㩒	gam6	v. to press	按
揗	tan4	v. to shiver (used in compounds such as "揗雞" and "揗揗震")	颤抖
𢳂	bat1	v. to scoop	舀
掗	ngaa6	v. to occupy	占
𨂽	dam6	used in compounds such as "𨂽腳"; v. to stomp one's foot	跺
屙	o1	v. to pass urine or faeces	-
瀨	laai6	v. to pass urine or faeces involuntarily	-
滮	biu1/piu4	v. to spurt out, to emerge suddenly	-
淝	fe4	v. to spray	喷
𦧲	loe1	v. to spit	吐
諗	nam2/lam2	v. to think	思考
腍	nam4/lam4	adj. soft	软
黐	ci1	v. / adj. to stick, sticky	黏
靚	leng3	adj. pretty / handsome, nice	漂亮
癲	din1	adj. insane	疯
脷	lei6	n. tongue	舌
晏	aan3/ngaan3	n. / adv. late in the day, later	-
埞	deng6	n. a place	地方
樖	po1	classifier, for plants	棵, 朵
癐	gui6	adj. tired (more commonly written as "攰")	累
坺	pet3	classifier, for soft masses, e.g. dirt, faeces	坨
鈪	ngaak2	n. a bracelet (can more specifically mean a bangle)	手镯
舖	pou3	n. a store	店
𨋢	lip1	n. a lift, an elevator; from English "lift"	电梯
轆	luk1	n. a wheel	轮
		v. to roll (more commonly written as "碌" in this sense)	滚
冧	lam1	n. a flower bud	蕾
		v. to coax	哄
	lam3	v. to topple over	倒
冚	kam2	v. to cover up	盖
		v. to slap someone in the face	批
	ham6	adj. all, entire	全
		adj. (of openings) tight, firm	紧
窿	lung1	n. a hole, also used in compounds such as 窿窿罅(laa3)罅 "nook and cranny"	洞
𤷪𤺧/忟憎	mang2 zang2	adj. irritated	烦躁

Non-Phono-Semantic Compounds

Characters which are not phono-semantic compounds include:

Character	Jyutping	Meaning	Standard Chinese Equivalent	Type of Character
冇	mou5	v. to not have	没有	Ideogram, formed by removing the two strokes inside of “有"; "有" means "to have"
乜	mat1	pron. what (Originally 物)	什么	-
畀	bei2	v. to give (occasionally written as 俾)	给	Pictogram of an arrow with a flat arrowhead
氹	tam4	n. puddle, pit, trap	坑	Uncertain, probably ideogram
		used in "氹氹轉"; v. to spin, to go round and round	旋转, 转圈圈
孻	laai1	used in "孻仔"; n. the youngest child; also used in "孻尾" and "孻面"; prep. behind, last	后面	Compound ideogram, 子 (“son”) + 盡 (“end; finish”). "孻" originally meant "the youngest son of an old parent", i.e. "the last son"
曱甴	gaat6 zaat2	n. cockroach	蟑螂	Uncertain, perhaps a modification of the character "甲" (gaap3)?

The words represented by these characters are also sometimes cognates with pre-existing Chinese words. However, their colloquial Cantonese pronunciations have diverged from formal Cantonese pronunciations. For example, 無 ("without") is normally pronounced mou⁴ in literature. In spoken Cantonese, 冇 mou⁵ has the same usage, meaning, and pronunciation as 無, except for tone. 冇 represents the spoken Cantonese form of the word "without", while 無 represents the word used in Classical Chinese and Mandarin. However, 無 is still used in some instances in spoken Cantonese, such as 無論如何 ("no matter what happens"). Another example is the doublet 來/嚟, which means "come". 來 loi⁴ is used in literature; 嚟 lei⁴ is the spoken Cantonese form.

Workarounds

Although most Cantonese words can be found in the current encoding system, input workarounds are commonly used both by those unfamiliar with them, and by those whose input methods do not allow for easy input (similar to how some Russian speakers might write in the Latin script if their computing device lacks the ability to input Cyrillic). Some Cantonese writers use simple romanization (e.g. using "la" to represent "喇"), symbols (e.g. adding a Latin letter "o" in front of "係" to represent "喺"; using "D" to represent "啲"), homophones (e.g. using "果" to represent "嗰"), or a character that is similiar in form and pronunciation (e.g. using "野" to represent "嘢") in place of certain characters. For example,

Sentence	你	喺	嗰喥	好	喇,	千	祈	唔愛	搞	佢	啲	嘢。
Substitutions	你	o係	果度	好	la,	千	祈	唔愛	搞	佢	D	野。
Jyutping	nei5	hai2	go2 dou6	hou2	laa3	cin1	kei4	m4 oi3	gaau2	keoi5	di1	je5
Gloss	you	being	there	good	FP	thousand	pray	don't	mess with	he/she	bit	things/stuff
Translation	"You'd better stay there, and under no circumstances mess with his/her stuff."

Profanities

See Cantonese profanity.

See also

• Cantonese braille
• Hong Kong Sign Language
• Written Hokkien
• Saam kap dai
• 粵語本字表

References

• Snow, Donald B. Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular. Hong Kong University Press, 2004. ISBN 962209709X, 9789622097094.

Further reading

• Cheung, Kwan-hin 張系顯; Bauer, Robert S. (2002). The Representation of Cantonese with Chinese Characters. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series. Vol. 18. Chinese University Press. JSTOR 23826027. OCLC 695438049.
• Li, David C.S. (2000). "Phonetic Borrowing: Key to the vitality of written Cantonese in Hong Kong". Written Language & Literacy. 3 (2): 199–233. doi:10.1075/wll.3.2.02li.
• Snow, Donald (1991). Written Cantonese and the culture of Hong Kong: the growth of a dialect literature (PhD thesis). Indiana University. OCLC 1070381666.
• ——— (1993). "A short history of published Cantonese: what is dialect literature?". Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. 4 (3): 127–148. ISSN 0957-6851. OCLC 43573899.
• ——— (2004). Cantonese as Written Language: The Growth of a Written Chinese Vernacular. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-962-209-709-4.

External links

• Chinese and English phrase book: with the Chinese pronunciation indicated in English by Benoni Lanctot, published in 1867
• Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect: Chinese words and phrases by Robert Morrison (missionary), published in 1828
• S. L. Wong's A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton, by the CUHK
• A Chinese Talking Syllabary of the Cantonese Dialect: An Electronic Repository, by the CUHK
• Modern Standard Mandarin and Cantonese conversion, by the CUHK
• Yueyu.net
• Learn Cantonese! Cantonese learning, including Cantonese characters