Jyutping (Traditional Chinese: 粵拼; Simplified Chinese: 粤拼; pinyin: yuèpīn; Yale: yuhtpīng; sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK promotes the use of this romanization system.

The name Jyutping is a shorthand consisting of the first characters of the terms yuèyǔ (粵語; Cantonese) and pīnyīn (拼音; romanization).

Jyutping and the Yale romanization system represent Cantonese pronunciations with the same letters except:

• The letters eo and oe represent the pronunciations /ɵ/ and /œː/, respectively, in Jyutping while the letters eu represent both pronunciations in Yale.
• The letter j represents the pronunciation /j/ in Jyutping while the letter y is used instead in Yale.
• The letter z represents the pronunciation /ts/ in Jyutping while the letter j is used instead in Yale.
• The letter c represents the pronunciation /tsʰ/ in Jyutping while the letters ch are used instead in Yale.
• In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the letters yu, then the letter j is appended before those letters. In Yale, the letter y cannot be appended before the letters yu under any circumstances.
• Only tone numbers can be used in Jyutping while Yale originally used tone marks and the letter h to represent tones (though tone numbers can be used in Yale).

External links

• LSHK Cantonese Romanization Scheme (http://cpct92.cityu.edu.hk/lshk/Jyutping/Jyutping.htm)
• Jyutping Pronunciation Guide (http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/essays/jyutping.htm)
• MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary (supports both Jyutping and Yale romanization) (http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chardict)