The Hong Kong Government uses an unpublished system of romanisation of Cantonese for public purposes. The primary need for romanisation of Cantonese by the Hong Kong Government is in the assigning of names to new streets and places. It has not formally or publicly disclosed its method for determining the appropriate romanisation in any given instance.
Name and origin
The romanisation system in use by the Hong Kong government is called the Government System or the Dyer-Ball/Eitel system, although it contains some features inexplicable by either Ball or Eitel, and furthermore it has varied over time.
Method Currently, government departments, particularly the Survey and Mapping Office of the Lands Department, consult the Chinese Language Department of the Civil Service Bureau before gazetting names and the latter vet proposed names using the Three Way Chinese Commercial/Telegraphic Code Book, originally published by the Royal Hong Kong Police Force Special Branch for internal government use in 1971. The code book system is devoid of any tone indications and, being grossly simplified, is susceptible to confusion.
Although the code book has only been available for several decades, the Romanisation approach for place names in Hong Kong has been broadly consistent since before 1888. This can be seen in maps of the period and in the government's publication A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories of 1960.
Typical features For place names, the type of the place in English is often used instead of a romanisation (e.g., "Street" and "Road" in place of "Kai" () and "Lo" ()). Nevertheless, exceptions are not uncommon (for example, "Fong" in "Lan Kwai Fong", meaning "Square" if translated). "Wan" for "Bay" and "Tsuen" (or "Chuen") for "Estate" (or "Village") are also common. There are also many instances of surviving pre-1888 Romanisation, such as "Kowloon", "Un Chau Street", and "Hong Kong" itself, which would be "Kau Lung", "Yuen Chau Street", and "Heung Kong" under this system, respectively.
Romanisation of names is mandatory in government identification documents such as identity cards issued by the Registration of Persons Office. This standard is used by the office by default though individuals are at liberty to choose their own spelling or another romanisation system.
Spelling All tones are omitted as are distinctions between aspirated and unaspirated stops. The distinctions between the long vowel and the short vowel are omitted like Fat (, ; meaning "to issue") and Fat (, ; meaning "Buddha").
Some of the inconsistencies are due to a distinction that has been lost historically (a distinction between palatal and alveolar sounds, viz. ch versus ts, sh versus s, and j versus z). These consonants are no longer distinguished in present-day speech.
The following table of geographical names illustrates the standard.
Consonants Initials IPA Yale Jyutping HKG Example in Chinese pʰ p p p Sai Ying Pun p b b p Po Lam tʰ t t t Tuen Mun t d d t Tai O kʰ k k k Kai Tak k g g k Tai Kok Tsui kʰw kw kw kw Kwai Chung kw gw gw kw Cha Kwo Ling m m m m Yau Ma Tei n n n n Nam Cheong ŋ ng ng ng Ngau Tau Kok l l l l Lam Tin f f f f Fo Tan s s s s So Kon Po s s s sh Shau Kei Wan h h h h Hang Hau j y j y Yau Tong w w w w Wong Tai Sin tsʰ/tʃʰ ch c ch Heng Fa Chuen tsʰ ch c ts Yau Yat Tsuen ts j z ts Tsim Sha Tsui
Finals IPA Yale Jyutping HKG Example in Chinese -p -p -p -p Ap Lei Chau -t -t -t -t Tsat Tsz Mui -k -k -k -k Shek O -m -m -m -m Sham Shui Po -n -n -n -n Tsuen Wan -ŋ -ng -ng -ng Tsing Yi
Vowels, diphthongs, and syllabic consonants IPA Yale JyutpingHKGExamplein Chinese aa aa a Ma Tau Wai ah Wah Fu Estate a a a Tsz Wan Shan o Hung Hom u Sham Chun River e e e Chek Lap Kok i i i Lai Chi Kok ze Sheung Sze Wan z Tung Tsz ee Tat Chee Avenue o o o Wo Che u u u Che Kung Miu wu Kwu Tung oo Mei Foo eu oe eu Sheung Wan eo Nam Cheong Street eu eo u Shun Lee Estate yu yu yu Yu Chau Street u Kau U Fong ue Yung Shue Wan aai aai ai Chai Wan ai ai ai Mai Po aau aau au Shau Kei Wan au au au Sau Mau Ping ei ei ei Lei Yue Mun ee Lee On ay Kam Hay Court ai Shui Hau Sai Ngan Ma i To Li Terrace iu iu iu Siu Sai Wan oi oi oi Choi Hung Estate oy Choy Yee Bridge ui ui ui Pui O eui eoi ui Ma Liu Shui ou ou o Tai Mo Shan m m ng ng ng Ng Fan Chau The standard pronunciation of 五 is . However, a more common pronunciation in Hong Kong is and many words are merging with it. The only word that was originally pronounced as m̩ is "" (not) and it is not used in place names.
See also List of common Chinese surnames shows how they are romanised in this scheme. Macau Government Cantonese Romanization Jyutping
References
External links Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) Jyutping Pronunciation Guide