Cantonese I
Week 1


Cantonese I assessments
•Attendance: maximum 1 unexcused absence
•Conversation (final exam)
2

What is Cantonese 廣東話
•Originates from Canton 廣東 region (Guangzhou 廣州) and its surrounding area in Southeastern China
•Also known as Yue 粵語
•Spoken in Canton region, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chinese communities all
over the world
•Estimated about 70 million Cantonese speakers around the globe
•Cantonese varies in different places
•This course focuses on Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGJCa12IxeU
3

Pros and cons……
Pros: no tenses, no genders, no cases!
Cons: many tones and words
4

Cantonese dictionary
https://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/
5

6



English
Cantonese
Jyutping
Dim sum
點心
Dim2 sam1
7

English
Cantonese
Jyutping
Bok Choy
白菜
baak6 choi3
8

English
Cantonese
Jyutping
lychee
荔枝
lai6 zi1
What Is Lychee And How Do You Eat It?
9

English
Cantonese
Jyutping
Char siu
叉燒
Cha1 siu1
A close up of a sandwich Description automatically generated
10

6 Tones
11


12
Exercise:
reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_phonology

Tone check
diu   鵰diu1    𨳒diu2    吊diu3     diu4         diu5       調diu6
Hai  閪hai1     喺hai2    hai3         兮hai4      匸hai5   係hai6
Sam 心 Sam1 嬸sam2 滲sam3  sam4  sam5   甚sam6
siu 燒siu1 小siu2  笑siu3  迢siu4  siu5   紹siu6
dim dim1  點dim2  掂dim3  dim4  dim5  𠶧dim6
13

Conversation exercise
A: 你好。最近點呀？ (You good. Recently how ar?)
nei5 hou2. zeoi3 gan6 dim2 aa3?
B: 非常好 (very good)
fei1 soeng4 hou2
幾好 (quite good)
gei2 hou2
一般 (average. normal)
jat1 bun1
唔係幾好 (not quite good)
m4 hai6 gei2 hou2
好差 (very bad)
hou2 caa1
14

Yale romanization of Cantonese
Limitation: unable to describe all vowels being used in Cantonese
Jyutping or Yale?
15

16



Jyutping
Ngo5
我
17

A picture containing table Description automatically generated Graphical user interface,
application Description automatically generated
https://hongkongvision.com/tool/cc_py_conv_zh
18

19 Initials
19


51 Finals
20


zeoi3 gan6 dim2 aa3?
最近點呀？
How are you lately?
21
B: 非常好 (very good)
fei1 soeng4 hou2
幾好 (quite good)
gei2 hou2
一般 (average. normal)
jat1 bun1
唔係幾好 (not quite good)
m4 hai6 gei2 hou2
好差 (very bad)
hou2 caa1

English
Cantonese
Jyutping
Thank you
多謝
Do1  ze6
Student
學生
hok6 saang1
Nei5 giu3 me1 meng2
你叫咩名
What is your name?
Nei5 ne1？
你呢？
And you?
22

English
Cantonese
Jyutping
Good morning
早晨
zou2 san4
Good afternoon
午安
ng5 on1
Good evening
晚安
maan5 on1
23
Lan2 撚
Lan2 撚
Lan2 撚
Gau1 𨳊