Basic Sound System

We use the Jyutping romanization system in this site.

The basic elements in the Cantonese syllables are "initial consonant", "vowel", "final consonant", and "tone"!

1. Initial consonant: the sound at the beginning of a syllable. There are 19 in Cantonese. E.g. "b", "p", "f", "s".

2. Vowel: the more prominent sound in a syllable. E.g. "aa", "ai", "ou". There are monophthongs (no significant change in quality during the syllable), and diphthongs (some quality change). The number of vowels varies depending on how you analyze the language.

3. Final consonant: the sound at the end of a syllable. There are only 6 possible final consonant: "-p", "-t", "-k", "-m", "-n", "-ng". (Sometimes vowel is the end, then no final consonant)

4. Tone: the variation of pitch of a syllable. Meaning changes with the pitch! There are 6 tones. (Some systems say there are 9. We'll talk about it later)