Cantonese Initial-Final-IME (Jyutsoeng) 粵語雙拼聲韻輸入法方案 (粵雙) 3
I made some few changes:
烏 became 戶 and 魚 became 于
靴 is now placed on the ( [ )-key, 𠵇 on the ( ] )-key and 才 on the ( ‘ )-key.
The special key is now shift+( ‘ )
赤 became 力 and is now shift+L
For all 粵雙 Jyutsoeng parts please click HERE.
Cantonese Initial-Final-IME (Jyutsoeng) 粵語雙拼聲韻輸入法方案 (粵雙) 2
For all 粵雙 Jyutsoeng parts please click HERE.
I updated the keyboard layout by changing 白 to 百, and I added Yale and Jyutping Romanization to it…
(Right-click the images and open them in a new tab)
If someone notices a mistake please tell me!^^
Posted in 粵雙Jyutsoeng, Input
Tagged 粵雙, Double Jyutping, Double Pinyin, 雙拼, Fanqie, final, IME, initial, Input, Jyutsoeng, 反切
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Cantonese Initial-Final-IME Idea (Jyutsoeng) 粵語雙拼輸入法方案 (粵雙) 1
I already posted about my idea to create a Double Jyutping IME (2 key strokes to 1 character), but now I decided to make my IME independent from any romanization system for Cantonese:
The input principle is easy explained:
First key stroke: initial sound of the syllable
Second key stroke: final sound of the syllable
Therefore you only need to press two keys in order to get one character.
Those syllables which do not have any initial sound (like 安): First press 無 (x-key) and then the final sound. For 唔 first press 米 (m-key) and then 無 (x-key).
I haven’t created this computer IME, yet, it’s just the idea how I’d like to place all initial and final sounds on the keyboard. Please look at the pictures below. I hope it’s enough self-explanatory, I appreciate every question and I will also post more explanations later on.
Posted in 粵雙Jyutsoeng, Input
Tagged cantonese, 粵雙, 粵語, Double Jyutping, Double Pinyin, 聲母, 雙拼, 韻母, final, IME, initial, Input, Jyutping, Syllable, 廣東話
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Top 5 words in Cantonese that sound rude in English
5 excellent words in Cantonese you can remember using English mnemonics:
Edit: It’s not me in this video, it’s beardan76
Top 5 words in Cantonese that sound rude in English
And here my mnemonic rhymes:
著 [zoek3] wear, put on, be dressed in; clothing: This jerk wears clothes with… on it.
記得 [gei3dak1] to remember; to recall: The gay duck never remembers its last partner…
地鐵 [dei6tit3] subway; MTR: day tit: That’s how my day begins, being squeezed like tits.
市民 [si5man4] the residents of a city; citizens; townsfolk: seman: to reproduce the townsfolk (I chose a different word than in the video)
的確 [dik1 kok3] certainly, evidently: dick cock, being certainly more honest than you’d like to
Hope this post was not too disturbing. I believe that the more shocking a mnemo is the better you can remember the word…
Posted in Intermediate, profanity, vocab
Tagged cantonese, English language, false friends, mnemonics, similar sounding, vocabulary
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Cantonese Tones Part 9 (level tones, 1st 3rd 6th)
To discriminate the 3 level tones in Cantonese is not easy (especially between 3rd and 6th tone). I personally use the following method I’d like to share. Open this site: http://www.virtualpiano.net/ . Click on ‘main menue’ and then on ‘key assistant off’:
1st tone: The 1st tone begins on SOL and ends on SOL (high level tone). The SOL pitch is the highest and sounds a bit like a high ‘ding’ sound from an angle iron. It helps to say it extremely high at the beginning. Open the Virtual Piano site and press either 5, w, o or h on your computer keyboard. Find out which one fits most to your personal voice register: Play your personal SOL sound (either 5, w, o or h) on the piano and think about a high ‘ding’ sound from an angle iron. And hum it. Does it sound like a high ‘ding’ sound and you are still capable to hum it? So you most likely found you personal SOL sound. Stretch this sound while humming and you know your personal 1st tone.
3rd tone: The 3rd tone begins on MI and ends on MI (mid level tone). The MI pitch is in the very middle of your voice register. If you hum on MI it does not sound either too high or too low, just in the middle. Now stretch the humming sound and you might notice this too be a very relaxing meditating sound – “Ommm”. But make sure you don’t make it too low, otherwise it will be the 6th tone. It does not sound low at all. Now try to hum on SOL/ 1st tone you might notice this to be not relaxing at all. Open the Virtual Piano site and press either 3, 0, u, or f on your computer keyboard. Find out which one fits most to your personal voice register: Play your personal MI sound (either 3, 0, u, or f) on the piano and think about the relaxing meditating sound – “Ommm”. And hum it. Does it sound relaxing but not low and you are still able to hum it? So you most likely found you personal MI sound. Stretch this sound while humming and you know your personal 3rd tone.
6th tone: The 6th tone begins on RE and ends on RE (low level tone). The RE pitch is slightly lower than the MI pitch. If you hum on RE it does sound low but still a bit relaxing. Now stretch the humming sound and you might notice this to be a relaxing meditating sound – “Ommm” – like the 3rd tone – But it sounds a bit lower then the 3rd tone which does not sound low rather a bit high. Open the Virtual Piano site and press either 2, 9, y or d on your computer keyboard. Find out which one fits most to your personal voice register: Play your personal RE sound (either 2, 9, y or d) on the piano and compare ir with MI: So compare either: 32 or 09 or uy or fd. Hum it as if you were meditating on an “Ommm” sound. Now you might notice the RE pitch (=6th tone) sounds a bit lower than the MI pitch (=3rd tone) but still relaxing. The 6th tone is relaxing and low, the 3rd tone is relaxing but not low at all.
The level tones song: Now if you play or hum the 1st, 3rd and 6th tone in a row, it should sound like E(1st tone)–PO(3rd tone)–NA(6th tone) or DA(1st tone)–KA(3rd tone)–RA(6th tone) in the following song:
Epona’s Song エポナの歌
The History of Hong Kong – Laszlo Montgomery
The China History Podcast by Laszlo Montgomery is really worth listening. I personally LOVE IT!!! Please visit his site and support him for doing this great work he shares to everyone for free.
For Cantonese learners the Hong Kong history parts might be of special interest:
The History of Hong Kong — Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3 — Part 4 — Part 5 — Part 6 — Part 7 — Part 8 — Part 9 — Part 10
Big and Small
If you understand the following pun your Cantonese is really good:
【
中文版：
你唔好大我，唔係我就小你。
——唔知何謂「小」？加多個「門」喺外面就知。
英文版：
你唔好迫我，唔係我就small你。
——畀人BIG同畀人迫都會刺激你爆粗。
】
source: 從「小」講粵語
Some help from wikipedia: Cantonese profanity
Posted in Advanced, profanity, real Cantonese writings
Tagged profanity, written Cantonese, 廣東話一門五傑
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Cantonese Tones part 8 (Upper Beginner – Intermediate)
In my previous post I used 3 sample sentences showing all 6 standard tones (not counting the entering tones 入聲). Cantonese numbers have also tones like all words in Cantonese , but their tone numbers do not correspond to their value:
3 9 4 0 5 2 7/1 8 10/6 = 三 九 四 零 五 二 七/一 八 十/六 = saam1 gau2 sei3 ling4 ng5 ji6 cat1/jat1 baat3 sap6/luk6
If you count 9 tones then it might be: 7/1 8 10/6 = 七/一 八 十/六 = cat7/jat7 baat8 sap9/luk9 (these are the entering tones 入聲)
Now, what makes Cantonese so interesting is that music tunes of most Cantonese songs are based on the Cantonese spoken tones – which almost never happens with Mandarin songs. That means that song writers try their best to e.g. put the syllable 三 (saam1) on a higher music tune than the syllable 四 (sei3). To be honest I don’t really understand how it works. There is a scientific work having this as topic. However, when listening to Cantonese songs I’m sure you might notice this. Since you already know the tone numbers of the “real” numbers try to listen to the songs below. And yes, it’s very fast. If you use the VLC player (and you happen to download this song) click on ‘tools’ and then on ‘Customize Interface…’. Drag the slower/faster buttons on the main tool bar and you will get an excellent method to slow down the following song which will help you to master the tones with numbers … a lot of numbers:
林子祥 – 數字人生 (粵語)
數字人生-陳奕迅
從「小」講粵語 & 盧總有嘢講
In this series (category ‘real Cantonese writings’) I’d like to share some blogs/sites using real colloquial writings (粵語白話文). Some tools for Google Chrome which might be helpful (I’m sure similar tools exist for other browsers): (1) Mouseover Dictionary Framework & Cantonese-English Dictionary (Pop-Up dictionary). (2) And for those who prefer only one version of characters (either traditional or simplified) there is also New Tong Wen Tang, a tool converting simpl. to trad. or trad. to simpl. characters.
And here the two blogs I found today:
There are plenty other sites using real Cantonese writings, it’s worth to look into Cantonese forums. They are full of real Cantonese writings.
Posted in Advanced, real Cantonese writings
Tagged blog, cantonese, Dictionary, forum, pop up, reading, simplified, traditional, writing
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Clever Cantonese 粵語好叻 