Ask Mr. Know-It-All: What’s the correct Cantonese romanization system?

Dear Mr. Know-It-All,
What’s the correct way of writing Cantonese with letters? It seems so inconsistent!
– Letter Lad

Putonghua has its well codified romanization system of pinyin: with four tones and an internationally accepted system (except for Taiwan, which prefers the “bopomofo” system), it’s pretty easy to pick up and learn. Cantonese, which is almost exclusively conversational and boasts six or nine tones, depending on who’s counting, is much harder to write down—although many have tried.

What Cantonese romanization systems are there? Well, for starters there’s the Yale system often taught to American learners, the Sidney Lau system taught to civil servants in colonial-era Hong Kong (and broadcast also in radio lessons) and the Barnett–Chao and Meyer–Wempe systems, both now in disfavor. All of these take varying approaches to marking the various tones of Cantonese, but they also differ on the tricky sounds: “Tsim Sha Tsui” or “Chim Sa Chui”? “Kweilin Street” or “Gwuilum Street”?

The upshot of all these different romanization systems is that everyone uses something different. It would be simpler to pick one system and stick to it, as mainland China did. But as always, things aren’t that simple. For the Hong Kong government uses a modified version of what’s known as the Eitel/Dyer-Ball system, itself filtered through the froth of history, with all its inconvenient developments.

That’s why you’ll go to Tai Tam but Dai Kwai Street—it’s the same word. You’ll head to Sa Po Road in Kowloon City, but to the north lies Sha Tin; you can cross the bridge to Tsing Yi Island but head up Mong Kok’s Sai Yee Street; and take Shum Wan Road… to Sham Wan.

Want to eat poon choi? Sai Ying Pun might have some. Or a dai pai dong in Tai Hang. Hong Kong, of course, should be written heung gong. Kowloon should be gau long. That’s before you get other dialects involved: so you’ll travel to Guangdong not Gwongdung or Kwangtung or Canton, Shenzhen not Shumzun. You might even see former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa on the train, not Tung Kin-wah: the romanization of his name has retained its Shanghainese roots.