Standard Romanization is a system ofromanisation forCantonese developed by Christian missionaries in southern China in 1888, particularly relying upon the work ofJohn Morrison Chalmers.^[1]: 82 By 1914, it had become well established in Canton (Guangzhou) and Hong Kong (there being no other system of significance in published literature, and publications using it having been issued by theBritish and Foreign Bible Society, theChina Baptist Publication Society,^[2] and thePakhoi Mission Press^[3]: iv from as early as 1906). It is the foundation of the current system ofromanisation used by the Hong Kong Government.

Note that the following initials are left unspelt:[j] precedingi(m/n/p/t/u) orue(n/t),[w] precedingoo(i/n/t), and zero-initial (which only occurs preceding finals other than these just-mentioned ones where the accompanying[j] or[w] is not written).

• The finalsm andng can only be used as stand-alonenasal syllables.
• The finalsom andop occur only with the initialsk andh. (And these finals are now pronounced differently fromam andap by just a conservative minority of speakers, who consequently have for example 柑kom ‘mandarin orange’ distinct from 金kam ‘gold’.)^[4]
• Only whents,ts‘, ors is the initial canz occur as the final, and these initials are among the ones with whichi as final does not occur (these two circumstances together meaning that a complementary distribution exists between the two finals).
• When [j] is the initial, andi,im,in,ip,it, oriu is used with it as the final, the spelling does not bother to write an initialy (because zero-initial preceding these finals does not occur), which results in the spellings being merelyi,im,in,ip,it, andiu; however, inyik andying, they is nonetheless redundantly written.
• When [j] is the initial, andue,uen, oruet is the final, they is for the same reason omitted.
• When [w] is the initial, andoo,ooi,oon, oroot is the final, thew is in parallel omitted.
• Unlike most modern systems of Cantonese romanization, a distinction is made between two series of sibilants, which means there is still a difference between for example 卅 and 沙, the former being represented bysa while the latter is written assha.

Tones are indicated using diacritic marks.

Note: In the following table, “x” stands for whatever letter bears any tonal diacritic, that letter being the syllable’s final vowel or (if no vowel is present, then) its final letter (in the major dictionary of 1965 by Cowles).^[5]

• Cantonese romanisation
• Writing systems introduced in 1888
• 1888 establishments in Hong Kong

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