Manent
Cantonese Books | 粵文書
Verba volant scripta manent
講時文飛走 寫低文字留低
Our mission: Cantonese books | 我宗旨：粵文書
Our mission is to publish Cantonese books. Lots and lots of Cantonese books. The Cantonese language suffers from want of its own literature. At Manent here, it is our mission to nurture and propagate Cantonese literary works. Our shelves are filled with a curated selection of texts, both ancient and contemporary, written in and for Cantonese. Verba volant, script manent - what is spoken flies, what is written remains. We must therefore write down our language, lest Cantonese be erased from the face of the earth.
我哋嘅宗旨就係要出版廣東話書。一大乍一大乍嘅粵文zyu廣東話因缺少自己的文學作品而受難。 ，我使命係培養共傳播粵文作品。我書架上，冚唪唥擺滿用粵語同關乎廣東話精選古代共當代文本。，——講飛逝，寫留低。所以話，我是必要記低我話，費事畀粵語地球消失。Manent books 書
We offer our books on Amazon as physical copies. We also aim to make PDFs and TXT files freely available on our GitHub for broader accessibility. We are dedicated to revitalizing and republishing a wide range of Cantonese literary forms, including forgotten mukjyusyu 木魚書, traditional jyutau 粵謳, and mixed-text saamkapdai 三及第, alongside plays, song collections, various lesser-known philosophical and historical texts pertinent to Cantonese culture, and new works that enrich our literature.
我書實體版本擺喺Amazon賣。我亦都計畫孖 GitHub 同其他渠道免費提供 PDF 同 TXT 文件，以便可以更加廣泛流傳開去。我們致力於復興同重新出版各色各水粵語文學，包括木魚書、粵謳、三及第，共埋戲劇、歌集、各種鮮為人知哲學同歷史文獻，當然兼且仲有新粵文作品。
花箋記
The Flowery Paper
佚名 author unknown
Faazin Gei, or The Flowery Paper is a Cantonese mukjyusyu (木魚書) style ballad written in the late Ming era which is one of the earliest known work of written Cantonese. This book along with the Jyut Au (粵謳), The Cantonese Songs, was imported into Europe as examples of "appropriate" expressions of love, intended to influence and counteract perceived degeneracies in European romantic culture of the time.
俗話傾談
A Discussion in Vernacular Language
Zukwaa Kingtaam, or A Discussion in Vernacular Language, is an early 19th-century Cantonese narrative, representing one of the earliest examples of Cantonese saamkapdai (三及第) fiction. This book captures unique features of Cantonese during the Qing dynasty, especially in its pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Compiled by Siu Ban Jyu, a storyteller from Seiwui in Canton, this work uses colloquial language to convey local stories, customs, and moral teachings.
邵彬儒 Siu Ban Jyu
漢字：神話與兆物觀
The Sinoglyph: Myths & Metaphysics
佚名 author unknown
Inside the Chinese characters lies a world called "Siumatgwun" – the complete set of everything in one's worldview. Siumatgwun represents how Chinese characters shape our understanding of the world. It is a unique worldview, grounded in specific opinions, organizing things through a logic of judgment and evaluation, sometimes even bias. As this book argues, this logic is reflected in the structure of Chinese characters, forming a mythology that influences the psychology and intuition of its users.
麥花臣金將軍與白龍的對談
The Dialogue between General MacPherson and the White Dragon
The Dialogue between General MacPherson and the White Dragon is a socratic dialogue written entirely in vernacular Cantonese, exploring the deep friendship between the two characters. It is a pioneering work that uses Cantonese to tackle complex topics like metaphysics, linguistics, and the contrast between Eastern and Western philosophies, with extensive footnotes explaining newly coined terms and language choices, making it a creative and valuable study of the structure and potential of Cantonese.
佚名 author unknown
Towards a New Cantonese Orthography
邁向個新廣東話規範寫法
We aim to facilitate the development of a new orthography for Cantonese, while maintaining respect and continuity to the existing body of Cantonese writing. To this end, we adopt jyutcitzi and jyutping. The general principle is content words will remain written in Chinese characters, whereas function words will be written in jyutcitzi when possible. Content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) that are lacking a Chinese character consensus representation will be written in jyutcitzi as well. We believe the solution to words with many variant Chinese character is not standardisation by dictionary decree, or the bunzihaau (“original character study”), but by allowing them all to exist via jukujikun-like open acceptance. Just like “hototogisu” can be written as 子規 , 不如帰 , 杜鵑, 蜀魂, 郭公 in Japanese depending on context and register of the text, we believe writers should be allowed to choose between 閉翳 and 贔屭, or between 揦鮓, 嗱喳, 藞䕢, and 𢅭𢄌.
我目標係愛促進一個發展粵語新正字法，又同時間保持同現有粵語文字尊重連續性。 為，我會採用粵切字同粵拼。 點用同幾時用普遍原則，就係實詞繼續𢬿漢字黎寫，而虛詞就儘可能用粵切字黎寫。 冇漢字共識實詞（名詞、動詞、形容詞、副詞）都會攞粵切字黎寫。 我諗法係，解決一詞多異寫單詞最好符𢝵，𠄡係𢬿過字典權威或者用本字考黎一錘定音標準化，而係通過類似日文熟字訓所帶黎度開放胸襟黎畀佢全部同時存在。 就好似「ほととぎす」日文可以根據文本的上下文同語域按照作者需要寫做「子規」、「不如帰」、「杜鵑」、「蜀魂」、「郭公」咁，我諗，應該畀作者「閉翳」共「贔屭」之間去揀，又或者「揦鮓」、「嗱喳」、「藞䕢」共「𢅭𢄌」之間任君選擇。