Southern Min
Southern Min | |
---|---|
Min Nan | |
閩南語 / 闽南语 Bân-lâm-gú | |
![]() Koa-a books, Min Nan written in Chinese characters
|
|
Native to | China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and other areas of Southern Min and Hoklo settlement |
Region | Southern Fujian province; the Chaozhou-Shantou (Chaoshan) area and Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province; extreme south of Zhejiang province; much of Hainan province(if Hainanese or Qiong Wen is included); and most of Taiwan. |
Native speakers
|
47 million (2007)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
|
|
Dialects |
Datian (disputed)
|
Official status | |
Official language in
|
None (Legislative bills have been proposed for Taiwanese Hokkien to be one of the 'national languages' in Taiwan); one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Taiwan [1] |
Regulated by | None (The Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan) |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nan |
Glottolog | minn1241 [2] |
![]() Distribution of Southern Min.
|
|
Southern Min | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 闽南语 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 閩南語 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "Language of Southern Min [Fujian]" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Southern Min, or Min Nan (simplified Chinese: 闽南语; traditional Chinese: 閩南語; pinyin: Mǐnnányǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bân-lâm-gí/Bân-lâm-gú), is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora.
In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien. Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien are both combinations of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Cantonese, or Standard Chinese.
Contents
Geographic distribution
China and Taiwan
Southern Min dialects are spoken in the southern part of Fujian, three southeastern counties of Zhejiang, the Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo in Zhejiang, and the Chaoshan region in Guangdong. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with standard Southern Min or Teochew.[citation needed] Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate.[example needed][citation needed]
A form of Southern Min akin to that spoken in southern Fujian is Taiwanese Hokkien, where it has the native name of Tâi-oân-oē or Hō-ló-oē. Southern Min is a first language for the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently.[citation needed]
Southeast Asia
There are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) and present-day Malaysia and Singapore (formerly British Malaya and the Straits Settlements). In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, Fukien or Fookien in Southeast Asia and is very much like Taiwanese Hokkien.[citation needed] Many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew dialect, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Philippine Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 98.5% of the Chinese Filipino community in the Philippines, among whom it is also known as Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē ("our people’s language").[citation needed]
Southern Min speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hoklos and the second largest Teochew people.
Classification
The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou. The variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Taiwanese is used by a majority of the population and is quite important from a socio-political and cultural perspective, forming the second most important, if not the most influential pole of the language due to the popularity of Taiwanese Hokkien media. Those Southern Min variants that are collectively known as "Hokkien" in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are collectively known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of great importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra and West Kalimantan. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area.
The Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou. Linguistically, it lies between Teochew and Amoy. In southwestern Fujian, the local variants in Longyan and Zhangping form a separate division of Min Nan on their own. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, Malaysia and Medan, Indonesia, a distinct form of Zhangzhou Hokkien has developed. In Penang, it is called Penang Hokkien while across the Malacca Strait in Medan, an almost identical variant is known as Medan Hokkien.
Varieties
There are three principal branches of Southern Min: Hokkien (a.k.a. Quanzhang 泉漳), Datian (大田) and Teochew a.k.a Chaoshan (潮汕)
Hokkien
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Xiamen (Amoy) dialect is a blend of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. Taiwanese Hokkien is also a blend of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialect. Taiwanese in northern Taiwan tends to be based on Quanzhou dialect, whereas the Taiwanese spoken in southern Taiwan tends to be based on Zhangzhou dialect. There are minor variations in pronunciation and vocabulary between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The grammar is basically the same. Additionally, extensive contact with the Japanese language has left a legacy of Japanese loanwords. In contrast, Teochew speech is significantly different from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech in both pronunciation and vocabulary.
Teochew
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Teochew, or Chaoshan, includes Swatow dialect. It has very low intelligibility with Amoy dialect.[3] Many Amoy and Teochew speakers speak Mandarin as a second or third language.[citation needed]
Datian
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Phonology
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Southern Min has one of the most diverse phonologies of Chinese varieties, with more consonants than Mandarin or Cantonese. Vowels, on the other hand, are more-or-less similar to those of Mandarin. In general, Southern Min dialects have five to six tones, and tone sandhi is extensive. There are minor variations within Hokkien, but the Teochew system differs significantly.
Southern Min's nasal finals consist m, n, ŋ, ~.
Writing systems
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Southern Min dialects lack a standardized written language. Southern Min speakers are taught how to read Mandarin in school. As a result, there has not been an urgent need to develop a writing system. In recent years, an increasing number of Southern Min speakers have become interested in developing a standard writing system (either by using Chinese Characters, or using Romanized script).[citation needed]
Cultural and political role
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Min Nan (or Hokkien) can trace its roots through the Tang Dynasty. Min Nan (Hokkien) people call themselves "Tang people," (唐人, Tn̂g-lâng) which is synonymous to "Chinese people". Because of the widespread influence of the Tang culture during the great Tang dynasty, there are today still many Min Nan pronunciations of words shared by the Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese languages.
English | Chinese characters | Mandarin Chinese | Taiwanese Hokkien[4] | Korean | Vietnamese | Japanese |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | 冊 | Cè | Chheh | Chaek (책) | Tập/Sách | Saku/Satsu/Shaku |
Bridge | 橋 | Qiáo | Kiô | Gyo (교) | Cầu/Kiều | Kyō |
Dangerous | 危險 | Wēixiǎn | Guî-hiám | Wiheom (위험) | Nguy hiểm | Kiken |
Embassy | 大使館 | Dàshǐguǎn | Tāi-sài-koán | Daesagwan (대사관) | Đại Sứ Quán | Taishikan |
Flag | 旗 | Qí | Kî | Gi (기) | Cờ/Kỳ | Ki |
Insurance | 保險 | Bǎoxiǎn | Pó-hiám | Boheom (보험) | Bảo hiểm | Hoken |
News | 新聞 | Xīnwén | Sin-bûn | Shinmun (신문) | Tân Văn | Shinbun |
Student | 學生 | Xuéshēng | Ha̍k-seng | Haksaeng (학생) | Học sinh | Gakusei |
University | 大學 | Dàxué | Tāi-ha̍k (Tōa-o̍h) | Daehak (대학) | Đại học | Daigaku |
See also
- Languages of China
- Languages of Taiwan
- Malaysian Chinese
- Chinese in Singapore
- Amoy Min Nan Swadesh list
Related languages
- Penang Hokkien
- Medan Hokkien (North-Sumatra, Indonesia dialect of Min Nan)
- Southern Malaysia Hokkien
- Lan-nang (Philippine dialect of Min Nan)
- Taiwanese Hokkien
- Fuzhou dialect (Min Dong branch)
- Singaporean Hokkien
References
- ↑ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Nan Southern Min at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. "Part V: Southern Min Grammar" (3 articles).
External links
![]() |
Bân-lâm-gú edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
![]() |
Southern Min test of Wikibooks at Wikimedia Incubator |
![]() |
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Min Nan |
![]() |
Look up Min Nan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- 當代泉州音字彙, a dictionary of Quanzhou speech
- 台語-華語線頂辭典, Taiwanese-Mandarin on-line dictionary (Min-nan)(Chinese)
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典, Taiwanese Hokkien Commonly-used Words Dictionary by Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan).
- 臺灣本土語言互譯及語音合成系統, Taiwanese-Hakka-Mandarin on-line conversion
- Voyager - Spacecraft - Golden Record - Greetings From Earth - Amoy The voyager clip says: Thài-khong pêng-iú, lín-hó. Lín chia̍h-pá--bē? Ū-êng, to̍h lâi gún chia chē--ô·! 太空朋友,恁好。恁食飽未?有閒著來阮遮坐哦!
- 台語詞典 Taiwanese-English-Mandarin Dictionary
- How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language by Victor H. Mair University of Pennsylvania
- ISO 639-3 change request 2008-083, requesting to replace code nan (Min Nan Chinese) with dzu (Chaozhou) and xim (Xiamen), rejected because it did not include codes to cover the rest of the group.
- wikt:Appendix:Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists
- Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
- Articles containing Chinese (Taiwan)-language text
- Articles containing simplified Chinese-language text
- Articles containing Min-nan-language text
- Articles citing Nationalencyklopedin
- Articles containing traditional Chinese-language text
- Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016
- Articles using small message boxes
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015
- Articles with Min-nan-language external links
- Articles with Chinese-language external links
- Southern Min
- Languages of the Philippines
- Languages of China
- Languages of Taiwan