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Southern Min

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Not to be confused with Southern Ming.
Southern Min
Minnan
閩南語 / 闽南语
河洛話 / 福老話
Hō-ló-oē / Hô-ló-uē
Koa-a books, Minnan written in Chinese characters
Native toChina, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and other areas of Southern Min and Hoklo settlement
RegionSouthern 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 Qiongwen is included); and most of Taiwan.
EthnicityHoklo people
Teochew people
Hainanese people
Native speakers
47 million (2007)[1]
Sino-Tibetan
Dialects
Chinese characters; Latin
Official status
Official language in
None; one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Taiwan[2]
Regulated byNone (The Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan)
Language codes
ISO 639-3nan
Glottologminn1241
Linguasphere79-AAA-j
  Southern Min
Subgroups of Southern Min
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese闽南语
Traditional Chinese閩南語
Literal meaning"Language of Southern Min [Fujian]"
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinMǐnnán yǔ
Wade–GilesMin3-nan2 yü3
IPA[mìnnǎn ỳ]
Gan
RomanizationMîn-lōm-ngî
Hakka
RomanizationMîn-nàm-ngî
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationMáhn-nàahm yúh
JyutpingMan5-naam4 jyu5
Southern Min
Hokkien POJBân-lâm-gí/Bân-lâm-gú
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUCMìng-nàng-ngṳ̄
Northern Min
Jian'ou RomanizedMâing-nâng-ngṳ̌
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Southern Min, or Minnan (simplified Chinese: 闽南语; traditional Chinese: 閩南語), is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian (the Minnan region), eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan.[3] The Minnan dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Southern Min is the most widely distributed and the most influential of all Min varieties.

In common parlance and in the narrower sense, Southern Min refers to the Quanzhang variety of Southern Min spoken mainly in Southern Fujian in Mainland China, Taiwan as well as certain parts of Southeast Asia. The Quanzhang variety is often called simply Minnan Proper (simplified Chinese: 闽南语; traditional Chinese: 閩南語).

In the wider scope, Southern Min also includes other Min Chinese variants that are related to Minnan proper (Quanzhang). Southern Min variants include Teochew, Longyan Min, Zhenan Min, Zhongshan Min, Qiong-Lei (Leizhou dialect and Hainanese).

Southern Min variants such as Teochew, Longyan and Zhenan have limited mutual intelligibility with Quanzhang varieties.

Southern Min variants such as Datian, Zhongshan and Qiong-Lei are significantly divergent from Quanzhang varieties, thus have little mutual intelligibility with Minnan Proper. Linguists tend to classify them under separate Min languages.

Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin.

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 (Teo-swa) region in Guangdong. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with mainstream 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] Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intelligibility with Minnan.

A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of 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 mostly mutually intelligible with Hokkien spoken elsewhere. Many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, 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"), although Hoklo people consist of only around 60% of the Chinese Filipino population.[citation needed][dubious – discuss]

Southern Min speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien and the second largest being Teochew. Despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same "Minnan" Chinese subgroups.

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.

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 Minnan on their own. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, Malaysia and Medan, Indonesia, a distinct form based on the Zhangzhou dialect has developed. In Penang, it is called Penang Hokkien while across the Malacca Strait in Medan, an almost identical variant[citation needed] is known as Medan Hokkien.

Varieties

There are three major divisions of Southern Min :

Quanzhang

Main article: Hokkien

The group of mutually intelligible Quanzhang (泉漳片) dialects, spoken around the areas of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Southern Fujian are collectively called Minnan Proper (闽南语/闽南话) or Hokkien, is the mainstream variety of Southern Min. It is also the widely spoken non-official regional language in Taiwan. There are two types of standard Minnan. They are classified as Traditional Standard Minnan and Modern Standard Minnan. The Traditional Standard Minnan is based on Quanzhou dialect spoken in areas around Quanzhou, it is mostly used in Liyuan Opera (梨园戏) and Nanying music (南音). The Modern standard forms of Minnan Proper is based on Amoy dialect spoken in the city of Xiamen and Taiwanese dialect spoken around the city of Tainan in Taiwan. Both Modern Standard forms of Minnan are a combination of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speeches. Modern Standard Minnan is the form of minnan that is popular in Minnan dialect television programming, radio programming and Minnan songs. All Minnan language books and dictionaries are mostly based on the pronunication of the Modern Standard Minnan. 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, in Taiwanese Minnan, extensive contact with the Japanese language has left a legacy of Japanese loanwords.

Teo-Swa

Main article: Teochew dialect

Teochew, or Chaoshan speech (潮汕片), includes Swatow dialect. It has limited mutual intelligibility with Quanzhang speech though they share some cognates with each other. Teochew speech is significantly different from Quanzhang speech in both pronunciation and vocabulary. It had its origins from Proto-Putian dialect (闽南语古莆田话), a sub-dialect of Proto Minnan - which is closely related to Quanzhou dialect. As the Proto-Putian dialect speaking Chinese emigrants from Putian perfecture settled on Chaoshan region, it later received influence from Zhangzhou dialect and absorbed the She (畲) minority indigenous language to form the Teochew dialect today. It follows the same grammar pattern as Minnan Proper. It is marginally understood by Minnan Proper speakers to a small degree.[4]

Qiong-Lei

Main articles: Leizhou Min and Hainanese

Qiong-Lei speech (琼雷片) is spoken in the Leizhou peninsula and the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. The Qiong-Lei speeches originated from the mainstream Southern Min varieties but it developed into a distinctive language of its own due to geographical isolation from the Southern Min region. Over time, these dialects evolved into a stage which featured drastic changes to initial consonants, including a series of implosive consonants, that have been attributed to contact with the aborginal languages such as Tai-Kadai languages. As a result, it has lost much of its mutual intelligibility with mainstream Minnan and Teochew. It is not understood well by speakers of mainstream Minnan and Teochew. Since the late 20th century, many linguists consider this Southern Min variety as a separate Min language.

Phonology

Main articles: Hokkien § Phonology, and Teochew dialect § Phonetics and phonology

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, and the Teochew system differs somewhat more.

Southern Min's nasal finals consist m, n, ŋ, ~.

Writing systems

See also: Written Hokkien

Southern Min dialects lack a standardized written language. Southern Min speakers are taught how to read Standard Chinese in school. As a result, there has not been an urgent need to develop a writing system.[improper synthesis?] 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]

History

The Min homeland of Fujian was opened to Chinese settlement by the defeat of the Minyue state by the armies of Emperor Wu of Han in 110 BC.[5] The area features rugged mountainous terrain, with short rivers that flow into the South China Sea. Most subsequent migration from north to south China passed through the valleys of the Xiang and Gan rivers to the west, so that Min varieties have experienced less northern influence than other southern groups.[6] As a result, whereas most varieties of Chinese can be treated as derived from Middle Chinese, the language described by rhyme dictionaries such as the Qieyun (601 AD), Min varieties contain traces of older distinctions.[7] Linguists estimate that the oldest layers of Min dialects diverged from the rest of Chinese around the time of the Han dynasty.[8][9] However, significant waves of migration from the North China Plain occurred:[10]

Jerry Norman identifies four main layers in the vocabulary of modern Min varieties:

  1. A non-Chinese substratum from the original languages of Minyue, which Norman and Mei Tsu-lin believe were Austroasiatic.[11][12]
  2. The earliest Chinese layer, brought to Fujian by settlers from Zhejiang to the north during the Han dynasty.[13]
  3. A layer from the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, which is largely consistent with the phonology of the Qieyun dictionary.[14]
  4. A literary layer based on the koiné of Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty.[15]

Comparisons with Sino-Xenic character pronunciations

Minnan (or Hokkien) can trace its origins through the Tang Dynasty, and it also has roots from earlier periods. Minnan (Hokkien) people call themselves "Tang people", (唐人, pronounced as "唐儂" Thn̂g-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 Minnan pronunciations of words shared by the Sino-xenic pronunciations of Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese languages.

English Han characters Mandarin Chinese Taiwanese Minnan[16] Teochew Cantonese Korean Vietnamese Japanese
Book 冊 Cè Chhek/Chheh ze1 caak3 Chaek (책) Tập/Sách Saku/Satsu/Shaku
Bridge 橋 Qiáo Kiâu/Kiô giê5 kiu4 Gyo (교) Cầu/Kiều Kyō
Dangerous 危險 Wēixiǎn Guî-hiám guîn5/nguín5 hiem2 ngai4 him2 Wiheom (위험) Nguy hiểm Kiken
Embassy 大使館 Dàshǐguǎn Tāi-sài-koán dai6 sái2 guêng2 daai6 si3 gun2 Daesagwan (대사관) Đại Sứ Quán Taishikan
Flag 旗 Qí Kî kî5 kei4 Gi (기) Cờ/Kỳ Ki
Insurance 保險 Bǎoxiǎn Pó-hiám Bó2-hiém bou2 him2 Boheom (보험) Bảo hiểm Hoken
News 新聞 Xīnwén Sin-bûn sing1 bhung6 san1 man4 Shinmun (신문) Tân Văn Shinbun
Student 學生 Xuéshēng Ha̍k-seng Hak8 sêng1 hok6 saang1 Haksaeng (학생) Học sinh Gakusei
University 大學 Dàxué Tāi-ha̍k/Tōa-o̍h dai6 hag8/dua7 oh8 daai6 hok6 Daehak (대학) Đại học Daigaku

See also

References

  1. ^ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
  2. ^ 大眾運輸工具播音語言平等保障法
  3. ^ CAI ZHU, HUANG GUO (1 October 2015). Chinese language. Xiamen: Fujian Education Publishing House. ISBN 7533469518. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. ^ Minnan/ Southern Min at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  5. ^ Norman (1991), pp. 328.
  6. ^ Norman (1988), pp. 210, 228.
  7. ^ Norman (1988), pp. 228–229.
  8. ^ Ting (1983), pp. 9–10.
  9. ^ Baxter & Sagart (2014), pp. 33, 79.
  10. ^ Yan (2006), p. 120.
  11. ^ Norman & Mei (1976).
  12. ^ Norman (1991), pp. 331–332.
  13. ^ Norman (1991), pp. 334–336.
  14. ^ Norman (1991), p. 336.
  15. ^ Norman (1991), p. 337.
  16. ^ Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. "Tâi-bûn/Hôa-bûn Sòaⁿ-téng Sû-tián" 台文/華文線頂辭典 [Taiwanese/Chinese Online Dictionary]. Retrieved 1 October 2014.

Further reading

Minnan edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southern Min test of Wikibooks at Wikimedia Incubator
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Minnan
Look up Minnan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Minnan phrasebook.

Template:Southern Min Languages

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