Southern Min

Southern Min
Min Nan
閩南語 / 闽南语 [Bân-lâm-gú] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language tag: zh-min-nan (help)
Native to	China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, United States (New York City), 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)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Southern Min
Dialects	Hokkien Chinese Teochew Chinese Hainanese Chinese
Official status
Official language in	None (Legislative bills have been proposed for Taiwanese (Amoy Southern Min) to be one of the 'national languages' in Taiwan); one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the ROC [1]
Regulated by	None (The Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nan
Distribution of Southern Min.

Southern Min
Simplified Chinese	闽南语
Traditional Chinese	閩南語
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǐnnányǔ Wu Romanization min noe nyuu Gan Romanization Mîn-lōm-ngî Hakka Romanization Mîn-nàm-ngî Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization man5 naam4 jyu5 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Bân-lâm-gú Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Mìng-nàng-ngṳ̄

Southern Min, or Min Nan (simplified Chinese: 闽南语; traditional Chinese: 閩南語; pinyin: Mǐnnán Yǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bân-lâm-gí/Bân-lâm-gú; lit. 'Southern Fujian language'), are a family of Chinese languages or varieties spoken in parts of China such as southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The languages are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora.

In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, in particular the Amoy and Taiwanese. Amoy and Taiwanese are both combinations of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The Southern Min family also includes Teochew. Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with the Amoy.

Hainanese and Puxian Min both originated from Minnan. However, both these dialects are generally not considered to be mutually intelligible with any other Southern Min variants phonologically although the grammar and most vocabulary is very similar as they come from the same roots as Minnan.

Southern Min forms part of the Min language group, alongside several other divisions. The Min languages/dialects are part of the Chinese language group, itself a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Cantonese, or Mandarin. As with other varieties of Chinese, there is a political dispute as to whether the Southern Min language should be called a language or a dialect.

Geographic distribution

Southern Min is spoken in the southern part of Fujian province, three southeastern counties of Zhejiang province, the Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo in Zhejiang, and the eastern part of Guangdong province (Chaoshan region). The Qiong Wen variant spoken in the Leizhou peninsula of Guangdong province, as well as Hainan province, which is not mutually intelligible with standard Minnan or Teochew, is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate.

A form of Southern Min akin to that spoken in southern Fujian is also spoken in Taiwan, where it has the native name of Tâi-oân-oē or Hō-ló-oē. The (sub)ethnic group for which Southern Min is considered a native language is known as the Holo (Hō-ló) or Hoklo, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is generally true though not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklos speak Southern Min fluently.

There are many Southern Min speakers also among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) and present day Malaysia and Singapore (formerly Malaya and the British 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. Many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province and speak Teochew, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min is reportedly the native language of up to 98.5% of the community of ethnic Chinese in the Philippines, among whom it is also known as Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē ("Our people’s language"). Southern Min speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore with the largest being Hoklos and the second largest being the Teochews.

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 more 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 (Changchew) 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.

Cultural and political role

The Min Nan (or "Hokkien") language 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, we find today still many Min Nan pronunciations of words shared by the Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese language.

English	Chinese characters	Hokkien	Korean	Vietnamese	Japanese
Book	冊	Chheh	Chaek	Cuốn Sách	Saku/Satsu/Shaku
Bridge	橋	Kiô	Kyo	Cầu	Kyō
Dangerous	危險	Guî-hiám	Wiheom	Nguy hiểm	Kiken
Flag	旗	Ki	Ki	Kỳ	Ki
Insurance	保險	Pó-hiám	Boheom	Bảo hiểm	Hoken
News	新聞	Sinboon	Shinmun	Tân Văn	Shinbun
Student	學生	Hak-sing	Haksaeng	Học sinh	Gakusei
University	大學	Tua ok (Tai-hak)	Tae hak	Đại học	Daigaku

Phonology

Main articles: Hokkien dialect and Teochew dialect

The Southern Min language has one of the most diverse phonologies of Chinese variants, 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 and -ŋ, it previously had an n final in ancient times.

Varieties

Xiamen speech is a hybrid of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. Taiwanese is also a hybrid of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. Taiwanese in northern Taiwan tends to be based on Quanzhou speech, whereas the Taiwanese spoken in southern Taiwan tends to be based on Zhangzhou speech. There are minor variations in pronunciation and vocabulary between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The grammar is basically the same. Additionally, Taiwanese includes several dozen loanwords from Japanese. In contrast, Teochew speech is significantly different from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech in both pronunciation and vocabulary.

Vowel shifts

The following table provides words that illustrate some of the more commonly seen vowel shifts. Characters with same vowel are shown in parentheses.

English	Chinese character	Accent	Pe̍h-ōe-jī	IPA	Teochew Peng'Im
two	二	Quanzhou, Taipei	lī	li˧	jĭ (zi˧˥)
		Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Tainan	jī	dzi˧
sick	病 (生)	Quanzhou, Xiamen, Taipei	pīⁿ	pĩ˧	pēⁿ (pẽ˩)
		Zhangzhou, Tainan	pēⁿ	pẽ˧
egg	卵 (遠)	Quanzhou, Xiamen, Taiwan	nn̄g	nŋ˧	nn̆g (nŋ˧˥)
		Zhangzhou	nūi	nui˧
chopsticks	箸 (豬)	Quanzhou	tīr	tɯ˧	tēu (tɤ˩)
		Xiamen	tū	tu˧
		Zhangzhou, Taiwan	tī	ti˧
shoes	鞋 (街)
		Quanzhou, Xiamen, Taipei	uê	ue˧˥	ôi (tɤ˩)
		Zhangzhou, Tainan	ê	e˧˥
leather	皮 (未)	Quanzhou	phêr	pʰə˨˩	phuê (pʰue˩)
		Xiamen, Taipei	phê	pʰe˨˩
		Zhangzhou, Tainan	phôe	pʰue˧
chicken	雞 (細)	Quanzhou, Xiamen, Taipei	koe	kue	koi
		Zhangzhou, Tainan	ke	ke
hair	毛 (兩)	Quanzhou, Taiwan, Xiamen	mng	mŋ	mo
		Zhangzhou	mo	mõ
return	還	Quanzhou	huan	huaⁿ	huêng
		Xiamen	hai	hâiⁿ
		Zhangzhou, Taiwan	hing	hîng
Speech	話	Quanzhou, Taiwan	ue	ue
		Zhangzhou	ua	ua

Mutual intelligibility

Spoken mutual intelligibility

Quanzhou speech, Xiamen (Amoy) speech, Zhangzhou speech and Taiwanese are mutually intelligible. Chaozhou (Teochew) speech and Amoy speech are 84.3% phonetically similar and 33.8% lexically similar , whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar and 15.1% lexically similar. In other words, Chao-Shan, including Swatow (both of which are variants of Teochew), has very low intelligibility with Amoy, and Amoy and Teochew are not mutually intelligible with Mandarin. However, many Amoy and Teochew speakers speak Mandarin as a second or third language.

Written mutual intelligibility

See also: Written Hokkien

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 language speakers have become interested in developing a standard writing system (either by using Chinese Characters, or using Romanized script).

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

Further reading

• Branner, David Prager (2000). Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka. Trends in Linguistics series, no. 123. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-015831-0.
• Chung, R.-f (196). The segmental phonology of Southern Min in Taiwan. Taipei: Crane Pub. Co. ISBN 957-9463-46-8.
• DeBernardi, J. E (1991). "Linguistic nationalism--the case of Southern Min". Sino-Platonic papers, no. 25. Dept. of Oriental Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
• "Southern Min Grammar" (3 articles), Part V, Sinitic Grammar, Hilary Chappell (ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001. ISBN 0-19-829977-X.

External links

• 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 Template:Nan iconTemplate:Zh icon
• 台語線頂字典, Taiwanese Hokkien Han Character online dictionary.
• 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
• wikt:Appendix:Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists