The
Southern Min language, or Min Nan
(Hokkien: ), ("Southern Fujian" language) is
a family of Chinese languages
which are spoken in southern Fujian
and
neighboring areas, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. In common parlance, Southern Min
usually refers to the
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 and
Hainanese. Teochew has limited
mutual intelligibility with the
Amoy. However, Hainanese is generally
not considered to be mutually intelligible with any other Southern
Min variants.
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. (
See Identification of the
varieties of Chinese for greater detail.)
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 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
Southern
Fujian is home to three main Amoy dialects. They are known by the
geographic locations to which they correspond (listed north to
south):
As Xiamen is the principal city of southern Fujian, the Xiamen
dialect is considered the most important, or even
prestige dialect. The Xiamen dialect is a
hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. The Xiamen dialect
(also known as the
Amoy dialect) has
played an influential role in history, especially in the relations
of
Western nations with China, and was
one of the most frequently learned of all Chinese
languages/dialects by
Western during
the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th
century.
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 perspective, forming the second (and perhaps today
most significant) major pole of the language. 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, Philippines, Thailand
, Cambodia
, Vietnam
, Sumatra
and western
Kalimantan.
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.
Phonology
The Southern Min language has one of the most diverse phonologies
of Chinese variants, with more consonants than standard Mandarin or
Cantonese. Vowels, on the other hand, are more or less similar to
those of Standard Mandarin. In general, Southern Min dialects have
five to six
tone, and
tone sandhi is extensive. There are minor
variations within Hokkien, but the Teochew system differs
significantly. See
Hokkien dialect,
Amoy dialect, and
Teochew dialect for details.
Comparison
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.
Mutual intelligibility
- Spoken: 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 comparison, German and English are 60% 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: Southern Min dialects lack a standardized written
language. Southern Min speakers are taught how to read Standard 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). For a phonological and lexical
comparison of major Sino-tibetan languages (including prominent
varieties of Southern Min Language), see Sino-Tibetan Swadesh
lists.
See also
Related languages
Other topics
References
- glossika Southern Min Language phonetics
- glossika Southern Min Language
- glossika Southern Min Language
- Ethnologue: German
- Ethnologue: Min Nan
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