Hokkien
Hokkien | |
---|---|
Min Nan, Fukien, Amoy | |
Region | China,[a] Taiwan,[b] Singapore, Malaysia,[c] Philippines,[d] Indonesia,[e] Myanmar,[f] Cambodia,[g] Hong Kong,[h] Vietnam,[i] Thailand,[j] Brunei[k] |
Ethnicity | Hokkien / Hoklo people |
Native speakers | more than 47 million (est.)[m][1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
Early forms | |
Dialects |
|
Tâi-lô (Latin letters) | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Taiwan[7][8][9] (also a statutory language for public transport announcements in Taiwan)[10] |
Regulated by | Taiwan Ministry of Education |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nan for Southern Min (hbl is proposed[11]) |
Glottolog | hokk1242 |
Distribution of Southern Min languages, with Hokkien in dark green | |
Polities by number of Hokkien speakers
≥1,000,000
≥500,000
≥100,000
≥50,000
Significant minority populations | |
Hokkien | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 福建話 | |||||
Simplified Chinese | 福建话 | |||||
Hokkien POJ | Hok-kiàn-ōe / Hok-kiàn-ōa | |||||
| ||||||
Southern Min / Min Nan | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 閩南話/閩南語 | |||||
Simplified Chinese | 闽南话/闽南语 | |||||
Hokkien POJ | Bân-lâm-ōe / Bân-lâm-ōa / Bân-lâm-gú / Bân-lâm-gí / Bân-lâm-gír | |||||
| ||||||
Hoklo | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 福佬話 | |||||
Simplified Chinese | 福佬话 | |||||
Hokkien POJ | Ho̍h-ló-ōe / Hô-ló-ōe / Hō-ló-ōe | |||||
| ||||||
Lanlang | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 咱人話/咱儂話 | |||||
Simplified Chinese | 咱人话/咱侬话 | |||||
Hokkien POJ | Lán-lâng-ōe / Lán-nâng-ōe / Nán-nâng-ōe | |||||
|
Hokkien (/ˈhɒkiɛn/ HOK-ee-en, US also /ˈhoʊkiɛn/ HOH-kee-en)[12] is a variety of the Southern Min languages, native to and originating from the Minnan region, in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is also referred to as Quanzhang (Chinese: 泉漳; pinyin: Quánzhāng), from the first characters of the urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.
In maritime Southeast Asia, Hokkien historically served as the lingua franca amongst overseas Chinese communities of all dialects and subgroups, and it remains today as the most spoken variety of Chinese in the region, including in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia. This applied to a lesser extent to mainland Southeast Asia.[13] The Betawi Malay language, spoken by some five million people in and around the Indonesian capital Jakarta, includes numerous Hokkien loanwords due to the significant influence of the Chinese Indonesian diaspora, most of whom are of Hokkien ancestry and origin. Hokkien Kelantan in northern Malaya of Malaysia and Hokaglish spoken sporadically across the Philippines, especially Metro Manila are also mixed languages with Hokkien as the base lexifier.
Names
Hokkien speakers in different regions refer to the language as:
- Bân-lâm-gú / Bân-lâm-gí / Bân-lâm-gír / Bân-lâm-ú (闽南语; 閩南語 'Southern Min language') in China, Taiwan,[14] and Malaysia
- Bân-lâm-ōe / Bân-lâm-ōa / Bîn-lâm-ōe (闽南话; 閩南話 'Southern Min language') in China, Taiwan, Philippines, and Malaysia
- Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú (臺語 'Taiwanese language') or Ho̍h-ló-ōe / Hô-ló-ōe (福佬話 'Hoklo speech') in Taiwan
- Lán-lâng-ōe / Lán-nâng-ōe / Nán-nâng-ōe (咱人話/咱儂話 'our people's language') in the Philippines
- Hok-kiàn-ōe / Hok-kiàn-ōa (福建話 'Hokkien language') in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines
In parts of Southeast Asia and in the English-speaking communities, the term Hokkien ([hɔk˥kiɛn˨˩]) is etymologically derived from the Hokkien pronunciation for
.The term Hokkien was first used by Walter Henry Medhurst in his 1832 Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms, considered to be the earliest English-based Hokkien dictionary and the first major reference work in POJ, though its romanization system differs significantly from modern POJ. In this dictionary, the word Hok-këèn was used. In 1869, POJ was further revised by John Macgowan in his published book A Manual Of The Amoy Colloquial. In this book, këèn was changed to kien as Hok-kien; from then on, "Hokkien" is used more often.
Historically, Hokkien was also known as "Amoy", after the Hokkien name for Xiamen, the principal port in southern Fujian during the Qing dynasty, as one of the five ports opened to foreign trade by the Treaty of Nanking.[15] In 1873, Carstairs Douglas published the Chinese–English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, With the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects, where the language was referred to as the "Language of Amoy"[16] or as the "Amoy Vernacular"[15] and by 1883, John Macgowan would publish another dictionary, the English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect.[17] Due to possible conflation between the language as a whole with its Xiamen dialect, many proscribe referring to the former as "Amoy", a usage that is more commonly found in older media.
Geographic distribution
Hokkien is spoken in the southern seaward quarter of Fujian, southeastern
Hokkien originated in the southern area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration, and has since become one of the most common Chinese varieties overseas. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is nearby Taiwan, where immigrants from Fujian arrived as workers during the 40 years of
There are many Min Nan speakers among
Classification
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2021) |
Southern Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects:
In the late 1800s, the Amoy dialect attracted special attention, because Amoy was one of the five ports opened to foreign trade by the Treaty of Nanking, but before that it had not attracted attention.[19] The Amoy dialect is adopted as the 'Modern Representative Min Nan'. The Amoy dialect cannot simply be interpreted as a mixture of the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou dialects, but rather it is formed on the foundation of the Tung'an dialect with further inputs from other sub-dialects.[20] It has played an influential role in history, especially in the relations of Western nations with China, and was one of the most frequently learned dialects of Hokkien by Westerners during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.
The Modern Representative form of Hokkien spoken around the Taiwanese city of
Southeast Asia
The varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. Douglas (1873) notes that
Singapore and the various Straits Settlements [such as Penang and Malacca], Batavia [Jakarta] and other parts of the Dutch possessions [Indonesia], are crowded with emigrants, especially from the Chang-chew [Zhangzhou] prefecture; Manila and other parts of the Philippines have great numbers from Chin-chew [Quanzhou], and emigrants are largely scattered in like manner in Siam [Thailand], Burmah [Myanmar], the Malay Peninsula [peninsular Malaysia], Cochin China [Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos], Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam], &c. In many of these places there is also a great mixture of emigrants from Swatow [Shantou]."[24]
In modern times though, a mixed dialect descended from the
Among Malaysian Chinese of Penang, and other states in northern mainland Malaysia and ethnic Chinese Indonesians in Medan, with other areas in
As for
There are also Hokkien speakers scattered throughout other parts of Indonesia (such as Jakarta and around the island of
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2016) |
Variants of Hokkien dialects can be traced to 2-4 main principal dialects of origin: the original two being, the Quanzhou (泉州; Choân-chiu / Chôaⁿ-chiu) and Zhangzhou (漳州; Chiang-chiu / Cheng-chiu) dialects, and in later centuries Xiamen/Amoy (廈門; Ē-mn̂g / Ēe-mûi) and
Southern Fujian
During the
In 677 (during the reign of
Xiamen
During around the late 17th century when sea bans were lifted, the Port of Xiamen, which overshadowed the old port of Yuegang, became Fujian's main port where trade was legalized. From then, the Xiamen dialect, historically "Amoy", became the main principal dialect spoken overseas, such as in Taiwan under Qing rule, British Malaya, the Straits Settlements (British Singapore), British Hong Kong, Spanish Philippines (then later American Philippines), Dutch East Indies,and French Cochinchina, etc. Historically, Xiamen had always been part of Tung'an County until after 1912.[20] The Amoy dialect was the main prestige form of Hokkien known from the late 17th century to the Republican era. Due to this, dictionaries, bibles and other books about Hokkien from recent centuries and even to this day in certain places, like schools and churches, of certain countries, the Hokkien language is still known as "Amoy".
Early sources
Several playscripts survive from the late 16th century, written in a mixture of Quanzhou and Chaozhou dialects. The most important is the
In the early 17th century, Spanish friars in the Philippines produced materials documenting the Hokkien varieties spoken by the Chinese trading community who had settled there in the late 16th century:[26][28]
- Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china (1593), a Hokkien version of the Doctrina Christiana.[29][30][31]
- Dictionarium Sino Hispanicum (1604), by Pedro Chirino[32]
- Vocabulario de la Lengua Española y China / Vocabulario Hispanico y Chinico[32]
- Bocabulario de la lengua sangleya por las letraz de el A.B.C. (1617), a Spanish–Hokkien dictionary, with definitions.[32]
- Arte de la Lengua Chiõ Chiu (1620), a Spanish–Hokkien grammar.[33]
- Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum (1626–1642), a primarily Spanish-Hokkien dictionary (with additional incomplete Mandarin part), giving equivalent words, but not definitions.[34]
- Vocabulario de letra china (1643), by Francisco Diaz[32]
These texts appear to record a primarily
19th century sources
Chinese scholars produced
- Lūi-im Biāu-ngō͘ (Huìyīn Miàowù) (彙音妙悟 "Understanding of the collected sounds") was written around 1800 by Huang Qian (黃謙), and describes the Quanzhou dialect. The oldest extant edition dates from 1831.
- Lūi-chi̍p Ngé-sio̍k-thong Si̍p-ngó͘-im (Huìjí Yǎsútōng Shíwǔyīn) (彙集雅俗通十五音 "Compilation of the fifteen elegant and vulgar sounds") by Xie Xiulan (謝秀嵐) describes the Zhangzhou dialect. The oldest extant edition dates from 1818.
Rev. Walter Henry Medhurst based his 1832 dictionary, "A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language", on the latter work.[37]
Other popular 19th century works are also like those of Rev. John Macgowan's 1883 dictionary, "English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect",[17] and Rev. Carstairs Douglas's 1873 dictionary, "Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, with the Principal Variations of the Chang-Chew and Chin-Chew Dialects",[38] and its 1899 New Edition with Rev. Thomas Barclay.[18]
Phonology
Hokkien has one of the most diverse
Initials
Hokkien has
Another example is 查埔囝; cha-po͘-kiáⁿ / ta-po͘-kiáⁿ / ta-po͘-káⁿ; 'boy' and 查某囝; cha-bó͘-kiáⁿ / cha̋u-kiáⁿ / cha̋u-káⁿ / chő͘-kiáⁿ; 'girl', which for the cha-po͘-kiáⁿ and cha-bó͘-kiáⁿ pronunciation differ only in the second syllable in consonant voicing and in tone.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop
|
plain | p | t
|
k | ʔ | |
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
voiced
|
b (m) |
n )
|
ɡ (ŋ) |
|||
( nasalized )
| ||||||
Affricate
|
plain | ts | ||||
aspirated | tsʰ | |||||
voiced | l~ɡ
|
|||||
Fricative
|
s | h | ||||
Semi-vowels | w | j |
- All consonants but ʔ may be nasalized; voiced oral stops may be nasalized into voiced nasal stops.
- Nasal stops mostly occur word-initially.[42]
- Quanzhou and nearby may pronounce ⟨j⟩/⟨dz⟩ as ⟨l⟩ or ⟨g⟩.[citation needed]
- ⟨l⟩ is often interchanged with ⟨n⟩ and ⟨j⟩/⟨dz⟩ throughout different dialects.[43]
- ⟨j⟩, sometimes into ⟨dz⟩, is often pronounced very 'thick' so as to change to ⟨l⟩, or very nearly so.[24]
- Some dialects may pronounce ⟨l⟩ as ⟨d⟩, or a sound very like it.[40]
- Approximant sounds [w] [j], only occur word-medially, and are also realized as laryngealized [w̰] [j̰], within a few medial and terminal environments.[44]
Finals
Unlike Mandarin, Hokkien retains all the final consonants corresponding to those of Middle Chinese. While Mandarin only preserves the [n] and [ŋ] finals, Hokkien also preserves the [m], [p], [t] and [k] finals and has developed the glottal stop [ʔ].
The vowels of Hokkien are listed below:[45]
Oral | Nasal | Stops | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Medial | ∅ | e | i | o | u | ∅ | m | n | ŋ | i | u | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
Nucleus | Vowel | a | a | ai | au | ã | ãm | ãn | ãŋ | ãĩ | ãũ | ap | at | ak | aʔ | ||
i | i | io | iu | ĩ | ĩm | ĩn | ĩŋ | ĩũ | ip | it | ik | iʔ | |||||
e | e | ẽ | ẽŋ* | ek* | eʔ | ||||||||||||
ə | ə | ə̃m* | ə̃n* | ə̃ŋ* | əp* | ət* | ək* | əʔ* | |||||||||
o | o | õŋ* | ot* | ok* | oʔ | ||||||||||||
ɔ | ɔ | ɔ̃ | ɔ̃m* | ɔ̃n* | ɔ̃ŋ | ɔp* | ɔt* | ɔk | ɔʔ | ||||||||
u | u | ue | ui | ũn | ũĩ | ut | uʔ | ||||||||||
ɯ | ɯ* | ɯ̃ŋ* | |||||||||||||||
Diphthongs | ia | ia | iau | ĩã | ĩãm | ĩãn | ĩãŋ | ĩãũ | iap | iat | iak | iaʔ | |||||
iɔ | ĩɔ̃* | ĩɔ̃ŋ | iɔk | ||||||||||||||
iə | iə | ĩə̃m* | ĩə̃n* | ĩə̃ŋ* | iəp* | iət* | |||||||||||
ua | ua | uai | ũã | ũãn | ũãŋ* | ũãĩ | uat | uaʔ | |||||||||
Others | ∅ | m̩ | ŋ̍ |
(*)Only certain dialects
- Oral vowel sounds are realized as nasal sounds when preceding a nasal consonant.
Dialectal sound shifts
The following table illustrates some of the more commonly seen sound shifts between various dialects. Pronunciations are provided in Pe̍h-ōe-jī and IPA.
Character | Hokkien | Teochew
|
Haklau Min
| |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
operatic | Nan'an | Quanzhou | Xiamen | Zhangzhou | Zhangpu
|
Zhaoan
|
Chaozhou | Chaoyang | Haifeng
| |
二 'two' |
lī | lī | lī | lī | jī | jī | jī | jĭ | jĭ | jĭ |
[li⁴¹] | [li³¹] | [li⁴¹] | [li²²] | [dʑi²²] | [dʑi²²] | [dʑi²²] | [dʑi³⁵] | [dʑi⁵³] | [dʑi³⁵] | |
坐 'to sit' |
chěr | chěr | chěr | chē | chē | chē | chēr | chǒ | chǒ | chě |
[tsə²²] | [tsə²²] | [tsə²²] | [tse²²] | [tse²²] | [tsɛ²²] | [tsə²²] | [tso³⁵] | [tso⁵³] | [tsɛ³⁵] | |
皮 'skin' |
phêr | phêr | phêr | phê | phôe | phôe | phôe | phôe | phôe | phôe |
[pʰə²⁴] | [pʰə²⁴] | [pʰə²⁴] | [pʰe²⁴] | [pʰuɛ¹³] | [pʰuɛ³¹²] | [pʰuɛ³⁵] | [pʰuɛ⁵⁵] | [pfʰuɛ³³] | [pʰuɛ⁵⁵] | |
雞 'chicken' |
kire | koe | koe | koe | ke | kei | kei | koi | koi | kei |
[kɯe³³] | [kue³³] | [kue³³] | [kue⁴⁴] | [ke³⁴] | [kiei⁴⁴] | [kei⁴⁴] | [koi³³] | [koi³¹] | [kei³³] | |
病 'sick' |
pīⁿ | pīⁿ | pīⁿ | pīⁿ | pēⁿ | pēⁿ | pēⁿ | pēⁿ | pēⁿ | pēⁿ |
[pĩ⁴¹] | [pĩ³¹] | [pĩ⁴¹] | [pĩ²²] | [pɛ̃²²] | [pɛ̃²²] | [pɛ̃²²] | [pɛ̃²¹] | [pɛ̃⁴²] | [pɛ̃³¹] | |
飯 'rice' |
pn̄g | pn̄g | pn̄g | pn̄g | pūiⁿ | pūiⁿ | pūiⁿ | pūng | pn̄g | pūiⁿ |
[pŋ̍⁴¹] | [pŋ̍³¹] | [pŋ̍⁴¹] | [pŋ̍²²] | [puĩ²²] | [puĩ²²] | [puĩ²²] | [puŋ²¹] | [pŋ̍⁴²] | [puĩ³¹] | |
自 'self' |
chīr | chīr | chīr | chū | chū | chū | chīr | chīr | chū | chū |
[tsɯ⁴¹] | [tsɯ³¹] | [tsɯ⁴¹] | [tsu²²] | [tsu²²] | [tsu²²] | [tsɯ²²] | [tsɯ²¹] | [tsu⁴²] | [tsu³¹] | |
豬 'pig' |
tir | tir | tir | tu | ti | ti | tir | tir | tu | ti |
[tɯ³³] | [tɯ³³] | [tɯ³³] | [tu⁴⁴] | [ti³⁴] | [ti⁴⁴] | [tɯ⁴⁴] | [tɯ³³] | [tu³¹] | [ti³³] | |
取 'to take' |
chhú | chhú | chhú | chhú | chhí | chhí | chhír | chhú | chhú | chhí |
[tsʰu⁵⁵] | [tsʰu⁵⁵] | [tsʰu⁵⁵] | [tsʰu⁵³] | [tɕʰi⁵³] | [tɕʰi⁵³] | [tsʰɯ⁵³] | [tsʰu⁵³] | [tsʰu⁴⁵] | [tɕʰi⁵³] | |
德 'virtue' |
tirak | terk | tiak | tek | tek | tek | tek | tek | tek | tek |
[tɯak⁵] | [tək⁵] | [tiak⁵] | [tiɪk³²] | [tiɪk³²] | [tɛk³²] | [tɛk³²] | [tɛk³²] | [tɛk⁴³] | [tɛk³²] | |
偶 'idol' |
giró | gió | gió | ngó͘ | ngó͘ | ngóu | ngóu | ngóu | ngóu | ngóu |
[ɡɯo⁵⁵] | [ɡio⁵⁵] | [ɡio⁵⁵] | [ŋɔ̃⁵³] | [ŋɔ̃⁵³] | [ŋɔ̃u⁵³] | [ŋɔ̃u⁵³] | [ŋou⁵³] | [ŋou⁴⁵] | [ŋou⁵³] | |
蝦 'prawn' |
hê | hê | hê | hê | hê͘ | hê͘ | hê͘ | hê | hê | hê |
[he²⁴] | [he²⁴] | [he²⁴] | [he²⁴] | [hɛ¹³] | [hɛ³¹²] | [hɛ³⁵] | [hɛ⁵⁵] | [hɛ³³] | [hɛ⁵⁵] | |
銀 'silver' |
girêrn | gêrn | gûn | gûn | gîn | gîn | gîn | ngîrng | ngîng | ngîn |
[ɡɯən²⁴] | [ɡən²⁴] | [ɡun²⁴] | [ɡun²⁴] | [ɡin¹³] | [ɡin³¹²] | [ɡin³⁵] | [ŋɯŋ⁵⁵] | [ŋiŋ³³] | [ŋin⁵⁵] | |
向 'to face' |
hiòng | hiòng | hiòng | hiòng | hiàng | hiàng | hiàng | hiàng | hiàng | hiàng |
[hiɔŋ⁴¹] | [hiɔŋ³¹] | [hiɔŋ⁴¹] | [hiɔŋ³¹] | [hiaŋ²¹] | [hiaŋ¹¹] | [hiaŋ¹¹] | [hiaŋ²¹²] | [hiaŋ⁵³] | [hiaŋ²¹²] |
Tones
According to the traditional Chinese system, Hokkien dialects have 7 or 8 distinct tones, including two
Tone sandhi is extensive.[47] There are minor variations between the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou tone systems. Taiwanese tones follow the patterns of Amoy or Quanzhou, depending on the area of Taiwan.
Tones | level | rising | departing | entering | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
dark level | light level | dark rising | light rising | dark departing | light departing | dark entering | light entering | ||
Tone Number | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 8 | |
Tone contour | Xiamen, Fujian | ˦˦ | ˨˦ | ˥˧ | – | ˨˩ | ˨˨ | ˧˨ | ˦ |
東 taŋ1 | 銅 taŋ5 | 董 taŋ2 | – | 凍 taŋ3 | 動 taŋ7 | 觸 tak4 | 逐tak8 | ||
Taipei, Taiwan | ˦˦ | ˨˦ | ˥˧ | – | ˩˩ | ˧˧ | ˧˨ | ˦ | |
– | |||||||||
Tainan, Taiwan | ˦˦ | ˨˧ | ˦˩ | – | ˨˩ | ˧˧ | ˧˨ | ˦˦ | |
– | |||||||||
Zhangzhou, Fujian | ˧˦ | ˩˧ | ˥˧ | – | ˨˩ | ˨˨ | ˧˨ | ˩˨˩ | |
– | |||||||||
Quanzhou, Fujian | ˧˧ | ˨˦ | ˥˥ | ˨˨ | ˦˩ | ˥ | ˨˦ | ||
– | |||||||||
Penang, Malaysia[48] | ˧˧ | ˨˧ | ˦˦˥ | – | ˨˩ | ˧ | ˦ | ||
– |
Dialects
Hokkien is spoken in a variety of accents and dialects across the
The -ik or -ɪk final consonant that is preserved in the native Hokkien dialects of Zhangzhou and Xiamen is also preserved in the Nan'an dialect (色, 德, 竹) but are pronounced as -iak in Quanzhou Hokkien.[49]
- Hokkien
- Quanzhou Hokkien dialects (泉州腔; Choân-chiu khiuⁿ):
- Coastal Quanzhou Hokkien dialects (泉州海口腔; Choân-chiu Hái-kháu khiuⁿ)
- Coastal Nan'an dialect (海南安腔; Hái Lâm-oaⁿ khiuⁿ)
- Hui'an dialect (惠安腔; Hūi-oaⁿ khiuⁿ)
- Pu-Xian Min)[clarification needed]
- Jinjiang dialect(晋江腔; Chìn-kang khiuⁿ)
- Luojiang dialect (洛江腔; Lo̍k-kang khiuⁿ)
- Quanzhou City Proper dialect(泉州市腔; Choân-chiu-chhǐ khiuⁿ)
- Philippine Hokkien (咱人話; Lán-nâng-ōe / Nán-nâng-ōe / Lán-lâng-ōe)
- Inland Quanzhou Hokkien dialects (泉州府城腔; Choân-chiu Hú-siâⁿ khiuⁿ)
- Zhangzhou dialect)
- Dehua dialect (德化腔; Tek-hòe khiuⁿ)
- Highland Nan'an dialect (頂南安腔; Téng Lâm-oaⁿ khiuⁿ)
- Yongchun dialect (永春腔; Éng-chhun khiuⁿ)
- Youxi dialect (尤溪腔; Iû-khe khiuⁿ) (Transitionary with Eastern Min and Central Min)[clarification needed]
- Datian Frontlect (大田前路話; Tōa-chhân Chûiⁿ-lō͘-ōe)* (Transitionary with Central Min)[clarification needed]
- Taoyuan dialect (大田桃源話; Tōa-chhân Thô-goân-ōe)* (Transitionary with Yong'an Central Min)[clarification needed]
- Coastal Quanzhou Hokkien dialects (泉州海口腔; Choân-chiu Hái-kháu khiuⁿ)
- Amoy-Tong'an Hokkien dialects (廈門同安腔; Ē-mn̂g Tâng-oaⁿ khiuⁿ) (Transitionary between Quanzhou dialects and Zhangzhou dialects)
- Amoy dialect (廈門腔; Ē-mn̂g khiuⁿ)
- Quanzhou dialect)
- Zhangzhou dialect)
- Kinmen dialect (金門腔; Kim-mn̂g khiuⁿ)
- Southern Malacca StraitsHokkien
- Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien (南馬福建話; Lâm-Má Hok-kiàn-oē)
- Singaporean Hokkien (新加坡福建話; Sin-ka-pho Hok-kiàn-ōe / Sin-ka-po Hok-kiàn-ōe)
- Riau Hokkien (in Riau islands, Jambi)
- Zhangzhou Hokkien dialects (漳州腔; Chiang-chiu khioⁿ):
- Northern Zhangzhou Hokkien dialects
- Quanzhou dialect)
- Haicang dialect (海滄腔; Hái-chhng khioⁿ) (Transitionary with Amoy dialect)
- Hua'an dialect (華安腔; Hôa-an khioⁿ) (Transitionary with Longyan dialect)
- Pinghe dialect (平和腔; Pêng-hô khioⁿ)
- Zhangzhou City Proper dialect(漳州市腔; Chiang-chiu-chhī khioⁿ)
- Longhai dialect (龍海腔; Liông-hái khioⁿ)
- Nanjing dialect (南靖腔; Lâm-chēng khioⁿ)
- Southern Zhangzhou Hokkien dialects
- Dongshan dialect (東山腔; Tang-soaⁿ khioⁿ)
- Yunxiao dialect (雲霄腔; Ûn-sio khioⁿ)
- Zhangpu dialect (漳浦腔; Chiuⁿ-phó͘ khioⁿ)
- Teo-Swa Min)
- Hakka)[clarification needed]
- Haifeng dialect(海豐話; Hái-hong-ōa)*
- Lufeng dialect(陸豐話; Lo̍k-hong-ōa)*
- Northern Malacca StraitsHokkien
- Penang Hokkien (檳城福建話; Peng-siâⁿ Hok-kiàn-ōa / Pin-siâⁿ Hok-kiàn-ōa/庇能福建話; Pī-néeng Hok-kiàn-ōa)
- Medan Hokkien (棉蘭福建話; Mî-lân Hok-kiàn-oā)
- Northern Zhangzhou Hokkien dialects
- Hakka)[clarification needed]
- Taiwanese Hokkien (台語; Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú/臺灣話; Tâi-oân-ōe/臺灣閩南語; Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gú / Tâi-oân Bân-lâm-gí)* (Transitionary between Zhangzhou dialects, Amoy-Tong'an dialects, and Quanzhou dialects)[clarification needed]
- Various dialects per region descended variously and mixed from the above as well (See Taiwanese Hokkien#Quanzhou–Zhangzhou inclinations)
- Quanzhou Hokkien dialects (泉州腔; Choân-chiu khiuⁿ):
*
also have historical linguistic roots with Hokkien, but are significantly divergent from it in terms of phonology and vocabulary, and thus have almost little to no practical face-to-face mutual intelligibility with Hokkien.Comparison
The Xiamen dialect is a variant of the Tung'an dialect. Majority of Taiwanese, from Tainan, to Taichung, to Taipei, is also heavily based on Tung'an dialect while incorporating some vowels of Zhangzhou dialect, whereas Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien, including Singaporean Hokkien, is based on the Tung'an dialect, with Philippine Hokkien on the Quanzhou dialect, and Penang Hokkien & Medan Hokkien on the Zhangzhou dialect. There are some variations in pronunciation and vocabulary between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. The grammar is generally the same.
Additionally, extensive contact with the
Mutual intelligibility
Tong'an, Xiamen, Taiwanese, Singaporean dialects as a group are more
Although the Min Nan varieties of Teochew and Amoy are 84% phonetically similar including the pronunciations of un-used Chinese characters as well as same characters used for different meanings,[citation needed] and 34% lexically similar,[citation needed], Teochew has only 51% intelligibility with the Tong'an Hokkien|Tung'an dialect (Cheng 1997)[who?] whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar[citation needed] and 15% lexically similar.[citation needed] In comparison, German and English are 60% lexically similar.[51]
Hainanese, which is sometimes considered Southern Min, has almost no mutual intelligibility with any form of Hokkien.[50]
Grammar
Hokkien is an
A verb itself indicates no grammatical tense. The time can be explicitly shown with time-indicating adverbs. Certain exceptions exist, however, according to the pragmatic interpretation of a verb's meaning. Additionally, an optional aspect particle can be appended to a verb to indicate the state of an action. Appending interrogative or exclamative particles to a sentence turns a statement into a question or shows the attitudes of the speaker.
Hokkien dialects preserve certain grammatical reflexes and patterns reminiscent of the broad stage of
汝
Lí
2SG
去
khì
go
買
bué
buy
有
ū
have
錶仔
pió-á
watch
無?
--bô?
no
"Did you go to buy a watch?"
Choice of grammatical function words also varies significantly among the Hokkien dialects. For instance, (乞; knit) (denoting the causative, passive or dative) is retained in
Pronouns
Hokkien dialects differ in the pronunciation of some pronouns (such as the second person pronoun lí, lú, or lír), and also differ in how to form plural pronouns (such as n or lâng). Personal pronouns found in the Hokkien dialects are listed below:
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
1st person | 我 góa |
阮1 gún, góan 咱2 or 俺 lán or án 我儂1,3 góa-lâng |
2nd person | 汝 lí, lír, lú |
恁 lín 汝儂3 lí-lâng, lú-lâng |
3rd person | 伊 i |
𪜶 in 伊儂3 i-lâng |
- 1 Exclusive
- 2 Inclusive
- 3 儂; lâng is typically suffixed in Southeast Asian Hokkien dialects (with the exception of Philippine Hokkien)
The most common reflexive pronoun is ka-kī (家己). In formal contexts, chū-kí (自己) is also used.
Hokkien dialects use a variety of
- 'this' – che (這,即),chit-ê (即個)
- 'that' – he (許,彼),hit-ê (彼個)
- 'here' – hia (遮),chit-tau (即兜)
- 'there' – hia (遐),hit-tau (彼兜)
The interrogative pronouns include:
- 'what' – siáⁿ-mih (啥物),sím-mih (甚麼),há-mi̍h (何物)
- 'when' – tī-sî (底時),kúi-sî (幾時),tang-sî (當時),sím-mih sî-chūn (甚麼時陣)
- 'where' – tó-lo̍h (倒落),tó-uī (倒位)
- 'who' – siáⁿ-lâng (啥人),siáng (誰),
- 'why' – ūi-siáⁿ-mih (為啥物),ūi-sím-mih (為甚物),án-chóaⁿ (按怎),khah (盍)
- 'how' – án-chóaⁿ (按怎),lû-hô (如何),cháiⁿ-iūⁿ (怎樣)
Copula
States and qualities are generally expressed using
我
goá
1SG
腹肚
pak-tó͘
stomach
枵。
iau.
hungry
"I am hungry."
With noun complements, the verb sī (是) serves as the verb 'to be'.
昨昏
cha-hng
是
sī
八月節。
poeh-ge̍h-choeh.
"Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn festival."
To indicate location, the words tī (佇) tiàm (踮), leh (咧), which are collectively known as the locatives or sometimes coverbs in Chinese linguistics, are used to express '(to be) at':
我
goá
踮
tiàm
遮
chia
等
tán
汝。
lí.
"I am here waiting for you."
伊
i
這摆
chit-mái
佇
tī
厝
chhù
裡
lāi
咧
leh
睏。
khùn.
"They're sleeping at home now."
Negation
Hokkien dialects have a variety of negation particles that are prefixed or affixed to the verbs they modify. There are six primary negation particles in Hokkien dialects (with some variation in how they are written in characters):
Other negative particles include:
- bâng (甭)
- bián (免)
- thài (汰)
The particle m̄ (毋,呣,唔,伓) is general and can negate almost any verb:
伊
i
3SG
毋
m̄
not
捌
bat
know
字。
jī
character
"They cannot read."
The particle mài (莫,【勿爱】), a concatenation of m-ài (毋愛) is used to negate imperative commands:
莫
mài
講!
kóng
"Don't speak!"
The particle bô (無) indicates the past tense:[dubious ]
伊
i
無
bô
食。
chia̍h
"They did not eat."
The verb 'to have', ū (有) is replaced by bô (無) when negated (not 無有):
伊
i
無
bô
錢。
chîⁿ
"They do not have any money."
The particle put (不) is used infrequently, mostly found in literary compounds and phrases:
伊
i
真
chin
不孝。
put-hàu
They are really unfilial."
Vocabulary
The majority of Hokkien vocabulary is
As compared to Mandarin, Hokkien dialects prefer to use the monosyllabic form of words, without suffixes. For instance, the Mandarin noun suffix 子; zi is not found in Hokkien words, while another noun suffix, 仔; á is used in many nouns. Examples are below:
- 'duck' – 鴨; ah or 鴨仔; ah-á (cf. Mandarin 鴨子; yāzi)
- 'color' – 色; sek (cf. Mandarin 顏色; yán sè)
In other bisyllabic morphemes, the syllables are inverted, as compared to Mandarin. Examples include the following:
- 'guest' – 人客; lâng-kheh (cf. Mandarin 客人; kèrén)
In other cases, the same word can have different meanings in Hokkien and Mandarin. Similarly, depending on the region Hokkien is spoken in, loanwords from local languages (Malay, Tagalog, Burmese, among others), as well as other Chinese dialects (such as Southern Chinese dialects like Cantonese and
Literary and colloquial readings
The existence of
The pronounced divergence between literary and colloquial pronunciations found in Hokkien dialects is attributed to the presence of several strata in the Min lexicon. The earliest, colloquial stratum is traced to the
Some commonly seen sound correspondences (colloquial → literary) are as follows:
- p- ([p-], [pʰ-]) → h ([h-])
- ch-, chh- ([ts-], [tsʰ-], [tɕ-], [tɕʰ-]) → s ([s-], [ɕ-])
- k-, kh- ([k-], [kʰ-]) → ch ([tɕ-], [tɕʰ-])
- -ⁿ ([-ã], [-uã]) → n ([-an])
- -h ([-ʔ]) → t ([-t])
- i ([-i]) → e ([-e])
- e ([-e]) → a ([-a])
- ia ([-ia]) → i ([-i])
This table displays some widely used characters in Hokkien that have both literary and colloquial readings:[58][59]
Chinese character | Reading pronunciations | Spoken pronunciations / †explications | English |
---|---|---|---|
白 | pe̍k | pe̍h | white |
面 | biān | bīn | face |
書 | su | chu | book |
生 | seng | seⁿ / siⁿ | student |
不 | put | m̄† | not |
返 | hóan | tńg† | return |
學 | ha̍k | o̍h | to study |
人 | jîn / lîn | lâng† | person |
少 | siàu | chió | few |
轉 | chóan | tńg | to turn |
This feature extends to Chinese numerals, which have both literary and colloquial readings.[59] Literary readings are typically used when the numerals are read out loud (e.g. phone numbers, years), while colloquial readings are used for counting items.
Numeral | Reading | Numeral | Reading | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Literary | Colloquial | Literary | Colloquial | ||
1 | it | chi̍t | 6 | lio̍k | la̍k |
2 | jī, lī | nn̄g | 7 | chhit | |
3 | sam | saⁿ | 8 | pat | peh, poeh |
4 | sù, sìr | sì | 9 | kiú | káu |
5 | ngó͘ | gō͘ | 10 | si̍p | cha̍p |
Semantic differences between Hokkien and Mandarin
Quite a few words from the variety of Old Chinese spoken in the state of Wu, where the ancestral language of Min and Wu dialect families originated, and later words from Middle Chinese as well, have retained the original meanings in Hokkien, while many of their counterparts in Mandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use, have been substituted with other words (some of which are borrowed from other languages while others are new developments), or have developed newer meanings. The same may be said of Hokkien as well, since some lexical meaning evolved in step with Mandarin while others are wholly innovative developments.
This table shows some Hokkien dialect words from Classical Chinese, as contrasted to the written Mandarin:
Gloss | Hokkien | Mandarin | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Hanji | POJ | Hanzi | Pinyin | |
'eye' | 目睭/目珠 | ba̍k-chiu | 眼睛 | yǎnjīng |
' chopstick '
|
箸 | tī, tīr, tū | 筷子 | kuàizi |
'to chase' | 逐 | jiok, lip | 追 | zhuī |
'wet' | 澹[60] | tâm | 濕 | shī |
'black' | 烏 | o͘ | 黑 | hēi |
'book' | 冊 | chheh | 書 | shū |
For other words, the classical Chinese meanings of certain words, which are retained in Hokkien dialects, have evolved or deviated significantly in other Chinese dialects. The following table shows some words that are both used in both Hokkien dialects and Mandarin Chinese, while the meanings in Mandarin Chinese have been modified:
Word | Hokkien | Mandarin | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
POJ | Gloss (and Classical Chinese) |
Pinyin | Gloss | |
走 | cháu | 'to flee' | zǒu | 'to walk' |
細 | sè, sòe | 'tiny', 'small, 'young' | xì | 'thin', 'slender' |
鼎 | tiáⁿ | 'pot' | dǐng | 'tripod' |
食 | chia̍h | 'to eat' | shí | 'to eat' (largely superseded by 吃) |
懸 | kôan, koâiⁿ, kûiⁿ | 'tall', 'high' | xuán | 'to hang', 'to suspend' |
喙 | chhùi | 'mouth' | huì | 'beak' |
Words from Min Yue
Some commonly used words, shared by all[
Word | Hokkien POJ | Foochow Romanized | Gloss |
---|---|---|---|
骹 | kha [kʰa˥] | kă [kʰa˥] | 'foot and leg' |
囝 | kiáⁿ [kjã˥˩] | giāng [kjaŋ˧] | 'son', 'child', 'whelp', 'a small amount' |
睏 | khùn [kʰun˨˩] | káung [kʰɑwŋ˨˩˧] | to sleep |
骿 | phiaⁿ [pʰjã˥] | piăng [pʰjaŋ˥] | 'back', 'dorsum' |
厝 | chhù [tsʰu˨˩] | chuó, chió [tsʰwɔ˥˧] | 'home', 'house' |
刣 | thâi [tʰaj˨˦] | tài [tʰaj˥˧] | 'to kill', 'to slaughter' |
(肉) | bah [baʔ˧˨] | — | 'meat' |
媠 | suí [sui˥˧] | — | 'beautiful' |
檨 | soāiⁿ [suãi˨˨] | suông [suɔŋ˨˦˨] | 'mango' (Austroasiatic)[61][62] |
Loanwords
Loanwords are not unusual among Hokkien dialects, as speakers readily adopted indigenous terms of the languages they came in contact with. As a result, there is a plethora of loanwords that are not mutually comprehensible among Hokkien dialects.
- 'toilet' – piān-só͘ (便所) from Japanese benjo (便所)
- Other Hokkien variants: 屎礐 (sái-ha̍k), 廁所 (chhek-só͘)
- 'car' – chū-tōng-chhia (自動車) from Japanese jidōsha (自動車)
- Other Hokkien variants: 風車 (hong-chhia), 汽車 (khì-chhia)
- 'to admire' – kám-sim (感心) from Japanese kanshin (感心)
- Other Hokkien variants: 感動 (kám-tōng)
- 'fruit' – chúi-ké / chúi-kóe / chúi-kér (水果) from Mandarin (水果; shuǐguǒ)
- Other Hokkien variants: 果子 (ké-chí / kóe-chí / kér-chí)
- 'but' – ta-pi, from Malay
- Other Hokkien variants: 但是 (tān-sī)
- 'doctor' – 老君; ló-kun, from Malay dukun
- Other Hokkien variants: 醫生 (i-seng)
- 'stone', 'rock' – bà-tû, from Malay batu
- Other Hokkien variants: 石头 (chio̍h-thâu)
- 'market' – 巴剎 pa-sat, from Malay pasar from Persian bazaar (بازار)[64]
- Other Hokkien variants: 市場 (chhī-tiûⁿ), 菜市 (chhài-chhī)
- 'they' – 伊儂 i-lâng from Teochew (i1 nang5)
- Other Hokkien variants: c𪜶 (in)
- 'together' – 做瓠 chò-bú from Teochew 做瓠 (jo3 bu5)
- Other Hokkien variants: 做夥 (chò-hóe), 同齊 (tâng-chê) or 鬥陣 (tàu-tīn)
- 'soap' – 雪文 sap-bûn from Malay sabun, from Arabic ṣābūn (صابون).[64][65]
- 'cup' – ba-sù, from either Tagalog baso or Spanish vaso
- Other Hokkien variants: 杯仔; poe-á, 杯; poe
- 'office' – o-pi-sín, from Tagalog opisina, which itself is from Spanish oficina
- Other Hokkien variants: 辦公室; pān-kong-sek/pān-kong-siak
- 'soap' – sap-bûn, from either Tagalog sabon or Early Modern Spanish xabon
- 'coffee' – ka-pé, from Tagalog kape, which itself is from Spanish café
- Other Hokkien variants: 咖啡; ko-pi, 咖啡; ka-pi
- 'to pay' – pá-lâ, from Spanish pagar
- Other Hokkien variants: 予錢; hō͘-chîⁿ, 還錢; hêng-chîⁿ
- 'dozen' – lo-sin, from English dozen
- Other Hokkien variants: 打; táⁿ
- 'jeepney' – 集尼車; chi̍p-nî-chhia, from Philippine English jeepney
- 'rubber shoes' (sneakers) – go-ma-ôe, calqued from Philippine English rubber shoes ("sneakers"), using Tagalog goma ("rubber") or Spanish goma ("rubber") + Hokkien 鞋 (ôe, "shoe")
- 'bubblegum' – go-ma-thn̂g, calqued from English bubblegum, using Tagalog goma ("rubber") or Spanish goma ("rubber") + Hokkien 糖 (thn̂g, "candy")
Philippine Hokkien usually follows the 3 decimal place Hindu-Arabic numeral system used worldwide, but still retains the concept of 萬; bān; 'ten thousand' from the Chinese numeral system, so 'ten thousand' would be 一萬; chi̍t-bān, but examples of the 3 decimal place logic have produced words like:
- 'eleven thousand' – 十一千; cha̍p-it-chheng, and same idea for succeeding numbers
- Other Hokkien variants: 一萬一千; chi̍t-bān chi̍t-chheng
- 'one hundred thousand' – 一百千; chi̍t-pah-chheng, and same idea for succeeding numbers
- Other Hokkien variants: 十萬; cha̍p-bān
- 'one million' – 一桶; chi̍t-tháng or 一面桶; chi̍t-bīn-tháng, and same idea for succeeding numbers
- Other Hokkien variants: 一百萬; chi̍t-pah-bān
- 'one hundred million' – 一百桶; chi̍t-pah-tháng, and same idea for succeeding numbers
- Other Hokkien variants: 一億; chi̍t-iak
Comparison with Mandarin and Sino-Xenic pronunciations
Gloss | Characters | Mandarin | Yue | Hokkien[66] | Korean | Vietnamese | Japanese |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
'book' | 冊 | cè | caak8 | chheh | chaek | tập/sách | saku/satsu/shaku |
'bridge' | 橋 | qiáo | kiu4 | kiô | kyo | cầu/kiều | kyō |
'dangerous' | 危險 | wēixiǎn | ngai4 him2 | guî-hiám | wiheom | nguy hiểm | kiken |
'flag' | 旗 | qí | kei4 | kî | ki | cờ/kỳ | ki |
'insurance' | 保險 | bǎoxiǎn | bou2 him2 | pó-hiám | boheom | bảo hiểm | hoken |
'news' | 新聞 | xīnwén | san1 man4 | sin-bûn | shinmun | tân văn | shinbun |
'student' | 學生 | xuéshēng | hok6 saang1 | ha̍k-seng | haksaeng | học sinh | gakusei |
university' | 大學 | dàxué | daai6 hok9 | tāi-ha̍k (tōa-o̍h) | daehak | đại học | daigaku |
Culture
The
However, from the 1980s onwards, the development of Taiwanese Min Nan pop music and media industry in Taiwan caused the Hokkien cultural hub to shift from Xiamen to Taiwan.[citation needed] The flourishing Taiwanese Min Nan entertainment and media industry from Taiwan in the 1990s and early 21st century led Taiwan to emerge as the new significant cultural hub for Hokkien.
In the 1990s, marked by the liberalization of language development and
Thus, by the 21st century, Taiwan had become one of the most significant Hokkien cultural hubs of the world. The historical changes and development in Taiwan had led Taiwanese Hokkien to become the most influential pole of the Hokkien dialect after the mid-20th century. Today, the Taiwanese prestige dialect (台語優勢腔/通行腔) is heard on Taiwanese media.
Writing systems
Chinese script
Hokkien dialects are typically written using
While most Hokkien morphemes have standard designated characters, they are not always etymological or phono-semantic. Similar-sounding, similar-meaning or rare characters are commonly borrowed or substituted to represent a particular morpheme. Examples include "beautiful" (美; bí is the literary form), whose vernacular morpheme suí is represented by characters like 媠 (an obsolete character), 婎 (a vernacular reading of this character) and even 水 (transliteration of the sound suí), or (高; ko is the literary form), whose morpheme kôan is 懸.[70] Common grammatical particles are not exempt; the negation particle m̄ is variously represented by 毋, 呣 or 唔, among others. In other cases, characters are invented to represent a particular morpheme (a common example is the character 𪜶; in, which represents the personal pronoun 'they'). In addition, some characters have multiple and unrelated pronunciations, adapted to represent Hokkien words. For example, the Hokkien word bah; 'meat') has been reduced to the character 肉, which have etymologically unrelated colloquial and literary readings he̍k and jio̍k, respectively).[71][72] Another case is the word chia̍h; 'to eat', which is often transcribed in Taiwanese newspapers and media as 呷 (a Mandarin transliteration , to approximate the Hokkien term), even though its recommended character in dictionaries is 食.[73]
Moreover, unlike Cantonese, Hokkien does not have a universally accepted standardized character set. Thus, there is some variation in the characters used to express certain words and characters can be ambiguous in meaning. In 2007, the Ministry of Education of the
Latin script
Hokkien, especially Taiwanese Hokkien, is sometimes written in the
Min Nan texts, all Hokkien, can be dated back to the 16th century. One example is the
Taiwan has developed a Latin alphabet for Taiwanese Hokkien, derived from POJ, known as Tai-lo. Since 2006, it has been officially promoted by Taiwan's Ministry of Education and taught in Taiwanese schools. Xiamen University has also developed an alphabet based on Pinyin called Bbánlám pìngyīm.
Computing
Hokkien is registered as "Southern Min" per RFC 3066 as zh-min-nan.[75]
When writing Hokkien in Chinese characters, some writers create 'new' characters when they consider it impossible to use directly or borrow existing ones; this corresponds to similar practices in character usage in Cantonese, Vietnamese chữ Nôm, Korean hanja and Japanese kanji. Some of these are not encoded in Unicode, thus creating problems in computer processing.
All Latin characters required by Pe̍h-ōe-jī can be represented using Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set), using precomposed or combining (diacritics) characters. Prior to June 2004, the vowel akin to but more open than o, written with a dot above right, was not encoded. The usual workaround was to use an (stand-alone; spaced) interpunct (U+00B7, ·) or less commonly the combining character dot above (U+0307). As these are far from ideal, since 1997 proposals have been submitted to the ISO/IEC working group in charge of ISO/IEC 10646—namely, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2—to encode a new combining character dot above right. This is now officially assigned to U+0358 (see documents N1593, N2507, N2628, N2699, and N2713).
Cultural and political role
Hokkien (or Min Nan) can trace its roots through the Tang dynasty and also even further to the people of the Minyue, the indigenous non-Han people of modern-day Fujian.[76] 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.
In 2002, the
Hokkien was finally made an official language of Taiwan in 2018 by the ruling DPP government.
See also
- Hokkien Kelantan
- Hokkien people
- Languages of China
- Languages of Taiwan
- List of Hokkien dictionaries
- List of Hokkien people
- Amoy Min Nan Swadesh list
Notes
- ^ Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Longyan, and surrounding counties
- ^ Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Klang, Malacca, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kuching, Sarawak, Limbang, Labuan
- Butuan City, Sorsogon City, Tuguegarao
- ^ Yangon, Myeik District
- ^ Battambang, Phnom Penh
- ^ North Point, Causeway Bay, Kowloon Bay
- ^ Chợ Lớn, Hội An, Huế
- ^ Bandar Seri Begawan, Kuala Belait
- ^ As per Ethnologue (2000),[1] the population figures given here are for peninsular Malaysia only. The corresponding figures for Sabah and Sarawak are not currently available.
- ^ More than 27.7 million Hokkien speakers in mainland China (2018), 13.5 million in Taiwan (2017), 2.02 million in peninsular Malaysia (2000),[l] 1.5 million in Singapore (2017),[2] 1 million in Philippines (2010), 766,000 in Indonesia (2015), 350,000 in Cambodia (2001), 70,500 in Hong Kong (2016), 45,000 in Vietnam (1989), 17,600 in Thailand (1984), 13,300 in Brunei (2004)
- ^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.[3][4][5]
References
- ^ a b Hokkien at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020)
- ^ Ethnologue. "Languages of Singapore – Ethnologue 2017". Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- JSTOR 2718766
- ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
- from the original on 13 October 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Reclassifying ISO 639-3 [nan]: An Empirical Approach to Mutual Intelligibility and Ethnolinguistic Distinctions" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2021.
- ^ "Draft National Language Development Act Clears Legislative Floor". Focus Taiwan. CNA. 25 December 2018.
- ^ 立院三讀《國家語言發展法》 公廣集團可設台語電視台. Apple News (in Chinese). 25 December 2018. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
- ^ Zhou Siyu (周思宇) (25 December 2018). 《國家語言發展法》立院三讀!政府得設台語專屬頻道 [Third Reading of the National Language Development Law! The Government Must Set Up a Taiwanese-Only Channel]. ltn.com.tw (in Chinese). Yahoo!.
- ^ 大眾運輸工具播音語言平等保障法 [Public Transport Broadcast Language Equality Guarantee Law] (in Chinese) – via Chinese Wikisource.
- ^ "Change Request Documentation: 2021-045". 31 August 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- ^ "Hokkien, adjective & noun". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-816-07109-8.
- ^ Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ hànzì zhī xuǎnyòng yuánzé 臺灣閩南語漢字之選用原則 [Selection Principles of Taiwanese Min Nan Chinese Characters] (PDF) (in Chinese), archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2021, retrieved 23 September 2017 – via ws.moe.edu.tw
- ^ a b Douglas, Carstairs (1899). "Extent of the Amoy Vernacular, and its Sub-division into Dialects.". Chinese–English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: Presbyterian Church of England. p. 609.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Douglas, Carstairs (1899). "Variations of Spelling in Other Books on the Language of Amoy". Chinese–English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: Presbyterian Church of England. p. 607.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ a b Macgowan, John (1883). English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: London Missionary Society.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ a b Douglas, Carstairs (1899). Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy. London: Presbyterian Church of England.
- ^ Douglas, Carstairs (1899). Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy. London: Presbyterian Church of England.
- ^ a b 張屏生. 《第十屆閩方言國際學術研討會》 (PDF).
- ^ 吳, 守禮. 臺南市福建省同安方言的色彩較濃.
- ^ 吳, 守禮. 經歷台南同安腔與員林漳州腔的異同. Archived from the original on 4 September 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
- Taiwan Ministry of Education. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
- ^ a b c Douglas, Carstairs (1899). "Extent of the Amoy Vernacular, and its Sub-division into Dialects.". Chinese–English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: Presbyterian Church of England. p. 610.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ISBN 978-3-89586-629-6.
- ^ a b Chappell, Hilary; Peyraube, Alain (2006). "The analytic causatives of early modern Southern Min in diachronic perspective". In Ho, D.-a.; Cheung, S.; Pan, W.; Wu, F. (eds.). Linguistic Studies in Chinese and Neighboring Languages. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. pp. 973–1011.
- ISBN 978-0-19-985633-6.
- ISBN 978-90-04-18493-0.[page needed]
- JSTOR 23833463.
- ^ Van der Loon, Piet (1966). "The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies, Part 1" (PDF). Asia Major. New Series. 12 (1): 1–43. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
- )
- ^ a b c d Lee, Fabio Yuchung; José, Regalado Trota; Caño, José Luis Ortigosa; Chang, Luisa (12 August 2023). "1. Taiwan. Mesa Redonda. Fabio Yuchung Lee, José Regalado, Luisa Chang". Youtube (in Spanish and Mandarin).
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Mançano, Melchior; Feyjoó, Raymundo (1620). Arte de la Lengua Chiõ Chiu – via Universitat de Barcelona.
- ^ Zulueta, Lito B. (8 February 2021). "World's Oldest and Largest Spanish-Chinese Dictionary Found in UST". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
- ^ Van der Loon, Piet (1967). "The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies, Part 2" (PDF). Asia Major. New Series. 13 (1): 95–186. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
- ISBN 978-3-447-05093-7.
- ^ Medhurst, Walter Henry (1832). A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms: Containing About 12,000 Characters. Accompanied by a Short Historical and Statistical Account of Hok-këèn (in English and Hokkien). Macao: The Honorable East India Company's Press, by G.J. Steyn and Brother.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Douglas, Carstairs (1873). Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, with the Principal Variations of the Chang-Chew and Chin-Chew Dialects (in English and Hokkien). 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London: Trübner & Co.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ISBN 978-0-8048-3853-5.
- ^ a b Douglas, Carstairs (1899). "D.". Chinese-English dictionary of the vernacular or spoken language of Amoy (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: Presbyterian Church of England. p. 99.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Douglas, Carstairs (1899). "dz". Chinese-English dictionary of the vernacular or spoken language of Amoy (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: Presbyterian Church of England. p. 99.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Fang, Meili (2010). Spoken Hokkien. London: SOAS. p. 13.
- ^ Douglas, Carstairs (1899). "L.". Chinese-English dictionary of the vernacular or spoken language of Amoy (in English & Amoy Hokkien). London: Presbyterian Church of England. p. 288.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - S2CID 145243105.
- ^ Fang, Meili (2010). Spoken Hokkien. London: SOAS. pp. 9–11.
- ISBN 7-211-03896-9.
- ^ "Shēngdiào xìtǒng" 聲調系統 (in Chinese). 1 August 2007. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2010 – via ntcu.edu.tw.
- ^ Chang, Yueh-chin; Hsieh, Feng-fan (2013), Complete and Not-So-Complete Tonal Neutralization in Penang Hokkien – via Academia.edu
- ^ "Nán'ān fāngyán fùcí fēnxī" 南安方言副词分析. Fujian Normal University. 2010. Archived from the original on 31 January 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
- ^ a b "Chinese, Min Nan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ "German". Ethnologue. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
- ^ Ratte, Alexander T. (2009). A Dialectal and Phonological Analysis of Penghu Taiwanese (PDF) (BA thesis). Williams College. p. 4.
- ISBN 90-04-07850-9.
- ^ Lien, Chinfa (2002). Grammatical Function Words 乞, 度, 共, 甲, 將 and 力 in Li Jing Ji 荔鏡記 and their Development in Southern Min (PDF). Papers from the Third International Conference on Sinology. National Tsing Hua University: 179–216. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-3-447-05093-7.[page needed]
- ^ Lim, Beng Soon; Teoh, Boon Seong (2007). Alves, Mark; Sidwell, Paul; Gil, David (eds.). Malay Lexicalized Items in Penang Peranakan Hokkien (PDF). SEALSVIII: 8th Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (1998). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 165.
- ^ Chappell, Hilary; Alain Peyraube. "The Analytic Causatives Of Early Modern Southern Min In Diachronic Perspective" (PDF). Linguistic Studies in Chinese and Neighboring Languages. Paris, France: Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale: 1–34.
- ^ a b Mair, Victor H. (2010). "How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language". University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
- ^ a b "Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ chángyòng cí cídiǎn" 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan]. Ministry of Education, R.O.C. 2011.
- ^ "濕". 17 September 2022 – via Wiktionary.
- ^ "檨". 5 April 2022 – via Wiktionary.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Teochew, another Minnan language – Oung-Heng HENG | PG 2019". YouTube.
- ^ "Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ wàilái cí" 臺灣閩南語外來詞 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese). Taiwan: Ministry of Education, R.O.C. 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
- ^ a b Sidong Feidong 似懂非懂 (2006). Pēi nán mì 卑南覓 (in Chinese). Hyweb Technology Co. pp. 1873–. GGKEY:TPZ824QU3UG.
- ^ Thomas Watters (1889). Essays on the Chinese Language. Presbyterian Mission Press. pp. 346–.
- ^ Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. "Tâi-bûn/Hôa-bûn Sòaⁿ-téng Sû-tián" 台文/華文線頂辭典 [Taiwanese/Chinese Online Dictionary]. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
- S2CID 225917190.
- ^ 《網路社會學通訊期刊》第45期,2005年03月15日. Nhu.edu.tw. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
- Sina Weibo. Archived from the originalon 8 November 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ^ Iûⁿ, Ún-giân. 台語線頂字典 [Taiwanese Hokkien Online Character Dictionary] (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-3-447-05093-7.
- ^ 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese). Ministry of Education, R.O.C. 2013. #2607.
- ^ Hsieh, Shelley Ching-yu (October 2005). "Taiwanese Loanwords in Mandarin Chinese: Language Interaction in Taiwan" (PDF). Taiwan Papers. 5. Southern Taiwan University of Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
- ^ Táiwān Mǐnnányǔ tuījiàn yòng zì (dì 1 pī) 臺灣閩南語推薦用字(第1批) (PDF) (in Chinese), Jiaoyu bu, archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2010, retrieved 2 July 2011
- ^ "RFC 3066 Language code assignments". Evertype.com. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
- JSTOR 40726203.
- ^ Lin, Mei-chun (10 March 2002). "Hokkien Should Be Given Official Status, Says Tsu". Taipei Times. p. 1.
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, Raung-fu (1996). The Segmental Phonology of Southern Min in Taiwan. Taipei: Crane Pub. ISBN 957-9463-46-8.
- DeBernardi, Jean (1991). "Linguistic Nationalism: The Case of Southern Min". OCLC 24810816.
- Ding, Picus Sizhi (2016). Southern Min (Hokkien) as a Migrating Language. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 978-981-287-593-8.
- Klöter, Henning (2011). The Language of the Sangleys: A Chinese Vernacular in Missionary Sources of the Seventeenth Century. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-18493-0. - An analysis and facsimile of the Arte de la Lengua Chio-chiu (1620), the oldest extant grammar of Hokkien.
- Hompot, Sebestyén (2018). Schottenhammer, Angela (ed.). "Xiamen at the Crossroads of Sino-Foreign Linguistic Interaction during the Late Qing and Republican Periods: The Issue of Hokkien Phoneticization" (PDF). Crossroads: Studies on the History of Exchange Relations in the East Asian World. 17/18. OSTASIEN Verlag: 167–205. ISSN 2190-8796. - Chapter examining and detailing the history of Hokkien dictionaries and similar works and the history of Hokkien writing systems over the centuries, especially phonetic scripts for Hokkien
External links
- Lìzhī jì 荔枝記 [Litchi Mirror Tale]. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2015. A playscript from the late 16th century.
- Cobo, Juan, O.P. (1593). Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china. Manila.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Hokkien version of the Doctrina Christiana en lengua española y tagala (1593):- at Biblioteca Nacional de España
- at UST Miguel de Benavidez Library, Manila Archived 8 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- at NCTU, Taiwan Archived 11 December 2023 at the Wayback Machine
- at Filipinas Heritage Library, Manila
- Mançano, Melchior; Feyjoó, Raymundo (1620). Arte de la Lengua Chio-chiu (in Spanish). Manila. A manual for learning Hokkien written by a Spanish missionary in the Philippines.
- Lūi-chi̍p Ngá-sio̍k-thong Si̍p-ngó͘-im / Huìjí yǎsú tōng shíwǔ yīn 彙集雅俗通十五音 [Compilation of the Fifteen Elegant and Vulgar Sounds] (in Chinese). 1818. The oldest known rhyme dictionary of a Zhangzhou dialect.
- Douglas, Carstairs (1899). Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy ("New Edition" (With Chinese Character Glosses) ed.). London: Presbyterian Church of England.
- Douglas, Carstairs (1873). Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy ([With 1923 Supplement after the Appendix by Thomas Barclay, Shanghai: Commercial Press, Ltd.] ed.). London: Trübner & Co.
- Medhurst, Walter Henry (1832). A Dictionary of the Hok-Këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms. Macao: C.J. Steyn.
- 當代泉州音字彙, a dictionary of Quanzhou speech
- "Amoy Resources". BSOP Biblical Seminary of the Philippines. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
- Voyager – Spacecraft – Golden Record – Greetings From Earth – Amoy, includes translation and sound clip
- (The voyager clip says: Thài-khong pêng-iú, lín-hó. Lín chia̍h-pá--bē? Ū-êng, to̍h lâi gún chia chē--ô͘! 太空朋友,恁好。恁食飽未?有閒著來阮遮坐哦!)