Southern Min (), Minnan (Standard Chinese pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan (many citizens are descendants of settlers from Fujian), Eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and Southern Zhejiang.
The most widely spoken Southern Min language is Hokkien, which includes Taiwanese.
Other varieties of Southern Min have significant differences from Hokkien, some having limited mutual intelligibility with it, others almost none. Teochew dialect, Longyan Min, and Zhenan Min are said to have general mutual intelligibility with Hokkien, sharing similar phonology and vocabulary to a large extent.
Geographic distribution
Mainland China
Southern Min dialects are spoken in southern
Fujian, specifically in the cities of
Xiamen,
Quanzhou,
Zhangzhou, and much of
Longyan, hence the name. In addition, varieties of Southern Min are spoken in several southeastern counties of
Wenzhou in
Zhejiang, the Zhoushan archipelago off
Ningbo in
Zhejiang, the town of
Sanxiang at the southern periphery of
Zhongshan in
Guangdong,
and in the
Chaoshan (Teo-swa) region in Guangdong.
The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as in Hainan is classified as Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with mainstream Southern Min or Teochew. Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate.This is an example.
Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intelligibility with Southern Min.
Taiwan
The Southern Min dialects spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, 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.
Southeast Asia
There are many Southern Min speakers among
overseas Chinese in
Southeast Asia. Many ethnic
Chinese people immigrants to the region were
Hoklo people from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now present-day
Malaysia and
Singapore (formerly
British Malaya, the Straits Settlements, and
British Borneo),
Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies), the
Philippines (former Spanish East Indies and later, US -Philippine Islands),
Brunei (former part of
British Borneo), Southern Thailand,
Myanmar (British Burma),
Cambodia (former French Cambodia of
French Indochina),
Southern Vietnam Vietnam (former French Cochinchina of
French Indochina) and
Central Vietnam Vietnam (former French Annam of
French Indochina). 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
ethnic Chinese also originated in the
Chaoshan region of
Guangdong and speak
Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region, particularly
Thailand,
Cambodia,
Southern Vietnam,
Malaysia,
Singapore,
Indonesia, etc. In the
Philippines, Philippine Hokkien is reportedly the
First language or heritage language of up to 98.7% of the
Chinese Filipino community, who refer to it as Lán-nâng-ōe ().
Southern Min speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with Hokkien being the largest group and the second largest being Teochew people. Despite the similarities, the two groups are rarely viewed together as "Southern Min".
Classification and Varieties
There are two or three major divisions of Southern Min, depending on the criteria for Leizhou and Hainanese inclusion:
More recently, Kwok (2018: 157)
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Southern Min
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Northern
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Central-Southern
Hokkien
Hokkien is the most widely spoken form of Southern Min, including
Amoy dialect and Taiwanese. Both of these developed as a combination of
Quanzhou dialect and Zhangzhou speech.
Varieties in South-East Asia include: Singaporean Hokkien, Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien, and Philippine Hokkien (which are closer to Quanzhou Hokkien), and
Penang Hokkien and
Medan Hokkien (which are closer to Zhangzhou Hokkien).
Teochew
Teochew is a closely related to Hokkien, with several variants spoken across the
Chaoshan region. Some also consider
Haklau Min to be part of Teochew. Despite the close relationship, Teochew and Hokkien are different enough in both pronunciation and vocabulary that mutual intelligibility is difficult.
Other Varieties
Zhenan Min, a dialect island in
Zhejiang province, is closely related to Quanzhou Hokkien.
Haklau Min, spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng, differs markedly from neighbouring Teochew dialect and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou. Linguistically, it lies between Teochew and Amoy.
Datian Min, spoken in Datian County in Fujian province, has been influenced by other Min varieties.
Sanxiang Min is spoken in a dialect island in Guangdong province.
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 consonant finals consist of , , , and .
Sino-Xenic comparisons
Southern Min can trace its origins through the
Tang dynasty, and it also has roots from earlier periods.
Hokkien people call themselves "Tang people", (
Tn̂g-lâng 唐人]]/唐儂]]) 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 Southern Min pronunciations of words shared by the Sino-xenic pronunciations of Vietnamese,
Korean language and Japanese languages.
|
|
| cêh4 | saku/satsu/shaku (さく/さつ/しゃく) |
| giê5/gio5 | kyō (きょう) |
| guîn5/nguín5 hiem2 | kiken (きけん) |
| dai6 sái2 guêng2 | taishikan (たいしかん) |
| kî5 | ki (き) |
| bó2-hiém | hoken (ほけん) |
| sing1 bhung6 | shinbun (しんぶん) |
| hak8 sêng1 | gakusei (がくせい) |
| dai6 hag8/dua7 oh8 | daigaku (だいがく) |
Writing systems
Both Hokkien and Teochew have romanized writing systems and also respective Chinese characters. In
mainland China, it is known as , while in
Taiwan, written Hokkien is known as . Chinese characters are known in China and Taiwan as . In Malaysia and Singapore, they are known as . In the Philippines, they are known as or .
History
The Min homeland of Fujian was opened to Han Chinese settlement by the defeat of the
Minyue state by the armies of Emperor Wu of Han in 110 BC. 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 River and Gan rivers to the west, so that Min varieties have experienced less northern influence than other southern groups. As a result, whereas most varieties of Chinese can be treated as derived from
Middle Chinese, the language described by
rime dictionary such as the
Qieyun (601 AD), Min varieties contain traces of older distinctions. Linguists estimate that the oldest layers of Min dialects diverged from the rest of Chinese around the time of the
Han dynasty. However, significant waves of migration from the North China Plain occurred. These include:
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The Uprising of the Five Barbarians during the Jin dynasty, particularly the Disaster of Yongjia in 311 AD, caused a tide of immigration to the south.
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In 669, Chen Zheng and his son Chen Yuanguang from Gushi County in Henan set up a regional administration in Fujian to suppress an insurrection by the She people.
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Wang Chao, also from Gushi, moved south to Fujian and was appointed its governor in 893, near the end of the Tang dynasty, and brought tens of thousands of troops from Henan. In 909, following the fall of the Tang dynasty, his younger brother Wang Shenzhi founded the Min Kingdom, one of the Ten Kingdoms in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
Jerry Norman identifies four main layers in the vocabulary of modern Min varieties:
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A non-Chinese substratum from the Minyue language, which Norman and Mei Tsu-lin believe were Austroasiatic.
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The earliest Chinese layer, brought to Fujian by settlers from Zhejiang to the north during the Han dynasty.
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A layer from the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, which is largely consistent with the phonology of the Qieyun dictionary.
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A literary layer based on the koiné of Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty.
See also
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Chinese in Singapore
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Languages of China
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Languages of Taiwan
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Languages of Thailand
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Malaysian Chinese
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Protection of the Varieties of Chinese
Notes
Sources
Further reading
External links
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當代泉州音字彙, a dictionary of Quanzhou speech
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臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典, Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan by the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan).
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臺灣本土語言互譯及語音合成系統, Taiwanese-Hakka-Mandarin online conversion
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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·!
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台語詞典 Taiwanese-English-Mandarin Dictionary
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"How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language" by Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania
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ISO 639-3 Change Request Documentation: 2008-083, requesting to replace code nan (Minnan Chinese) with dzu (Chaozhou) and xim (Xiamen), rejected because it did not include codes to cover the rest of the group.
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ISO 639-3 Change Request Documentation: 2021-045, requesting to replace code nan with 11 new codes. Codes were added for Leizhou and Hainan Min, but the others were rejected for lack of evidence in published research.
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– supporting documentation
