Southern Min

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,{{cite book

| given = Nicholas C. | surname = Bodman

| title = The Reflexes of Initial Nasals in Proto-Southern Min-Hingua | pages = 2–20 | jstor = 20006706

| editor-given1 = Veneeta | editor-surname1 = Acson

| editor-given2 = Richard L. | editor-surname2 = Leed

| series = Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications | volume = 20

| publisher = University of Hawaii Press | year = 1985 | isbn = 978-0-8248-0992-8

}} 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.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate.{{example needed|date=December 2018}}{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intelligibility with Southern Min.{{cite book |last1=Lien |first1=Chinfa |chapter=Denasalization, Vocalic Nasalization and Related Issues in Southern Min: A Dialectal and Comparative Perspective |editor1-last=Ting |editor1-first=Pang-Hsin |editor2-last=Yue |editor2-first=Anne O. |title=In Memory of Professor Li Fang-Kuei: Essays of Linguistic Change and the Chinese Dialects |date=2000-09-01 |publisher=Academic Sinica |location=Taipei |isbn=957-671-725-6 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237408896_Denasalization_Vocalic_Nasalization_and_Related_Issues_in_Southern_Min_A_Dialectal_and_Comparative_Perspective |access-date=1 September 2024}}

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.{{Cite web|title=The politics of language names in Taiwan|url=http://www.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~jed/MultilingMulticult/Taiwan/TaiwanLgNames.html|access-date=2020-06-15|website=www.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp}}

There are many Southern Min speakers 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 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 (former French Cochinchina of French Indochina) and Central 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 Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew, 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 native or heritage language of up to 98.7% of the Chinese Filipino community, who refer to it as {{lang|nan-Latn|Lán-nâng-ōe}} ({{lit|our people's language}}).

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

There are two or three major divisions of Southern Min, depending on the criteria for Leizhou and Hainanese inclusion:

{{tree list}}

• Southern Min
• Hokkien under the Quanzhang division ({{lang|zh-hans|泉漳片}})
• Teochew, Swatow, Jieyang, Haklau Min under the Chaoshan division ({{lang|zh-hans|潮汕片}})
• Leizhou and Hainanese dialects under the Qiong-Lei division ({{lang|zh-hans|瓊雷片}}).

{{tree list/end}}

More recently, Kwok (2018: 157){{cite book|title=Southern Min: comparative phonology and subgrouping|first=Bit-Chee|last=Kwok|series=Routledge studies in East Asian linguistics|volume=2|place=New York|publisher=Routledge|date=2018|isbn=978-1-138-94365-0}} has proposed an alternative classification, with a divergent Northern branch that includes Quanzhou dialect but not Zhangzhou dialect, as shown below:

{{tree list}}

• Southern Min
• Northern
• Cangnan
• Quanzhou, Zihu
• Central-Southern
• Central
• Zhangzhou
• Longyan, Datian
• Southern
• Guangdong
• ? Haifeng
• Jieyang, Chaoyang
• Hainan
• Leizhou
• Haikou

{{tree list/end}}

{{main|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 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).

{{Main|Teochew Min}}

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.{{e18|nan Minnan}}

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 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.

{{main|Hokkien#Phonology|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 of {{Ipa|/m/}}, {{Ipa|/n/}}, {{Ipa|/ŋ/}}, and {{Ipa|/~/}}.

{{unreferenced section|date=November 2020}}

Southern Min can trace its origins through the Tang dynasty, and it also has roots from earlier periods. Hokkien people call themselves "Tang people", ({{lang|nan-Latn|Tn̂g-lâng}} {{lang|zh-hant|唐人}}/{{lang|zh-hant|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 and Japanese languages.

{{see also|Written Hokkien|Pe̍h-ōe-jī|Peng'im}}

{{unreferenced section|date=April 2024}}

Both Hokkien and Teochew have romanized writing systems and also respective Chinese characters. In mainland China, it is known as {{zh|c=閩南文|poj=Bân-lâm-bûn|out=poj|labels=no}}, while in Taiwan, written Hokkien is known as {{zh|c=台文|poj=Tâi-bûn|out=poj|labels=no}}. Chinese characters are known in China and Taiwan as {{zh|c=漢字|poj=Hàn-jī|out=poj|labels=no}}. In Malaysia and Singapore, they are known as {{zh|c=唐儂字 / 唐人字|poj=Tn̂g-lâng-jī|out=poj|labels=no}}. In the Philippines, they are known as {{zh|c=咱儂字 / 咱人字|poj=Lán-nâng-lī|out=poj|labels=no}} or {{zh|c=漢文字|poj=Hàn-bûn-lī|out=poj|labels=no}}.

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.{{sfnp|Norman|1991|pp=328}} 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.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=210, 228}} 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.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=228–229}} Linguists estimate that the oldest layers of Min dialects diverged from the rest of Chinese around the time of the Han dynasty.{{sfnp|Ting|1983|pp=9–10}}{{sfnp|Baxter|Sagart|2014|pp=33, 79}} However, significant waves of migration from the North China Plain occurred.{{sfnp|Yan|2006|p=120}} These include:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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:

1. A non-Chinese substratum from the original languages of Minyue, which Norman and Mei Tsu-lin believe were Austroasiatic.{{sfnp|Norman|Mei|1976}}{{sfnp|Norman|1991|pp=331–332}}
2. The earliest Chinese layer, brought to Fujian by settlers from Zhejiang to the north during the Han dynasty.{{sfnp|Norman|1991|pp=334–336}}
3. A layer from the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, which is largely consistent with the phonology of the Qieyun dictionary.{{sfnp|Norman|1991|p=336}}
4. A literary layer based on the koiné of Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty.{{sfnp|Norman|1991|p=337}}

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{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{citation

| surname1 = Baxter | given1 = William H.

| surname2 = Sagart | given2 = Laurent

| title = Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction

| publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2014 | isbn = 978-0-19-994537-5

| postscript = .

}}

• {{citation

| surname1 = Norman | given1 = Jerry | author-link1 = Jerry Norman (sinologist)

| surname2 = Mei | given2 = Tsu-lin

| title = The Austroasiatics in Ancient South China: Some Lexical Evidence

| journal = Monumenta Serica | year = 1976 | volume = 32 | pages = 274–301

| url = http://tlmei.com/tm17web/1976a_austroasiatics.pdf

| doi = 10.1080/02549948.1976.11731121 | jstor = 40726203

| postscript = .

}}

• {{citation

| surname = Norman | given = Jerry | author-link = Jerry Norman (sinologist)

| title = Chinese

| location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1988

| isbn = 978-0-521-29653-3

| postscript = .

}}

• {{citation

| contribution = The Mǐn dialects in historical perspective

| given = Jerry | surname = Norman

| title = Languages and Dialects of China

| editor-given = William S.-Y. | editor-surname = Wang

| pages = 325–360

| series = Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series | volume = 3

| publisher = Chinese University Press | year = 1991

| issue = 3 | jstor = 23827042 | oclc = 600555701

| postscript = .

}}

• {{citation

| surname = Ting | given = Pang-Hsin

| title = Derivation time of colloquial Min from Archaic Chinese

| journal = Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology

| year = 1983 | volume = 54 | issue = 4 | pages = 1–14

| postscript = .

}}

• {{citation

| given = Margaret Mian | surname = Yan

| title = Introduction to Chinese Dialectology

| publisher = LINCOM Europa | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-3-89586-629-6

| postscript = .

}}

• {{cite book |last=Branner |first=David Prager |title= Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka |series= Trends in Linguistics series, no. 123 |year=2000 |publisher= Mouton de Gruyter |location= Berlin |isbn= 3-11-015831-0 }}
• {{cite book |last=Chung |first=Raung-fu |title= The segmental phonology of Southern Min in Taiwan |year=1996 |publisher= Crane Pub. Co |location= Taipei |isbn= 957-9463-46-8 }}
• {{cite journal|last=DeBernardi |first=Jean |title=Linguistic nationalism: the case of Southern Min |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |volume=25 |year=1991 |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp025_taiwanese.html |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |location=Philadelphia |oclc=24810816}}
• {{cite book |title=Sinitic Grammar |editor-first=Hilary |editor-last=Chappell |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=2001 |isbn=0-19-829977-X }} "Part V: Southern Min Grammar" (3 articles).

{{InterWiki|code=nan}}

{{incubator|nan|wikibooks}}

{{Wikibooks|Minnan}}

{{Wiktionary|Minnan|Appendix:Amoy Minnan Swadesh list|Appendix:Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists}}

{{wikivoyage|Minnan phrasebook|Minnan|a phrasebook}}

• [http://alt.reasoning.cs.ucla.edu/jinbo/dzl/ 當代泉州音字彙], a dictionary of Quanzhou speech
• {{R:nan:taihoa}}
• {{cite web |author=Iûⁿ, Ún-giân |script-title=zh:台語線頂字典 |language=nan, zh-TW |trans-title=Taiwanese Hokkien Online Character Dictionary |url=http://210.240.194.97/TG/jitian/tgjt.asp |access-date=2015-02-06 |archive-date=2018-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225061147/http://210.240.194.97/TG/jitian/tgjt.asp%20 |url-status=dead }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111118031511/http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/tw/index.htm 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).
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061008180132/http://nlg.csie.ntu.edu.tw/systems/TWLLMT/index.html 臺灣本土語言互譯及語音合成系統], Taiwanese-Hakka-Mandarin online conversion
• [http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/languages/amoy.html Voyager - Spacecraft - Golden Record - Greetings from Earth - Amoy] The voyager clip says: {{lang|nan|Thài-khong pêng-iú, lín-hó. Lín chia̍h-pá--bē? Ū-êng, to̍h lâi gún chia chē--ô·!}} {{zh|labels=no|t=太空朋友，恁好。恁食飽未？有閒著來阮遮坐哦!}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20010525232644/http://daiwanway.dynip.com/cgi/tdict.acgi?w=&p=&e=&m= 台語詞典] Taiwanese-English-Mandarin Dictionary
• [http://www.pinyin.info/readings/mair/taiwanese.html "How to Forget Your Mother Tongue and Remember Your National Language"] by Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania
• [https://iso639-3.sil.org/request/2008-083 ISO 639-3 Change Request Documentation: 2008-083], requesting to replace code [http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=nan nan] (Minnan Chinese) with dzu (Chaozhou) and xim (Xiamen), rejected because it did not include codes to cover the rest of the group.
• [https://iso639-3.sil.org/request/2021-045 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.
• {{cite web |url=https://github.com/KIRINPUTRA/reclassifying-ISO-639-3-nan |title=Reclassifying ISO 639-3 [nan]: An Empirical Approach to Mutual Intelligibility and Ethnolinguistic Distinctions|website=GitHub|date=18 December 2021}} – supporting documentation

{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}

{{Min Chinese}}

{{Languages of Taiwan}}

{{Languages of China}}

{{Chinese language}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Min}}

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