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74-436: Amoyese and Taiwanese are both historically mixtures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. As such, they are very closely aligned phonologically . There are some differences between the two, especially lexical, as a result of physical separation and the differing histories of mainland China and Taiwan during the 20th century. Amoyese and Taiwanese are mutually intelligible. Intelligibility with other Hokkien, especially inland,

148-599: A Chinese official suggested sending victims to Taiwan and provide "for each person three taels of silver and for each three people one ox". Although this plan was never carried out, the Zheng family maintained an interest in Taiwan that would have dire consequences for the Dutch Empire , who ruled Taiwan as Dutch Formosa at the time. In 1624 and 1626, the Dutch and Spanish forces occupied

222-437: A final consonant ⟨p⟩ , ⟨t⟩ , or ⟨k⟩ may appear. When this happens, it is impossible for the syllable to be nasal. Indeed, these are the counterpart to the nasal final consonants ⟨m⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , and ⟨ng⟩ , respectively, in other tones. However, it is possible to have a nasal 4th or 8th tone syllable such as ⟨siahⁿ⟩ , as long as there

296-407: A large extent. On the other hand, variants such as Datian , Zhongshan , and Qiong - Lei have historical linguistic roots with Hokkien, but are significantly divergent from it in terms of phonology and vocabulary, and thus have almost no mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Linguists tend to classify them as separate languages. Southern Min dialects are spoken in southern Fujian , specifically in

370-441: A large number of Japanese loanwords into its language. Examples of such loanwords (some which had in turn been borrowed from English) include piān-só͘ from benjo ( 便所 , "toilet") , phêng from tsubo ( 坪 , " pyeong ", an areal measurement) (see also Taiwanese units of measurement ), ga-suh from gasu ( 瓦斯 , "gas") , o͘-tó͘-bái from ōtobai ( オートバイ , "autobicycle", motorcycle) . All of these caused

444-517: 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 Southern Min on their own. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang , Malaysia and Medan , Indonesia , a distinct form based on the Zhangzhou dialect has developed. In Penang , it is called Penang Hokkien while across

518-661: A military force again composed of fellow hometown hoklo soldiers of Southern Fujian, attacked Taiwan in the Battle of Penghu , ending the Tungning era and beginning Qing dynasty rule (until 1895). In the first decades of the 18th century, the linguistic differences between the Qing imperial bureaucrats and the commoners were recorded by the Mandarin-speaking first Imperial High Commissioner to Taiwan (1722), Huang Shujing : In this place,

592-618: A mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou Hokkien. A similar phenomenon occurred in Xiamen (Amoy) after 1842, when the mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou Hokkien displaced the Quanzhou dialect to yield the modern Amoy dialect . During the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan , Taiwan began to hold Amoy Hokkien as its standard pronunciation; the Japanese called this mixture Taiwanese ( 臺灣語 , Taiwango ) . Due to

666-436: A result of following the tone change rule twice, these syllables are all pronounced as tone number 1 . Apart from the normal tone sandhi rules described above, there are two special cases where a different set of tone sandhi apply. In a noun with the noun suffix ' 仔 ' ( á ), the penultimate syllable is governed by the following rules: Finally, in the case of a single-syllable adjective triplication (for added emphasis),

740-496: 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. 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

814-404: A stop consonant and two tones in syllables which do end in a stop consonant (the checked tones ). The tones are traditionally numbered from 1 through 8, with 4 and 8 being the checked tones. The distinction between tones 2 and 6 has been lost among most speakers. Amoy has extremely extensive tone sandhi (tone-changing) rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by

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888-610: Is mutually intelligible with the Amoy and Zhangzhou varieties at the mouth of the Jiulong River in mainland China, and with Philippine Hokkien to the south in the Philippines , spoken altogether by about 3 million people. The mass popularity of Hokkien entertainment media from Taiwan has given prominence to the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien, especially since the 1980s. Taiwanese Hokkien

962-597: 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. 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

1036-614: 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 . Southern Min dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora , most notably in Southeast Asia , such as Singapore , Malaysia ,

1110-496: Is a ninth tone which is used for three main purposes: contractions, triplicated adjectives, and loan words . The writing conventions for this tone vary, but the most common are with a breve accent (U+0306, ⟨◌̆⟩) in POJ and with a double acute accent (U+030B, ⟨◌̋⟩) in Tai-lo. A syllable requires a vowel (or diphthong or triphthong ) to appear in the middle. All consonants can appear at

1184-415: Is a variety of Hokkien , a Southern Min language. Like many varieties of Min Chinese , it has distinct literary and colloquial layers of vocabulary, often associated with formal and informal registers respectively. The literary layer can be traced to the late Tang dynasty , and as such is related to Middle Chinese . In contrast, the colloquial layers of Min varieties are believed to have branched from

1258-665: Is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by more than 70 percent of the population of Taiwan . It is spoken by a significant portion of those Taiwanese people who are descended from Hoklo immigrants of southern Fujian . It is one of the national languages of Taiwan . Taiwanese is generally similar to Hokkien spoken in Amoy , Quanzhou , and Zhangzhou , as well as dialectal forms used in Southeast Asia , such as Singaporean Hokkien , Penang Hokkien , Philippine Hokkien , Medan Hokkien , and Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien . It

1332-509: 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. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect , but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min , eventually losing intelligibility with Southern Min. The Southern Min dialects spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese ,

1406-470: Is comparable to the on and kun readings of the Japanese language . The vernacular readings are generally thought to predate the literary readings, as is the case with the Min Chinese varieties; the literary readings appear to have evolved from Middle Chinese . The following chart illustrates some of the more commonly seen sound shifts: The Swadesh word list, developed by the linguist Morris Swadesh ,

1480-477: Is complex and, at times, controversial, even regarding its name. The language has no official name in Taiwan. Some dislike the name "Taiwanese" as they feel that it belittles other languages spoken on the island such as Mandarin, Hakka , and the indigenous languages . Others prefer the names Southern Min , Minnan or Hokkien as this views Taiwanese as a form of the Chinese variety spoken in Fujian province in mainland China . Others dislike those names for precisely

1554-463: 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 language , the variant of Southern Min from that region, particularly Thailand , Cambodia , Southern Vietnam , Malaysia , Singapore , Indonesia , etc. In

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1628-517: Is known as 閩南文 (Bân-lâm-bûn), while in Taiwan , it is known as 台文 (Tâi-bûn). The Han Chinese characters are known in mainland China and Taiwan as 漢字 (Hàn-jī / Hàn-lī). In Malaysia and Singapore, the Chinese characters are sometimes known as 唐儂字 / 唐人字 (Tn̂g-lâng-jī / Tn̂g-lâng-lī). In the Philippines, the Chinese characters are known as 咱儂字 / 咱人字 (Lán-nâng-dī) or 漢文字 (Hàm-bûn-dī). The Min homeland of Fujian

1702-526: Is more difficult. By that standard, Amoyese and Taiwanese may be considered dialects of a single language. Ethnolinguistically, however, Amoyese is part of mainland Hokkien. In 1842, as a result of the signing of the Treaty of Nanking , Amoy was designated as a trading port in Fujian . Amoy and Kulangsu rapidly developed, which resulted in a large influx of people from neighboring areas such as Quanzhou and Zhangzhou . The mixture of these various accents formed

1776-419: Is no final consonant other than ⟨h⟩ . In the dialect spoken near the northern coast of Taiwan, there is no distinction between tones number 8 and number 4 – both are pronounced as if they follow the tone sandhi rules of tone number 4. Tone number 0, typically written with two consecutive hyphens (--a) or a point (·a) before the syllable with this tone, is used to mark enclitics denoting

1850-471: Is non-nasal, and ⟨aⁿ⟩ is the same vowel with concurrent nasal articulation. This is similar to French , Portuguese , Polish , and many other languages. There are two pronunciations of vowel ⟨o⟩ . In the south (e.g., Tainan and Kaohsiung ) it is [ ɤ ] ; in the north (e.g., Taipei ) it is [ o ] . Due to the development of transportation and communication, both pronunciations are common and acceptable throughout

1924-442: Is not affected by the rules. What an ' utterance ' (or ' intonational phrase ') is, in the context of this language, is an ongoing topic for linguistic research, but some general rules apply: The following syllables are unaffected by tone sandhi: The following rules, listed in the traditional pedagogical mnemonic order, govern the pronunciation of tone on each of the syllables affected (that is, all but those described according to

1998-517: Is now largely extinct. However, literary readings of the numbers are used in certain contexts, such as reciting telephone numbers (see Literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters ). During the Yuan dynasty , Quanzhou became a major international port for trade with the outside world. From that period onwards, many people from the Hokkien -speaking regions (southern Fujian) started to emigrate overseas due to political and economic reasons. One of

2072-590: 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. Both Hokkien and Chaoshan ( Teochew and Shantou dialects ) have romanized writing systems and also respective Chinese characters. In mainland China , it

2146-484: 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 , Penang Hokkien , Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien , Medan Hokkien , and Philippine Hokkien . Teo-Swa or Chaoshan speech ( 潮汕片 ) is a closely related variant of Southern Min that includes

2220-429: Is used as a tool to study the evolution of languages. It contains a set of basic words which can be found in every language. Amoy grammar shares a similar structure to other Chinese dialects, although it is slightly more complex than Mandarin. Moreover, equivalent Amoy and Mandarin particles are usually not cognates . Amoy complement constructions are roughly parallel to Mandarin ones, although there are variations in

2294-639: The Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are collectively known as Teo-Swa or Chaoshan. Chaoshan Min 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

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2368-526: The Kekyeo dialect , Teochew and Swatow dialects, and some consider Haklau Min to also be part of. It has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien, though they share some cognates with each other. Chaoshan Min is significantly different from Hokkien in both pronunciation and vocabulary, and mutual intelligibility is difficult. Southern Min has one of the most diverse phonologies of Chinese varieties, with more consonants than Mandarin or Cantonese. Vowels, on

2442-474: The Kingdom of Tungning . Koxinga originated from the Quanzhou region. Chen Yonghua , who was in charge of establishing the education system of Tungning, also originated from Tong'an county of Quanzhou Prefecture. Because most of the soldiers he brought to Taiwan came from Quanzhou, the prestige variant of Hokkien on the island at the time was the Quanzhou dialect . In 1683, Chinese admiral Shi Lang , marshaling

2516-507: The Malacca Strait in Medan, an almost identical variant is known as Medan Hokkien . There are two or three divisions of Southern Min, depending on the criteria for Leizhou and Hainanese inclusion: More recently, Kwok (2018: 157) has proposed an alternative classification, with a divergent Northern branch that includes Quanzhou dialect but not Zhangzhou dialect , as shown below: Hokkien

2590-502: The Mandarin cognate, zǒu , means "to walk". Moreover, cognates may have different lexical categories ; for example, the morpheme phīⁿ ( 鼻 ) means not only "nose" (a noun, as in Mandarin bí ) but also "to smell" (a verb, unlike Mandarin). Among the apparently cognate-less words are many basic words with properties that contrast with similar-meaning words of pan-Chinese derivation. Often

2664-766: The Philippines , Indonesia , Brunei , Southern Thailand , Myanmar , Cambodia , Southern and Central Vietnam , as well as major cities in the United States , including San Francisco , Los Angeles and New York City . Minnan is the most widely-spoken branch of Min, with approximately 48 million speakers as of 2017–2018. 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 , Longyan , and Zhenan are said to have general mutual intelligibility with Hokkien, sharing similar phonology and vocabulary to

2738-785: The Philippines , Indonesia , Brunei , Thailand , Cambodia , Myanmar . The spoken Amoy dialect preserves many of the sounds and words from Old Chinese . However, the vocabulary of Amoy was also influenced in its early stages by the Minyue languages spoken by the ancient Minyue peoples. Spoken Amoy is known for its extensive use of nasalization . Unlike Mandarin , the Amoy dialect distinguishes between voiced and voiceless unaspirated initial consonants (Mandarin has no voicing of initial consonants). Unlike English , it differentiates between unaspirated and aspirated voiceless initial consonants (as Mandarin does too). In less technical terms , native Amoy speakers have little difficulty in hearing

2812-585: The Philippines , Philippine Hokkien is reportedly the native or heritage language of up to 98.7% of the Chinese Filipino community in the Philippines, among whom it is known in Hokkien Chinese : 咱人話 / 咱儂話 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Lán-nâng-ōe / Lán-lâng-ōe / Nán-nâng-ōe ; lit. 'our people's language'. Southern Min speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with Hokkien being

2886-472: The Tainan and Keelung areas, respectively. During the 40 years of Dutch colonial rule of Taiwan , the Dutch recruited many Chinese from the regions around Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in southern Fujian to help develop Taiwan. In the 1661 Siege of Fort Zeelandia , Chinese general Koxinga , marshaling a military force composed of fellow hometown hoklo soldiers of Southern Fujian, expelled the Dutch and established

2960-757: 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

3034-463: The Taiwanese to deviate from Hokkien used elsewhere. During Kōminka of the late Japanese colonial period, the Japanese language appeared in every corner of Taiwan. The Second Sino-Japanese War beginning in 1937 brought stricter measures into force, and along with the outlawing of romanized Taiwanese , various publications were prohibited and Confucian-style private schools which taught Classical Chinese with literary Southern Min pronunciation –

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3108-570: The basic vocabulary of the colloquial Taiwanese with the Austronesian and Tai language families; however, such claims are controversial. The literary form of Hokkien once flourished in Fujian and was brought to Taiwan by early emigrants. Tale of the Lychee Mirror , a manuscript of a series of plays published during the Ming dynasty in 1566, is one of the earliest known works. This form of language

3182-778: The basis for the Amoy dialect. Over the last several centuries, a large number of Southern Fujianese people from these same areas migrated to Taiwan during Dutch and Qing rule. The "Amoy dialect" was considered the vernacular of Taiwan. Eventually, the mixture of accents spoken in Taiwan became popularly known as Taiwanese during Imperial Japanese rule . As in American and British English , there are subtle lexical and phonological differences between modern Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien; however, these differences do not generally pose any barriers to communication. Amoy dialect speakers also migrated to Southeast Asia , mainly in Singapore , Malaysia ,

3256-413: The belligerents usually grouped around the language they used. History has recorded battles between Hakka speakers and Hokkien speakers, between these and the aborigines , and even between those who spoke different variants of Hokkien. In the early 20th century, the Hoklo people in Taiwan could be categorized as originating from modern-day Xiamen , Quanzhou , Zhangzhou , and Zhangpu . People from

3330-433: The character for big/great , 大 , has a vernacular reading of tōa ( [tua˧] ), but a literary reading of tāi ( [tai˧] ). Because of the loose nature of the rules governing when to use a given pronunciation, a learner of Amoy must often simply memorize the appropriate reading for a word on a case-by-case basis. For single-syllable words, it is more common to use the vernacular pronunciation. This situation

3404-944: The choice of lexical term. The following are examples of constructions that Amoy employs. In the case of adverbs: 伊 i he 走 cháu runs 會 ē obtains 緊 kín quick 伊 走 會 緊 i cháu ē kín he runs obtains quick He runs quick ly . In the case of the adverb "very": 伊 i He 走 cháu runs 真 chin obtains 緊 kín quick 伊 走 真 緊 i cháu chin kín He runs obtains quick He runs very quick ly . Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien ( / ˈ h ɒ k i ɛ n / HOK -ee-en , US also / ˈ h oʊ k i ɛ n / HOH -kee-en ; Chinese : 臺灣話 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Tâi-oân-ōe ; Tâi-lô : Tâi-uân-uē ), or simply Taiwanese , also known as Taiuanoe , Taigi , Taigu ( Chinese : 臺語 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī / Tâi-lô : Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú ), Taiwanese Minnan ( Chinese : 臺灣閩南語 ), Hoklo and Holo ,

3478-445: The country. / i / is a diphthong [ i ɪ ] before -k or -ng (POJ: ek, eng), and is slightly shortened and retracted before -p or -t to something more like [ í̞ ]. Similarly, / u / is slightly shortened and retracted before -t or -n to something more like [ ʊ ]. In the traditional analysis, there are eight "tones", numbered from 1 to 8. Strictly speaking, there are only five tonal contours . But as in other Sinitic languages,

3552-543: The death of Peter and another pirate, Li Dan of Quanzhou, Zheng sought to dominate the Strait of Taiwan . By 1628, he had grown so powerful that the Ming court bestowed him the official title, "Patrolling Admiral". In 1624, the number of Chinese on the island was about 25,000. During the reign of Chongzhen Emperor (1627–1644), there were frequent droughts in the Fujian region. Zheng and

3626-591: The destinations for the emigrants was the island of Taiwan (formerly Formosa), starting around 1600. They brought with their native Hokkien language with them. During the late Ming dynasty , the political chaos pushed more migrants from southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong to Taiwan. The earliest immigrants involved in Taiwan's development included pirate-merchants Pedro Yan Shiqi and Zheng Zhilong . In 1621, Chinese Peter and his forces, hailing from Zhangzhou , occupied Ponkan (modern-day Beigang, Yunlin ) and started to develop Tirosen (modern-day Chiayi ). After

3700-566: The difference between the following syllables: However, these fully voiced consonants did not derive from the Early Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but rather from fortition of nasal initials. A comparison between Amoy and other Southern Min languages can be found there. Amoy is similar to other Southern Min variants in that it largely preserves the Middle Chinese tone system of six distinct tones in syllables which do not end in

3774-403: The extent of a verb action, the end of a noun phrase, etc. A frequent use of this tone is to denote a question, such as in "Chia̍h-pá--bōe?", literally meaning 'Have you eaten yet?'. This is realized by speaking the syllable with either a low-falling tone (3) or a low stop (4). The syllable prior to the ⟨--⟩ maintains its original tone. Although uncommon in written Taiwanese, there

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3848-542: The first syllable is governed by the following rules (the second syllable follows the normal tone sandhi rules above): See Tiuⁿ (2001) , Chiung (2003) and the work of Robert L. Cheng (鄭良偉; Tēⁿ Liông-úi) for modern linguistic approaches to tones and tone sandhi in Taiwanese. Modern linguistic studies (by Robert L. Cheng and Chin-An Li, for example) estimate that most (75% to 90%) Taiwanese words have cognates in other Sinitic languages. False friends do exist; for example, cháu ( 走 ) means "to run" in Taiwanese, whereas

3922-451: The following vowels : The vowel ⟨o⟩ is akin to a schwa ; in contrast, ⟨ o͘ ⟩ (with dot) is a more open vowel . In addition, there are several diphthongs and triphthongs (for example, ⟨iau⟩ ). The consonants ⟨m⟩ and ⟨ng⟩ can function as a syllabic nucleus and are therefore included here as vowels. The vowels may be either plain or nasal : ⟨a⟩

3996-526: The former group lacks a standard Han character, and the words are variously considered colloquial, intimate, vulgar, uncultured, or more concrete in meaning than the pan-Chinese synonym. Some examples: lâng ( 人 or 儂 , person, concrete) vs. jîn (人, person, abstract); cha-bó͘ ( 查某 , woman) vs. lú-jîn (女人, woman, literary). Unlike the English Germanic/Latin contrast , however, the two groups of Taiwanese words cannot be as strongly attributed to

4070-575: The former two areas (Quanzhou-speaking) were dominant in the north of the island and along the west coast, whereas people from the latter two areas ( Zhangzhou -speaking) were dominant in the south and perhaps the central plains as well. Although there were conflicts between Quanzhou- and Zhangzhou speakers in Taiwan historically, their gradual intermingling led to the mixture of the two accents . Apart from Lukang city and Yilan County , which have preserved their original Quanzhou and Zhangzhou accents, respectively, almost every region of Taiwan now speaks

4144-517: The influences of two disparate linguistic sources. Southern Min Southern Min ( simplified Chinese : 闽南语 ; traditional Chinese : 閩南語 ; pinyin : Mǐnnányǔ ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Bân-lâm-gí/gú ; lit. 'Southern Min language'), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: [mìn.nǎn] ) or Banlam ( Min Nan Chinese pronunciation: [bàn.lǎm] ),

4218-424: The influx of Japanese loanwords before 1945 and the political separation after 1949, Amoy Hokkien and Taiwanese Hokkien began to diverge slightly. Later, in the 20th century, the conceptualization of Taiwanese was more controversial than most variations of Chinese because, at one time, it marked a clear division between the mainlanders who arrived in 1949 and the pre-existing majority native Taiwanese. Although

4292-423: The initial position. The consonants ⟨p, t, k⟩ and ⟨m, n, ng⟩ (and some consider ⟨h⟩ ) may appear at the end of a syllable. Therefore, it is possible to have syllables such as ⟨ngiau⟩ ("(to) tickle") and ⟨thng⟩ ("soup"). Taiwanese has extremely extensive tone sandhi (tone-changing) rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced

4366-439: The language is as birdcall – totally unintelligible! For example: for the surname Liú , they say 'Lâu'; for Chén , 'Tân'; Zhuāng , 'Chng'; and Zhāng is 'Tioⁿ'. My deputy's surname Wú becomes 'Ngô͘'. My surname Huáng does not even have a proper vowel: it is 'N̂g' here! It is difficult to make sense of this. ( 郡中鴃舌鳥語，全不可曉。如：劉呼「澇」、陳呼「澹」、莊呼「曾」、張呼「丟」。余與吳待御兩姓，吳呼作「襖」，黃則無音，厄影切，更為難省。 ) The tone of Huang's message foretold

4440-688: 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 (P.I.) ), 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

4514-524: The largest group and the second largest being Teochew . Despite the similarities, the two groups are rarely viewed together as "Southern Min". 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 . Those Southern Min variants that are collectively known as "Hokkien" in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in

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4588-498: The lifting of martial law in 1987 and the mother tongue movement in the 1990s did Taiwan finally see a true revival in Taiwanese Hokkien. Today, there are a large number of Taiwanese Hokkien scholars dedicated to researching the language. Despite this, however, according to census data, the number of people speaking Taiwanese continued to drop. The history of the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien and its interaction with Mandarin

4662-573: The mainstream of Chinese around the time of the Han dynasty . Regional variations within the Taiwanese variant may be traced back to Hokkien variants spoken in Southern Fujian, specifically those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou , and later from Amoy . Taiwanese also contains loanwords from Japanese and native Formosan languages . Recent work by scholars such as Ekki Lu, Toru Sakai, and Li Khin-hoann, based on former research by scholars such as Ong Iok-tek , has gone so far as to associate part of

4736-671: 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 /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /~/ . 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

4810-630: The political and linguistic divisions between the two groups have blurred considerably, the political issues surrounding the Taiwanese have been more controversial and sensitive than for other varieties of Chinese . After the First Sino-Japanese War , due to military defeat to the Japanese, the Qing dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan, causing contact with the Hokkien -speaking regions of mainland China to stop. During Japanese rule, Japanese became an official language in Taiwan, and Taiwanese began to absorb

4884-417: The rules listed above): An example of the normal tone sandhi rule is: There are a number of a single syllable words that undergo double tone sandhi, that is, they follow the tone change rule twice and are pronounced according to the second tone change. These syllables are almost always a 4th tone ending in -h , and include the words 欲 (beh), 佮 (kah), 閣 (koh), 才 (chiah), as well as the 3rd tone verb 去 khì. As

4958-535: The rules. What an ' utterance ' is, in the context of this language, is an ongoing topic for linguistic research. For the purpose of this article, an utterance may be considered a word , a phrase , or a short sentence . The diagram illustrates the rules that govern the pronunciation of a tone on each of the syllables affected (that is, all but the last in an utterance): [REDACTED] Like other languages of Southern Min , Amoy has complex rules for literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters . For example,

5032-721: The same reason. In the American Community Survey run by the United States Census Bureau , Taiwanese was referred to as "Formosan" from 2012 to 2015 and as "Min Nan Chinese" since 2016. Phonologically , Hokkien is a tonal language with extensive tone sandhi rules. Syllables consist maximally of an initial consonant , a vowel , a final consonant, and a tone. Unlike many other varieties of Chinese such as Mandarin, Cantonese , Hakka , etc., there are no native labiodental phonemes (i.e. [ f ] , [ v ] , [ ʋ ] , etc.). Taiwanese has

5106-531: The two kinds of stopped syllables are also considered to be tones and assigned numbers 4 and 8. Words of tone 6 have merged into either tone 2 or tone 7 in most Taiwanese variants, and thus tone 6 is duplicated in the count. Here the eight tones are shown, following the traditional tone class categorization, named after the tones of Middle Chinese : See (for one example) the modern phonological analysis in Chiung (2003) , which challenges these notions. For tones 4 and 8,

5180-477: The uneasy relationships between different language communities and colonial establishments over the next few centuries. During the 200 years of Qing dynasty rule, thousands of immigrants from Fujian arrived yearly; the population was over one million in the middle of the 18th century. Civil unrest and armed conflicts were frequent. In addition to resistance against governments (both Chinese and later Japanese), battles between ethnic groups were also significant:

5254-452: The use of written Taiwanese Hokkien (e.g. Pe̍h-ōe-jī , a phonetic rendering of spoken Hokkien using the Latin alphabet) as part of its general policy of political repression. In 1964 the use of spoken Taiwanese Hokkien or Hakka in schools or in official settings was forbidden; violations of the prohibition in schools often resulted in physical punishments, fines, or humiliation. Only after

5328-540: Was a brief cultural exchange with mainland China followed by further oppression. The Chinese Civil War resulted in another political separation when the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) government retreated to Taiwan following their defeat by the communists in 1949. The influx of two million soldiers and civilians caused the population of Taiwan to increase from 6 million to 8 million. The government subsequently promoted Mandarin while suppressing, but short of banning,

5402-451: Was closed down in 1939. Taiwanese thus was reduced to a common daily language . In 1937 the colonial government introduced a concept called "National Language Family" ( 国語 の 家 ), which meant that families that proved that they adopted Japanese as their daily language enjoyed benefits such as greater access to education. After the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945, there

5476-546: 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 and Gan rivers to the west, so that Min varieties have experienced less northern influence than other southern groups. As

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