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76-2204: It was formerly named Longyan County ( 龙岩县 ). As Xinluo is a part of the Minnan Hokkien territory, the Longyan dialect is spoken widely by the native Hokkien locals in the district, but Mandarin is the primary language for education and business. Xinluo District has ten subdistricts : Xinluo District has ten towns : Baisha, Banding, Chankeng, Chendi, Dake, Dayu, Dutou, Gaoyang, Guanyang, Guoshe, Huangban, Kongdang, Lufeng, Luoping, Luoshe, Luyang, Nanzhuo, Neicun, Suyitian, Tiankeng, Xiaoji, Xiaoxi, Yangxi, Yanxia, Yingbian, Yingdou, Yingqi, Yingtou, Zhangkeng, Zhenkeng, and Zoushan. Beixi, Dadong, Dahe, Dashan, Hejia, Hongxie, Huangmei, Jiuliyang, Nanyan, Xiudong, Xiyang, Yajin, and Zhuhe. Banzaixie, Beiyang, Chikeng, Daoliushui, Dongpu, Dongyang, Jinbei, Kanyang, Lianhe, Lingbei, Longxibang, Longxing, Nanyang, Pingyang, Shangyang, Tianxin, Xiayang, Zhonglian, and Zian. Beiyang, Cumei, Fukeng, Keshan, Laozhai, Linsi, Meixi, Qiancun, Shantang, Shantou, Shanwan, Shuangche, Tongbo, Xiaowan, Xintian, and Xinzhai. Baiye, Banxi, Baofeng, Fengtian, Juzhou, Lantian, Renhe, Sankeng, Shangyu, Wenzhuang, Xiaci, Xiangshan, Xiayu, Xibing, Xinci, Yangdong, Yanxi, Yanzhong, Yingkeng, Zhongxi, Zhongxin, and Zhuhua. Dakeng, Donglian, Hemu, Hexi, Hongbang, Huangdi, Liling, Lulin, Meishan, Shicheng, Suban, Wuyang, Xi, Xilou, and Yijiabang. Chenyang, Fuzhu, Gaochi, Gaolin, Gaoxia, Haokeng, Hongguang, Huakeng, Huankeng, Meicun, Shicheng, Siczhu, Songyang, Tongxin, Tutan, Wucun, Xiguan, Xiyuan, Zhangchen, and Zhuguan. Hejiabei, Huangxi, Huangxie, Jingyuan, Laibang, Nanshan, Niumenshi, Peixie, Rulu, Shanmei, Wangyang, Xinggui, and Zhuoyang. Danshe, Houpu, Huanggu, Jiashan, Laishan, Liliao, Liukeng, Longshan, Qinyuan, Shanqian, Xiaodingkeng, Yuanqing, and Yubao. Baishi, Banwei, Beihe, Beishan, Chencun, Chicun, Daji, Dongnan, Honglin, Houlu, Huangzhuang, Jiudou, Kexi, Libang, Longkang, Loudun, Meitou, Minci, Pingkeng, Pingyang, Shanglao, Shangying, Shewei, Siji, Subang, Xiaying, Xiazhong, Xinlu, Yangcheng, Yanjiang, Yanxing, and Yunshan. The district

152-464: A socio-political perspective, it forms a significant pole of language usage due to the popularity of Holo-language media. Douglas (1873/1899) also noted that Formosa ( Taiwan ) has been settled mainly by emigrants from Amoy (Xiamen), Chang-chew (Zhangzhou), and Chin-chew (Quanzhou). Several parts of the island are usually found to be specially inhabited by descendants of such emigrants, but in Taiwan,

228-606: A distinct descendant dialect form of Zhangzhou Hokkien has developed. In Penang , Kedah and Perlis , it is called Penang Hokkien while across the Strait of Malacca in Medan , an almost identical variant is known as Medan Hokkien . Many Chinese Filipinos profess ancestry from Hokkien-speaking areas; Philippine Hokkien is also largely derived from the Quanzhou dialect, particularly Jinjiang and Nan'an dialects with some influence from

304-506: A gradual decline. There is, however, groups of Hokkien Singaporeans working to help preserve, spread and revive the use of Singaporean Hokkien in the country. The ease of access to online Hokkien entertainment media and pop music from the internet has helped to connect to the language and culture. Many Singaporeans are increasingly using online and social media platforms to learn, discuss, meet, and interact with each other in Hokkien. Some of

380-455: A group are more mutually intelligible , but it is less so amongst the forementioned group, Quanzhou dialect, and Zhangzhou dialect. 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, and 34% lexically similar , , Teochew has only 51% intelligibility with

456-435: A lesser extent to mainland Southeast Asia . As a result of the significant influence and historical presence of its sizable overseas diaspora, certain considerable to ample amounts of Hokkien loanwords are also historically present in the languages it has had historical contact with in its sprachraum , such as Thai . Kelantan Peranakan Hokkien , in northern Malaya of Malaysia , and Hokaglish , spoken sporadically across

532-539: A major difference between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese . Hokklo Taoist priests are the largest group among Taoist clergy community in Singapore, they had always conduct their religious services in Hokkien and still continue to do so. Most Tangki or Chinese mediums from Hokkien temples also communicate in Hokkien during spiritual consultation. Some of the Chinese Buddhist temples in Singapore continue to recite

608-572: 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. 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

684-715: A question "do you want to...?", Singaporean Hokkien typically uses the sentence structure 愛……莫？ ( ai…mài? ), whereas Taiwan uses 欲……無？ ( beh…bô? ). The word 愛 ( ai ) is commonly used in Singaporean Hokkien to mean "want to", but in Amoy Hokkien and Taiwan Hokkien, the word 欲/卜 ( beh ) (which means "want" in Hokkien) is used instead. 愛 ( ai ) in Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien it typically means "love to" or "need to". Also, unlike Taiwanese Hokkien—which typically uses

760-559: A rebellion of the She people . In 885, (during the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang ), the two brothers Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi , led a military expedition force to suppress the Huang Chao rebellion. Waves of migration from the north in this era brought the language of Middle Chinese into the Fujian region, which gave Hokkien and all the other Min languages its literary readings . During around

836-436: 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 Archaic Chinese . This includes the serialization of verb phrases (direct linkage of verbs and verb phrases ) and the infrequency of nominalization , both similar to Archaic Chinese grammar. Singaporean Hokkien Singaporean Hokkien

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912-701: Is a local variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively in Singapore . Within Chinese linguistic academic circles, this dialect is known as Singaporean Ban-lam Gu . It bears similarities with the Amoy spoken in Amoy, now better known as Xiamen , as well as Taiwanese Hokkien which is spoken in Taiwan . Hokkien is the Min Nan pronunciation for the province of Fujian , and is generally

988-982: Is also a great mixture of emigrants from Swatow [ Shantou ] . In modern times though, a mixed dialect descended from the Quanzhou , Amoy, and Zhangzhou dialects , leaning a little closer to the Quanzhou dialect, possibly due to being from the Tung'an dialect, is spoken by Chinese Singaporeans , Southern Malaysian Chinese , and Chinese Indonesians in Riau province and the Riau Islands . Variants include Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien and Singaporean Hokkien in Singapore. Among Malaysian Chinese of Penang, and other states in northern mainland Malaysia and ethnic Chinese Indonesians in Medan, with other areas in North Sumatra , Indonesia,

1064-440: 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

1140-701: Is also preserved in the Nan'an dialect ( 色 , 德 , 竹 ) but are pronounced as -iak in Quanzhou Hokkien. * Haklau Min ( Hai Lok Hong , including the Haifeng and Lufeng dialect), Chaw'an / Zhao'an (詔安話), Longyan Min , and controversially, Taiwanese , are sometimes considered as not Hokkien anymore, besides being under Southern Min (Min Nan). On the other hand, those under Longyan Min , Datian Min , Zhenan Min have some to little mutual intelligibility with Hokkien, while Teo-Swa Min ,

1216-502: Is also referred to as Quanzhang (Chinese: 泉漳 ; pinyin: Quánzhāng ), from the first characters of the urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou . Taiwanese Hokkien is one of the national languages in Taiwan . Hokkien is also widely spoken within the overseas Chinese diaspora in Singapore , Malaysia , the Philippines , Indonesia , Cambodia , Myanmar , Hong Kong , Thailand , Brunei , Vietnam , and elsewhere across

1292-518: Is generally the same. Additionally, extensive contact with the Japanese language has left a legacy of Japanese loanwords in Taiwanese Hokkien. On the other hand, the variants spoken in Singapore and Malaysia have a substantial number of loanwords from Malay and to a lesser extent, from English and other Chinese varieties, such as the closely related Teochew and some Cantonese . Meanwhile, in

1368-454: Is important to its meaning. A basic sentence follows the subject–verb–object pattern (i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object ), though this order is often violated because Hokkien dialects are topic-prominent . Unlike synthetic languages , seldom do words indicate time , gender and plural by inflection. Instead, these concepts are expressed through adverbs, aspect markers, and grammatical particles, or are deduced from

1444-538: Is influenced to a certain degree by Teochew , and is sometimes regarded by non-Singaporean speakers as a combined Hokkien–Teochew speech. In addition, it has many loanwords from Singapore's four official languages of English , Malay , Mandarin and Tamil . Nevertheless, the grammar and tones of Singaporean Hokkien are still largely based on Banlam . When compared to the Taiwanese accent spoken in Tainan and Kaohsiung ,

1520-579: Is made and is pronounced as otherwise vernacular it káu pueh khòng nî . As another instance, Taiwanese would speak telephone numbers using literary readings, whereas Singaporeans would use vernacular ones instead. For example, the telephone number 98444678 will be pronounced in Taiwan as kiú pat sù sù sù lio̍k tshit pat , where in Singaporean Hokkien it would be pronounced as káu pueh sì-sì sì la̍k tshit pueh . In Singaporean Hokkien, as compared to Quanzhou (whose accent Hokkien usually inclines toward), Zhangzhou, Amoy or Taiwanese , which pronounce

1596-470: Is nearby Taiwan, where immigrants from Fujian arrived as workers during the 40 years of Dutch rule , fleeing the Qing dynasty during the 20 years of Ming loyalist rule , as immigrants during the 200 years of rule by the Qing dynasty , especially in the last 120 years after immigration restrictions were relaxed, and even as immigrants during the period of Japanese rule . The Taiwanese dialect mostly has origins with

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1672-508: Is pronounced as /ɡua˥˨/ ; but in Singapore, it is pronounced as /wa˥˨/ , which is alleged by some to have been influenced by the Teochew pronunciation /ua˥˨/ although other dialects like Putianese and some regional Hokkien dialects including most Taiwanese Hokkien dialects also pronounce it as /ua˥˨/ . There are some differences between the sentence structure used by Singaporean Hokkien and by Amoy/Taiwanese Hokkien. For instance, when asking

1748-469: Is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the ethnic Chinese people in the Philippines, among which is known locally as Lán-nâng-uē ("Our people's speech"). Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Southern Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects: Chiangchew , Chinchew , Tung'an , and Amoy , originating from

1824-551: Is served by Longyan railway station . This Fujian location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hokkien Hokkien ( / ˈ h ɒ k i ɛ n / HOK -ee-en , US also / ˈ h oʊ k i ɛ n / HOH -kee-en ) 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

1900-535: Is the Romance of the Litchi Mirror , with extant manuscripts dating from 1566 and 1581. 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: These texts appear to record a primarily Zhangzhou-descended dialect with some attested Quanzhou and Teo-Swa features, from

1976-728: The Buddhist scriptures in Hokkien during their daily worship services. The scriptures contain Singapore-style Hokkien romanization are available to assist during the scriptural recitation. There are also Hokkien Buddhist sermons CDs made available and distribute among Hokkien communities in Singapore and overseas. Some of the Chinese Christian churches in Singapore also have services conducted in Singaporean Hokkien. There exist Singaporean Hokkien writings, folk adages, and ballads written by early Chinese immigrants to Singapore. Amongst

2052-524: The Chinese community in Singapore . There was also a thriving Hokkien cultural scene that included Hokkien story-telling, opera, and media in Singapore. After 1979, the Singapore government began to push for the use of Mandarin in Singapore, spearheaded by the Speak Mandarin Campaign . Following this, the Singapore government also began to employ a more stringent censorship, or ban, of Hokkien media in

2128-578: The Fujian region, which in ancient times was originally Minyue country, populated with non-Chinese Baiyue , causing the region for the first time in ancient times to incorporate Old Chinese dialects of which would later become Min Chinese . The massive migration of Han Chinese into Fujian region mainly occurred after the Disaster of Yongjia . The Jìn court fled from the north to the south, causing large numbers of Han Chinese to move into Fujian region. They brought

2204-404: The Minnan region . The Hokkien spoken in most areas of the three counties of southern Zhangzhou have merged the coda finals -n and -ng into -ng. The initial consonant j ( dz and dʑ ) is not present in most dialects of Hokkien spoken in Quanzhou, having been merged into the d or l initials. The -ik or -ɪk final consonant that is preserved in the native Hokkien dialects of Zhangzhou and Xiamen

2280-509: The Old Chinese spoken in the Central Plain of China from the prehistoric era to the 3rd century into Fujian that later became Min, which later split off into its respective branches, of which Hokkien descends from the Southern Min branch of it. In 677 (during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang ), Chen Zheng , together with his son Chen Yuanguang , led a military expedition to suppress

2356-493: The Philippines (especially Metro Manila ), are also mixed languages , with Hokkien as the base lexifier . Hokkien speakers in different regions refer to the language as: In parts of Southeast Asia and in the English-speaking communities, the term Hokkien ( [hɔk˥kiɛn˨˩] ) is etymologically derived from the Hokkien pronunciation of Fujian ( Hok-kiàn ), the province from which the language hails. In Southeast Asia and

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2432-446: The Philippines , there are also a few Spanish and Filipino ( Tagalog ) loanwords, while it is also currently a norm to frequently codeswitch with English , Tagalog, and in some cases other Philippine languages , such as Cebuano , Hiligaynon , Bicol Central , Ilocano , Chavacano , Waray-waray , Kapampangan , Pangasinense , Northern Sorsogonon , Southern Sorsogonon , etc. Tong'an, Xiamen, Taiwanese, Singaporean dialects as

2508-465: The Sanxiang dialect of Zhongshan Min , and Qiong - Lei Min 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. The Xiamen dialect is a variant of the Tung'an dialect. Majority of Taiwanese , from Tainan , to Taichung , to Taipei ,

2584-625: The Tung'an , Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect, also known as the Xiamen dialect, has become the modern prestige representative for the language in China. Both Amoy and Xiamen come from the Chinese name of the city ( 厦门 ; Xiàmén ; Ē-mûi ); the former is from Zhangzhou Hokkien, whereas the latter comes from Mandarin. There are many Min Nan speakers among overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, as well as in

2660-502: The cha-po͘-kiáⁿ and cha-bó͘-kiáⁿ pronunciation differ only in the second syllable in consonant voicing and in tone . 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: (*)Only certain dialects The following table illustrates some of

2736-450: The consonant system of Old Chinese . Hokkien did not experience a great phonological change throughout the transition period from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese . Min dialects, including Hokkien, preserved a unique feature of Old Chinese : it does not have labiodental consonants . For instance, the word " 分 " is pronounced as fen in Mandarin, but as pun in Hokkien. This marks

2812-558: The lingua franca of the Chinese community in Singapore is Mandarin . Although Hokkien is still widely spoken in Singapore today, it is not as widespread as before and is mostly restricted to the older generations. The most common places to hear Hokkien spoken in Singapore are at the country's hawker centres or kopi tiams . Speaking ability varies amongst the different age groups of the Hokkien Singaporeans. The elderly are generally able to communicate effectively in Hokkien. On

2888-466: The 19th century, many traditional private Chinese schools in Singapore (referred to as 私塾仔 ; su-sio̍k-á ) generally used Hokkien to teach Chinese classics and Classical Chinese . However, by the early 20th century, Mandarin began to replace Hokkien as the medium of instructions in Chinese schools after the founding of many Mandarin-medium schools. During the 1950s and 1960s, many political speeches in Singapore were in Hokkien, in order to reach out to

2964-758: The Amoy Dialect" , 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" , and its 1899 New Edition with Rev. Thomas Barclay . Hokkien has one of the most diverse phoneme inventories among Chinese varieties, with more consonants than Standard Mandarin and Cantonese . Hokkien varieties retain many pronunciations that are no longer found in other Chinese varieties. These include

3040-543: The Amoy dialect. There are also Hokkien speakers scattered throughout other parts of Indonesia—including Jakarta and the island of Java —Thailand, Myanmar , East Malaysia , Brunei, Cambodia , and Southern Vietnam, though there is notably more Teochew and Swatow background among descendants of Chinese migrants in Peninsular Malaysia , Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Southern Vietnam. Variants of Hokkien dialects can be traced to 2-4 main principal dialects of origin:

3116-602: 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 ] , &c. In many of these places there

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3192-552: The English press, Hokkien is used in common parlance to refer to the Southern Min dialects of southern Fujian, and does not include reference to dialects of other Sinitic branches also present in Fujian such as the Fuzhou language ( Eastern Min ), Pu-Xian Min , Northern Min , Gan Chinese or Hakka . The term Hokkien was first used by Walter Henry Medhurst in his 1832 Dictionary of

3268-666: 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

3344-527: The Singaporean Chinese media. Consequently, all Hokkien-language media in Singapore had to be dubbed in Mandarin before being allowed to stream on national TV. In addition, the 1980s saw Chinese-medium education replaced by that in English, causing English to emerge as the most widely used language in Singapore. The emergence of the English language, coupled with heavy promotion of Mandarin, generally led Hokkien to decline in Singapore after 1979. Today,

3420-465: The Taiwanese city of Tainan heavily resembles the Tung'an dialect. All Hokkien dialects spoken throughout the whole of Taiwan are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien, or Holo locally, although there is a tendency to call these Taiwanese language for historical reasons. It is spoken by more Taiwanese than any Sinitic language except Mandarin, and it is known by a majority of the population; thus, from

3496-450: The Tong'an Hokkien|Tung'an dialect (Cheng 1997) whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar and 15% lexically similar. In comparison, German and English are 60% lexically similar. Hainanese , which is sometimes considered Southern Min, has almost no mutual intelligibility with any form of Hokkien. Hokkien is an analytic language ; in a sentence, the arrangement of words

3572-543: The United States ( Hoklo Americans ). Many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Myanmar, Vietnam , Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies ) and present day Malaysia and Singapore (formerly Malaya and the British Straits Settlements ). Most of the Min Nan dialects of this region have incorporated some foreign loanwords. Hokkien

3648-489: 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" or as the "Amoy Vernacular" and by 1883, John Macgowan would publish another dictionary, the English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect . Due to possible conflation between the language as a whole with its Xiamen dialect , many proscribe referring to

3724-504: The accent and pronunciation of Singaporean Hokkien inclines toward the Quanzhou accent, which is also close to the pronunciation of Taipei and Xiamen, and is less close to that of Tainan, which has a greater inclination towards the Zhangzhou accent. From the 19th until the early half of the 20th century, there was a large influx of Chinese migrants from southern China into Singapore. This led to Chinese constituting almost 75% of Singapore's population. Of these Chinese, many originated from

3800-551: The cities of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, historical Tung'an County ( 同安縣 , now Xiamen and Kinmen ) and the Port of Amoy , respectively. 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. The Amoy dialect is adopted as the 'Modern Representative Min Nan'. The Amoy dialect cannot simply be interpreted as

3876-514: The common Malay loanwords used in Singaporean Hokkien. Most of them are also used in Amoy. Both other Amoy Hokkien words are also used. There are also many English loanwords used in Singaporean Hokkien. They are usually used when the speaker does not know the Hokkien equivalent. Some of these English terms are related to working and living in Singapore Certain colloquial pronunciations of Singaporean Hokkien words are directly inherited from

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3952-474: The context. Different particles are added to a sentence to further specify its status or intonation . 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

4028-593: The eastern part of Namoa in China; Taiwan; Metro Manila , Metro Cebu , Metro Davao and other cities in the Philippines ; Singapore; Brunei; Medan , Riau and other cities in Indonesia ; and from Perlis , Kedah , Penang and Klang in Malaysia. 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

4104-618: The end of a sentence is also used in Taiwanese Hokkien, when one is asking a question in an informal way. The following list shows the colloquial readings of the numerals used to count objects. Most ordinal numbers are formed by adding 第 ( tē ) in front of a cardinal number. In some cases, the literary reading of the number must then be used. For example, 第一 = tē-it , 第二 = tē-jī . There are minor differences between Singaporean Hokkien and Amoy or Taiwanese in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Amoy and Taiwanese bear close resemblance, and are usually considered

4180-605: The former as "Amoy", a usage that is more commonly found in older media and some conservative institutions. In the classification used by the Language Atlas of China , the Quanzhang branch of Southern Min consists of the Min varieties originating from Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Xiamen and the eastern counties of Longyan ( Xinluo and Zhangping ). Hokkien is spoken in the southern seaward quarter of Fujian, southeastern Zhejiang , as well as

4256-600: The groups include: Note: In this article, the Tâi-lô romanization system is used. When Singaporeans speak Hokkien, they do so with various accents and tones largely from Tong'an , Anxi , Nan'an , Kinmen as well as Yongchun , Jinjiang , Longhai City and Southern Zhangzhou accents. In practice, it is common for Singaporeans to mix English conjunctions such as "and" into a Hokkien sentence. Some would include honn (乎) (an exclamatory remark in Jinjiang / Nan'an ), in addition to

4332-667: 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. The Amoy dialect

4408-494: The more commonly seen sound shifts between various dialects. Pronunciations are provided in Pe̍h-ōe-jī and IPA . According to the traditional Chinese system, Hokkien dialects have 7 or 8 distinct tones, including two entering tones which end in plosive consonants. The entering tones can be analysed as allophones , giving 5 or 6 phonemic tones . In addition, many dialects have an additional phonemic tone ("tone 9" according to

4484-488: The old port of Yuegang (modern-day Haicheng , an old port that is now part of Longhai ). Chinese scholars produced rhyme dictionaries describing Hokkien varieties at the beginning of the 19th century: Rev. Walter Henry Medhurst based his 1832 dictionary, "A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language" , on the latter work. Other popular 19th century works are also like those of Rev. John Macgowan's 1883 dictionary, "English and Chinese Dictionary of

4560-411: 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 Tong'an ( 同安 ; Tâng-oaⁿ ) as well. The Amoy and Tong'an dialects are historically mixtures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects , since they are the geographic and linguistic midpoint between the two, while

4636-484: The other hand, the middle and younger generations, while generally proficient, have generally lost the ability to communicate as fluently. However, when it comes to using profanities, majority of the younger generation, even among non-Chinese Singaporeans, listed Hokkien as the first out of all languages and dialects. With the Speak Mandarin Campaign from the government, the Hokkien speaking population has been on

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4712-444: The prestige dialect of Hokkien, differing only in terms of vocabulary . Although Singaporean Hokkien is similar to Amoy or Taiwanese , there exist certain unique Singaporean Hokkien words, which are different from those two aforementioned dialects. 欲 beh is sometimes written alternatively as 卜 beh . 這 tsit is sometimes written alternatively as 即 or 今 . There are some words used in Singaporean Hokkien that are

4788-456: The regions of Amoy/Xiamen , Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Fujian province. They brought Min Nan to Singapore, which was then propagated throughout the Malayan region. As there was no formal Chinese name for Min Nan in the early 20th century, these migrants began to use their place of origin as the name of their speech, and thus called the dialect " Hokkien ", referring to Fujian province. During

4864-598: The rest of the Hokkien dialects spoken in Taiwan and Southeast Asia are respectively derived from varying proportions of the above principal dialects in southern Fujian. During the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China, there was constant warfare occurring in the Central Plains of China. Ethnic Han Chinese gradually migrated from Henan to the mouth of the Yangtze to the coasts of Zhejiang and later began to enter into

4940-498: The retention of the /t/ initial, which is now /tʂ/ (pinyin zh ) in Mandarin (e.g. 竹 ; 'bamboo' is tik , but zhú in Mandarin), having disappeared before the 6th century in other Chinese varieties. Along with other Min languages, which are not directly descended from Middle Chinese , Hokkien is of considerable interest to historical linguists for reconstructing Old Chinese. Hokkien has aspirated , unaspirated as well as voiced consonant initials. For example,

5016-475: The same in Taiwanese Hokkien, but are pronounced differently. Because Singapore is a multilingual country, Singaporean Hokkien has been influenced by many other languages spoken in Singapore. As a result, there are many non-Hokkien words that have been imported into Singaporean Hokkien, such as those from Malay, Teochew, Cantonese, and English. There are words in Singaporean Hokkien that originated from other Chinese variants spoken in Singapore. The following are

5092-449: The term used by the Chinese in Southeast Asia to refer to the 'Banlam' dialect. Singaporean Hokkien generally views Amoy as its prestige dialect, and its accent is predominantly based on a mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech, with a greater inclination towards the former. Like many spoken languages in Singapore, Singaporean Hokkien is influenced by other languages or dialects spoken in Singapore. For instance, Singaporean Hokkien

5168-403: The traditional reckoning), used only in special or foreign loan words. This means that Hokkien dialects have between 5 and 7 phonemic tones. Tone sandhi is extensive. 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. Hokkien is spoken in a variety of accents and dialects across

5244-408: The various forms of the dialects mentioned prior are a good deal mixed up. 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

5320-401: The vowel ing —there is a vowel change from ing ( /iŋ/ or /iəŋ/ ) to eng ( /eŋ/ or /ɛŋ/ ). This change is similar to pronunciation in regions south of Zhangzhou— Dongshan , Yunxiao , Zhangpu , Pinghe , Zhao'an counties (southern Zhangzhou accent)—and in Teochew and Cantonese. Below is a table illustrating the difference: In Amoy Hokkien pronunciation, 我 (lit. 'I/me')

5396-432: The widely used Hokkien exclamatory particles la ( 啦 ) or loo ( 囉 ). In saying years or numbers, Singaporean Hokkien normally does not differentiate between literary ( 文讀音 ) or vernacular ( 白讀音 ) readings of Chinese characters. In Taiwan or Amoy, a distinction is usually made. For instance, the year 1980 would be said with a literary pronunciation ( 一九八空年 ; it kiú pat khòng nî ); but in Singapore, no differentiation

5472-405: The word 敢 ( kám ) (meaning "whether or not") when asking a question, which is more formal or polite—Singaporean Hokkien does not use the word 敢 ( kám ). Instead, it simply adds the word 無 ( bô ) at the end of the sentence to indicate that it is a question (similar to Mandarin's 嗎 ( ma ) or adds a Cantonese intonation 咩 ( me1 ) at the end. Adding the word 無 ( bô ) at

5548-450: The word 開 ; khui ; 'open' and 關 ; kuiⁿ ; 'close' have the same vowel but differ only by aspiration of the initial and nasality of the vowel. In addition, Hokkien has labial initial consonants such as m in 命 ; miā ; 'life'. 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

5624-454: The world. Mutual intelligibility between Hokkien dialects varies, but they are still held together by ethnolinguistic identity. 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 , and Brunei . This applied to

5700-596: Was changed to kien as Hok-kien ; from then on, "Hokkien" is used more often. Historically, Hokkien was also known as " Amoy ", after the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation of Xiamen ( Ēe-mûi ), 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 . In 1873, Carstairs Douglas published the Chinese–English Dictionary of

5776-501: 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". Several playscripts survive from the late 16th century, written in a mixture of Quanzhou and Chaozhou dialects. The most important

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