Min (linguistics)

Min (traditional Chinese: 閩方言; pinyin: Mǐn fāngyán; POJ: Bân hong-giân; BUC: Mìng huŏng-ngiòng) is a general term for a group of dialects of the Chinese language spoken in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this province in Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou, or Chaoshan area, and the Leizhou peninsula), Hainan, three counties in southern Zhejiang, and Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo, and Taiwan. There are many Min speakers also among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Min is typically divided, on the basis of mutual unintelligibility, into Min Dong (Eastern Min), Min Nan (southern Min), and other sub-groups. Min Dong is centered around the city of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, while Min Nan is dominant in most other locations. Qiong Wen, spoken in Hainan, is sometimes classed as a separate sub-group, but often viewed as part of Min Nan. Min Nan is also called by the name of its regional variants in the places it is spoken, especially Taiwanese. Xiamen (Amoy) dialect is the prestige dialect of Min Nan in mainland China, with Teochew also being an important sub-variant. More complex division is suggested by SIL: Northern Min (Min-Bei, around Jian'ou in Fujian), Central Min (Min-Zhong, around Shaxian, Sanming), Eastern Min (Min-Dong in Fuzhou and Fu'an), Xinghua (in Puxian and Xianyou counties) and Southern Min (Min-Nan, in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen). Southern Min is also spoken by Fujian or Hoklo diaspora in Guangdong, Taiwan, Hainan, etc. The Southern Min language in Guangdong is known as Hoklo, in Hainan as Qiong Wen or Qiongzhou hua (though some class Qiong Wen as a separate sub-group). Min Nan is the dominant Chinese dialect spoken by the Chinese minority in the Philippines, known as Lan-nang. In Taiwan, Minnan is known as Hō-ló-oē and is spoken by the majority of the population as their native language. In Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other areas in Southeast Asia, Minnan is known as Hokkien, in addition to the Teochew variant, originating in the Chaoshan region, which is the ancestral home of many ethnic Chinese in Singapore.

Writing system

The writing system in Chinese characters is identical to Mandarin, with the addition of some specialized characters, although some Min speakers use the Church Romanization (Chinese: 教會羅馬字; pinyin: Jiaohui Luomazi): for Min Nan the Romanization is called POJ and for Min Dong called BUC, both of which were created by foreign missionaries in the 19th century (these Romanization systems are also used on Min Nan and Min Dong Wikipedia). There are some uncommon publications in mixed writing, combining Chinese characters for Chinese words and Latin alphabet for indigenous words, including those from Taiwanese aborigines.

Further reading

• Branner, David Prager (2000). Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka, Trends in Linguistics series, no. 123. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 31-101-5831-0. 
• DeBernardi, J. E.. "Linguistic nationalism--the case of Southern Min", Order from Dept. of Oriental Studies, University of Pennsylvania.. 

External links

Min Nan edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Min Dong edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Classification of Min Dialects
• Min Bei Chinese at Ethnologue
• Min Dong Chinese at Ethnologue
• Min Nan Chinese at Ethnologue
• Min Zhong Chinese at Ethnologue
• Pu-Xian Chinese at Ethnologue
• Seaside Min Language Forum