Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > YangHeMa > Bohemian Tiger |
|
min-nan triangle of amoy, changchew, chinchew Mǐn Nán (闽南语, 閩南語  literally, the "Southern Min" or "Southern Fujian" language, refers to the language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China and neighboring areas, and descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. The Taiwanese language is also a form of Min Nan. It is often known as Hokkien (i.e., "Fujian[ese]") or Teochew (a variant), especially in Southeast Asia.Min Nan / 闽南语 (Bân-lâm-gú) Spoken in: PRC (Fujian and Taiwan), Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and other areas of Min Nan and Hoklo settlements around the world. Region: Southern Fujian province; the Chaozhou-Shantou area in Guangdong province; extreme south of Zhejiang province; most of Taiwan; much of Hainan (if Qiong Wen is included); Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province Total speakers: 49 million Southern Min and its counterpart Northern Min (Min Bei) can be grouped together as the Min language group. Both are often classified under the Chinese language group, itself part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. However, Min Nan is mutually intelligible with neither Northern Min nor Mandarin, the official Chinese language, spoken (at least as a second language) by the majority of those in mainland China and Taiwan, as well as by large numbers of overseas Chinese throughout the world. Min Nan is spoken in the southern part of the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian by the Hoklo as well as their descendants who migrated from this province to Taiwan, Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou, and Leizhou peninsula), Hainan, two counties in southern Zhejiang and Zhoushan archipelago offshore Ningbo. There are many Min Nan speakers also among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. In Taiwan, it also has the native name of Tâi-oân-oē or Hō-ló-oē. In the Philippines, it has the name Lán-lâng-oē ("our people’s language") among the Chinese Filipinos, many of whom are descendants of Fujian people or Hoklo. As with all other varieties of Chinese, there is plenty of dispute as to whether Min Nan is a language or a dialect. . Classification There are three main dialects of Min Nan in southern Fujian, corresponding to the areas of: Amoy (Xiamen) , Changchew (Zhangzhou) , Chinchew (Quanzhou) As Xiamen (Amoy) is the principal city of southern Fujian, its dialect is considered the most important variant. Outside Fujian, Min Nan exists in these major variants: Taiwanese or Taiyu, Hainan , Teochew or Chaozhou (from Chaozhou and the Chaoshan region, Guangdong province). Teochew is of great importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, namely Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore, among others. Additionally, among the ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, Malaysia, a distinct language form has emerged, Penang Hokkien. 
|
