Hokkien includes a variety of dialects of which Amoy and the Tainan variant of Taiwanese are considered standards, being in the middle of dialectic divides and thus enjoying the highest intelligibility amongst the varying dialects.

Geographic distribution

Hokkien originated in the Southern regions of Fujian province, an important centre for trade and migration, and has since been spread beyond China, being one of the most common Chinese languages overseas.

A form of Hokkien akin to that spoken in southern Fujian is also spoken in Taiwan, where it has the native name of Tâi-oân-oē or Hō-ló-oē. The (sub)ethnic group for which Hokkien is considered a native language is known as the Holo or Hoklo, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is generally true though not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Hokkien while some non-Hoklos speak it fluently.

There are many Hokkien speakers also amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) and present day Malaysia and Singapore (formerly Malaya and the British Straits Settlements). Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are highly similar to Taiwanese and Amoy. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 98.5% of the community of ethnic Chinese in the Philippines, among whom it is also known as Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē ("Our people’s language"). Hokkien speakers form the largest group of Chinese in Singapore with the and combined with speakers of other Southern Min languages form the majority of the island’s population.

Classification

Southern Fujian is home to three main Hokkien dialects. They are known by the geographic locations to which they correspond (listed north to south):

• Chôan-chiu (Chinchew) (泉州)
• Ē-mn̂g (Amoy) (廈門)
• Chiang-chiu (Changchew) (漳州)

As Amoy is the principal city of southern Fujian, its dialect is considered the most important, or even prestige accent. The Amoy dialect is a hybrid of the Chinchew and Changchew dialects. Amoy and the Amoy dialect have played an influential role in history, especially in the relations of Western nations with China, and was one of the most frequently learned of all Chinese languages/dialects by Westerners during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

The variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants, and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Taiwanese is used by a majority of the population and bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, forming the second (and perhaps today most significant) major pole of the language. The variants of Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants.

Phonology

Tones

Hokkien tones

Tone	Amoy	Chinchew	Changchew
1	˥ (55)	˧ (33)	˥ (55)
2	˥˧ (53)	˥ (55)	˥˧ (53)
3	˨˩ (21)	˧˩ (31)	˨˩ (21)
4	˩ʔ (1)	˥ʔ (5)	˩ʔ (1)
5	˧˥ (35)	˧˥ (35)	˩˧ (13)
6	(= #2)	˨ (22)	(= #2)
7	˩ (11)	˧˩ (31)	˩ (11)
8	˥ (5ʔ)	˨˧ʔ (23)	˩˨ʔ (12)

Comparison

Amoy speech is a hybrid of Chinchew and Changchew speech. Taiwanese is also a hybrid of these two dialects. Taiwanese in northern Taiwan tends to be based on Chinchew speech, whereas the Taiwanese spoken in southern Taiwan tends to be based on Changchew speech. There are minor variations in pronunciation and vocabulary between Chinchew and Changchew speech. The grammar is basically the same. Additionally, Taiwanese includes several dozen loanwords from Japanese.

Mutual intelligibility

• Spoken: Chinchew speech, Xiamen (Amoy) speech, Changchew speech and Taiwanese are mutually intelligible.

Teochew and Amoy Hokkien speech are 84.3% phonetically similar and 33.8% lexically similar, whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar and 15.1% lexically similar. In comparison, German and English are 60% lexically similar. In other words, Chao-Shan, including Swatow (both of which are variants of Teochew), has very low intelligibility with Hokkien, and Hokkien is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin.

Scripts and orthographies

Like most ethnic Chinese, whether from mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, or other parts of Southeast Asia, Hokkien speakers write their language with Chinese characters. However, unlike some other Mandarin or Cantonese, Hokkien does not yet have a standardised character set and thus there can be some variation in the characters used to express certain words. Currently, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China is formulating and releasing a standard character set to overcome these difficulties.

Romanization

Hokkien is sometimes transcribed into the Latin alphabet using one of several Romanized orthographies. Of these the most popular is Pe̍h-ōe-jī (). POJ was developed first by Presbyterian missionaries in China and later by the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan; use of the orthography has been actively promoted since the late 19th century. The use of a mixed orthography of Han characters and romanization is also seen, though remains uncommon. Other Latin-based orthographies also exist.

See also

• Penang Hokkien
• Taiwanese
• Amoy dialect
• Teochew (dialect)
• Languages of China
• Languages of Taiwan
• Malaysian Chinese
• Chinese in Singapore
• Appendix:Amoy Min Nan Swadesh list

References

Further reading

• Branner, David Prager (2000). Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Chung, R.-f (196). The segmental phonology of Southern Min in Taiwan. Taipei: Crane Pub. Co.
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External links

• 當代泉州音字彙, a dictionary of Chinchew speech
• 台語-華語線頂辭典, Taiwanese-Mandarin on-line dictionary
• 臺灣本土語言互譯及語音合成系統, Taiwanese-Hakka-Mandarin on-line conversion
• Voyager - Spacecraft - Golden Record - Greetings From Earth - Amoy, includes translation and sound clip
• : (The voyager clip says: Thài-khong pêng-iú, lín-hó. Lín chia̍h-pá--bē? Ū-êng, to̍h lâi gún chia chē--ô•! 太空朋友，恁好。恁食飽未？有閒著來阮遮坐哦!)