Min (;
BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of
Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on
Leizhou
Leizhou () is a county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Zhanjiang.
The city was formerly known as Haikang County ( postal: Hoihong); it was upgraded into a city in 1994.
...
peninsula and
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
, or assimilated natives of
Chaoshan, parts of
Zhongshan, three counties in southern
Wenzhou
Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...
,
Zhoushan archipelago
Zhoushan , formerly romanized as Chusan, is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of H ...
, and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
. The name is derived from the
Min River in Fujian, which is also the abbreviated name of Fujian Province. Min varieties are not
mutually intelligible with one another nor with any other variety of Chinese (such as
Mandarin,
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
,
Wu,
Gan,
Xiang, or
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
).
There are many Min speakers among
overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Terminology
() or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ref ...
in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
. The most widely spoken variety of Min outside Fujian is Southern Min (
Min Nan), also known as
Hokkien-Taiwanese (which includes
Taiwanese
Taiwanese may refer to:
* Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien
* Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa)
* Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan
* Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan
* Taiwanese people, r ...
and
Amoy).
Many Min languages have retained notable features of
the Old Chinese language, and there is linguistic evidence that not all Min varieties are directly descended from
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
of the
Sui–
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) ...
dynasties. Min languages are believed to have a significant
linguistic substrate from the languages of the inhabitants of the region prior to its
sinicization.
History
The Min homeland of Fujian was opened to Han Chinese settlement by the defeat of the
Minyue
Minyue () was an ancient kingdom in what is now the Fujian province in southern China. It was a contemporary of the Han dynasty, and was later annexed by the Han empire as the dynasty expanded southward. The kingdom existed approximately fro ...
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
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Ph ...
.
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 a result, whereas most
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of mai ...
can be treated as derived from
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
—the language described by
rhyme dictionaries
A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book () is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary that collates characters by tone and rhyme, instead of by radical. The most important rime dictionary tradition began with the ''Qieyun'' (601), whi ...
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
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
.
However, significant waves of migration from the
North China Plain occurred:
* The
Uprising of the Five Barbarians during the
Jin dynasty, particularly the
Disaster of Yongjia in 311 AD, caused a tide of immigration to the south.
* In 669,
Chen Zheng and his son
Chen Yuanguang
Chen Yuanguang (; 657–711), courtesy name Tingju (), pseudonym Longhu (), was a Tang Dynasty general and official. He was from Gushi County, Henan. The people of Zhangzhou, Fujian, along with the descendants of immigrants from Zhangzhou to T ...
from
Gushi County
Gushi () is a county of 1,023,857 people directly governed by Henan, People's Republic of China. It is administered by the prefecture-level city of Xinyang.
With a total area of 2942.97 square kilometers and a registered population of 1781500 ...
in
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is a ...
set up a regional administration in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...
to suppress an insurrection by the
She people.
*
Wang Chao was appointed governor of Fujian in 893, near the end of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
, and brought tens of thousands of troops from
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is a ...
. In 909, following the fall of the Tang dynasty, his son
Wang Shenzhi founded the
Min Kingdom, one of the
Ten Kingdoms
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen concu ...
in the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...
.
Jerry Norman identifies four main layers in the vocabulary of modern Min varieties:
# A non-Chinese substratum from the
original languages of Minyue, which Norman and Mei Tsu-lin believe were
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...
.
# The earliest Chinese layer, brought to Fujian by settlers from
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...
to the north during the Han dynasty.
# A layer from the
Northern and Southern dynasties
The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered a ...
period, which is largely consistent with the phonology of the ''Qieyun'' dictionary.
# A
literary layer based on the
koiné of
Chang'an
Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
, the capital of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
.
Laurent Sagart (2008) disagrees with Norman and Mei Tsu-lin's analysis of an Austroasiatic substratum in Min.
The hypothesis proposed by Jerry Norman and Tsu-Lin Mei arguing for an Austroasiatic homeland along the middle Yangtze has been largely abandoned in most circles, and left unsupported by the majority of Austroasiatic specialists. Rather, recent movements of analyzing archeological evidence, posit an
Austronesian layer, rather than an
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...
one.
Geographic location and subgrouping
Min is usually described as one of seven or ten groups of
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of mai ...
but has greater dialectal diversity than any of the other groups. The varieties used in neighbouring counties, and in the mountains of western Fujian even in adjacent villages, are often mutually unintelligible.
Early classifications, such as those of
Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and
Yuan Jiahua
Yuan Jiahua (, ; January 19034 September 1980) was a Chinese linguist and dialectologist from Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province. He graduated from the English Department of Peking University in 1932, worked as an editor in the North Shanghai New Boo ...
in 1960, divided Min into Northern and Southern subgroups.
However, in a 1963 report on a survey of Fujian, Pan Maoding and colleagues argued that the primary split was between inland and coastal groups. A key discriminator between the two groups is a group of words that have a
lateral initial in coastal varieties, and a voiceless fricative or in inland varieties, contrasting with another group having in both areas. Norman reconstructs these initials in
Proto-Min
Proto-Min is a comparative reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. Min varieties developed in the relative isolation of the Chinese province of Fujian and eastern Guangdong, and have since spread to Taiwan ...
as voiceless and voiced laterals that merged in coastal varieties.
Coastal Min
The coastal varieties have the vast majority of speakers, and have spread from their homeland in Fujian and eastern Guangdong to the islands of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
and
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
, to other coastal areas of southern China and to Southeast Asia.
Pan and colleagues divided them into three groups:
*
Eastern Min (Min Dong), centered around the city of
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute ...
, the capital of Fujian province, with
Fuzhou dialect as the prestige form.
*
Pu-Xian Min is spoken in the city of
Putian and the county of
Xianyou County. Li Rulong and Chen Zhangtai examined 214 words, finding 62% shared with
Quanzhou dialect
The Quanzhou dialects (), also rendered Chin-chew or Choanchew, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian (in southeast China), in the area centered on the city of Quanzhou. Due to migration, various Quanzhou dialects are s ...
(Southern Min) and 39% shared with Fuzhou dialect (Eastern Min), and concluded that Pu-Xian was more closely related to Southern Min.
*
Southern Min
Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...
(Min Nan) originates from the south of Fujian and the eastern corner of Guangdong. In popular usage, Southern Min usually refers to dialects of the
Quanzhang type, which originated in southern Fujian (around
Quanzhou
Quanzhou, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metropolitan region, with an area of and a popul ...
,
Zhangzhou and
Xiamen
Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong' ...
) and spread to Southeast Asia, where they are known as Hokkien, and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
, where they are known as
Taiwanese
Taiwanese may refer to:
* Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien
* Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa)
* Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan
* Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan
* Taiwanese people, r ...
.
Zhenan Min of
Cangnan County in southern
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...
is also of this type. The dialects of the
Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong, including
Teochew and
Shantou dialects, have difficult mutual intelligibility with the
Amoy dialect. Teochew varieties are the most often spoken by
Thai Chinese
Thai Chinese (also known as Chinese Thais, Sino-Thais), Thais of Chinese origin ( th, ชาวไทยเชื้อสายจีน; ''exonym and also domestically''), endonym Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย), are Chinese descenda ...
.
The ''
Language Atlas of China'' (1987) distinguished two further groups, which had previously been included in Southern Min:
*
Leizhou Min, spoken on the
Leizhou Peninsula
The Leizhou Peninsula, alternately romanized as the Luichow Peninsula, is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in South China.
History
Qing naval forces were stationed at the Leizhou Peninsula. During the 19th centur ...
in southwestern Guangdong.
*
Hainanese, spoken on the island of Hainan. These dialects feature drastic changes to initial consonants, including a series of
implosive consonants, that have been attributed to contact with the
Tai–Kadai languages spoken on the island.
Coastal varieties feature some uniquely Min vocabulary, including pronouns and negatives.
All but the Hainan dialects have complex
tone sandhi systems.
Inland Min
Although they have far fewer speakers, the inland varieties show much greater variation than the coastal ones.
Pan and colleagues divided the inland varieties into two groups:
*
Northern Min (Min Bei) is spoken in
Nanping prefecture in Fujian, with
Jian'ou dialect taken as typical.
*
Central Min
Central Min, or Min Zhong (), is a part of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. It is spoken in the valley of the Sha River in Sanming prefecture in the central mountain areas of Fujian, consisting of Yong'an, the urban area of Sanming ( Sany ...
(Min Zhong), spoken in
Sanming prefecture.
The ''
Language Atlas of China'' (1987) included a further group:
*
Shao-Jiang Min
Shao–Jiang or Shaojiang Min () is a Min Chinese language centered on Western Nanping in Northwest Fujian, specifically in the Nanping counties of Guangze, Shaowu, and Western Shunchang and the Northern Sanming county of Jiangle.
Shao-Jiang ...
, spoken in the northwestern Fujian counties of
Shaowu and
Jiangle, were classified as
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
by Pan and his associates. However,
Jerry Norman suggested that they were inland varieties of Min that had been subject to heavy
Gan or Hakka influence.
Although coastal varieties can be derived from a
proto-language
In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...
with four series of stops or affricates at each point of articulation (e.g. , , , and ), inland varieties contain traces of two further series, which Norman termed "softened stops" due to their reflexes in some varieties. Inland varieties use pronouns and negatives cognate with those in Hakka and
Yue. Inland varieties have little or no tone sandhi.
Vocabulary
Most Min vocabulary corresponds directly to cognates in other Chinese varieties, but there is also a significant number of distinctively Min words that may be traced back to proto-Min.
In some cases a semantic shift has occurred in Min or the rest of Chinese:
* *tiaŋ
B 鼎 "wok". The Min form preserves the original meaning "cooking pot", but in other Chinese varieties this word (MC > ''dǐng'') has become specialized to refer to
ancient ceremonial tripods.
* *dzhən
A "rice field". In Min this form has displaced the common Chinese term ''tián'' 田. Many scholars identify the Min word with ''chéng'' 塍 (MC ) "raised path between fields", but Norman argues that it is cognate with ''céng'' 層 (MC ''dzong'') "additional layer or floor", reflecting the
terrace
Terrace may refer to:
Landforms and construction
* Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
* Terrace, a street suffix
* Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...
d fields commonly found in Fujian.
* *tšhio
C 厝 "house". Norman argues that the Min word is cognate with ''shù'' 戍 (MC syuH) "to guard".
* *tshyi
C 喙 "mouth". In Min this form has displaced the common Chinese term ''kǒu'' 口. It is believed to be cognate with ''huì'' 喙 (MC ''xjwojH'') "beak, bill, snout; to pant".
Norman and Mei Tsu-lin have suggested an Austroasiatic origin for some Min words:
* *-dəŋ
A "shaman" may be compared with
Vietnamese ''đồng'' (/ɗoŋ
2/) "to shamanize, to communicate with spirits" and
Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* A ...
doŋ "to dance (as if) under demonic possession".
* *kiɑn
B 囝 "son" appears to be related to Vietnamese ''con'' (/kɔn/) and Mon kon "child".
However, Norman and Mei Tsu-lin's suggestion is rejected by Laurent Sagart (2008).
Moreover, the Austroasiatic predecessor of modern Vietnamese language has been proven to originate in the mountainous region in Central Laos and Vietnam, rather than in the region north of the
Red River delta.
[Chamberlain, J.R. 1998,]
The origin of Sek: implications for Tai and Vietnamese history
, in The International Conference on Tai Studies, ed. S. Burusphat, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 97-128. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University.
In other cases, the origin of the Min word is obscure. Such words include:
* *khau
A 骹 "foot"
* *-tsiɑm
B 䭕 "insipid"
* *dzyŋ
C 𧚔 "to wear".
Writing system
When using
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...
to write a non-Mandarin form, a common practice is to use characters that correspond etymologically to the words being represented, and for words with no evident etymology, to either invent new characters or borrow characters for their sound or meaning.
Written Cantonese has carried this process out to the farthest extent of any non-Mandarin variety, to the extent that pure Cantonese vernacular can be unambiguously written using Chinese characters. Contrary to popular belief, a vernacular written in this fashion is not in general comprehensible to a Mandarin speaker, due to significant changes in grammar and vocabulary and the necessary use of large number of non-Mandarin characters.
For most Min varieties, a similar process has not taken place. For Hokkien, competing systems exist.
Given that Min combines the Chinese of several different periods and contains some non-Chinese substrate vocabulary, an author literate in Mandarin (or even Classical Chinese) may have trouble finding the appropriate Chinese characters for some Min vocabulary. In the case of
Taiwanese
Taiwanese may refer to:
* Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien
* Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa)
* Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan
* Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan
* Taiwanese people, r ...
, there are also indigenous words borrowed from
Formosan languages (particularly for place names), as well as a substantial number of loan words from
Japanese. The Min spoken in Singapore and Malaysia has borrowed heavily from
Malay and, to a lesser extent, from
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
and other languages. The result is that adapting Chinese characters to write Min requires a substantial effort to choose characters for a significant portion of the vocabulary.
Other approaches to writing Min rely on
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
or phonetic systems such as
Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols. Some Min speakers use the Church Romanization (). For
Hokkien
The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...
the romanization is called
Pe̍h-ōe-jī
(; ; ), also sometimes known as the Church Romanization, is an orthography used to write variants of Southern Min Chinese, particularly Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien.
Developed by Western missionaries working among the Chinese diaspora in Sout ...
(POJ) and for
Fuzhou dialect called
Foochow Romanized
Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (BUC for short; ) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (), is a Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of the 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at d ...
(Bàng-uâ-cê, BUC). Both systems were created by foreign missionaries in the 19th century. There are some uncommon publications that use mixed writing, with mostly Chinese characters but using the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
to represent words that cannot easily be represented by Chinese characters.
See also
*
Chinese in New York City
References
Citations
Works cited
*
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Further reading
*
Miyake, Marc (2012)
Jerry Norman's "Three Min etymologies" (1984) revisited
{{Languages of China
Chinese languages in Singapore
Varieties of Chinese