| Also Known As: Minnan,Chinese, Min Nan Language,Southern Min,Min Nam,Chinese, Min Nan
Description:
The Southern Min language, or Min Nan (Hokkien: Bân-lâm-gú), ("Southern Fujian" language) refers to a family of Chinese dialects which are spoken in southern Fujian and neighboring areas, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to the Hokkien, in particular the Amoy and Taiwanese. Amoy and Taiwanese are both combinations of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The Southern Min family also includes Teochew and Hainanese. Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with the Amoy. However, Hainanese is generally not considered to be mutually intelligible with any other Southern Min variants.
Southern Min forms part of the Min language group, alongside several other divisions. The Min languages/dialects are part of the Chinese language group, itself a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Cantonese, or Mandarin. As with other varieties of Chinese, there is a political dispute as to whether the Southern Min language should be called a language or a dialect. (See Identification of the varieties of Chinese for greater detail.)
Southern Min is spoken in the..... full article at Wikipedia |
