Southern Min: Difference between revisions

'''Southern Min''' ({{zh|s={{linktext|闽南语}}|t={{linktext|閩南語}}|l=Southern Min language|p=Mǐnnányǔ|poj=Bân-lâm-gí/gú}}), '''Minnan''' (<small>[[Standard Chinese|Mandarin]] pronunciation:</small> {{IPAc-cmn|m|in|3|.|n|an|2}}) or '''Banlam''' ({{IPA|nan|bàn.lǎm}}), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related [[Varieties of Chinese|Chinese languages]] that form a branch of [[Min Chinese]] spoken in [[Fujian]] (especially the [[Minnan region]]), most of [[Taiwan]] (many citizens are descendants of settlers from Fujian), Eastern [[Guangdong]], the LongDu region of ZhongShan (ShaXi 沙溪 and DaChong大涌) , [[Hainan]], and Southern [[Zhejiang]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cai Zhu|first1=Huang Guo|title=Chinese language|date=1 October 2015|publisher=Fujian Education Publishing House|location=Xiamen|isbn=978-7533469511}}</ref> Southern Min dialects are also spoken by descendants of [[Overseas Chinese|emigrants from these areas]] in [[diaspora]], most notably in [[Southeast Asia]], such as [[Singaporean Hokkien|Singapore]], [[Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien|Malaysia]], the [[Philippine Hokkien|Philippines]], [[Medan Hokkien|Indonesia]], [[Ethnic Chinese in Brunei|Brunei]], [[Thai Chinese#Hokkien|Southern Thailand]], [[Chinese people in Myanmar#Hokkien|Myanmar]], [[Cambodian Hokkien|Cambodia]], [[Hoa people#Ancestral affiliations|Southern and Central Vietnam]], [[Chinese in San Francisco|San Francisco]], [[Chinese in Los Angeles|Los Angeles]] and [[Chinese in New York City|New York City]]. Minnan is the most widely-spoken branch of Min, with approximately 48 million speakers as of 2017–2018.<ref>{{Ethnologue23|nan}}</ref>

Other varieties of Southern Min have significant differences from Hokkien, some having limited [[mutual intelligibility]] with it, others almost none. [[Teochew dialect|Teochew]], [[Longyan Min|Longyan]], and [[Zhenan Min|Zhenan]] are said to have general mutual intelligibility with Hokkien, sharing similar phonology and vocabulary to a large extent.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lee|first=Tong Soon|title=Chinese Street Opera in Singapore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yz9CW59OsuIC&dq=chaozhou+percent+intelligible+amoy&pg=PA4|date=2009|publisher=[[University of Illinois]] Press|isbn=9780252032462}}</ref> On the other hand, variants such as [[Datian Min|Datian]], ShaXi and DaChong (collectively known as LongDu) in [[Zhongshan Min|Zhongshan]], and [[Hainanese dialect|Qiong]]-[[Leizhou Min|Lei]] have historical linguistic roots with Hokkien, but are significantly divergent from it in terms of phonology and vocabulary, and thus have almost no mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Linguists tend to classify them as separate languages.