Taiwanese Southern Min: An Introduction

授課老師:蘇以文
I-wen Su
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The “Work” under the Creative Commons
Taiwan 3.0 License of “BY-NC-SA”.
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Southern region of Fujian Province
A dialect: Hokkien or Quan2zhou1–
Zhang1zhou1 泉州-漳州
Classified under the
Quan2zhang1 Division
in Chinese linguistics
Wiki Luuva
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Min Nan (閩南話; Min3nan2hua4; Bân-lâm-oē)
Fulaohua (福佬話; Fu2lao3hua4; Hō-ló-oē)
Southern Min
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“台灣話” Tâi-oân-oē / 台語:
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◦ a form of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan
◦ Holo/Hoklo, the main ethnicity of Taiwan, is the
ethnic group for which Hokkien is considered the
native language
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Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as
in the United States
◦ Hokkien speakers form the largest group of
Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia
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Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region
are highly similar to Taiwanese and Amoy.
Hokkien, referred to as Lán-lâng-oē ("Our
people’s language"), is the native language of
up to 98.5% of the Chinese Filipino in the
Philippines
Mutually intelligible
 Quan2zhou1 (泉州)
 Zhang1zhou1 (漳州)
 Amoy / Xia4men2 (廈門)
◦ the most important, or even prestige accent
◦ a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects
(like TSM)
◦ one of the most frequently learnt of all Chinese
languages/dialects by Westerners during the
second half of the 19th and the early 20th century
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The Fu2jian4 variants spoken in Taiwan
Variants used by a majority of the population
and bears much importance from a sociopolitical 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.
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Variants of Hokkien dialects can be traced to
Quan2chou1 and Zhang1zhou1
Both Amoy and Taiwanese are based on a
mixture of these two dialects
Quan2chou1 (northern Taiwan) vs.
Zhang1chou1 (southern Taiwan)
The rest of the Hokkien dialects spoken in
South East Asia are either derived from
Quan2zhou1 and Zhang1zhou1, or based on
a mixture of both dialects
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More consonants than Mandarin
Vowels similar to that of standard Mandarin
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Vowel chart
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NTU 蘇以文
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Southern Min has aspirated, unaspirated and
as voiced consonant initials.
◦ opening khui (開)
◦ closing (kuiⁿ 關)
◦ “man" (cha-po, 查埔)
◦ “woman” (cha-bó, 查某)
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labial initial consonants
◦ m̄-sī (毋是) ("is not").
MD:
(1) -n: 身 shen
(2) -ng: 生 sheng
 TSM:
(1) -m: 心 sim
(2) -p: 十 chap
(3) -t: 八 pat
(4) -k: 六 lak
(5) -h: 肉 bah
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7 tones in TSM (neutralized for 2陰上 & 6陽上)
Tone 1 (44): 君 (kun 1), 東 (tong 1)
Tone 2 (53): 滾 (kun 2), 黨 (tong 2)
Tone 3 (21): 棍 (kun 3), 棟(tong 3)
Tone 4 (32): 骨 (kut 4), 督 (tok 4)
Tone 5 (24): 群 (kun 5), 同 (tong 5)
Tone 7 (22): 郡 (kun 7), 洞(tong 7)
Tone 8 (4): 滑 (kut 8), 毒 (tok 8)
Mnemonic: 獅 (sai1), 虎 (ho2), 豹 (pa3),
鴨 (ah4), 牛 (gu5), 象 (chhiuⁿ7), 鹿 (lok8)
Tone sandhi
(1) 1  7: chheng-chheng 清清
(2) 7  3: cheng-cheng 靜靜
(3) 3  2: chhio-chhio 笑笑
(4) 2  1: leng-leng 冷冷
(5) 5  7/3: ang-ang 紅紅
(6) 4  8 (-p/t/k): sip-sip 濕濕
(7) 4  2 (-h): phah-phah 打打
(8) 8  4 (-p/t/k): tit-tit 直直
(9) 8  3 (-h): joah-joah 熱熱
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Wiki user A-cai
Song: 西北雨
直直落
Reduplication
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SVO: violated by being topic-prominent
Analytic (as opposed to synthetic):
◦ Time, gender, plural: expressed by adverbs, aspect
markers, and grammatical particles, or are deduced
from the context. Not by inflection
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Appending interrogative or exclamative
particles to a sentence turns a sentence into a
question or shows the attitudes of the
speaker.
Topic Prominent
Song: 天 烏烏
Topic Comment
烏
烏烏
Reduplication
烏烏烏
Reduplication
For another example:
紅
紅紅
紅紅紅
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Inclusive: 咱 lan
Exclusive:阮 gun/goan
◦ Cf. 咱老爸 vs. 阮老爸
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Possessives marked by /e/
Reflexive pronouns: kaki
Demonstrative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns
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Monosyllabic form preferred (no suffixes)
Inverted bisyllabic morphemes when
compared to Mandarin
◦ 'guest‘: 人客 lâng-kheh vs. 客人 ke4ren2
◦ 'to like‘: 歡喜 hoaⁿ-hí vs. 喜歡 xi3huan1
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literary readings (文讀):
◦ based on pronunciations of the vernacular during
the Tang dynasty (Middle Chinese)
◦ mainly used in formal phrases and written language
(e.g. philosophical concepts, surnames, and some
place names)
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colloquial (or vernacular) readings (白讀)
◦ used basically in spoken language and vulgar
phrases.
Word
白
面
學
書
人
'white‘
'face‘
'school‘
'book‘
'person‘
Literary
Colloquial
pek
biān
ha̍k
su
jîn
pèh
bīn
o̍h
chu
lâng
Japanese
Numbers
Many strata in the Min lexicon
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1. Colloquial – Han Dynasty
2. Colloquial – Southern and Northern Dynasties
3. Literary – Tang Dynasty
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p- ([p-], [pʰ-]) → h ([h-])
ch-, chh- ([ts-], [tsʰ-], [tɕ-], [tɕʰ-]) → s ([s-],
[ɕ-])
k-, kh- ([k-], [kʰ-]) → ch ([tɕ-], [tɕʰ-])
-ⁿ ([-ã], [-uã]) → n ([-an])
-h ([-ʔ]) → t ([-t])
i ([-i]) → e ([-e])
e ([-e]) → a ([-a])
ia ([-ia]) → i ([-i])
Meaning TSM
MD
Eye
目睭/目珠ba̍k-chiu
Chopstick 箸tī, tū
Black
烏oo
Book
冊chheh
眼睛yan3jing1
筷子kuai4zi5
黑hei1
書shu1
Word
Meaning
in TSM
走cáu
to flee
細sè/suè tiny/small
喙chhuì mouth
Meaning
in MD
to walk (zou3)
thin/slender (si4)
beak (hui4)
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‘toilet’ 便所 piān-só,
◦ from Japanese 便所 benjo
◦ Other variant: 廁所 ce4suo3(chhek-só͘)
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‘car’ 自動車 chū-tōng-chhia
◦ from Japanese 自動車 jidōsha
◦ Other variant: 汽車 qi4che1(khì-chhia)
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'to admire' 感心 kám-sim
◦ from Japanese 感心 kanshin
◦ Other variant: 感動 gan3dong4(kám-tōng)
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TSM is typically written in Chinese characters
(漢字Hàn-jī).
The written script was and remains adapted
to the literary form, based on classical
Chinese, not the vernacular and spoken form.
The character inventory for Mandarin does
not correspond to that for TSM words
20 to 25% of Taiwanese morphemes lack an
appropriate or standard Chinese character,
and unique informal characters are used.
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Hokkien dialects
◦ transcribed by using Romanized orthographies
◦ actively promoted since the late 19th century
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Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ 白話字 Bai2hua4zì4):
the most popular
first by Presbyterian missionaries
then the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
promoted since 2006 by MOE
romanization system taught in TW schools
for TSM derived from 白話字 Bai2hua4zì4
◦ known as 台羅 tai2luo2
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Work
Licensing
Author/Source
Wiki Luuva
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Banlamgu.svg
2011/10/29 visited
NTU 蘇以文 繪製 (2011)
Wiki user A-cai
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amoy_to
nes.JPG
2011/10/29 visited