.gif)
Min (linguistics)
Encyclopedia
History
There are controversies among scholars about when Min Chinese was initially formed. But it is generally consensus that several huge immigrations from Zhongyuan greatly shaped and influenced Min Chinese.- In 308 AD (晋永嘉二年), a big immigration from north to south happened in China because of Wu Hu uprisingWu Hu uprisingWu Hu forces rose up against the Jin Dynasty of China, who they had formerly served, in 304 CE, and by 316 CE their victory was complete. The Jin Dynasty's control was thus limited to territory south of the Huai River.-Background:...
(more commonly referred in Chinese as 永嘉之乱). Sanshanzhi (三山志) stated that the population in Jinjiang county almost doubled. The tide of immigration brought the Chinese spoken in Jin Dynasty to FujianFujian' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
. - In 669 AD, Chen ZhengChen Zheng (Tang Dynasty)Chen Zheng , pseudonym: ), was a Tang Dynasty general from Gushi County in Henan, China.Chen Zheng was the father of Chen Yuanguang. Together with Chen Yuanguang, he was responsible for opening up and developing the city of Zhangzhou....
and his son Chen YuanguangChen YuanguangChen Yuanguang , pseudonym: ) was from Gushi County in Henan, China. The people of Zhangzhou in Fujian, along with the descendants of immigrants from Zhangzhou to Taiwan, all refer to him as the "Sacred Prince, Developer of Zhangzhou" ....
from Gushi CountyGushi CountyGushi County is a county of about 1,630,000 people of Xinyang City, southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China.-Administration:Gushi has 10 towns and 22 townships.Towns:*Chengguan *Sanhejian *Chenlinzi *Liji...
in HenanHenanHenan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
set up a regional administration in FujianFujian' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
and governed the area of QuanzhouQuanzhouQuanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
and ZhangzhouZhangzhouZhangzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. Located on the banks of the Jiulong River , Zhangzhou borders the cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou to the northeast, Longyan City to the northwest and the province of Guangdong to the southwest.Zhangzhou...
for four generations. They brought with them the Chinese spoken in early Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
. - During Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, following the development of Imperial examinationImperial examinationThe Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...
(科舉), QieyunQieyunThe Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor...
's vowel system was introduced into Min Chinese. - At the end of Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, in 892 AD, Wang ChaoWang Chao (Tang Dynasty)Wang Chao , courtesy name Xinchen , formally Duke Guangwu of Qin , was a warlord of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, who controlled Fujian Circuit , eventually establishing the base of power for his family members to later establish the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Min.-...
was appointed jiedushiJiedushiThe Jiedushi were regional military governors in China during the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Originally set up to counter external threats, the jiedushi were given enormous power, including the ability to maintain their own armies, collect taxes, and pass their...
of FujianFujian' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
and his brother Wang ShenzhiWang ShenzhiWang Shenzhi , courtesy name Xintong or Xiangqing , formally Prince Zhongyi of Min and later further posthumously honored as Emperor Taizu of Min , was the founder of Min on the southeast coast of China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period of Chinese history...
founded Min KingdomMin (Ten Kingdoms)Min was one of the Ten Kingdoms which was in existence between the years of 909 and 945. It existed in a mountainous region of modern day Fujian province of China and had a history of quasi-independent rule. Its capital was Fuzhou 福州. It was founded by Wang Shenzhi .-Founding:Wang Shenzhi’s older...
in 909 AD following the fall of Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
. Min KingdomMin (Ten Kingdoms)Min was one of the Ten Kingdoms which was in existence between the years of 909 and 945. It existed in a mountainous region of modern day Fujian province of China and had a history of quasi-independent rule. Its capital was Fuzhou 福州. It was founded by Wang Shenzhi .-Founding:Wang Shenzhi’s older...
was one of the Ten Kingdoms in Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms PeriodFive Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms PeriodFive Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was between 907–960/979 AD and an era of political upheaval in China, between the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the founding of the Song Dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, and more than 12 independent states were...
. Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi were also from Gushi CountyGushi CountyGushi County is a county of about 1,630,000 people of Xinyang City, southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China.-Administration:Gushi has 10 towns and 22 townships.Towns:*Chengguan *Sanhejian *Chenlinzi *Liji...
in HenanHenanHenan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
and the Chinese spoken in late Tang DynastyTang DynastyThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
entered FujianFujian' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
.
Writing system
When using Chinese characterChinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s to write a non-Mandarin form, standard practice is to use characters that correspond etymologically to the words being represented, and to invent new characters for words with no evident ancient Chinese etymology or in some cases for alternative pronunciations of existing characters, especially when the meaning is significantly different. Written Cantonese
Written Cantonese
Cantonese has the most well-developed written form of all Chinese varieties apart from the standard varieties of Mandarin and Classical Chinese. Standard written Chinese is based on Mandarin, but when spoken word for word as Cantonese, it sounds unnatural because its expressions are ungrammatical...
has carried this process out to the farther 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.
A similar process has never taken place for any of the Min languages and there is no standard system for writing Min, although some specialized characters have been created. Given that Min combines Chinese languages from several different periods and contains some non-Chinese vocabulary, one may have trouble finding the appropriate Chinese characters for some Min vocabulary. In the case of Taiwanese, there are also indigenous words loaned from the Taiwanese aborigines, as well as a substantial number of loan words from Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. In Singapore and Malaysia, the Min variants spoken have borrowed heavily from Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
and to a lesser extent, from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and other languages. The result is that cases of Min languages written purely in Chinese characters do not represent actual Min speech, but contain a heavy mixture of Mandarin forms.
Attempts to faithfully represent Min speech necessarily rely on romanization
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
, i.e. representation using Latin characters. Some Min speakers use the Church Romanization . For Min Nan
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....
the romanization
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
is called Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) and for Min Dong
Min Dong
The Eastern Min language, or Min Dong is the language mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province in China, in and near Fuzhou and Ningde. Fuzhou is the province's capital and largest city...
called Bàng-uâ-cê
Bàng-uâ-cê
Foochow Romanized, a.k.a. Bàng-uâ-cê or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê , is a romanized orthography for the Fuzhou dialect adopted in the middle of 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized in the 1890s...
(BUC). Both systems were created by foreign missionaries in the 19th century (see Min Nan and Min Dong Wikipedia). There are some uncommon publications in mixed writing, using mostly Chinese characters but using the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
to represent words that cannot easily be represented by Chinese characters.
External links
- Classification of Min Dialects
- Seaside Min Language Forum (ChineseChinese languageThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
)