 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
| Fuzhounese | |
|---|---|
| 福州話 /Hók-ciŭ-uâ 福州語 /Hók-ciŭ-ngṳ̄ 平話 /Bàng-uâ | |
| Pronunciation | [huʔ˨˩tsiu˥˧ua˨˦˨] |
| Native to | China (Fuzhou and its surrounding counties) andTaiwan (Matsu Islands) |
| Ethnicity | Fuzhou |
Native speakers | (10 million cited 1994)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
Early forms | |
| Dialects | |
| Chinese characters andFoochow Romanized | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Matsu Islands, Taiwan (as local language[5])[6] |
Recognised minority language in | one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in theMatsu Islands[7] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| ISO 639-6 | fzho |
| Glottolog | fuzh1239 |
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA-ice |
 The Fuzhou dialect inFujian Province, regions where the standard form is spoken are deep blue. 1:Fuzhou City Proper, 2:Minhou, 3:Fuqing, 4:Lianjiang, 5:Pingnan 6:Luoyuan, 7:Gutian, 8:Minqing, 9:Changle, 10:Yongtai, 11:Pingtan 12: Regions inFuding, 13: Regions inXiapu, 14: Regions inNingde 15: Regions inNanping, 16: Regions inYouxi | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Fuzhounese | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 福州話 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 福州话 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 福州語 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 福州语 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Everyday language | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 平話 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 平话 | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
TheFuzhou language (simplified Chinese:福州话;traditional Chinese:福州話;pinyin:Fúzhōuhuà;FR:Hók-ciŭ-uâ[huʔ˨˩tsiu˥˧ua˨˦˨]ⓘ), alsoFoochow,Hokchew,Hok-chiu, orFuzhounese,Fujianese,[8] is theprestige variety of theEastern Min branch ofMin Chinese spoken mainly in the Mindong region of EasternFujian Province. As it is mutually unintelligible to neighbouring varieties (e.g.Hinghua andHokkien) in the province, under a technical linguistic definition Fuzhou is alanguage and not a dialect (conferring the variety a 'dialect' status is more socio-politically motivated than linguistic). Thus, while Fuzhou may be commonly referred to as a 'dialect' by laypersons, this is colloquial usage and not recognised in academic linguistics. Like many othervarieties of Chinese, the Fuzhou dialect is dominated by monosyllabic morphemes that carry lexicaltones,[9] and has a mainlyanalytic syntax. While theEastern Min branch it belongs to is relatively closer to otherbranches of Min such asSouthern Min orPu-Xian Min than to other Sinitic branches such asMandarin,Wu Chinese orHakka, they are still not mutually intelligible.
Centered inFuzhou City, the Fuzhou dialect covers 11 cities and counties in China:Fuzhou City Proper,Pingnan,Gutian,Luoyuan,Minqing,Lianjiang,Minhou,Changle,Yongtai,Fuqing andPingtan; andLienchiang County (the Matsu Islands), in Taiwan (the ROC). It is also the second local language in many northern and middle Fujian cities and counties such asNanping,Sanming,Shaowu,Shunchang, andYouxi.[10]
The Fuzhou dialect is also widely spoken in some regions abroad, manyFuzhou people have emigrated toJapan, theUnited States,Canada, theUnited Kingdom,Australia,New Zealand, and someSoutheastern Asian cities. The Malaysian city ofSibu is called "New Fuzhou" due to the influx of immigrants there in the late 19th century and early 1900s.
In Chinese, it is generally termed insimplified Chinese:福州话;traditional Chinese:福州話;pinyin:Fúzhōuhuà, which in the native language (using the romanizationFoochow Romanized) is:Hók-ciŭ-uâ[huʔ˨˩tsiu˥˧ua˨˦˨]ⓘ. It is also sometimes called福州語 (Hók-ciŭ-ngṳ̄;pinyin:Fúzhōuyǔ), using a different term for 'speech'. Native speakers also call itBàng-uâ (平話), meaning "the everyday language".
In English, the term "Fuzhou dialect" dominates, although "Fuzhounese" is also frequently attested. In older works written in English, the variety is called "Foochow dialect", based on theChinese postal romanization of Fuzhou.
InIndonesia (especially inSurabaya ofEast Java), it is known locally as "Hokchia". Meanwhile inMalaysia andSingapore, it is often called "Hokchiu" (pronounced[hɔk̚˥t͡ɕiu˦]), which is the pronunciation ofFuzhou in theSouthern MinHokkien language or "Huchiu" (pronounced[hu˨˩t͡ɕiu˥]), which is the pronunciation ofFuzhou in theEastern Min language of Fuzhou itself. Eastern Min and Southern Min are both spoken in the sameFujian Province, but the name Hokkien, while etymologically derived from the same characters as Fujian (福建), is used in Southeast Asia and the English press to refer specifically to Southern Min, which has a much larger number of speakers both within Fujian and in the Chinese diaspora ofSoutheast Asia.
After theQin dynasty conquered theMinyue kingdom of Southeast China in 110 BC, Chinese people began settling what is nowFujian Province. TheOld Chinese language brought by the mass influx of Chinese immigrants from theChinese heartland, along with the influences of local languages, became the early Proto-Min language from which Eastern Min, Southern Min, and other Min languages arose.[11] Within this Min branch of Chinese, Eastern Min and Southern Min both form part of a Coastal Min subgroup, and are thus closer to each other than to Inland Min groups such asNorthern Min andCentral Min.
The famous bookQī Lín Bāyīn, which was compiled in the 17th century, is the first and the most full-scalerime book that provides a systematic guide to character reading for people speaking or learning the Fuzhou dialect. It once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Min Chinese phonology.
In 1842,Fuzhou was open to Westerners as atreaty port after the signing of theTreaty of Nanjing. But due to the language barrier, however, the first Christian missionary base in this city did not take place without difficulties. In order to convertFuzhou people, those missionaries found it very necessary to make a careful study of the Fuzhou dialect. Their most notable works are listed below:[12]
During theSecond World War, some Japanese scholars became passionate about studying the Fuzhou dialect, believing that it could be beneficial to the rule of theGreater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. One of their most famous works was theJapanese-Chinese Translation: Fuzhou Dialect (日華對譯: 福州語) published in 1940 inTaipei, in whichkatakana was used to represent Fuzhou pronunciation.
By the end of theQing dynasty, Fuzhou society had been largelymonolingual. But for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the vernacular in school education and in media, so the number ofMandarin speakers has been greatly boosted. Recent reports indicate that less than 50% of young people in Fuzhou are able to speak the Fuzhou dialect.[13]
InMainland China, the Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as anIntangible Cultural Heritage[14] and promotion work is being systematically carried out to preserve its use. InMatsu, currently controlled by theRepublic of China located inTaiwan, the teaching of the local variant, theMatsu dialect, has been successfully introduced intoelementary schools.[5][15] It is also one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Matsu[7] and in Fuzhou.[16]
Like all Chinese varieties, the Fuzhou dialect is atonal language, and has extensivesandhi rules in theinitials,rimes, andtones. These complicated rules make the Fuzhou dialect one of the most difficult Chinese varieties.[17]
There are seven originaltones in the Fuzhou dialect, compared with the eight tones ofMiddle Chinese:
| Name | Tone contour | Description | Example | five-scale IPA (李1994)[18] | five-scale IPA (冯1998)[19] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark-level (Ĭng-bìng陰平) | ˥ | high level | 君 | 44 | 55 |
| Rising tone (Siōng-siăng上聲) | ˧ | middle level | 滾 | 31 | 33 |
| Dark-departing (Ĭng-ké̤ṳ陰去) | ˨˩˧ | low falling and rising | 貢 | 213 | 212 |
| Dark-entering (Ĭng-ĭk陰入) | ˨˦ | middle rising stopped | 谷 | 23 | 24 |
| Light-level (Iòng-bìng陽平) | ˥˧ | high falling | 群 | 53 | 53 |
| Light-departing (Iòng-ké̤ṳ陽去) | ˨˦˨ | middle rising and falling | 郡 | 353 | 242 |
| Light-entering (Iòng-ĭk陽入) | ˥ | high level stopped | 掘 | 5 | 5 |
The sample characters are taken from theQī Lín Bāyīn. More modern studies have also been done in the late 20th century and early 21st centuries, including an acoustically quantified set of data for the citation tones.[20]
InQī Lín Bāyīn, the Fuzhou dialect is described as having eight tones, which explains how the book got its title (Bāyīn means "eight tones"). That name, however, is somewhat misleading, because Ĭng-siōng (陰上) and Iòng-siōng (陽上) are identical intone contour; therefore, only seven tones exist.
Ĭng-ĭk and Iòng-ĭk (or so-calledentering tone) syllables end with eithervelar stop[k] or aglottal stop[ʔ]. However, they are both now realized as a glottal stop, though the twophonemes maintain distinct sandhi behavior in connected speech.
Besides those seven tones listed above, two new tonal values, "˨˩" (Buáng-ĭng-ké̤ṳ,半陰去) and˧˥ (Buáng-iòng-ké̤ṳ,半陽去) occur in connected speech (seeTonal sandhi below).
Little discussed in the existing literature, there is some evidence that Fuzhou uses non-modal phonation with certain tones: creaky for陰去ĭng-ké̤ṳ,陰入ĭng-ĭk,陽去iòng-ké̤ṳ, and breathy for上聲siōng-siăng. This has been shown to be perceptually relevant for tonal identification.[21]
The rules oftonal sandhi in the Fuzhou dialect are complicated, even compared with those of other Min dialects. When two or more than two morphemes combine into a word, the tonal value of the last morpheme remains stable but in most cases those of the preceding morphemes change. For example, "獨", "立" and "日" are words of iòng-ĭk (陽入) with the same tonal value˥, and are pronounced[tuʔ˥],[liʔ˥], and[niʔ˥], respectively. When combined as the phrase "獨立日" (Independence Day), "獨" changes its tonal value to˨˩, and "立" changes its to˧, therefore the pronunciation as a whole is[tuʔ˨˩liʔ˧niʔ˥].
The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):
| ĭng-bìng (陰平˥) | iòng-bìng (陽平˥˧) | siōng-siăng (上聲˧) | ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去˨˩˧) | |
ĭng-bìng (陰平˥) | ˥ | ˥ | ˥˧ | ˥˧ |
iòng-bìng (陽平˥˧) | ˥ | ˧ | ˧ | ˨˩ |
siōng-siăng (上聲˧) | ˨˩ | ˨˩ | ˧˥ | ˥ |
Ĭng-ĭk-gák (陰入甲) are ĭng-ĭk (陰入) syllables ending with-k/k/ and ĭng-ĭk-ék (陰入乙) are those with a final-h/ʔ/.[22][23] This distinction made between the glottal stop and the -k is said to have been maintained in the literary readings of characters until quite recently.[20] Both are usually realized as theglottal stop by most modern speakers of the Fuzhou dialect, and have the same tone in isolation, but they are still distinguished both in the above tone sandhi behavior, and ininitial assimilation that occurs after them.[20][23] Although the iòng-ĭk (陽入) tone is also achecked tone composed of both types of syllables, in-k and in-h, there is no split in its realization, either in isolation or in its tone sandhi behavior.[20]
The three patterns of tone sandhi exhibited in the Fuzhou dialect may be a reflex of the voicing split fromMiddle Chinese into different registers. This is based on a comparison with the tonal sandhi system of the subdialect ofLianjiang, a very similar but more conservativeEastern Min variety, where three tonal categories on penultimate syllables ("Yin" / Ĭng /陰 from unvoiced consonants in Middle Chinese; "yang" / iòng /陽 from voiced consonants in Middle Chinese; and a third "shang" / siōng /上 tonal category from the Middle Chinese "rising tone" 上聲 where the Yin and Yang registers have merged) interact with the tonal category of the final syllable to form the sandhi pattern in Lianjiang.[24] Although the effect of the historical tonal registers from Middle Chinese is clear in Lianjiang, the Fuzhou tonal sandhi system has deviated from the older pattern, in that the tone iòng-ké̤ṳ 陽去˨˦˨, which is from the historical "Yang" tonal register, now follows the sandhi rules for the "Yin" register; and the sandhi tone ĭng-ĭk-gák 陰入乙˨˦, which comes from the historical "Yin" register, follow the sandhi rules for the merged "Shang" tone.[25]
The tonal sandhi rules of more than two syllables display further complexities. For three-syllable domains:
| Original tones | After tone sandhi | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First syllable | Second syllable | Third syllable | First syllable | Second syllable | Third syllable |
| All tones | Dark level /˥/ Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked (B) /˨˦/ | Dark level /˥/ Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ | Half dark departing /˨˩/ | Dark level /˥/ | No change |
| Rising /˧/ Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked /˨˦/ | Light level /˥˧/ | ||||
| Rising /˧/ Dark checked (A) /˨˦/ | Dark level /˥/ Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ | Half dark departing /˨˩/ | |||
| Rising /˧/ | Half light departing /˧˥/ | ||||
| Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked /˨˦/ | Dark level /˥/ | ||||
| Dark level /˥/ Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked (B) /˨˦/ | Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ | Dark level /˥/ Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ | Dark level /˥/ | Dark level /˥/ | |
| Rising /˧/ | Light level /˥˧/ | Rising /˧/ | |||
| Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked /˨˦/ | Half dark departing /˨˩/ | ||||
| Rising /˧/ Dark checked (A) /˨˦/ | Dark level /˥/ Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ Rising /˧/ | Half light departing /˧˥/ | Rising /˧/ | ||
| Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked /˨˦/ | Dark level /˥/ | Half dark departing /˨˩/ | |||
| Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ | Dark level /˥/ Light level /˥˧/ Light checked /˥/ Rising /˧/ | Rising /˧/ | Rising /˧/ | ||
| Dark departing /˨˩˧/ Light departing /˨˦˨/ Dark checked /˨˦/ | Half dark departing /˨˩/ | Half dark departing /˨˩/ | |||
Four-syllable words can be treated as two sequential two-syllable units, and undergo two-syllable tone sandhi accordingly; in faster speech, the first two syllables are reduced to a half dark departing tone, and the remaining two syllables undergo two-syllable tone sandhi. A domain of four syllables is the maximum, with anything larger broken down to into smaller domains.[20]
There are fifteeninitials, including a zero initial realized as a glottal stop[ʔ]:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ (蒙) | /n/ (日) | /ŋ/ (語) | ||
| Plosive | aspirated | /pʰ/ (波) | /tʰ/ (他) | /kʰ/ (氣) | |
| plain | /p/ (邊) | /t/ (低) | /k/ (求) | /ʔ/ (鶯) | |
| Fricative | /s/ (時) | /h/ (喜) | |||
| Affricate | aspirated | /tsʰ/ (出) | |||
| plain | /ts/ (曾) | ||||
| Lateral | /l/ (柳) | ||||
The Chinese characters in the brackets are also sample characters fromQī Lín Bāyīn.
Some speakers find it difficult to distinguish between the initials/n/ and/l/.
Nolabiodental phonemes, such as/f/ or/v/, exist in the Fuzhou dialect, which is one of the most conspicuous characteristics shared by all branches in theMin Family.
[β] and[ʒ] exist only in connected speech (seeInitial assimilation below).
In the Fuzhou dialect, there are various kinds of initialassimilation, all of which are progressive. When two or more than two syllables combine into a word, the initial of the first syllable stays unchanged while those of the following syllables, in most cases, change to match its preceding phoneme, i.e., thecoda of its preceding syllable. As with therime changes, initial assimilation is not as mandatory as tone sandhi in connected speech, and its presence and absence may indicate different parts of speech, different meanings of a single word, or different relationships between groups of words syntactically.[26]
| The Coda of the Former Syllable | The Initial Assimilation of the Latter Syllable |
|---|---|
| Null coda or/-ʔ/ |
|
| /-ŋ/ |
|
| /-k/ | All initials remain unchanged. |
Note that although/-k/ and/-ʔ/ are generally pronounced the same in isolation, realized as a finalglottal stop[-ʔ], they cause drastically different effects on the initials that follow. They also differ in how common it is to drop them in natural linked speech. These have been called prelinked and floating glottal stops respectively in academic literature.[23]
The table below shows the sevenvowel phonemes of the Fuzhou dialect. Fuzhou is known for its vowel alternations much discussed in the linguistic literature.[27]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | /i/ [i~ɛi] | /y/ [y~œy] | /u/ [u~ɔu] | |
| Mid | /e/ [e~a] | /ø/ [ø~ɔ] | /o/ [o~ɔ] | |
| Open | /a/ | |||
In the Fuzhou dialect, the codas/-m/,/-n/, and/-ŋ/ have all merged as/-ŋ/, and/-p/,/-t/,/-k/ have all merged as/-ʔ/. Seven vowel phonemes, together with the codas/-ŋ/ and/-ʔ/, are organized into forty-sixrimes.[28]
| Monophthongs | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /e/ | /ø/ | /o/ | /i/ | /u/ | /y/ | |
| Open syllable | [a] (蝦, 罷) | [e,a] (街, 細) | [ø,ɔ] (驢, 告) | [o,ɔ] (哥, 抱) | [i,ɛi] (喜, 氣) | [u,ɔu] (苦, 怒) | [y,œy] (豬, 箸) |
| Nasal Coda/-ŋ/ | [aŋ] (三, 汗) | [iŋ,ɛiŋ] (人, 任) | [uŋ,ɔuŋ] (春, 鳳) | [yŋ,œyŋ] (銀, 頌) | |||
| Glottal Coda/-ʔ/ | [aʔ] (盒, 鴨) | [eʔ] (漬) | [øʔ] (扔) | [oʔ,ɔʔ] (樂, 閣) | [iʔ,ɛiʔ] (力, 乙) | [uʔ,ɔuʔ] (勿, 福) | [yʔ,œyʔ] (肉, 竹) |
| Rising diphthongs | Falling diphthongs | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ja/ | /je/ | /wa/ | /wo/ | /ɥo/ | /ai/ | /au/ | /eu/ | /ei/ | /ou/ | /øy/ | /iu/ | /ui/ | |
| Open syllable | [ja] (寫, 夜) | [je] (雞, 毅) | [wa] (花, 話) | [wo] (科, 課) | [ɥo] (橋, 銳) | [ai] (紙, 再) | [au] (郊, 校) | [eu,au] (溝, 構) | [øy,ɔy] (催, 罪) | [iu] (秋, 笑) | [ui] (杯, 歲) | ||
| Nasal Coda/-ŋ/ | [jaŋ] (驚, 命) | [jeŋ] (天, 見) | [waŋ] (歡, 換) | [woŋ] (王, 象) | [ɥoŋ] (鄉, 樣) | [eiŋ,aiŋ] (恒, 硬) | [ouŋ,ɔuŋ] (湯, 寸) | [øyŋ,ɔyŋ] (桶, 洞) | |||||
| Glottal Coda/-ʔ/ | [jaʔ] (擲, 察) | [jeʔ] (熱, 鐵) | [waʔ] (活, 法) | [woʔ] (月, 郭) | [ɥoʔ] (藥, 弱) | [eiʔ,aiʔ] (賊, 黑) | [ouʔ,ɔuʔ] (學, 骨) | [øyʔ,ɔyʔ] (讀, 角) | |||||
| Triphthong | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /wai/ | ||||
| Open syllable | [wai] (我, 怪) | |||
As has been mentioned above, there are theoretically two different entering tonal codas in the Fuzhou dialect:/-k/ and/-ʔ/. However, for most Fuzhou dialect speakers, those two codas are only distinguishable when in thetonal sandhi orinitial assimilation.
Some rimes come in pairs in the above table: the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the other represents an open rime (鬆韻). This vowel alternation of close/open rimes is closely related with the tones. In single syllables, the tones of ĭng-bìng (陰平), siōng-siăng (上聲), iòng-bìng (陽平) and iòng-ĭk (陽入) have close rimes, while ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去), ĭng-ĭk (陰入) and ĭòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去) have open rimes.
In connected speech, an open rime shifts to its close counterpart in thetonal sandhi. For instance, "福" (hók) is a ĭng-ĭk syllable and is pronounced[hɔuʔ˨˦] and "州" (ciŭ) a ĭng-bìng syllable with the pronunciation of[tsiu˥]. When these two syllables combine into the word "福州" (hók-ciŭ, Fuzhou), "福" changes its tonal value from˨˦ to˨˩ and, simultaneously, shifts its rime from[-ɔuʔ] to[-uʔ], so the phrase is pronounced[huʔ˨˩tsiu˥]. In contrast, in the word "中國"[tyŋ˥˧kuoʔ˨˦] (Dṳ̆ng-guók, China), "中" is a ĭng-bìng syllable and therefore its close rime never changes, though it does change its tonal value from˥ to˥˧ in tonal sandhi.[27]
As withinitial assimilation, the closing of open rimes in connected speech is not as compulsory as tone sandhi. It has been described as "a sort of switch that flips on and off to indicate different things", so its presence or absence can indicate different meanings or different syntactic functions.[26]
The phenomenon of close/open rimes is nearly unique to the Fuzhou dialect and this feature makes it especially intricate and reduces its intelligibility, even to speakers of otherMin varieties. Even cross-linguistically, such phonological tone-vowel interactions are rare.[29]
Theneutral tone is attested in the Fuzhou dialect, as well as being found in theSouthern Min group and in varieties ofMandarin Chinese, including Beijing-basedStandard Mandarin. It is commonly found in some modal particles, aspect markers, and some question-forming negative particles that come after units made up of one tone sandhi domain, and in some adverbs, aspect markers, conjunctions etc. that come before such units. These two types, the post-nucleus and the pre-nucleus neutral tone, exhibit different tone sandhi behavior. Disyllabic neutral tone words are also attested, as are some inter-nuclei neutral tones, mainly connected to the use of 蜀siŏh /suoʔ˥/ in verbal reduplication.[30]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(May 2012) |
Mostwords in the Fuzhou dialect havecognates in othervarieties of Chinese, so a non-Fuzhou speaker would find it much easier to understand the Fuzhou dialect written inChinese characters than spoken in conversation. However,false friends do exist: for example, "莫細膩" (mŏ̤h sá̤-nê) means "don't be too polite" or "make yourself at home", "我對手汝洗碗" (nguāi dó̤i-chiū nṳ̄ sā̤ uāng) means "I help you wash dishes", "伊共伊老媽嚟冤家" (ĭ gâe̤ng ĭ lâu-mā lā̤ uŏng-gă) means "he and his wife are quarreling (with each other)", etc. Mere knowledge of Mandarin vocabulary, with the cognates細膩xìnì,對手duìshǒu and冤家yuānjiā, does not assist in understanding the nuance of such sentences.
The majority of Fuzhou dialect vocabulary dates back more than 1,200 years. Some everyday words are still in use as they were in theTang dynasty, as illustrated by a poem of a renowned Chinese poet of the era,Gu Kuang.[31] In his poemJiǎn (囝),Gu Kuang explicitly noted:
囝，音蹇。閩俗呼子為囝，父為郎罷。
"囝 is pronounced as蹇. In Fujian vernacular son is called囝, and father郎罷."
In the Fuzhou dialect, "囝" (giāng) for 'son' and "郎罷" (nòng-mâ) for 'father' are still in use today.
Quite a few words fromOld Chinese have retained the original meanings for thousands of years, while their counterparts inMandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use or varied to different meanings.
This table shows some Fuzhou dialect words from Old Chinese, as contrasted to Mandarin Chinese:
| Meaning | Fuzhou dialect | Foochow Romanized | Mandarin | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eye | 目睭/目珠 | mĕ̤k-ciŭ[møyʔ˥tsju˥] | 眼睛 | yǎnjīng |
| you | 汝 | nṳ̄[ny˧] | 你 | nǐ |
| chopstick | 箸 | dê̤ṳ[tøy˨˦˨] | 筷子 | kuàizi |
| to chase | 逐 | dṳ̆k[tyʔ˥] | 追 | zhuī |
| to look, to watch | 覷/覰/䁦 | ché̤ṳ[tsʰœy˨˩˧] | 看1 | kàn |
| wet | 潤 | nóng[nɔuŋ˨˩˧] | 濕 | shī |
| black | 烏 | ŭ[u˥] | 黑 | hēi |
| to feed | 豢 | huáng[hwaŋ˨˩˧] | 養² | yǎng |
This table shows some words that are used in the Fuzhou dialect close to as they were in Classical Chinese, while the meanings in Mandarin Chinese have altered:
| Word | Foochow Romanized | Meaning in Classical Chinese and the Fuzhou dialect | Pinyin | Meaning in Mandarin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 細 | sá̤[sa˨˩˧] | tiny, small, young | xì | thin, slender |
| 說 | suók/siók[swoʔ˨˦] | to explain, to clarify | shuō | to speak, to talk |
| 懸 | gèng[keiŋ˥˧] | tall, high | xuán | to hang, to suspend (v.) |
| 喙 | chói[tsʰwi˨˩˧] | mouth | huì | beak |
Some daily used words, shared by all Min varieties, came from the ancientMinyue language. Such as follows:
| Word | Foochow Romanized | Southern Min / TaiwanesePOJ | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 骹 | kă ([kʰa˥]) | kha ([kʰa˥]) | foot and leg |
| 囝 | giāng[kjaŋ˧] | kiáⁿ ([kjã˥˩]) | son, child, whelp, a small amount |
| 睏 | káung[kʰauŋ˨˩˧] | khùn[kʰun˨˩] | to sleep |
| 骿 | piăng[pʰjaŋ˥] | phiaⁿ[pʰjã˥] | back, dorsum |
| 儂 | nè̤ng[nøyŋ˥˧] | lâng[laŋ˨˦] | human |
| 厝 | chuó/chió[tsʰwo˨˩˧] | chhù[tsʰu˨˩] | home, house |
| 刣 | tài[tʰai˥˧] | thâi[tʰai˨˦] | to kill, to slaughter |
Theliterary and colloquial readings is a feature commonly found in all Chinese dialects throughout China. Literary readings are mainly used in formal phrases derived from the written language, while the colloquial ones are used in colloquial phrases in the spoken language, as well as when used on their own.
Phonologically, a large range of phonemes can differ between the character's two readings: in tone, final, initial, or any and all of these features.
This table displays some widely used characters in the Fuzhou dialect which have both literary and colloquial readings:
| Character | Literary reading | Phrase | Meaning | Colloquial reading | Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 行 | hèng[heiŋ˥˧] | 行李 hèng-lī | luggage | giàng[kjaŋ˥˧] | 行墿 giàng-duô | to walk |
| 生 | sĕng[seiŋ˥] | 生態 sĕng-tái | zoology,ecology | săng[saŋ˥] | 生囝 săng-giāng | childbearing |
| 江 | gŏng[kouŋ˥] | 江蘇 Gŏng-sŭ | Jiangsu | gĕ̤ng[køyŋ˥] | 閩江Mìng-gĕ̤ng | Min River |
| 百 | báik[paiʔ˨˦] | 百科 báik-kuŏ | encyclopedical | báh[paʔ˨˦] | 百姓 báh-sáng | common people |
| 飛 | hĭ[hi˥] | 飛機 hĭ-gĭ | aeroplane | buŏi[pwi˥] | 飛鳥 buŏi-cēu | flying birds |
| 寒 | hàng[haŋ˥˧] | 寒食 Hàng-sĭk | Cold Food Festival | gàng[kaŋ˥˧] | 天寒 tiĕng gàng | cold, freezing |
| 廈 | hâ[ha˨˦˨] | 大廈 dâi-hâ | mansion | â[a˨˦˨] | 廈門Â-muòng | Amoy (Xiamen) |
TheFirst Opium War, also known as the First Anglo-Chinese War, was ended in 1842 with the signing of theTreaty of Nanjing, which forced theQing government to openFuzhou to allBritish traders and missionaries. Since then, quite a number of churches and Western-style schools have been established. Consequently, someEnglish wordscame into the Fuzhou dialect, but without fixed written forms in Chinese characters. The most frequently used words are listed below:[32]
Some common phrases in the Fuzhou dialect:
Most words of the Fuzhou dialect stem fromOld Chinese and can therefore be written in Chinese characters. Many books published during theQing dynasty had been written in this traditional way, such as the famousMǐndū Biéjì (閩都別記, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dŭ Biék-gé). However, Chinese characters as the writing system for the Fuzhou dialect can have many shortcomings.
First, a great number of words are unique to the Fuzhou dialect, so that they can only be written in informal ways. For instance, the word "mâ̤", a negative word, has no common form. Some write it as "賣" or "袂", both of which share with it an identical pronunciation but have an irrelevant meaning; and others prefer to use a newly created character,𣍐, combining "勿" and "會", but this character is not included in most fonts.
Second, the Fuzhou dialect has been excluded from the educational system for many decades. As a result, many if not all take for granted that the Fuzhou dialect does not have a formal writing system and when they have to write it, they tend to employ characters with a similarMandarin Chinese enunciation. For example, "會使 (â̤ sāi)", meaning "okay", are frequently written as "阿塞" because they are uttered almost in the same way.
Foochow Romanized, also known asBàng-uâ-cê (平話字,BUC for short) orHók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (福州話羅馬字), is aromanizedorthography for the Fuzhou dialect adopted in the middle of 19th century by American and Englishmissionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized several decades later. Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of church circles, and was taught in some mission schools in Fuzhou.[33]
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2008) |
Mǐnqiāng Kuàizì (閩腔快字, Foochow Romanized:Mìng-kiŏng Kuái-cê), literally meaning "Fujian Colloquial Fast Characters", is a Qieyin System (切音系統) for Fuzhou dialect designed by Chinese scholar and calligrapher Li Jiesan (力捷三) in 1896.
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2008) |
Below is Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights written in the Fuzhou dialect, using both Foochow Romanized (left) and Chinese characters (center).
| BUC version | Hanzi version | English version |
|---|---|---|
| Lièng-hăk-guók sié-gái ìng-guòng sŏng-ngiòng | 聯合國世界人權宣言 | Universal Declaration of Human Rights |
| Dâ̤-ék dèu | 第一條 | Article 1 |
| Sū-iū nè̤ng sĕng giâ lì cêu sê cê̤ṳ-iù gì, | 所有儂生下來就是自由其， | All human beings are born free |
| bêng-chiă diŏh cŏng-ngièng gâe̤ng guòng-lĭk siông ék-lŭk bìng-dēng. | 並且著尊嚴共權利上一律平等。 | and equal in dignity and rights. |
| Ĭ-gáuk-nè̤ng ô lī-séng gâe̤ng liòng-sĭng, | 伊各儂有理性共良心， | They are endowed with reason and conscience |
| bêng-chiă éng-gāi ī hiăng-diê guăng-hiê gì cĭng-sìng lì hô-siŏng dó̤i-dâi. | 並且應該以兄弟關係其精神來互相對待。 | and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. |
[tě.ěiʔ.téu]
[sū.jū.nø̂ŋ.séiŋ.kjǎ.lî.tsěu.sěi.tsø̌y.jú.kî,]
[pěiŋ.tsʰjá.tjóʔ.tsóuŋ.ŋjêŋ.kǎøŋ.kwôŋ.líʔ.sjǒŋ.ěiʔ.lúʔ.pîŋ.tēiŋ]
[í.kǎuʔ.nø̂ŋ.ǒu.lī.sèiŋ.kǎøŋ.ljôŋ.síŋ,]
[pěiŋ.tsʰjá.èiŋ.kāi.ī.hjáŋ.tjě.kwáŋ.hjě.kî.tsíŋ.lî.hǒu.sjóŋ.tòi.tài]
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2008) |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
