El hokkien ( chino : / ˈhɒk iɛn / HOK - ee-en; en inglés: / ˈh oʊk iɛn / HOH - kee - en ) [ 8] es una variedad de las lenguas min meridionales , nativa y originaria de la región de Minnan , en la parte sureste de Fujian , en el sureste de China continental . También se le conoce como Quanzhang ( chino:泉漳; pinyin: Quánzhāng ), a partir de los primeros caracteres de los centros urbanos de Quanzhou y Zhangzhou .
El hokkien taiwanés es una de las lenguas nacionales de Taiwán . El hokkien también se habla ampliamente en la diáspora china de ultramar en Singapur , Malasia , Filipinas , Indonesia , Camboya , Myanmar , Hong Kong , Tailandia , Brunei , Vietnam y otros lugares del mundo. La inteligibilidad mutua entre los dialectos del hokkien varía, pero aún se mantienen unidos por la identidad etnolingüística. [6]
En el sudeste asiático marítimo , el hokkien sirvió históricamente como lengua franca entre las comunidades chinas de ultramar de todos los dialectos y subgrupos , y sigue siendo hoy en día la variedad de chino más hablada en la región, incluso en Singapur , Malasia , Filipinas , Indonesia y Brunei . Esto se aplicó en menor medida al sudeste asiático continental . [9] Como resultado de la influencia significativa y la presencia histórica de su considerable diáspora en el extranjero, ciertas cantidades considerables a amplias de préstamos de hokkien también están históricamente presentes en los idiomas con los que ha tenido contacto histórico en su sprachraum , como el tailandés . El hokkien kelantan en el norte de Malaya de Malasia y el hokaglish hablado esporádicamente en Filipinas , especialmente en Metro Manila, también son idiomas mixtos con el hokkien como lexificador base . [ ¿Detalles excesivos? ]
Los hablantes de hokkien en diferentes regiones se refieren al idioma como:
En algunas partes del sudeste asiático y en las comunidades de habla inglesa, el término hokkien ( [hɔk˥kiɛn˨˩] ) se deriva etimológicamente de la pronunciación hokkien de Fujian ( Hok-kiàn ), la provincia de la que proviene la lengua. En el sudeste asiático y en la prensa inglesa, hokkien se usa en el lenguaje común para referirse a los dialectos min meridionales del sur de Fujian, y no incluye referencias a dialectos de otras ramas siníticas también presentes en Fujian, como el idioma de Fuzhou ( min oriental ), el min pu-xian , el min septentrional , el chino gan o el hakka .
El término hokkien fue utilizado por primera vez por Walter Henry Medhurst en su Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, According to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms (Diccionario del dialecto hok-këèn de la lengua china, según la lectura y los modismos coloquiales) de 1832, considerado el primer diccionario hokkien basado en el inglés y la primera obra de referencia importante en POJ, aunque su sistema de romanización difiere significativamente del POJ moderno. En este diccionario, se utilizó la palabra hok-këèn . En 1869, POJ fue revisado nuevamente por John Macgowan en su libro publicado A Manual Of The Amoy Colloquial (Manual del coloquial de Amoy) . En este libro, këèn se cambió a kien como Hok-kien ; a partir de entonces, "hokkien" se usa con más frecuencia.
Históricamente, el hokkien también era conocido como " Amoy ", por la pronunciación hokkien de Zhangzhou de Xiamen ( Ēe-mûi ), el puerto principal en el sur de Fujian durante la dinastía Qing , como uno de los cinco puertos abiertos al comercio exterior por el Tratado de Nanking . [11] En 1873, Carstairs Douglas publicó el Diccionario chino-inglés de la lengua vernácula o hablada de Amoy, con las principales variaciones de los dialectos Chang-chew y Chin-chew , donde se hacía referencia al idioma como el "idioma de Amoy" [12] o como el "vernáculo de Amoy" [11] y en 1883, John Macgowan publicaría otro diccionario, el Diccionario inglés y chino del dialecto Amoy . [13] Debido a una posible confusión entre el idioma en su conjunto y su dialecto de Xiamen , muchos prohíben referirse al primero como "Amoy", un uso que se encuentra más comúnmente en los medios más antiguos y en algunas instituciones conservadoras.
En la clasificación utilizada por el Atlas de la Lengua de China , la rama Quanzhang del Min del Sur está formada por las variedades Min originarias de Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Xiamen y los condados orientales de Longyan ( Xinluo y Zhangping ). [14]
El hokkien se habla en el barrio costero del sur de Fujian, el sureste de Zhejiang , así como en la parte oriental de Namoa en China; Taiwán; Metro Manila , Metro Cebú , Metro Davao y otras ciudades de Filipinas ; Singapur; Brunei; Medan , Riau y otras ciudades de Indonesia ; y en Perlis , Kedah , Penang y Klang en Malasia.
El hokkien se originó en la zona sur de la provincia de Fujian, un importante centro de comercio y migración, y desde entonces se ha convertido en una de las variedades chinas más comunes en el extranjero. El principal polo de variedades de hokkien fuera de Fujian es la cercana Taiwán, donde los inmigrantes de Fujian llegaron como trabajadores durante los 40 años de dominio holandés , huyendo de la dinastía Qing durante los 20 años de gobierno leal de Ming , como inmigrantes durante los 200 años de gobierno de la dinastía Qing , especialmente en los últimos 120 años después de que se relajaran las restricciones de inmigración, e incluso como inmigrantes durante el período de dominio japonés . El dialecto taiwanés tiene su origen principalmente en las variantes Tung'an, Quanzhou y Zhangzhou , pero desde entonces, el dialecto Amoy, también conocido como dialecto Xiamen, se ha convertido en el representante de prestigio moderno del idioma en China. Tanto Amoy como Xiamen provienen del nombre chino de la ciudad (厦门; Xiàmén ; Ē-mûi ); El primero proviene del idioma hokkien de Zhangzhou, mientras que el segundo proviene del mandarín.
Hay muchos hablantes de Min Nan entre las comunidades chinas de ultramar en el sudeste asiático, así como en los Estados Unidos ( hoklo estadounidenses ). Muchos emigrantes chinos étnicos Han a la región eran hoklo del sur de Fujian, y llevaron la lengua a lo que ahora es Myanmar, Vietnam , Indonesia (las antiguas Indias Orientales Holandesas ) y la actual Malasia y Singapur (anteriormente Malaya y los asentamientos británicos del estrecho ). La mayoría de los dialectos Min Nan de esta región han incorporado algunos préstamos extranjeros. Se dice que el hokkien es la lengua materna de hasta el 80% de la población étnica china en Filipinas, entre los que se conoce localmente como Lán-nâng-uē ("el habla de nuestro pueblo"). Los hablantes de hokkien forman el grupo más grande de chinos de ultramar en Singapur, Malasia, Indonesia y Filipinas. [ cita requerida ]
El sur de Fujian es el hogar de cuatro dialectos hokkien principales: Chiangchew , chinchew , tung'an y amoy , [15] originarios de las ciudades de Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, el histórico condado de Tung'an (同安縣, ahora Xiamen y Kinmen ) y el puerto de Amoy , respectivamente.
A finales del siglo XIX, el dialecto Amoy atrajo especial atención, porque Amoy era uno de los cinco puertos abiertos al comercio exterior por el Tratado de Nanking , pero antes de eso no había atraído la atención. [16] El dialecto Amoy se adopta como el 'Representante Moderno Min Nan'. El dialecto Amoy no puede interpretarse simplemente como una mezcla de los dialectos Zhangzhou y Quanzhou, sino que se forma sobre la base del dialecto Tung'an con aportes adicionales de otros subdialectos. [17] Ha desempeñado un papel influyente en la historia, especialmente en las relaciones de las naciones occidentales con China , y fue uno de los dialectos del hokkien más frecuentemente aprendidos por los occidentales durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX.
La forma representativa moderna del hokkien que se habla en la ciudad taiwanesa de Tainan se parece mucho al dialecto tung'an. [18] [19] Todos los dialectos hokkien que se hablan en todo Taiwán se conocen colectivamente como hokkien taiwanés o holo localmente, aunque existe una tendencia a llamarlos idioma taiwanés por razones históricas. Lo hablan más taiwaneses que cualquier otra lengua sinítica, excepto el mandarín, y lo conoce la mayoría de la población; [20] por lo tanto, desde una perspectiva sociopolítica , forma un polo significativo de uso del idioma debido a la popularidad de los medios de comunicación en idioma holo. Douglas (1873/1899) también señaló que Formosa ( Taiwán ) ha sido poblada principalmente por emigrantes de Amoy (Xiamen), Chang-chew (Zhangzhou) y Chin-chew (Quanzhou). Por lo general, se encuentra que varias partes de la isla están habitadas especialmente por descendientes de dichos emigrantes, pero en Taiwán, las diversas formas de los dialectos mencionados anteriormente están bastante mezcladas. [21]
Las variedades del hokkien en el sudeste asiático se originan a partir de estos dialectos. Douglas (1873) señala que
Singapur y los diversos asentamientos del Estrecho [como Penang y Malaca ] , Batavia [Yakarta] y otras partes de las posesiones holandesas [Indonesia] , están abarrotadas de emigrantes, especialmente de la prefectura de Chang-chew [Zhangzhou] ; Manila y otras partes de las Filipinas tienen grandes cantidades de emigrantes de Chin-chew [Quanzhou] , y los emigrantes están ampliamente dispersos de la misma manera en Siam [Tailandia] , Birmania [Myanmar] , la península malaya [Malasia peninsular] , Cochinchina [Vietnam del Sur, Camboya, Laos] , Saigón [ Ciudad Ho Chi Minh ] , etc. En muchos de estos lugares también hay una gran mezcla de emigrantes de Swatow [ Shantou ] . [21]
Sin embargo, en la actualidad, los chinos singapurenses , los chinos del sur de Malasia y los chinos indonesios de la provincia de Riau y las islas Riau hablan un dialecto mixto que desciende de los dialectos de Quanzhou , Amoy y Zhangzhou y que se acerca un poco más al dialecto de Quanzhou, posiblemente por ser del dialecto de Tung'an. Las variantes incluyen el hokkien de Malasia peninsular meridional y el hokkien de Singapur en Singapur.
Entre los chinos malayos de Penang y otros estados del norte de Malasia continental y los indonesios de etnia china de Medan y otras áreas del norte de Sumatra (Indonesia), se ha desarrollado una forma dialectal descendiente distinta del hokkien de Zhangzhou . En Penang , Kedah y Perlis , se lo denomina hokkien de Penang , mientras que al otro lado del estrecho de Malaca, en Medan , una variante casi idéntica se conoce como hokkien de Medan .
Muchos filipinos chinos profesan ascendencia de áreas de habla hokkien; el hokkien filipino también se deriva en gran medida del dialecto de Quanzhou, particularmente los dialectos de Jinjiang y Nan'an , con alguna influencia del dialecto de Amoy.
También hay hablantes de hokkien dispersos en otras partes de Indonesia (incluidas Yakarta y la isla de Java) , Tailandia, Myanmar , Malasia Oriental , Brunei, Camboya y Vietnam del Sur, aunque hay considerablemente más ascendencia teochew y swatow entre los descendientes de inmigrantes chinos en Malasia peninsular , Tailandia, Camboya, Laos y Vietnam del Sur.
Las variantes de los dialectos hokkien se pueden rastrear hasta 2-4 dialectos principales de origen: los dos originales son los dialectos de Quanzhou (泉州; Choân-chiu / Chôaⁿ-chiu ) y Zhangzhou (漳州; Chiang-chiu / Cheng-chiu ), y en siglos posteriores también Xiamen/Amoy (廈門; Ē-mn̂g / Ēe-mûi ) y Tong'an (同安; Tâng-oaⁿ ). Los dialectos Amoy y Tong'an son históricamente mezclas de los dialectos de Quanzhou y Zhangzhou , ya que son el punto medio geográfico y lingüístico entre los dos, mientras que el resto de los dialectos hokkien hablados en Taiwán y el sudeste asiático se derivan respectivamente de proporciones variables de los dialectos principales anteriores en el sur de Fujian.
Durante el período de los Tres Reinos de la antigua China, hubo guerras constantes en las llanuras centrales de China. Los chinos étnicos Han migraron gradualmente desde Henan a la desembocadura del Yangtze a las costas de Zhejiang y más tarde comenzaron a ingresar a la región de Fujian , que en la antigüedad era originalmente el país Minyue , poblado por Baiyue no chinos , lo que provocó que la región por primera vez en la antigüedad incorporara dialectos chinos antiguos de los que más tarde se convertirían en chino Min . La migración masiva de chinos Han a la región de Fujian ocurrió principalmente después del Desastre de Yongjia . La corte Jìn huyó del norte al sur, lo que provocó que un gran número de chinos Han se mudaran a la región de Fujian. Trajeron el chino antiguo hablado en la llanura central de China desde la era prehistórica hasta el siglo III a Fujian, que más tarde se convirtió en Min, que luego se dividió en sus respectivas ramas, de las cuales el hokkien desciende de la rama Min del Sur .
En 677 (durante el reinado del emperador Gaozong de Tang ), Chen Zheng , junto con su hijo Chen Yuanguang , dirigió una expedición militar para reprimir una rebelión del pueblo She . En 885, (durante el reinado del emperador Xizong de Tang ), los dos hermanos Wang Chao y Wang Shenzhi , lideraron una fuerza de expedición militar para reprimir la rebelión de Huang Chao . [22] Las oleadas de migración desde el norte en esta era trajeron el idioma del chino medio a la región de Fujian, lo que dio al hokkien y a todas las demás lenguas Min sus lecturas literarias .
Durante el final del siglo XVII, cuando se levantaron las prohibiciones marítimas , el puerto de Xiamen , que eclipsaba al antiguo puerto de Yuegang , se convirtió en el principal puerto de Fujian, donde se legalizó el comercio. A partir de entonces, el dialecto de Xiamen, históricamente "Amoy", se convirtió en el principal dialecto hablado en el extranjero, como en Taiwán bajo el gobierno Qing , Malasia británica , los asentamientos del estrecho ( Singapur británico ), Hong Kong británico , Filipinas españolas (luego Filipinas americanas ), Indias Orientales Holandesas y Cochinchina francesa , etc. Históricamente, Xiamen siempre había sido parte del condado de Tung'an hasta después de 1912. [17] El dialecto Amoy fue la principal forma de prestigio del hokkien conocida desde finales del siglo XVII hasta la era republicana. Debido a esto, diccionarios, biblias y otros libros sobre hokkien de siglos recientes e incluso hasta el día de hoy en ciertos lugares, como escuelas e iglesias, de ciertos países, el idioma hokkien todavía se conoce como "Amoy".
Se conservan varios textos teatrales de finales del siglo XVI, escritos en una mezcla de dialectos de Quanzhou y Chaozhou. El más importante es el Romance del espejo de lichi , con manuscritos existentes que datan de 1566 y 1581. [23] [24]
A principios del siglo XVII, los frailes españoles en Filipinas produjeron materiales que documentaban las variedades del idioma hokkien habladas por la comunidad comercial china que se había establecido allí a fines del siglo XVI: [23] [25]
Estos textos parecen registrar un dialecto descendiente principalmente de Zhangzhou con algunas características atestiguadas de Quanzhou y Teo-Swa , del antiguo puerto de Yuegang (actual Haicheng , un antiguo puerto que ahora es parte de Longhai ). [32]
Los eruditos chinos produjeron diccionarios de rimas que describen las variedades del idioma hokkien a principios del siglo XIX: [33]
El reverendo Walter Henry Medhurst basó su diccionario de 1832, "A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language" , en esta última obra. [34]
Otras obras populares del siglo XIX son también las del diccionario de 1883 del reverendo John Macgowan, " English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect" [13] y el diccionario de 1873 del reverendo Carstairs Douglas , "Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, with the Principal Variations of the Chang-Chew and Chin-Chew Dialects" [ 35] y su nueva edición de 1899 con el reverendo Thomas Barclay . [15]
El hokkien tiene uno de los inventarios de fonemas más diversos entre las variedades chinas, con más consonantes que el mandarín estándar y el cantonés . Las vocales son más o menos similares a las del mandarín. Las variedades del hokkien conservan muchas pronunciaciones que ya no se encuentran en otras variedades chinas. Estas incluyen la retención de la /t/ inicial, que ahora es /tʂ/ (pinyin zh ) en mandarín (p. ej. , 竹; 'bambú' es tik , pero zhú en mandarín), habiendo desaparecido antes del siglo VI en otras variedades chinas. [36] Junto con otras lenguas min, que no descienden directamente del chino medio , el hokkien es de considerable interés para los lingüistas históricos para reconstruir el chino antiguo.
Hokkien has aspirated, unaspirated as well as voiced consonant initials. For example, the word 開; khui; 'open' and 關; kuiⁿ; 'close' have the same vowel but differ only by aspiration of the initial and nasality of the vowel. In addition, Hokkien has labial initial consonants such as m in 命; miā; 'life'.
Another example is 查埔囝; cha-po͘-kiáⁿ / ta-po͘-kiáⁿ / ta-po͘-káⁿ; 'boy' and 查某囝; cha-bó͘-kiáⁿ / cha̋u-kiáⁿ / cha̋u-káⁿ / chő͘-kiáⁿ; 'girl', which for the cha-po͘-kiáⁿ and cha-bó͘-kiáⁿ pronunciation differ only in the second syllable in consonant voicing and in tone.
Unlike Mandarin, Hokkien retains all the final consonants corresponding to those of Middle Chinese. While Mandarin only preserves the [n] and [ŋ] finals, Hokkien also preserves the [m], [p], [t] and [k] finals and has developed the glottal stop [ʔ].
The vowels of Hokkien are listed below:[42]
(*)Only certain dialects
The following table illustrates some of the more commonly seen sound shifts between various dialects. Pronunciations are provided in Pe̍h-ōe-jī and IPA.
According to the traditional Chinese system, Hokkien dialects have 7 or 8 distinct tones, including two entering tones which end in plosive consonants. The entering tones can be analysed as allophones, giving 5 or 6 phonemic tones. In addition, many dialects have an additional phonemic tone ("tone 9" according to the traditional reckoning), used only in special or foreign loan words.[43] This means that Hokkien dialects have between 5 and 7 phonemic tones.
Tone sandhi is extensive.[44] There are minor variations between the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou tone systems. Taiwanese tones follow the patterns of Amoy or Quanzhou, depending on the area of Taiwan.
Hokkien is spoken in a variety of accents and dialects across the Minnan region. The Hokkien spoken in most areas of the three counties of southern Zhangzhou have merged the coda finals -n and -ng into -ng. The initial consonant j (dz and dʑ) is not present in most dialects of Hokkien spoken in Quanzhou, having been merged into the d or l initials.
The -ik or -ɪk final consonant that is preserved in the native Hokkien dialects of Zhangzhou and Xiamen is also preserved in the Nan'an dialect (色, 德, 竹) but are pronounced as -iak in Quanzhou Hokkien.[46]
*Haklau Min (Hai Lok Hong, including the Haifeng and Lufeng dialect), Chaw'an / Zhao'an (詔安話), Longyan Min, and controversially, Taiwanese, are sometimes considered as not Hokkien anymore, besides being under Southern Min (Min Nan). On the other hand, those under Longyan Min, Datian Min, Zhenan Min have some to little mutual intelligibility with Hokkien, while Teo-Swa Min, the Sanxiang dialect of Zhongshan Min, and Qiong-Lei Min also have historical linguistic roots with Hokkien, but are significantly divergent from it in terms of phonology and vocabulary, and thus have almost little to no practical face-to-face mutual intelligibility with Hokkien.[excessive detail?]
The Xiamen dialect is a variant of the Tung'an dialect. Majority of Taiwanese, from Tainan, to Taichung, to Taipei, is also heavily based on Tung'an dialect while incorporating some vowels of Zhangzhou dialect, whereas Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien, including Singaporean Hokkien, is based on the Tung'an dialect, with Philippine Hokkien on the Quanzhou dialect, and Penang Hokkien & Medan Hokkien on the Zhangzhou dialect. There are some variations in pronunciation and vocabulary between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. The grammar is generally the same.
Additionally, extensive contact with the Japanese language has left a legacy of Japanese loanwords in Taiwanese Hokkien. On the other hand, the variants spoken in Singapore and Malaysia have a substantial number of loanwords from Malay and to a lesser extent, from English and other Chinese varieties, such as the closely related Teochew and some Cantonese. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, there are also a few Spanish and Filipino (Tagalog) loanwords, while it is also currently a norm to frequently codeswitch with English, Tagalog, and in some cases other Philippine languages, such as Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Bicol Central, Ilocano, Chavacano, Waray-waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Northern Sorsogonon, Southern Sorsogonon, etc.
Tong'an, Xiamen, Taiwanese, Singaporean dialects as a group are more mutually intelligible, but it is less so amongst the forementioned group, Quanzhou dialect, and Zhangzhou dialect.[47]
Although the Min Nan varieties of Teochew and Amoy are 84% phonetically similar including the pronunciations of un-used Chinese characters as well as same characters used for different meanings,[citation needed] and 34% lexically similar,[citation needed], Teochew has only 51% intelligibility with the Tong'an Hokkien|Tung'an dialect (Cheng 1997)[who?] whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar[citation needed] and 15% lexically similar.[citation needed] In comparison, German and English are 60% lexically similar.[48]
Hainanese, which is sometimes considered Southern Min, has almost no mutual intelligibility with any form of Hokkien.[47]
Hokkien is an analytic language; in a sentence, the arrangement of words is important to its meaning.[49] A basic sentence follows the subject–verb–object pattern (i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object), though this order is often violated because Hokkien dialects are topic-prominent. Unlike synthetic languages, seldom do words indicate time, gender and plural by inflection. Instead, these concepts are expressed through adverbs, aspect markers, and grammatical particles, or are deduced from the context. Different particles are added to a sentence to further specify its status or intonation.
A verb itself indicates no grammatical tense. The time can be explicitly shown with time-indicating adverbs. Certain exceptions exist, however, according to the pragmatic interpretation of a verb's meaning. Additionally, an optional aspect particle can be appended to a verb to indicate the state of an action. Appending interrogative or exclamative particles to a sentence turns a statement into a question or shows the attitudes of the speaker.
Hokkien dialects preserve certain grammatical reflexes and patterns reminiscent of the broad stage of Archaic Chinese. This includes the serialization of verb phrases (direct linkage of verbs and verb phrases) and the infrequency of nominalization, both similar to Archaic Chinese grammar.[50]
汝
Lí
2SG
去
khì
go
買
bué
buy
有
ū
have
錶仔
pió-á
watch
無?
--bô?
no
"Did you go to buy a watch?"
As in many east Asian languages, classifiers are required when using numerals, demonstratives and similar quantifiers.
Choice of grammatical function words also varies significantly among the Hokkien dialects. For instance, (乞; knit) (denoting the causative, passive or dative) is retained in Jinjiang (also unique to the Jinjiang dialect is 度; thō͘ and in Jieyang, but not in Longxi and Xiamen, whose dialects use 互/予; hō͘ instead.[51]
Hokkien dialects differ in the pronunciation of some pronouns (such as the second person pronoun lí, lú, or lír), and also differ in how to form plural pronouns (such as n or lâng). Personal pronouns found in the Hokkien dialects are listed below:
Possessive pronouns can be marked by the particle 的; ê), in the same way as normal nouns. In some dialects, possessive pronouns can also be formed with a nasal suffix, which means that possessive pronouns and plural pronouns are homophones:[52]
阮
gún
翁
ang
姓
sìⁿ
陳。
Tân
"My husband's surname is Tan."
The most common reflexive pronoun is ka-kī (家己). In formal contexts, chū-kí (自己) is also used.
Hokkien dialects use a variety of demonstrative pronouns, which include:
The interrogative pronouns include:
States and qualities are generally expressed using stative verbs that do not require a verb meaning 'to be':
我
goá
1SG
腹肚
pak-tó͘
stomach
枵。
iau.
hungry
"I am hungry."
With noun complements, the verb sī (是) serves as the verb 'to be'.
昨昏
cha-hng
是
sī
八月節。
poeh-ge̍h-choeh.
"Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn festival."
To indicate location, the words tī (佇) tiàm (踮), leh (咧), which are collectively known as the locatives or sometimes coverbs in Chinese linguistics, are used to express '(to be) at':
我
goá
踮
tiàm
遮
chia
等
tán
汝。
lí.
"I am here waiting for you."
伊
i
這摆
chit-mái
佇
tī
厝
chhù
裡
lāi
咧
leh
睏。
khùn.
"They're sleeping at home now."
Hokkien dialects have a variety of negation particles that are prefixed or affixed to the verbs they modify. There are six primary negation particles in Hokkien dialects (with some variation in how they are written in characters):[excessive detail?]
Other negative particles include:
The particle m̄ (毋,呣,唔,伓) is general and can negate almost any verb:
伊
i
3SG
毋
m̄
not
捌
bat
know
字。
jī
character
"They cannot read."
The particle mài (莫,【勿爱】), a concatenation of m-ài (毋愛) is used to negate imperative commands:
莫
mài
講!
kóng
"Don't speak!"
The particle bô (無) indicates the past tense:[dubious – discuss]
伊
i
無
bô
食。
chia̍h
"They did not eat."
The verb 'to have', ū (有) is replaced by bô (無) when negated (not 無有):
伊
i
無
bô
錢。
chîⁿ
"They do not have any money."
The particle put (不) is used infrequently, mostly found in literary compounds and phrases:
伊
i
真
chin
不孝。
put-hàu
They are really unfilial."
The majority of Hokkien vocabulary is monosyllabic.[53][better source needed] Many Hokkien words have cognates in other Chinese varieties. That said, there are also many indigenous words that are unique to Hokkien and are potentially not of Sino-Tibetan origin, while others are shared by all the Min dialects (e.g. 'congee' is 糜 mê, bôe, bê, not 粥 zhōu, as in other dialects).
As compared to Mandarin, Hokkien dialects prefer to use the monosyllabic form of words, without suffixes. For instance, the Mandarin noun suffix 子; zi is not found in Hokkien words, while another noun suffix, 仔; á is used in many nouns. Examples are below:
In other bisyllabic words, the syllables are inverted, as compared to Mandarin. Examples include the following:
In other cases, the same word can have different meanings in Hokkien and Mandarin. Similarly, depending on the region Hokkien is spoken in, loanwords from local languages (Malay, Tagalog, Burmese, among others), as well as other Chinese dialects (such as Southern Chinese dialects like Cantonese and Teochew), are commonly integrated into the vocabulary of Hokkien dialects.
The existence of literary and colloquial readings is a prominent feature of some Hokkien dialects and indeed in many Sinitic varieties in the south. The bulk of literary readings (文讀; bûn-tha̍k), based on pronunciations of the vernacular during the Tang dynasty, are mainly used in formal phrases and written language (e.g. philosophical concepts, given names, and some place names), while the colloquial (or vernacular) ones (白讀; pe̍h-tha̍k) are usually used in spoken language, vulgar phrases and surnames. Literary readings are more similar to the pronunciations of the Tang standard of Middle Chinese than their colloquial equivalents.
The pronounced divergence between literary and colloquial pronunciations found in Hokkien dialects is attributed to the presence of several strata in the Min lexicon. The earliest, colloquial stratum is traced to the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE); the second colloquial one comes from the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589 CE); the third stratum of pronunciations (typically literary ones) comes from the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) and is based on the prestige dialect of Chang'an (modern day Xi'an), its capital.[54]
Some commonly seen sound correspondences (colloquial → literary) are as follows:
This table displays some widely used characters in Hokkien that have both literary and colloquial readings:[55][56]
This feature extends to Hokkien numerals, which have both literary and colloquial readings.[56] Literary readings are typically used when the numerals are read out loud (e.g. phone numbers, years), while colloquial readings are used for counting items.
Quite a few words from the variety of Old Chinese spoken in the state of Wu, where the ancestral language of Min and Wu dialect families originated, and later words from Middle Chinese as well, have retained the original meanings in Hokkien, while many of their counterparts in Mandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use, have been substituted with other words (some of which are borrowed from other languages while others are new developments), or have developed newer meanings. The same may be said of Hokkien as well, since some lexical meaning evolved in step with Mandarin while others are wholly innovative developments.
This table shows some Hokkien dialect words from Classical Chinese, as contrasted to the written Mandarin:
For other words, the classical Chinese meanings of certain words, which are retained in Hokkien dialects, have evolved or deviated significantly in other Chinese dialects. The following table shows some words that are both used in both Hokkien dialects and Mandarin Chinese, while the meanings in Mandarin Chinese have been modified:
Some commonly used words, shared by all[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Min Chinese languages, came from the Old Yue languages. Jerry Norman suggested that these languages were Austroasiatic. Some terms are thought be cognates with words in Tai Kadai and Austronesian languages. They include the following examples, compared to the Fuzhou dialect, a Min Dong language:
Loanwords are not unusual among Hokkien dialects, as speakers readily adopted indigenous terms of the languages they came in contact with. As a result, there is a plethora of loanwords that are not mutually comprehensible among Hokkien dialects.
Taiwanese Hokkien, as a result of linguistic contact with Japanese[60] and Formosan languages, contains many loanwords from these languages. Many words have also been formed as calques from Mandarin, and speakers will often directly use Mandarin vocabulary through codeswitching. Among these include the following examples:
Singaporean Hokkien, Penang Hokkien and other Malaysian Hokkien dialects tend to draw loanwords from Malay, English as well as other Chinese dialects, primarily Teochew. Examples include:
Philippine Hokkien, as a result of centuries-old contact with both Philippine languages and Spanish and due to recent 20th century modern contact with English, also incorporate words from these languages. Speakers today will also often directly use English and Filipino (Tagalog), or other Philippine languages like Bisaya, vocabulary through codeswitching. Examples of loans considered by native speakers to be part of the language already include:
Philippine Hokkien usually follows the 3 decimal place Hindu-Arabic numeral system used worldwide, but still retains the concept of 萬; bān; 'ten thousand' from the Chinese numeral system, so 'ten thousand' would be 一萬; chi̍t-bān, but examples of the 3 decimal place logic have produced words like:
Quanzhou was historically the cultural center for Hokkien, as various traditional Hokkien cultural customs such as Nanguan music, Beiguan music, glove puppetry, and the kaoka and lewan genres of Hokkien opera originated from Quanzhou. This was mainly due to the fact that Quanzhou had become an important trading and commercial port since the Tang dynasty and had prospered into an important city. After the Opium War in 1842, Xiamen became one of the major treaty ports to be opened for trade with the outside world. From the mid-19th century onwards, Xiamen slowly developed to become the political and economical center of the Hokkien-speaking region in China. This caused the Amoy dialect to gradually replace the position of dialects from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. From the mid-19th century until the end of World War II, [citation needed] western diplomats usually learned Amoy as the preferred dialect if they were to communicate with the Hokkien-speaking populace in China or Southeast Asia. In the 1940s and 1950s, Taiwan[who?] also tended towards the Amoy dialect.
The retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949 drove party leaders to seek to both culturally and politically assimilate the islanders. As a result, laws were passed throughout the 1950s to suppress Hokkien and other languages in favor of Mandarin. By 1956, speaking Hokkien in ROC schools or military bases was illegal. However, popular outcry from both older islander communities and more recent Mainlander immigrants prompted a general wave of education reform, during which these and other education restrictions were lifted. The general goal of assimilation remained, with Amoy Hokkien seen as less 'native', and therefore preferred.[64]
However, from the 1980s onwards, the development of Taiwanese Min Nan pop music and media industry in Taiwan caused the Hokkien cultural hub to shift from Xiamen to Taiwan.[citation needed] The flourishing Taiwanese Min Nan entertainment and media industry from Taiwan in the 1990s and early 21st century led Taiwan to emerge as the new significant cultural hub for Hokkien.
In the 1990s, marked by the liberalization of language development and mother tongue movement in Taiwan, Taiwanese Hokkien had developed quickly. In 1993, Taiwan became the first region in the world to implement the teaching of Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwanese schools. In 2001, the local Taiwanese language program was further extended to all schools in Taiwan, and Taiwanese Hokkien became one of the compulsory local Taiwanese languages to be learned in schools.[65] The mother tongue movement in Taiwan even influenced Xiamen (Amoy) to the point that in 2010, Xiamen also began to implement the teaching of Hokkien dialect in its schools.[66] In 2007, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan also completed the standardization of Chinese characters used for writing Hokkien and developed Tai-lo as the standard Hokkien pronunciation and romanization guide. A number of universities in Taiwan also offer Taiwanese degree courses for training Hokkien-fluent talents to work for the Hokkien media industry and education. Taiwan also has its own Hokkien literary and cultural circles whereby Hokkien poets and writers compose poetry or literature in Hokkien.
Thus, by the 21st century, Taiwan had become one of the most significant Hokkien cultural hubs of the world. The historical changes and development in Taiwan had led Taiwanese Hokkien to become the most influential pole of the Hokkien dialect after the mid-20th century. Today, the Taiwanese prestige dialect (台語優勢腔/通行腔) is heard on Taiwanese media.
Hokkien texts can be dated back to the 16th century. One example is the Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china, written around 1593 by the Spanish Dominican friars in the Philippines. Another is a Ming dynasty script of a play called Tale of the Lychee Mirror (1566), the earliest known Southern Min colloquial text, which mixes both Hokkien and Teochew.
Hokkien can be written using Chinese characters (漢字; Hàn-jī). However, the written script was and remains adapted to the literary form, which is based on Classical Chinese, not the vernacular and spoken form. Furthermore, the character inventory used for Mandarin (standard written Chinese) does not correspond to Hokkien words, and there are a large number of informal characters (替字; thè-jī, thòe-jī; 'substitute characters') which are unique to Hokkien, as is the case with written Cantonese. For instance, about 20 to 25% of Taiwanese morphemes lack an appropriate or standard Chinese character.[55]
While many Hokkien words have commonly used characters, they are not always etymologically derived from Classical Chinese. Instead, many characters are phonetic loans (borrowed for their sound) or semantic loans (borrowed for their meaning).[67] As example of a phonetic loan character, the word súi meaning "beautiful" might be written using the character 水, which can also be pronounced súi but originally with the meaning of "water". As an example of a semantic loan character, the word bah meaning "meat" might be written using the character 肉, which can also mean "meat" but originally with the pronunciation he̍k or jio̍k. Common grammatical particles are not exempt; the negation particle m̄ is variously represented by 毋, 呣 or 唔, among others. In other cases, new characters have been invented. For example, the word in meaning "they" might be written using the character 𪜶.
Moreover, unlike Cantonese, Hokkien does not have a universally accepted standardized character set. Thus, there is some variation in the characters used to express certain words and characters can be ambiguous. In 2007, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China formulated and released a standard character set to overcome these difficulties.[68] These standard Chinese characters for writing Taiwanese Hokkien are now taught in schools in Taiwan.
Hokkien can be written in the Latin script using one of several systems. A popular system is POJ, developed first by Presbyterian missionaries in China and later by the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Use of POJ has been actively promoted since the late 19th century, and it was used by Taiwan's first newspaper, the Taiwan Church News. A more recent system is Tâi-lô, which was adapted from POJ. Since 2006, it has been officially promoted by Taiwan's Ministry of Education and taught in Taiwanese schools. Xiamen University has also developed a system based on Pinyin called Bbánlám pìngyīm. The use of a mixed script of Chinese characters and Latin letters is also seen.
Hokkien is registered as "Southern Min" per RFC 3066 as zh-min-nan.[69]
When writing Hokkien in Chinese characters, some writers create 'new' characters when they consider it impossible to use directly or borrow existing ones; this corresponds to similar practices in character usage in Cantonese, Vietnamese chữ Nôm, Korean hanja and Japanese kanji. Some of these are not encoded in Unicode, thus creating problems in computer processing.
All Latin characters required by Pe̍h-ōe-jī can be represented using Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set), using precomposed or combining (diacritics) characters. Prior to June 2004, the vowel akin to but more open than o, written with a dot above right, was not encoded. The usual workaround was to use an (stand-alone; spaced) interpunct (U+00B7, ·) or less commonly the combining character dot above (U+0307). As these are far from ideal, since 1997 proposals have been submitted to the ISO/IEC working group in charge of ISO/IEC 10646—namely, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2—to encode a new combining character dot above right. This is now officially assigned to U+0358 (see documents N1593, N2507, N2628, N2699 Archived 10 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine, and N2713 Archived 14 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine).
In 2002, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a party with about 10% of the Legislative Yuan seats at the time, suggested making Taiwanese a second official language.[70] This proposal encountered strong opposition not only from mainland Chinese groups but also from Hakka and Taiwanese aboriginal groups who felt that it would slight their home languages. Because of these objections, support for this measure was lukewarm among moderate Taiwan independence supporters, and the proposal did not pass.
Hokkien was finally made an official language of Taiwan in 2018 by the ruling DPP government.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Hokkien version of the Doctrina Christiana en lengua española y tagala (1593):