Hainanese (

Hainan Romanised Hainanese Romanized, also known as its local name Bǽh-oe-tu (白話字), is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-oē-jī, and used to write Haikou dialect of the Hainanese language. It was invented by Carl C. Jeremiassen, a Danish pioneer mission ...

: ', Hainanese Pinyin: ',), also known as Qióngwén, Heng2 vun2 () or Qióngyǔ, Heng2 yi2 (), is a group of

Min Chinese Min (; BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan, or assimilated natives of Chaoshan ...

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

spoken in the southern Chinese island province of

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

and

Overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, refe ...

such as Malaysia. In the classification of

Yuan Jiahua Yuan Jiahua (, ; January 19034 September 1980) was a Chinese linguist and dialectologist from Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province. He graduated from the English Department of Peking University in 1932, worked as an editor in the North Shanghai New Boo ...

, it was included in the

Southern Min Southern Min (), Minnan (Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ( ...

group, being

mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

with other Southern Min varieties such as

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

–

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

and Teochew. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the ''

Language Atlas of China The ''Language Atlas of China'' (), published in two parts in 1987 and 1989, maps the distribution of both the varieties of Chinese and minority languages of China. It was a collaborative effort by the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the ...

'', it was treated as a separate Min subgroup. Hou Jingyi combined it with

Leizhou Min Leizhou or ''Luichew'' Min (, ) is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Leizhou city, Xuwen County, Mazhang District, most parts of Suixi County and also spoken inside of the linguistically diverse Xiashan District. In the classification of Yuan ...

, spoken on the neighboring mainland

Leizhou Peninsula The Leizhou Peninsula, alternately romanized as the Luichow Peninsula, is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in South China. History Qing naval forces were stationed at the Leizhou Peninsula. During the 19th century ...

, in a Qiong–Lei group. "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the

Li people The Hlai, also known as Li or Lizu, are a Kra–Dai-speaking ethnic group, one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The vast majority live off the southern coast of China on Hainan Island, where they ...

living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

Phonology

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels . Hainanese notably has a series of

implosive consonant Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. R ...

s, which it acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. The phonological system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular, etymological *anterior plain stops have undergone implosivization (*p > , *t > ), etymological *aspirated stops have spirantized (*pʰ > , *tʰ > , *cʰ > *kʰ > ), and etymological *s have hardened into stops (*s > ), and *h > . Additionally, some dialects have , and is allophonic with . These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to the Chinese-based vocabulary within Vietnamese. For example 邪, 仙, 散, 迹, 神, 痴 (xié, xiān, sàn, jì, shén, chī) in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

or (siâ, sian, suànn, jiak, sîn, chi) in

is (dia2, din1, dan4, di1, din2, si1) in Hainanese and (da, tiên, tàn, ty, tích, thần, si) in Sino-Vietnamese.

Romanization

Hainanese Pinyin

Hainanese Pinyin (海南话拼音方案) was a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It mark tones with numbers.

Phonology

Romanization

Hainanese Pinyin

Initials

Finals

See also

References

Further reading

External links