Puxian (

Hinghwa Romanized Hinghwa Romanized, also known as Hing-hua̍ báⁿ-uā-ci̍ (興化平話字) or Báⁿ-uā-ci̍ (平話字), is a Latin script, Latin alphabet of the Putian dialect of Pu-Xian Min, Pu-Xian Chinese. It was invented by William N. Brewster (蒲魯� ...

: ''Pó-sing-gṳ̂''; ), also known as Pu-Xian Chinese, Puxian Min, Xinghua, Henghwa or Hinghwa (''Hing-hua̍-gṳ̂''; ), is a Sinitic language that forms a branch 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 Chaosh ...

. Puxian is a transitional variety of

Coastal Min Proto-Min is a comparative reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. Min varieties developed in the relative isolation of the Chinese province of Fujian and eastern Guangdong, and have since spread to Taiwan ...

which shares characteristics with both Eastern Min and

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 Taiwa ...

, although it is closer to the latter. The native language of

Putian people The Putian people or Xinghua people, (Chinese: 莆田人, pinyin: ''Pútiánrén''; Puxian Min: 莆仙儂, Hinghwa Romanized: ) are people from Putian, east Fujian, China. They are also known as Xinghua or Henghua people ( zh, s=兴化, t=興� ...

, Puxian is spoken mostly in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

province, particularly in

Putian Putian or Putien (, Putian dialect: ''Pó-chéng''), also known as Puyang (莆阳) and Puxian (莆仙), historically known as Xinghua or Hing Hwa (), is a prefecture-level city in eastern Fujian province, China. It borders Fuzhou City to the no ...

city and Xianyou County (after which it is named), parts of

Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute ...

, and parts of

Quanzhou Quanzhou, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metropolitan region, with an area of and a popul ...

. It is also widely used as the mother tongue in Wuqiu Township,

Kinmen County Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separa ...

Fujian Province, Republic of China Fuchien Province , also romanized as Fujian and rendered as Fukien, is a nominal province of the Republic of China (Taiwan) without formal administrative function. It includes three small archipelagos off the coast of the Fujian Province ...

(Taiwan). More than 2,000 people in Shacheng, Fuding in northern Fujian also speak Puxian. There are minor differences between the dialects of Putian and Xianyou. Overseas populations of Puxian speakers exist in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. Speakers of Puxian are also known as

Henghua The Putian people or Xinghua people, (Chinese: 莆田人, pinyin: ''Pútiánrén''; Puxian Min: 莆仙儂, Hinghwa Romanized: ) are people from Putian, east Fujian, China. They are also known as Xinghua or Henghua people ( zh, s=兴化, t=興� ...

, Hinghua, or Xinghua.

History

Before the year 979 AD, the Puxian region was part of Quanzhou county and people there spoke a form of

. due to its origin in the past. In 979 AD, during the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

, the region was administratively separated from Quanzhou and the Chinese spoken there developed separately from the rest of Southern Min. Due to its proximity with Fuzhou, it absorbed some elements of Eastern Min, such as morphophonemic alternations in initial consonants, but its basic linguistic characteristics, i.e. grammar and most of its lexicon, are based on

. It also shares denasalization of historical nasal consonants and vocalic nasalization with

varieties. Puxian Min has 62% cognates with

Quanzhou dialect The Quanzhou dialects (), also rendered Chin-chew or Choanchew, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian (in southeast China), in the area centered on the city of Quanzhou. Due to migration, various Quanzhou dialects are s ...

(Southern Min) and only 39% cognates with

Fuzhou dialect Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute ...

(Eastern Min).

Characteristics

Differences with Southern Min dialects

Puxian differs from most Southern Min varieties in several ways: * The vowel 'a' is replaced by (o̤) in most cases, e.g. 腳 ''ko̤'' "leg". * The vowel 'ư' is replaced by ('ṳ'), e.g. 魚 ''hṳ'' "fish". * In Putian 'ng' has changed to except after zero initial and h- (notation: ng), e.g. 湯 ''tung'' "soup". * The vowel /e/ is often replaced by /ɒ/ o̤, e.g. 馬 ''bo̤'' "horse". * Where Quanzhou has 'ĩ' and Zhangzhou has 'ẽ', the corresponding Putian vowel is 'ã', e.g. 病 ''baⁿ'' "sick", where ''ⁿ'' indicates a

nasalized vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...

. * The vowel 'io' is replaced by 'iau' (notation: a̤u), e.g. 笑 ''ciao'' "laugh". This also holds for nasalized vowels, e.g. 張 ''da̤uⁿ'' corresponding to Zhangzhou ''tioⁿ''. * Nasals 'm' sometimes occur in place of voiced stops 'b', e.g. 夢 ''mang'' vs. Quanzhou ''bang''. * Initial consonant 'ng' replaces 'g' e.g. 五 'ngo' vs. Quanzhou 'go'. * There is a loss of distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops, e.g. the sounds /b/ and /p/ both correspond to the same phoneme and occur in

free variation In linguistics, free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. Sociolinguists argue that describing such ...

Borrowings from Eastern Min

* Wife 老媽 (Lau Ma)

Phonology

Puxian has 15

consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

, including the

zero onset In orthography, a zero consonant, silent initial, or null-onset letter is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound, but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel (i.e. has a null onset). Some abjads, abugidas, ...

, the same as most other Min varieties. Puxian is distinctive for having a

lateral fricative A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English ''L'', as in ''Larr ...

instead of the in other Min varieties, similar to

Taishanese Taishanese (), alternatively romanized in Cantonese as Toishanese or Toisanese, in local dialect as Hoisanese or Hoisan-wa, is a dialect of Yue Chinese native to Taishan, Guangdong. Although it is related to Cantonese, Taishanese has littl ...

. Puxian has 53

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

and 6 phonemic tones.

Initials

* (only appears in connected speech. It's a result of

consonant mutation Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment. Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all ...

Finals

Puxian Min has 53 finals (including nasalised finals)

Tone

Register

Assimilation

新婦房　ɬiŋ pu paŋ　→　ɬiŋ mu βaŋ 青草 tsʰɔŋ tsʰau　→　tsʰɔŋ nau

Comparison between Putian Min and Quanzhou Min Nan

Sentence-final particles

* ''ah'' (): used to express exclamation. * ''lah'' (): used to stress or for adding emotional effect to your words. * ''neh'' (): used for questioning. * ''nɔ'' (): used to express emotion. * ''yɔu'' (): used to denote obviousness or contention.

Romanization

Hing-hua̍ báⁿ-uā-ci̍ () is the Romanization system for Puxian Min. It has 23 letters: . The Romanization only needs five tone marks for seven tones: * 陰平 Ing-báⁿ　(unmarked) * 陰上 Ing-siō̤ng　ˆ (â) * 陰去 Ing-kṳ̍　ˈ (a̍) * 陰入 Ing-ci̍h (unmarked) * 陽平 Ió̤ng-báⁿ　́ (á) * 陽去 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍　– (ā) * 陽入 Ió̤ng-ci̍h　ˈh (a̍h)　

References

External links

Motoki Makajima, Conversational Texts in Two Min Dialects, 1979

{{Languages of Taiwan Min Chinese Languages of China Languages of Taiwan Languages of Malaysia Languages of Singapore