Pu–Xian Min ( Hinghwa Romanized: ''Pó-sing-gṳ̂''; ), also known as Putian–Xianyou Min, Puxian Min, Pu–Xian Chinese, Xinghua, Henghua, Hinghua or Hinghwa (''Hing-hua̍-gṳ̂''; ), is a

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

that forms a branch of

Min Chinese Min ( zh, t=, s=闽语, p=Mǐnyǔ, poj=Bân-gú / Bân-gír / Bân-gí; Bàng-uâ-cê, BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages with about 75 million native speakers. These languages are spoken in Fujian province and Chaoshan ...

. Pu-Xian is a transitional variety of Coastal Min which shares characteristics with both

Eastern Min Eastern Min or Min Dong (, Foochow Romanized: ) is a branch of the Min group of the Chinese languages of China. The prestige form and most commonly cited representative form is the Fuzhou dialect, the speech of the capital of Fujian. Geogra ...

and

Southern Min Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese 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, Pu-Xian is spoken mostly in

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern 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 capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province, particularly in

Putian Putian ( zh, s= , Putian dialect: ''Pó-chéng''), also known as Puyang (莆阳) and Puxian (莆仙), historically known as Hinghwa/Hinghua ( zh, s=兴化, t=興化), is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. I ...

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

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

, and parts of

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

. 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), only east from the city of Xiamen in Fujian, located at the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, from which ...

Fujian Province, Republic of China Fuchien ( ), formerly romanized as Fukien, is a ''de jure'' administrative division of Taiwan (ROC), whose constitution retains provinces as a titular division with no practical administrative function. It includes three small archipe ...

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

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. Speakers of Pu-Xian are also known as Henghua, Hinghua, or Xinghua.

History

Before the year 979 AD, the Pu-Xian region was part of Quanzhou county and hence people there spoke a form of

. In 979 AD, during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

, 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

, 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. Pu–Xian Min has been shown to be 62% cognate with

Quanzhou dialect The Quanzhou dialects ( zh, s=泉州话, t=泉州話, poj=Choân-chiu-ōe), 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. ...

(Southern Min) and only 39% cognate with the

Fuzhou dialect The Fuzhou language ( zh, t=福州話, s=福州话, p=Fúzhōuhuà; FR: ), also Foochow, Hokchew, Hok-chiu, or Fuzhounese, is the prestige variety of the Eastern Min branch of Min Chinese spoken mainly in the Mindong region of Eastern Fujian ...

(Eastern Min).

Characteristics

Differences with Southern Min dialects

Pu-Xian 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. * 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

Pu-Xian has 15

consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

, including the zero onset, the same as most other Min varieties. Pu-Xian 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 ''L ...

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 Hoisanwa, is a Yue Chinese language native to Taishan, Guangdong. Even though they are related, Taishanese has little mutual i ...

. Pu-Xian has 53

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

and 6 phonemic tones.

Initials

* (only appears in connected speech, as 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 al ...

Finals

Pu–Xian 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 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 Pu–Xian 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)　

Notes

References

External links

Motoki Makajima, Conversational Texts in Two Min Dialects, 1979

{{Languages of Taiwan Pu-Xian Min Languages of China Languages of Taiwan Languages of Malaysia Languages of Singapore