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Southern Min
Traditional Chinese	閩南語
Simplified Chinese	闽南语
Transliterations Hakka - Romanization Mîn-nàm-ngî Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Mǐnnányǔ Min - Hokkien POJ Bân-lâm-gú - Min-dong BUC Mìng-nàng-ngṳ̄ Wu - Romanization min noe nyuu Cantonese - Yale Romanization man5 naam4 jyu5

Southern Min
閩南語 / 闽南语 / Bân-lâm-gú
Spoken in	People's Republic of China, Republic of China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and other areas of Southern Min and Hoklo settlement
Region	Southern Fujian province; the Chaozhou-Shantou (Chaoshan) area and Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province; extreme south of Zhejiang province; most of Taiwan; much of Hainan (if Hainanese or Qiong Wen is included)
Total speakers	49 million
Ranking	21 (if Qiong Wen is included)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Southern Min
Official status
Official language in	None (Legislative bills have been proposed for Taiwanese (Amoy Southern Min) to be one of the 'national languages' in the Republic of China); one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the ROC [1]
Regulated by	None (Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	zh
ISO 639-2	chi (B)	zho (T)
ISO 639-3	nan
Distribution of Southern Min.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan (Hokkien: Bân-lâm-gú), ("Southern Fujian" language) is a family of Chinese languages which are spoken in southern Fujian and neighboring areas, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to the Hokkien, in particular the Amoy and Taiwanese. Amoy and Taiwanese are both combinations of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The Southern Min family also includes Teochew and Hainanese. Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with the Amoy. However, Hainanese is generally not considered to be mutually intelligible with any other Southern Min variants.

Southern Min forms part of the Min language group, alongside several other divisions. The Min languages/dialects are part of the Chinese language group, itself a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Cantonese, or Mandarin. As with other varieties of Chinese, there is a political dispute as to whether the Southern Min language should be called a language or a dialect. (See Identification of the varieties of Chinese for greater detail.)

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 2 Classification 3 The cultural and political value of Min Nan 4 Phonology 5 Comparison 5.1 Mutual intelligibility 6 See also 6.1 Related languages 6.2 Other topics 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Geographic distribution

Southern Min is spoken in the southern part of Fujian province, three southeastern counties of Zhejiang province, the Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo in Zhejiang, and the eastern part of Guangdong province (Chaoshan region). The Qiong Wen variant spoken in the Leizhou peninsula of Guangdong province, as well as Hainan province, which is not mutually intelligible with standard Minnan or Teochew, is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate.

A form of Southern Min akin to that spoken in southern Fujian is also spoken in Taiwan, where it has the native name of Tâi-oân-oē or Hō-ló-oē. The (sub)ethnic group for which Southern Min is considered a native language is known as the Holo (Hō-ló) or Hoklo, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is generally true though not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklos speak Southern Min fluently.

There are many Southern Min speakers also among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) and present day Malaysia and Singapore (formerly Malaya, Burma, and the British Straits Settlements). In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, Fukien or Fookien in Southeast Asia, and is very much like Taiwanese. Many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province and speak Teochew, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min is reportedly the native language of up to 98.5% of the community of ethnic Chinese in the Philippines, among whom it is also known as Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē ("Our people’s language"). Southern Min speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore with the largest being Hoklos and the second largest being the Teochews.

Classification

Southern Fujian is home to three main Amoy dialects. They are known by the geographic locations to which they correspond (listed north to south):

• Quanzhou (Chinchew) (泉州)
• Xiamen (Amoy) (廈門)
• Zhangzhou (Changchew) (漳州)

As Xiamen is the principal city of southern Fujian, the Xiamen dialect is considered the most important, or even prestige dialect. The Xiamen dialect is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. The Xiamen dialect (also known as the Amoy dialect) has played an influential role in history, especially in the relations of Western nations with China, and was one of the most frequently learned of all Chinese languages/dialects by Westerners during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou. The variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants, and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Taiwanese is used by a majority of the population and is quite important from a socio-political and cultural perspective, forming the second most important, if not the more influential pole of the language due to the popularity of Taiwanese Hokkien media. Those Southern Min variants that are collectively known as "Hokkien" in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are collectively known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of great importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra and western Kalimantan.

The Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou. Linguistically, it lies between Teochew and Amoy. In southwestern Fujian, the local variants in Longyan and Zhangping form a separate division of Min Nan on their own. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, Malaysia and Medan, Indonesia, a distinct form of Zhangzhou (Changchew) Hokkien has developed. In Penang, it is called Penang Hokkien while across the Malacca Strait in Medan, an almost identical variant is known as Medan Hokkien.

The cultural and political value of Min Nan

Jean DeBernardi of the University of Alberta stated that Min Nan(閩南話), is a Sinitic language with more than 38 millions users, which is 4% of the 1 billion speakers of Sinitic languages. The Min Nan user are in parts of Fujian province, Northeastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Thailand,Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In addition to it's high social value as a marker of in-group status among the various communities, it has acquired an additional political value in Taiwan, representing the aspirations of the Taiwanese independence movement in the face of fears of reunification with Mainland China. ^[1]

Jean DeBernardi considered calling Min Nan a ‘dialects’ "is a misnomer", as the languages of China are as diverse as Romance languages. When Northern China is claimed to be relatively homogeneous linguistically(Jerry Norman observes that “many varieties of Mandarin in Shanxi and the Northwest are totally incomprehensible to a Beijing speaker” ), Southern China have six major ‘dialect’ groups, which are mutually incomprehensible tongues.

Since the Guomindang's 1945 Mainland China's defeat and hence retreat to Taiwan, Mandarin has been encouraged at the expense of Taiwanese, and Min Nan, though spoken by an estimated 80% of the Taiwan population , has been regarded as "a substandard language with no grammar and no written form, inadequate and unsuitable for cultivated discussion”

Many older Min Nan speakers in both Tainan and Xiamen expressed the view that Min Nan was superior to Mandarin, which was viewed as a recently invented language lacking the historical roots of Southern Min....the promotion of Mandarin in both Taiwan and the PRC was a means of promoting the political dominance of Northern China, and speculated that politicians feared the strength of Min Nan people, whom...had been economically successful everywhere they have lived and worked.^[2]

Phonology

The Southern Min language has one of the most diverse phonologies of Chinese variants, with more consonants than standard Mandarin or Cantonese. Vowels, on the other hand, are more or less similar to those of Standard Mandarin. In general, Southern Min dialects have five to six tones, and tone sandhi is extensive. There are minor variations within Hokkien, but the Teochew system differs significantly. See Hokkien dialect, Amoy dialect, and Teochew dialect for details.

Comparison

Xiamen speech is a hybrid of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. Taiwanese is also a hybrid of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. Taiwanese in northern Taiwan tends to be based on Quanzhou speech, whereas the Taiwanese spoken in southern Taiwan tends to be based on Zhangzhou speech. There are minor variations in pronunciation and vocabulary between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech. The grammar is basically the same. Additionally, Taiwanese includes several dozen loanwords from Japanese. In contrast, Teochew speech is significantly different from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech in both pronunciation and vocabulary.

Mutual intelligibility

• Spoken: Quanzhou speech, Xiamen (Amoy) speech, Zhangzhou speech and Taiwanese are mutually intelligible. Chaozhou (Teochew) speech and Amoy speech are 84.3% phonetically similar^[3] and 33.8% lexically similar,^[4] whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar^[3] and 15.1% lexically similar.^[4] In comparison, German and English are 60% lexically similar.^[5] In other words, Chao-Shan, including Swatow (both of which are variants of Teochew), has very low intelligibility with Amoy,^[6] and Amoy and Teochew are not mutually intelligible with Mandarin. However, many Amoy and Teochew speakers speak Mandarin as a second or third language.
• Written: Southern Min dialects lack a standardized written language. Southern Min speakers are taught how to read Standard Mandarin in school. As a result, there has not been an urgent need to develop a writing system. In recent years, an increasing number of Southern Min Language speakers have become interested in developing a standard writing system (either by using Chinese Characters, or using Romanized script). For a phonological and lexical comparison of major Sino-tibetan languages (including prominent varieties of Southern Min Language), see Sino-Tibetan Swadesh lists.

See also

Related languages

• Penang Hokkien
• Southern Malaysia and Singapore Hokkien
• Taiwanese Hokkien
• Fuzhou dialect
• Hakka language
• Lan-nang

Other topics

• Languages of China
• Languages of Taiwan
• Malaysian Chinese
• Chinese in Singapore
• Amoy Min Nan Swadesh list

References

Further reading

• Branner, David Prager (2000). Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka. Trends in Linguistics series, no. 123. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 31-101-5831-0. 
• Chung, R.-f (196). The segmental phonology of Southern Min in Taiwan. Taipei: Crane Pub. Co. ISBN 95-794-6346-8. 
• DeBernardi, J. E (1991). "Linguistic nationalism--the case of Southern Min ". Dept. of Oriental Studies, University of Pennsylvania.. 

External links

(Redirected to Minnan phrasebook article)

From Wikitravel

Min nan hua or Southern Min (閩南話 - Ban3 nam2 Wei3) is the Chinese dialect of the Southern part of Fujian province, the area around Xiamen and Quanzhou. A variant is widely spoken in Taiwan where it is referred to as Taiwanese (Dai3 wan1 wei3). Another variant is also spoken widely in the Philippines where it is referred to as Lan Nang Oe. In Singapore, Malaysia and Medan, the Minnian dialects excluding Teochew are called Hokkien (Hok4 kien4 wei3), the Min-nan pronunciation of Fujian.

Note that this list is based on the Xiamen version of Minnan. The dialects spoken in Taiwan, other parts of mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, Medan and other Chinese communities have some differences, due to borrowing of words from different languages and sometimes language evolution due to relative isolation. Most notably, Minnan spoken in Taiwan has borrowed some words from Japanese, so "uncle" would be known as "ojisan" in Taiwan instead of "Ah Pek" (father's elder brother), "Ah Chek" (father's younger brother) or "Ah Ku" (mother's brother) as in Xiamen. The variant spoken in Zhangzhou, Fujian province has some subtle differences from the Xiamen varient but is largely mutually intelligible (eg. kiam nui instead of kiam neng for salted egg). Yet another well known variant is the Teochew dialect spoken around Chaozhou and Shantou in Guangdong, and by large foreign Chinese Teochew communities around the world including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and France which is significantly different (eg. tsit kai nang instead of tist e lang) but is still mutually intelligible with the Xiamen variant to a small degree. The variants spoken in Singapore and Malaysia are also known to have extensive borrowing from Malay and to a lesser extent Cantonese and English.

While the Hainanese dialect spoken on the island of Hainan is grouped under Minnan by many linguists, it differs more significantly and is not mutually intelligible with any of the other variants of Minnan.

It can be said to be mutually unintelligible with standard Mandarin and other dialects not only due to the pronounciation differences but also because of the irregular word/character convertion i.e. a non-native Minnan speaker can only understand the dialect to a small extent even when it is presented in written form (e.g. "吃甲尚好惊血压高,水某兌人走" - 《陳雷.欢喜就好》) It is also not mutually intelligible with the other branches of the Min dialect family such as Mindong, Minbei and Puxian.

Pronunciation

Like all other Chinese dialects, Minnan uses Chinese characters but employs its own 'unique' pronounciation. However, it should be noted that similar to Japanese kanji, most characters have two or more pronunciations in Minnan, which means that many characters would be pronounced differently depending on context, even if their Mandarin pronunciation remains the same in both instances.

For example:

人 is pronounced lang2 and 生 si-ee1 / xh-e1 (as verb) when used alone, but when used as 人生 they is pronounced as lim3 sim1

Also compare: 不 - 不要 (mm-mai3) and 不能/不可以 (bwuei3/bei3 sai4) ).

要 - changeable between ai3 / ai4 / be4 / bei4 depending on context

我 (wah4/gua4) is used in more informal context while 阮 (gun2) is more formal and 您爸 (lim2 bpei3) is very derogatory but used very commonly. (No cognates exist in Mandarin or Cantonese although phrases with the same meaning do)

The minnan dialect is tonal and the tones must be correct in order to convey the correct meaning. Tone sandhi is particularly common and not standardised in the minnan dialect, which makes it a little harder to learn than say Mandarin, where tone sandhi is standardised and Cantonese where tone sandhi is used sparingly.

Pronounciation varies from region to region (你 You - Lee4/Lu4/Lle4) mainly due to lack of standardisation making comprehension difficult sometimes even between 'native' speakers from different region. It should also be kept in mind that most speakers of the dialect often mix Mandarin phrases into their speech due to the influence of Standard Mandarin.

Consonants

Minnan is full of consonants, even more than standard Mandarin or Cantonese, and pronouncing them correctly is going to be a challenge for English speakers. For instance, there is a difference between the aspirated and unaspirated t, k and p sounds like in Mandarin, as well as the hard b and hard g sounds of English. Just to highlight the distinction, the words for "open" (開 khui) and "close" (關 kui) sound almost identical to a native English speaker, and the only difference is that "open" uses an aspirated initial k while "close" uses an unaspitated initial k! The j sound in English is also used along with the j sound in Mandarin hanyu pinyin. Labial initials such as the m sound are also present. However, unlike in Mandarin, there is no "tongue rolling" initial consonant. Like Cantonese but unlike Mandarin, Minnan retains all the final consonants(n,ŋ,p,t,m and k) of Middle Chinese.

This article or section does not match our manual of style or needs other editing. Please plunge forward, give it your attention and help it improve!

Phrases in this section are not consistently transcribed with Pe̍h-ōe-jī and Wikitravel's romanization guidelines. If you are familiar with the language, please help fix them up!

Here are a few very basic phrases:

Hello - li ho 你好 (LEE-HO)

Thank you - kum sia 感謝 (KUM-SHEEAH) (Singapore/Malaysia) or to sia 多謝 (Taiwan/Fujian)

You are beautiful - li chin sui 你真美 (LEE-CHIN-SWEE)

Don't lie to me! - mai ke 甭假 (MY-GAY)

This is delicious (for beverage) - ho lim 好飲

This is delicious (for food) - ho chiah 好吃 (HO JEEYAH)

Have some tea - lim te 飲茶

Make tea - pao te 泡茶

That's OK/You're welcome - m-ben kekki 免客氣

Please note that the Chinese tonal inflection is represented as numbers following each syllable.

Hello. 

Li/Lu(1) ho(1) . 你好(Mandarin: Ni(2) hao(3). Literal: You Good?)

Hello. (informal) 

. ( )

How are you? 

Lee(1) ho(1) boh(3) ? 你好無 (Literal: You Good Not?)

Fine, thank you. 

Waah4 ho4, gkaam2-xia3. 我好，谢谢 (Literal: I'm fine. Thanks)

What is your name? 

Lee(1) kio(2) shi-ia(1) mi(2) mya(2)? 你叫甚麽名(Literal: How are you called?)

My name is ______ . 

Wah(1) eh(2) mya(2) si(3) ______ . 我的名是______( Guwa (guwa is one syllable) shi _____ .)

Nice to meet you. 

( )

Please. 

qia(2,4) 请. (Not to be used alone as in English - this is not a direct translation as there is none)

Thank you. 

Kam(1) siah(1). 感謝 ( )

You're welcome. 

Mm-mien2 Khay4 Khi3. 不用客氣(Literal:Don't be too polite)

Yes. 

si(1) . 是 ( )

No. 

mm(3)-si(1). 不是 ( )

Excuse me. (getting attention) 

. ( )

Excuse me. (begging pardon) 

. ( )

I'm sorry. 

Shi(1) Lei(1) . 失禮( )

Goodbye 

Zhai(4) gen(3) . 再見( )

Goodbye (informal) 

. ( )

I can't speak name of language [well]. 

Wah(1) buay(2) hiao(4) gong(1) name of language. 我不会讲_____ ( [ ])

Do you speak English? 

Lee(1) gum(1) eh(3) hiao(4) gong(1) eng(2) gyi(1)? ( ?)

Is there someone here who speaks English? 

Gum(1) ou(3) lung(2) eh(3) hiao(4) gong(1) eng(2) gyi(1)? ( ?)

Help! 

 ! ( !)

Look out! 

xio2 sim1! 小心 ( !)

Good morning. 

gau cha ( )

Good evening. 

. ( )

Good night. 

. ( )

Good night (to sleep) 

. ( )

I don't understand. 

tianh bo . 听没有 (hear not )

I don't understand. 

beh meng pek . 不明白 (do not understand )

Where is the toilet? 

Ben(3) soh(4) di(2) de(1) We(2)? 矛厕在哪位(Literal: bathroom, where is it?)

Please note that the Chinese tonal inflection is represented as numbers following each syllable.

Zero

孔 kong (2)

One 

一 yit(1) / chjit(1) / i-ou(1)

Two 

两/二 nng(2) or li/ji/di(2) (Please note rules to use nng(2) or li(2) when counting.)

Three 

三 sa(1)

Four 

四 si(3)

Five 

五 go(2)

Six 

六 lak(2)

Seven 

七 chit(2)

Eight 

八 bpui(2)

Nine 

九 kau(4)

Ten  

十 tzhap(2)

Eleven 

十一 tzhap(2)-it(1)

Twelve 

十二 tzhap(2)-li(2) ( Notice change from nng(2) to li/ji(2) when describe unit of one)

Thirteen 

十三 tzhap(2)-sa(1)

Fourteen 

十四 tzhap(2)-si(1)

Fifteen 

十五 tzhap(2)-go(2)

Sixteen 

十六 tzhap(2)-lak(2)

Seventeen 

十七 tzhap(2)-chit(2)

Eighteen 

十八 tzhap(2)-peh(2)

Nineteen 

十九 tzhap(2)-kau(2)

Twenty 

二十 li/ji(3)-tzhap(3) ( Notice use li/ji(2) to modify units of ten)

Twenty-One 

二十一 li/ji(3)-tzhap(3)-it(3)

Twenty-two 

二十二 li/ji(3)-tzhap(3)-Li/ji(3)

One Hundred 

一百 chit(1)-pah(1) (pah = 100)

Two hundred 

两百 nng(2)-pah(1) ( Notice use of nng(2) to modify multiples of 100)

Two hundred twenty-two

两百二十二 nng(2)-pah(4)-li/ji(2)-chap(2)-li/ji(2)

One thousand 

一千 chit(3)-chien(1) (chien = 1000)

Two thousand 

两千 nng(2)-chien(1)

Ten thousand 

一萬 chit(3)-ban(2) (ban(2) = 10000)

Twenty thousand 

两萬 nng(2)-ban(2)

One hundred thousand 

十萬 chap(2)-ban(2)

One million 

一百萬 chit(3)-pah(2)-ban(2)

Note: the following uses unconventional romanization and does not describe tones, but just tries to be phonetically accurate from an (American) English speaking standpoint. Goal is to have an English speaker's first try be fairly close, without reading a bunch of rules for phonetization nor trying to distinguish between the 7 tones in Taiwanese. Unfortunately, it is difficult to cover all tones this way, especially nasal and breath differences, and thus cannot be completely accurate. Also to note is the author learned Taiwanese from one parent from the south, and one parent from the north.

• Asterisk precedes words that are very hard to phonetize. It would be nice to get some audio on here for these.

• Also to note is the phoneme for "L" used below. Linguists call this sound a "flap" - it is similar to the "tt" sound in Standard American pronunciation of "butter". It is also similar to the Japanese "r" and the Spanish "single-r" sounds.

Basic Phrases

Hello - Li huh 你好 -- literally, "you good?"

How are you - Li ho-bo 你好吗？; OR Jia bah bo 吃饱了吗 -- literally, "eat full?"

Not bad - Buay pai 不坏

Good, Thank you - Informal: Hoh, duh shiah. 好，多谢 Formal: Hoh, gahm shiah 好，感谢

What is your name - Li-ay myah shee sa? 你的名叫甚麽？

My name is - Wah-ay mya shee 我的名是

Please - Pbai toh 拜托

That's OK / Your Welcome - Me-en Kayki 无需客气

Excuse me - Pai say 不好意思

Sorry - Informal: Pai say. Formal: shit leh

Goodbye - tzai chien 再见

I don't know how to speak English - Wah mbay hyow gong eng-yee

Do you know how to speak English? - Li gah-ay hyow gong eng-yee

Is there someone here who speaks English? - Jiah gah oo lahng ay hyow gong eng-yee 这甘有人懂得讲英语？

I don't understand - Wah tyah bo 我听没有

Where's the bathroom? - Ben so dee-da

Problems

Go Away - Tzow / Zao4 走开

Don't touch me! - Mai gah-wah mbong / Mai4 Mo1 Wa4 别摸我

I'll call the police. - Informal: Wah kah gien tsah. Formal: Wah ay kah hoh gien tsah. / Wa4 Kio4 Ma2 Ta2

Police! - Gien tsah / Ma2 Ta2

Stop! - Dohng / Tng2 停

I need your help. - Wah soo-yow * dee-ay bahm-mahng / Li4 Ai3 (Sai4) Ga3 Wa4 Dao4 Chiu4 Bei3 我需要...你的帮忙

I'm lost. - Wah mbo-key

I lost my purse/wallet. - Wah pahng-key wah-ay pay bow 我不见我的皮包

I'm sick. - Wah pwah bee or Wah gahng koh

I've been injured. - Wah dyuh shohng 我着伤

I need a doctor. - Wah dah-ai ee-sheng 我（）医生

Can I use your phone? - Wah gah-ay sai yen * li-ay dyeng-way 我甘可用你的电话

Ordinal Numbers

first - day-eet

second - day-ji

third - day-sa

fourth - day-si

fifth - day-go

...

twentieth

...

hundredth - day chit-pah

...

thousandth - day chit-chien

Time

what time is it? - kwee tiam? 幾點

now - jeemah or jeetzoon

later - kah dahng-ay or shuh dahng

before - ee jun

early - dtsah

earlier - kah dtsah

morning - tao dtsah

in the morning - tzai kee

tomorrow morning - miyah tsai kee tao dtsah

afternoon - ay boh

in the afternoon -

evening - ay ahm

in the evening -

night - ahm

in the night - ahm-sheea

tonight - kim mi 今暝

Clock time

one o'clock AM - tao tza jeet/yi4 diam

two o'clock AM - tao tza nen/di3 diam

noon - dyong dow / ey3 bpo1

one o'clock PM - ay boh jeet/yi4 diam

two o'clock PM - ay boh nen/di3 diam

midnight - bpua4 mi2

Duration

minute - whhun

2 minutes - nun whhun

hour - diam jun

2 hours - nun diam jun

day - * leet

5 days - go * leet

week - * lay bai

5 weeks - go * lay bai

month - whay * leet

5 months - go whay * leet

year - nee

5 years - go nee

Days

today - gyah * de * deet

the day before yesterday - tzuh * leet

yesterday - dtsah-ung

tomorrow - miyah tsai

the day after tomorrow - ow * leet

this week - tsi * day bai

last week - den * day bai

the week before last week - jen * lay bai

next week - ow * lay bai

the week after next week - ow ow * lay bai

Monday - bai-eet

Tuesday - bai- * dee

Wednesday - bai-sa

Thursday - bai-shee

Friday - bai-go

Saturday - bai- * lahk

Sunday - * lay-bai

Writing time and date

Months

January - ee-gay

February - * lee-gay

March - sa-gay

April - shee-gay

May - go-gay

June - * lahk-gay

July - chee-gay

August - bway-gay

September - gow-gay

October - tsahb-gay

November - tsahb-eet-gay

December - tsahb- *de-gay

Colors

color - shitd

black - oh shitd

white - bay shitd

grey - whey shitd - literally "ash color"

red - ahng shitd

blue - na shitd

yellow - ung shitd

green - chyee shitd

orange - gahmah shitd

purple - gyuh shitd - literally "eggplant color"

brown - toh-shitd - literally "dirt color"

Transportation

Bus and train

ticket - dyu pyuh

on ticket - jeet-pyuh

How much is one ticket? - Jeet-pyuh shee gwee-koh? - literally "one ticket is how many dollars?"

bus - kay-wun

train - whey-chiah

Where does this bus go? - Dze-day kay-wun kee-dah?

Does this train go to ____? - Dze-day whey-chiah gah-oo kee ____?

What time does this train leave? - Dze-day whey-chiah gwee diam tsooh-whaht?

What time will this bus arrive? - Dze-day kay-wun gwee diam ay gow-wee?

Please stop! - Pbai-toh, dong!

Taxi

Taxi - gay-dyen chiah

Drive me to ____ - dzai wah kee ____

How much to go ____ - mbay kee ____ gwee koh?

Directions

How do I get to ____? - mbay ahndswah kee ____?

...the train station? - whey chiah dyoo?

...the bus station? - kay-wun dyoo?

...the airport? - whey-deng-gee dyoo?

...downtown? - chee dyong sheemg?

...the hotel? - * lee-guang?

...the restaurant? - bung-diam?

Where are there a lot of ____? - Dway oo jote-tsay ____?

Do you have a map? - * lee gah-oo day-doh?

Driving

street/road - * loh

left - duh

right - jyah

turn left - duh wah

straight ahead - dee-deet kee or dee-deet gyah

Lodging

Do you have any rooms available? - Oo bahn-gyun mbo?

How much for one room? - Jeet gyun, wah-tsay gyee?

One person - dzeday lahng

Two persons - nungay lahng

Does it have... - Gah oo

...bathroom? - beng soh?

...phone? - dyung way?

...television? - dyung ah?

May I see it first? - Gah-ay-dahng shung kwah?

Do you have something... - Gah oo kah

...bigger? - dwah-ay

...cheaper? - shohg-ay

Ok I'll sleep here for ____ nights. - Huh, mbay-kuhng ____ ahm.

Is there another hotel? - Gah oo bahg-ay * lee-guang?

What time is breakfast? - Dzah-dun gwee-diam?

Please clean my room - Pbai toh kyeng wah-ay bahn-gyun

Can you wake me at ____ ? - ____ gah-way gyuh kiah, huhbuh?

Money

credit card - swah kah

Where can I exchange money? - Dway ay-dahng wah gjee?

Eating

Breakfast - dzah-den

Lunch - dyong-den

Snack - diam-shing

Tea - day / tay2

Coffee - gah-bee

Dinner - ahm-den

I want - wah-mbay

Chicken - ga-mbah / gkwuei1 bah4

Beef - goo-mbah

Fish - hee-ah / hhu2 / hhhhw2 (right-most sounds like a long 'huh' without the vowel)

Eggs - nun / gkuei1 neng3 （雞蛋）

Vegetables - chtsai

Fruit - dzwee-guh / gge2 chjee4 (果子)

Bread - pahng (For you linguists, this is from Portugese)

Noodles - mee

Rice - bi-ee4 (short) （米）

(cooked) Rice - buhng / bpeng3 / b-pui23 （飯）

Beer - bee- * doo

Salt - yahm

Pepper - hyahm / hhoh3 chjio1 hun4 （胡椒粉）

Done eating - jyah- (bpah4) lyow （吃飽了）

Good to eat - huh-jyah （好吃）

Shopping

How much? - Gwee koh/Wah dzay jyee/Luaaa3-Zwuei3?

Too much - shyoo-(gke4) zwuei3

Don't want - mbwai / mmm...-mai3

I need - Wah dah-ai

...toothbrush - kee-mbeeng

...soap - day koh

...shampoo - suay tow-mun - literally "wash hair"

...paper - dzwah4

...pen - mbeetd / pbeet4

...books - dzoo / tz-cheh4

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Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Alternative spellings 1.2 Etymology 1.3 Proper noun 1.3.1 Translations 1.3.2 See also 1.4 External links

English

Wikipedia

Wikipedia ^zh-min-nan

Alternative spellings

• Mǐn Nán
• Minnan
• Min-nan

Etymology

From Mandarin Chinese 閩南 / 闽南 (Mǐn Nán), "Southern Min" (i.e. south of the Min river in Fujian).

Proper noun

Singular Min Nan

Plural -

Min Nan

1. A group of local languages/dialects which can trace their origins to southern Fujian province, China. The most prominent dialects are Amoy (referred to as Taiwanese in Taiwan, and Hokkien in Southeast Asia), Teochew, and Qiongwen. It belongs to the Min dialect group of the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

Translations

See also

• Hokkien
• Taiwanese

External links

• Ethnologue entry for Min Nan, nan