Fuzhou dialect.html



Fuzhou dialect 福州話; Hók-ciŭ-uâ / 平話; Bàng-uâ
Spoken in:	People's Republic of China (Fuzhou and its surrounding counties); Republic of China (Matsu Islands); Malaysia (Sibu, Miri, Sarikei, Bintulu, Yong Peng, Sitiawan and Ayer Tawar); Indonesia; Singapore; and some Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the west, particularly in the Chinatowns of New York and London.
Total speakers:	Less than ten million
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan  Chinese   Min    Min Dong     Fuzhou dialect
Writing system:	Chinese characters and Foochow Romanized
Official status
Official language in:	none; one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the Matsu Islands, Republic of China [1]
Regulated by:	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	zh
ISO 639-2:	chi (B)	zho (T)
ISO 639-3:	cdo
Foochowese in Fujian Province, regions where the standard form is spoken are deep blue. 1: Fuzhou City Proper, 2: Minhou, 3: Fuqing, 4: Lianjiang, 5: Pingnan 6: Luoyuan, 7: Gutian, 8: Minqing, 9: Changle, 10: Yongtai, 11: Pingtan 12: Regions in Fuding, 13: Regions in Xiapu, 14: Regions in Ningde 15: Regions in Nanping, 16: Regions in Youxi
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Fuzhou dialect (福州話, Foochow Romanized: Hók-ciŭ-uâ (help·info)), also known as MinDongHua 閩東話,Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it Bàng-uâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. In Singapore and Malaysia, the language is known as Hokchiu, which is the Min Dong pronunciation of Fuzhou.

Although traditionally called a dialect, Fuzhou dialect is actually a separate language according to linguistic standards, because it is not mutually intelligible with other Min languages, let alone other Chinese languages. Therefore, whether Fuzhou dialect is a dialect or a language is highly disputable.

Centered in Fuzhou City, Fuzhou dialect mainly covers eleven cities and counties, viz.: Fuzhou (福州), Pingnan (屏南), Gutian (古田), Luoyuan (羅源), Minqing (閩清), Lianjiang (連江, Matsu included), Minhou (閩侯), Changle (長樂), Yongtai (永泰), Fuqing (福清) and Pingtan (平潭). Fuzhou dialect is also the second local language in northern and middle Fujian cities and counties, like Nanping (南平), Shaowu (邵武), Shunchang (順昌), Sanming (三明) and Youxi (尤溪).

Fuzhou dialect is also widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The city of Sibu in Malaysia is called "New Fuzhou" due to the influx of immigrants there in the early 1900s. Similarly, the language has spread to the USA, UK and Japan as a result of immigration in recent decades.

History

Formation

The authoritative Foochow rime book Qī Lín Bāyīn

After Han China's occupation of Minyue (閩越) in 110 BC, Han people began populating in what is Fujian Province today. Having lost their nationalities, the aboriginal Minyue people, a branch of Yue peoples (百越), were gradually assimilated into Chinese culture.¹ The Ancient Wu and Ancient Chu language brought by the mass influx of Han immigrants from Northern area gradually mixed with the local Minyue language and finally developed into the Ancient Min language, from which Fuzhou dialect evolved.²

Fuzhou dialect came into being during the period somewhere between late Tang Dynasty and "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms"³, and has been considered by most as a Chinese dialect ever since. However, it is also worth noting that its substratum is constituted by large quantities of well-preserved Minyue vocabulary. In this sense, Fuzhou dialect is a de facto mixed language of Ancient Chinese and Minyue language.

The famous book Qī Lín Bāyīn (戚林八音, Foochow Romanized: Chék Lìng Báik-ĭng), which was compiled in the 17th century, is the first and the most full-scale rime book that provides a systematic guide to character reading for people speaking or learning Fuzhou dialect. It once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Chinese phonology.

Studies by Western missionaries

Dictionary of the Foochow dialect, 3rd Edition, published in 1929

In 1842, Fuzhou was open to Westerners as a treaty port after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. But due to the language barrier, however, the first Christian missionary base in this city did not take place without difficulties. In order to convert Fuzhou people, those missionaries found it very necessary to make a careful study of the Fuzhou dialect. Their most notable works are listed below:⁴

• 1856, M. C. White: The Chinese language spoken at Fuh Chau
• 1870, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin: An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect
• 1871, C. C. Baldwin: Manual of the Foochow dialect
• 1891, T. B. Adam: An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect
• 1893, Charles Hartwell: Three Character Classic of Gospel in the Foochow Colloquial
• 1898, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin: An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition
• 1905, T. B. Adam: An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition
• 1906, The Foochow translation of the complete Bible ([2], [3])
• 1923, T. B. Adam & L. P. Peet: An English-Chinese dictionary of the Foochow dialect, 2nd edition
• 1929, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin (revised and enlarged by S. H. Leger): Dictionary of the Foochow dialect

Studies by Japanese scholars

Japanese-Chinese Translation: Fuzhou Dialect, published in Taipei, 1940. Foochow kana is used to represent Fooochow pronunciation.

During the Second World War, some Japanese scholars became passionate about studying Fuzhou dialect, believing that it could be beneficial to the rule of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. One of their most famous works was the Japanese-Chinese Translation: Fuzhou Dialect (日華對譯 福州語) published in Taipei 1940, in which the katakana is used to represent Foochow pronunciation. However, Foochow kana is awkward because Fuzhou dialect is phonologically much too different from Japanese: for example, a cumbersome combination of three kana ユウイ was invented to approximate a simple vowel /y/.

Status quo

Pupils in Gulou Experimental Elementary School (鼓樓實驗小學) in Fuzhou are learning the Foochow nursery rhyme Cĭng-cēu-giāng (真鳥囝)

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Fuzhou society had been largely monolingual. But for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the colloquial in school education and in media, so the number of Mandarin speakers has been greatly boosted. It is reported that merely less than half of the children and youngsters in Fuzhou are able to speak this language.⁵

Nevertheless, it should be noted that Fuzhou dialect is currently widely spoken among some native speakers as an "endearing" language. Speaking Fuzhou dialect in Fuzhou often allows mutual speakers a certain level of familiarity. Even though Mandarin Chinese is more often heard in casual conversations on the city streets, the careful observer will notice that in more communal settings, such as small neighborhoods in the city or the surrounding countryside, Fuzhou dialect is often the dominant language.

In Mainland China, Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage⁶ and its promotion work is being systematically carried out. In Matsu, Taiwan, the teaching of Fuzhou dialect has been successfully introduced into elementary schools, alongside the Taiwanese localization movement.

Grammar

This section is about Standard Fuzhou dialect only. See Regional variations for a discussion of other dialects.

Phonetics

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Phonetically, Fuzhou dialect is a tonal language, which has extremely extensive sandhi rules in the initials, rimes, and the tones. These over-complicated rules make Fuzhou dialect one of the most difficult Chinese languages.⁷

Tones

There are seven original tones in Fuzhou dialect, which reserves the tonal system of Ancient Chinese:

The sample characters are taken from the Qī Lín Bāyīn.

In Qī Lín Bāyīn, the Fuzhou dialect is described as having eight tones, which explains how the book got its title (Bāyīn means "eight tones"). That name, however, is somewhat misleading, because Ĭng-siōng (陰上) and Iòng-siōng (陽上) are identical in tone contour; therefore, only seven tones exist.

Ĭng-ĭk and Iòng-ĭk (or so-called entering tonal) characters are ended with either velar stop [k] or Glottal stop [ʔ].

Besides those seven tones listed above, two new tonal values, "21" (Buáng-ĭng-ké̤ṳ, 半陰去) and "35" (Buáng-iòng-ké̤ṳ, 半陽去) also occur in connected speech (see Tonal sandhi below).

Tonal sandhi

The rules of tonal sandhi (連讀變調) in Fuzhou dialect are complicated, even compared with those of other Chinese dialects. When two or more than two characters combine into a word, the tonal value of the last character remains stable but those of its preceding characters change in most cases. For example, "獨", "立" and "日" are characters of Iòng-ĭk (陽入) with the same tonal value "5", and are pronounced as [tuʔ⁵, [liʔ⁵ and [niʔ⁵, respectively. When combined together as the phrase "獨立日" (Independence Day), "獨" changes its tonal value to "21", and "立" changes its to "33", therefore the pronunciation as a whole is [tuʔ²¹ liʔ³³ niʔ⁵.

The two-character tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below:

Ĭng-ĭk-gák (陰入甲) are Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) characters with glottal stop and Ĭng-ĭk-ék (陰入乙) with /k/.

However, the tonal sandhi rules of more than two characters are much more complicated than can be conveniently displayed in a single table.

Initials

There are seventeen initials in all:

The Chinese characters in the brackets are also sample characters from Qī Lín Bāyīn.

Most Chinese linguists argue that Fuzhou dialect should be described as possessing a null onset. In fact, any character that has a null onset begins with a glottal stop [ʔ].

Some speakers find it difficult to distinguish between the initials /n/ and /l/.

No such labiodental phonemes as /f/ or /v/ exist in Fuzhou dialect, which is one of the most conspicuous characteristics shared by all branches in the Min Family, as well as Korean and Japanese.

[β] and [ʒ] exist in connected speech (see Initial assimilation below) only.

Initial assimilation

In Fuzhou dialect, there are various kinds of initial assimilation (聲母類化), all of which are progressive. When two or more than two characters combine into a phrase, the initial of the first character stays unchanged while those of the following characters, in most cases, change to match its preceding phoneme, i.e., the coda of its preceding character.

Rimes

Chart of vowels used in Fuzhou dialect

The table below shows the eleven vowel phonemes of Fuzhou dialect.

In Fuzhou dialect codas /-m/, /-n/, and /-ŋ/ have all merged as /-ŋ/; and /-p/, /-t/, /-k/ have all merged as /-ʔ/. Eleven vowel phonemes, together with the codas /-ŋ/ and /-ʔ/, are organized into forty-six rimes.

As has been mentioned above, there are theoretically two different entering tonal codas in Fuzhou dialect: /-k/ and /-ʔ/. But for most Fuzhou dialect speakers, those two codas are only distinguishable when in the tonal sandhi or initial assimilation. Therefore, most Chinese linguists think that the codas /-k/ and /-ʔ/ has merged together.

Close/Open rimes

All rimes come in pairs in the above table: the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the other represents an open rime (鬆韻). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones. As single characters, the tones of Ĭng-bìng (陰平), Siōng-siăng (上聲), Iòng-bìng (陽平) and Iòng-ĭk (陽入) have close rimes while Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去), Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) and Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去) have the open rimes. In connected speech, an open rime shifts to its close counterpart in the tonal sandhi.

For instance, "福" (hók) is a Ĭng-ĭk character and is pronounced as [houʔ²⁴ and "州" (ciŭ) a Ĭng-bìng character with the pronunciation of [tsiu⁵⁵. When these two characters combine into the word "福州" (Hók-ciŭ, Fuzhou), "福" changes its tonal value from "24" to "21" and, simultaneously, shifts its rime from [-ouʔ] to [-uʔ], so the phrase is pronounced as [huʔ²¹ tsiu⁵⁵. While in the word "中國" [tyŋ⁵³ kuɔʔ²⁴ (Dṳ̆ng-guók, China), "中" is a Ĭng-bìng character and therefore its close rime never changes, though it does change its tonal value from "55" to "53" in the tonal sandhi.

The phenomenon of close/open rimes is unique to Fuzhou dialect and this feature makes it especially intricate and hardly intelligible even to other Min languages.

Phonological features

Vocabulary

Most words in Fuzhou dialect have cognates in other Chinese languages, so a non-Fuzhou speaker would find it much easier to understand Fuzhou dialect written in Chinese characters than spoken in conversation. But it should also be noted, however, that false friends do exist: for example, "莫細膩" (mŏ̤h sá̤-nê) means "don't be too polite" or "make yourself at home", "我對手汝洗碗" (nguāi dó̤i-chiū nṳ̄ sā̤ uāng) means "I help you wash dishes", "伊共伊老媽嚟冤家" (ĭ gâe̤ng ĭ lâu-mā lā̤ uŏng-gă) means "he and his wife are quarreling (with each other)", etc. Sheer knowledge of Mandarin vocabulary does not help one catch the meaning of these sentences.

The majority of Fuzhou dialect vocabulary dates back to more than 1,200 years ago. Some daily-used words are even preserved as they were in Tang Dynasty, which can be illustrated by a poem of a famous Chinese poet Gu Kuang (顧況).⁸ In his poem Jiǎn (囝), Gu Kuang explicitly noted:

囝，音蹇。閩俗呼子為囝，父為郎罷。
Translation: 囝 is pronounced as 蹇. In Fujian vernacular son is called 囝, and father 郎罷.

In Fuzhou dialect, "囝" (giāng) and "郎罷" (nòng-mâ) are still in use today, without any slightest change.

Words from Ancient Chinese

Quite a few words from Ancient Chinese (mainly Ancient Wu and Ancient Chu) have retained the original meanings for thousands of years, while their counterparts in Mandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use or varied to different meanings.

This table shows some Fuzhou dialect words from Classical Chinese, as contrasted to Mandarin Chinese:

¹ "看" (káng) is also used as the verb "to look" in Fuzhou dialect.

² "養" (iōng) in Fuzhou dialect means "give birth to (a child)".

And this table shows some words that are both used in Fuzhou dialect and Mandarin Chinese, while the meanings in Mandarin Chinese have altered:

Words from Minyue language

Some daily used words, shared by all Min languages, came from the ancient Minyue language. Such as follows:

The literary and colloquial readings

The literary and colloquial readings (文白異讀) is a feature commonly found in all Chinese dialects throughout China. The literary readings (文讀) are mainly used in formal phrases and written language, while the colloquial ones (白讀) are basically used in vulgar phrases and spoken language.

This table displays some widely used characters in Fuzhou dialect which have both literary and colloquial readings:

Loan words from English

The First Opium War, also known as the First Anglo-Chinese War, was ended in 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, which forced the Qing government to open Fuzhou to all British traders and missionaries. Since then, quite a number of churches and Western-style schools have been established. Consequently, some English words came into Fuzhou dialect, but without fixed written forms in Chinese characters. The most frequently used words are listed below:⁹

• kŏk, [khouʔ⁵, noun, meaning "an article of dress", is from the word "coat";
• nă̤h, [nɛʔ⁵, noun, meaning "a meshwork barrier in tennis or badminton", is from the word "net";
• pèng, [pheiŋ⁵³, noun, meaning "oil paint", is from the word "paint";
• pĕng-giāng, [pheiŋ⁵³ ŋiaŋ³³, noun, meaning "a small sum of money", is from the word "penny";
• tă̤h, [thɛʔ⁵, noun, meaning "money", is from the word "take";
• gă̤-lō̤, [kɛ⁵³ lo³³, noun, meaning "girl" in a humorous way, is from the word "girl";
• sò̤, [so⁵³, verb, meaning "to shoot (a basket)", is from the word "shoot";
• ă-gì, [a⁵⁵ ki⁵³, verb, meaning "to pause (usually a game)", is from the word "again".
• Mā-lăk-gă, [ma²¹ laʔ⁵ ka⁵, meaning "Southeastern Asian (esp. Singapore and Malaysia)", is from the word "Malacca".

Other features of Fuzhou dialect grammar

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (June 2008)

Examples

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Some common phrases in Fuzhou dialect:

• Fuzhou dialect: 福州話 / Hók-ciŭ-uâ / [huʔ²¹ tsiu⁵³ uɑ²⁴²
• Hello: 汝好 / [[:Media:Nṳ̄ hō̤|{{{2}}}] (help·[[:Image:Nṳ̄ hō̤|info]]) / [ny³³ ho³³
• Good-bye: 再見 / Cái-giéng / [tsai⁵³ kiɛŋ²¹³
• Please: 請 / Chiāng / [tshiaŋ³³; 起動 / Kī-dâe̤ng / [khi⁵⁵ lɔyŋ²⁴²
• Thank you: 謝謝 / Siâ-siâ / [sia⁵³ liɑ²⁴²; 起動 / Kī-dâe̤ng / [khi⁵⁵ lɔyŋ²⁴²
• Sorry: 對不住 / Dó̤i-bók-cê̤ṳ / [tøy²¹ puʔ⁵ tsøy²⁴²
• This: 嚽 / Cuòi / [tsui⁵³; 啫 / Ciā / [tsia³³; 茲 / Cī / [tsi³³
• That: 噲 / Huòi / [hui⁵³; 嘻 / Hiā / [hia³³; 許 / Hī / [hi³³
• How much?: 偌 / Nuâi (niŏh-uâi) / [nuai²⁴² ([nuoʔ²¹ uɑi²⁴²)
• Yes: 正是 / Ciáng-sê / [tsiaŋ⁵³ nɛi²⁴²; 無綻 / Mò̤ dâng / [mo²¹ lɑŋ²⁴²; 著 / Diŏh (Duŏh) / [tyoʔ⁵ ([tuoʔ⁵)
• No: 伓是 / Ng-sê / [ŋ⁵³ nɛi²⁴²; 綻 / Dâng / [tɑŋ²⁴²; 賣著 / Mâ̤ diŏh (Mâ̤ duŏh) / [me⁵⁵ tyoʔ⁵ ([me⁵⁵ tuoʔ⁵)
• I don't understand: 我賣會意 / Nguāi mâ̤ huôi-é / [ŋuai³³ me²¹ hui⁵³ ɛi²¹³
• What's his name?: / Ĭ miàng sié-nó̤h? / [i⁵⁵ miaŋ⁵³ sie²¹ nɔʔ²⁴
• Where's the hotel?: 賓館洽底所？ / Bĭng-guāng găk diē-nē̤? / [piŋ⁵³ kuaŋ³³ kaʔ⁵ tie²⁴ nœ³³
• How can I go to the school?: 去學校怎樣行？ / Kó̤ hăk-hâu cuōng-iông giàng? / [kho⁵³ haʔ²¹ hɑu²⁴² tsuoŋ⁵⁵ yɔŋ²⁴² kiaŋ⁵³
• Do you speak Fuzhou dialect?: 汝會講福州話賣？ / Nṳ̄ â̤ gōng Hók-ciŭ-uâ mâ̤? / [ny³³ e⁵³ kouŋ³³ huʔ²¹ tsiu⁵³ uɑ²⁴² ma²⁴²
• Do you speak English?: 汝會講英語賣？ / Nṳ̄ â̤ gōng Ĭng-ngṳ̄ mâ̤? / [ny³³ e⁵³ kouŋ³³ iŋ⁵³ ŋy³³ ma²⁴²

Regional variations

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (June 2008)

Writing system

Chinese characters

Foochow Bible in Chinese Characters, published by China Bible House in 1940.

Most of the characters of Fuzhou dialect stem from Ancient Chinese and can therefore be written in Chinese characters. Many books published in Qing Dynasty have been written in this traditional way, such as the famous Mǐndū Biéjì (閩都別記, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dŭ Biék-gé). However, Chinese characters as the writing system for Fuzhou dialect do have many shortcomings.

Firstly, a great number of characters are unique to Fuzhou dialect, so that they can only be written in informal ways. For instance, the character "mâ̤", a negative word, has no common form. Some write it as "賣" or "袂", both of which share with it an identical pronunciation but has a totally irrelevant meaning; and others prefer to use a newly-created character combining "勿" and "會", but this character is not included in most fonts.

Secondly, Fuzhou dialect has been excluded from the educational system for many decades. As a result, many if not all take for granted that Fuzhou dialect does not have a formal writing system and when they have to write it, they tend to misuse characters with a similar Mandarin Chinese enunciation. For example, "會使 (â̤ sāi)", meaning "okay", are frequently written as "阿塞" because they are uttered almost in the same way.

Foochow Romanized

Bible in Foochow Romanized, published by British and Foreign Bible Society in 1908.

Main article: Foochow Romanized

Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (平話字, BUC for short) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (福州話羅馬字), is a romanized