Hokkien

Hokkien (/ˈhɒkiɛn/ HOK-ee-en)[11] is a variety of Chinese. It is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is also referred to as Quanzhang (Chinese: 泉漳; pinyin: Quánzhāng), from the first characters of the urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.

Quick facts: Hokkien, Native to, Region, Ethnicity, N... ▼

Hokkien
Min Nan
閩南話／福建話／咱人話／福佬話 Bân-lâm-ōe / Hok-kiàn-ōe/ōa / Lán-lâng-ōe / Ho̍h-ló-ōe
Koa-á books, featuring Hokkien written in Chinese characters
Native to	China (Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen and its surrounding counties) and Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia (Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Klang, Malacca, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kuching) and Indonesia (Medan)
Region	East and Southeast Asia
Ethnicity	Hokkien people
Native speakers	Many of the 27.7 million Minnan speakers in mainland China (2018), 13.5 million in Taiwan (2017), 2.02 million in Malaysia (2000),[lower-alpha 1] 1.5 million in Singapore (2017),[2] 1 million in Philippines (2010), 766,000 in Indonesia (2015), 350,000 in Cambodia (2001), 70,500 in Hong Kong (2016), 17,600 in Thailand (1984), 13,300 in Brunei (2004)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Hokkien
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[lower-alpha 2] Proto-Min
Dialects	Amoy (Xiamen) Quanzhou Zhangzhou Longyan Taiwanese Singaporean Penang (Perlis, Kedah, Penang) Medan Philippine Southern Peninsular Malaysian
Writing system	Chinese script (see written Hokkien) Latin script (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Official status
Official language in	Taiwan[6][7][8] (also a statutory language for public transport announcements in Taiwan)[9]
Regulated by	The Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nan for Southern Min (hbl is proposed[10])
Glottolog	hokk1242
Distribution of Southern Min languages, with Hokkien in dark green
Polities by number of Hokkien speakers   ≥1,000,000   ≥500,000   ≥100,000   ≥50,000   Significant minority populations
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Taiwanese Hokkien is one of the national languages in Taiwan. Hokkien is also widely spoken within the overseas Chinese diaspora in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Thailand, Brunei and elsewhere across the world. The mutual intelligibility between Hokkien dialects varies, but they are still held together by ethnolinguistic identity.[12]

In maritime Southeast Asia, Hokkien historically served as the lingua franca amongst overseas Chinese communities of all dialects and subgroups, and it remains today as the most spoken variety of Chinese in the region, including in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia. This applied to a lesser extent to mainland Southeast Asia.[13] The Betawi Malay language, spoken by some five million people in and around the Indonesian capital Jakarta, includes numerous Hokkien loanwords due to the significant influence of the Chinese Indonesian diaspora, most of whom are of Hokkien ancestry and origin.