Before revision: C. R. Boxer says the word comes from the Chinese 老爷 (Mandarin Pinyin: lǎoye; Amoy dialect: ló-tia; Quanzhou dialect: lāu-tia) , which was a common from of address in Chinese for officials .. Minnan (Amoy and Quanzhou) pronunciation is given as per C.R.
After revision: C. R. Boxer says the word comes from Hokkien ; IPA: /lo˦ tia˦/ , which was a common form of address for government officials in the Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien Chinese .. Minnan (Amoy and Quanzhou) pronunciation is given as per C.R.