Hokkien

context: Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ (traditional Chinese: 福建話; simplified Chinese: 福建话; pinyin: Fújiànhuà; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hok-kiàn oē) or Quanzhang (Quanzhou–Zhangzhou / Chinchew–Changchew; BP: Zuánziū–Ziāngziū) is a group of mutually intelligible Min Nan Chinese dialects spoken throughout Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and by many other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated from a dialect in southern Fujian. It is closely related to the Teochew, though mutual comprehension is difficult, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, most of which are not mutually intelligible with Hokkien.
qas: answers: text: southern Fujian.
question: Where did Hokkien originate?

answers: text: Teochew
question: What dialect is Hokkien closely related to?

answers: text: a group of mutually intelligible Min Nan Chinese dialects spoken throughout Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and by many other overseas Chinese.
question: What is Hokkien?

answers: text: Southeast Asia
question: Where is Hokkien spoken?

answers: text: southern Fujian
question: Where did Hokkien originate?

answers: text: Teochew
question: What language is Hokkien closely related to?

answers: text: Hainanese
question: What language is Hokkien distantly related to?

answers: text: Fujian province
question: Min and Hakka dialects are found where?

context: The term Hokkien (福建; hɔk˥˥kɪɛn˨˩) is itself a term not used in Chinese to refer to the dialect, as it simply means Fujian province. In Chinese linguistics, these dialects are known by their classification under the Quanzhang Division (Chinese: 泉漳片; pinyin: Quánzhāng piàn) of Min Nan, which comes from the first characters of the two main Hokkien urban centers Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. The variety is also known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan (traditional Chinese: 閩南語, 閩南話; simplified Chinese: 闽南语, 闽南话; pinyin: Mǐnnányǔ, Mǐnnánhuà; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bân-lâm-gí,Bân-lâm-oē) or Southern Min, and Fulaohua (traditional Chinese: 福佬話; simplified Chinese: 福佬话; pinyin: Fúlǎohuà; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hō-ló-oē). The term Hokkien (Chinese: 福建話; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hok-kiàn oē;Tâi-lô:Hok-kiàn-uē), on the other hand, is used commonly in South East Asia to refer to Min-nan dialects.
qas: answers: text: Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.
question: What at the main Hokkioen urban centers?

answers: text: Min-nan dialects.
question: What dialects does Hokkien refer to?

answers: text: South East Asia
question: Where is the term Hokkien mainly used?

answers: text: Fujian province
question: What does Hokkien mean?

answers: text: Quanzhang Division (Chinese: 泉漳片; pinyin: Quánzhāng piàn) of Min Nan
question: What division of dialects does Hokkien belong to?

answers: text: Hokkien
question: In South East Asia, what term is commonly used to refer to Min-nan dialects?

answers: text: Hokkien
question: Where are quanzhou and Zhangzhou located?

context: There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States. Many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) and present day Malaysia and Singapore (formerly Malaya and the British Straits Settlements). Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are highly similar to Taiwanese and Amoy. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 98.5% of the Chinese Filipino in the Philippines, among which is known locally as Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē ("Our people’s language"). Hokkien speakers form the largest group of Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: 98.5%
question: What percentage of Chinese Filipino are reportedly native Hokkien speakers?

answers: text: Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē ("Our people’s language").
question: What is Hokkien known as locally in the Phillippines?

answers: text: Hokkien speakers
question: Who form the largest group of Chinese in Singapore?

answers: text: Hokkien speakers
question: Who form the largest group of Chinese in Malaysia?

answers: text: Hokkien speakers
question: Who form the largest group of Chinese in Indonesia?

answers: text: Han Chinese emigrants
question: Who brought the language Hokkien to Myanmar?

answers: text: Burma
question: What is the current name for Myanmar?

answers: text: Dutch East Indies
question: What is the former name for Indonesia?

answers: text: 98.5%
question: What percent of Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines spoeak Hokkien?

answers: text: Lan-nang or Lán-lâng-oē
question: What is the local name for Hokkien in the Philippines?

context: During the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China, there was constant warfare occurring in the Central Plain of China. Northerners began to enter into Fujian region, causing the region to incorporate parts of northern Chinese dialects. However, the massive migration of northern Han Chinese into Fujian region mainly occurred after the Disaster of Yongjia. The Jìn court fled from the north to the south, causing large numbers of northern Han Chinese to move into Fujian region. They brought the old Chinese — spoken in Central Plain of China from prehistoric era to 3rd century — into Fujian. This then gradually evolved into the Quanzhou dialect.
qas: answers: text: China
question: The Three Kings Period was a period of time in what country?

answers: text: the Central Plain of China
question: Where was war concentrated during the Three Kings Period?

answers: text: the Disaster of Yongjia
question: What disaster caused a massive migration in the Fujiian region?

answers: text: old Chinese
question: What language was spoken in the central plain of China up until the 3rd century?

answers: text: north to the south
question: What direction did the jin court flee during the Three Kings period?

context: In 677 (during the reign of Emperor Gaozong), Chen Zheng (陳政), together with his son Chen Yuanguang (陳元光), led a military expedition to pacify the rebellion in Fujian. They settled in Zhangzhou and brought the Middle Chinese phonology of northern China during the 7th century into Zhangzhou; In 885, (during the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang), the two brothers Wang Chao (王潮) and Wang Shenzhi (王審知), led a military expedition force to pacify the Huang Chao rebellion. They brought the Middle Chinese phonology commonly spoken in Northern China into Zhangzhou. These two waves of migrations from the north generally brought the language of northern Middle Chinese into the Fujian region. This then gradually evolved into the Zhangzhou dialect.
qas: answers: text: Emperor Gaozong
question: Who was the ruler of China in 677?

answers: text: Chen Zheng
question: Who led the military expedition in Fujian?

answers: text: Chen Yuanguang
question: What is the name of the son of Chen Zheng?

answers: text: Emperor Xizong of Tang
question: Who was the ruler of China in 885?

answers: text: two waves of migrations from the north
question: What was responsible for bringing the language of North middle China to the Fujian region?

context: Xiamen dialect, sometimes known as Amoy, is the main dialect spoken in the Chinese city of Xiamen and its surrounding regions of Tong'an and Xiang'an, both of which are now included in the Greater Xiamen area. This dialect developed in the late Ming dynasty when Xiamen was increasingly taking over Quanzhou's position as the main port of trade in southeastern China. Quanzhou traders began travelling southwards to Xiamen to carry on their businesses while Zhangzhou peasants began traveling northwards to Xiamen in search of job opportunities. It is at this time when a need for a common language arose. The Quanzhou and Zhangzhou varieties are similar in many ways (as can be seen from the common place of Henan Luoyang where they originated), but due to differences in accents, communication can be a problem. Quanzhou businessmen considered their speech to be the prestige accent and considered Zhangzhou's to be a village dialect. Over the centuries, dialect leveling occurred and the two speeches mixed to produce the Amoy dialect.
qas: answers: text: Amoy
question: What is another name for Xiamen dialect?

answers: text: Xiamen dialect
question: What is the main dialect spoken in Xiamen?

answers: text: late Ming dynasty
question: During what dynasty did the Xiamen dialect develope?

answers: text: Xiamen
question: What city took over Quanzhou's position as the main port of trade in SE China?

answers: text: in search of job opportunities
question: Why did peasants from Zhangzhou travel north to Xiamen?

context: Hokkien has one of the most diverse phoneme inventories among Chinese varieties, with more consonants than Standard Mandarin or Cantonese. Vowels are more-or-less similar to that of Standard Mandarin. Hokkien varieties retain many pronunciations that are no longer found in other Chinese varieties. These include the retention of the /t/ initial, which is now /tʂ/ (Pinyin 'zh') in Mandarin (e.g. 'bamboo' 竹 is tik, but zhú in Mandarin), having disappeared before the 6th century in other Chinese varieties.
qas: answers: text: Hokkien
question: What Chinese dialect has more consonants than standard Mandarin or Cantonese?

answers: text: similar
question: How do Hokkien vowels compare to Standard Mandarin vowels?

answers: text: many pronunciations
question: What do Hokkein varieties retain that are no longer found in other Chinese varieties?

answers: text: phoneme inventories
question: Hokkien has one of the most diverse what, among Chinese varieties?

context: In general, Hokkien dialects have 5 to 7 phonemic tones. According to the traditional Chinese system, however, there are 7 to 9 "tones",[citation needed] more correctly termed tone classes since two of them are non-phonemic "entering tones" (see the discussion on Chinese tone). Tone sandhi is extensive. There are minor variations between the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou tone systems. Taiwanese tones follow the patterns of Amoy or Quanzhou, depending on the area of Taiwan. Many dialects have an additional phonemic tone ("tone 9" according to the traditional reckoning), used only in special or foreign loan words.
qas: answers: text: 5 to 7
question: How many phonemic tones do Hokkien dialects have?

answers: text: tone classes
question: What is another name for phonemic tones?

answers: text: minor
question: What type of variations are there between the Quanznou and Zhangzhou tone system?

answers: text: Amoy or Quanzhou
question: What patterns do Taiwanese tones follow?

answers: text: the area of Taiwan
question: What is the pattern used un Taiwanese tones determined by?

context: The Amoy dialect (Xiamen) is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. Taiwanese is also a hybrid of these two dialects. Taiwanese in northern Taiwan tends to be based on the Quanzhou variety, 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 dialects. The grammar is generally the same. Additionally, extensive contact with the Japanese language has left a legacy of Japanese loanwords in Taiwanese Hokkien. On the other hand, the variants spoken in Singapore and Malaysia have a substantial number of loanwords from Malay and to a lesser extent, from English and other Chinese varieties, such as the closely related Teochew and some Cantonese.
qas: answers: text: Quanzhou and Zhangzhou
question: The Amoy dialect is a hybrid of what two dialects?

answers: text: Taiwanese
question: Besides Amoy, what is another hybrid of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou?

answers: text: Quanzhou
question: What is Taiwanese in Northern Taiwan based on?

answers: text: Zhangzhou speech
question: What is Taiwanese in Southern Taiwan based on?

answers: text: Malay
question: In Singapore, the varient of Hokkien has a significant amount of loanwords from where?

context: Hokkien dialects are analytic; in a sentence, the arrangement of words is important to its meaning. A basic sentence follows the subject–verb–object pattern (i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object), though this order is often violated because Hokkien dialects are topic-prominent. Unlike synthetic languages, seldom do words indicate time, gender and plural by inflection. Instead, these concepts are expressed through adverbs, aspect markers, and grammatical particles, or are deduced from the context. Different particles are added to a sentence to further specify its status or intonation.
qas: answers: text: meaning
question: In Hokkien dialects, the arrangent of words is important to what?

answers: text: subject–verb–object
question: What pattern does a basic Hokkien sentence follow?

answers: text: subject–verb–object
question: Being topic prominant, what basic sentence pattern is often not used?

answers: text: time, gender and plural
question: Unlike synthetic languages, what do Hokkien sentences not indicate?

answers: text: Different particles
question: What is added to sentences to specify status or tone?

context: The existence of literary and colloquial readings (文白異讀), called tha̍k-im (讀音), is a prominent feature of some Hokkien dialects and indeed in many Sinitic varieties in the south. The bulk of literary readings (文讀, bûn-tha̍k), based on pronunciations of the vernacular during the Tang Dynasty, are mainly used in formal phrases and written language (e.g. philosophical concepts, surnames, and some place names), while the colloquial (or vernacular) ones (白讀, pe̍h-tha̍k) are basically used in spoken language and vulgar phrases. Literary readings are more similar to the pronunciations of the Tang standard of Middle Chinese than their colloquial equivalents.
qas: answers: text: tha̍k-im
question: What are literary and colloquial readings called?

answers: text: vernacular)
question: What is another name for colloquial?

answers: text: formal phrases and written language
question: Literary readings are usually used where?

answers: text: spoken language and vulgar phrases
question: colloquial reading are usually used where?

context: The pronounced divergence between literary and colloquial pronunciations found in Hokkien dialects is attributed to the presence of several strata in the Min lexicon. The earliest, colloquial stratum is traced to the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE); the second colloquial one comes from the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 - 589 CE); the third stratum of pronunciations (typically literary ones) comes from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) and is based on the prestige dialect of Chang'an (modern day Xi'an), its capital.
qas: answers: text: Min
question: Colloquial stratum can be traced to several strata in what lexicon?

answers: text: Han dynasty
question: The earliest colloquial stratum can be traced to what?

answers: text: 206 BCE - 220 CE
question: When was the Han Dynasty?

answers: text: 420 - 589 CE
question: When were the Southern and Northern Dynasties?

answers: text: 618–907 CE
question: When was the Tang Dynasty?

context: Quite a few words from the variety of Old Chinese spoken in the state of Wu (where the ancestral language of Min and Wu dialect families originated and which was likely influenced by the Chinese spoken in the state of Chu which itself was not founded by Chinese speakers),[citation needed] and later words from Middle Chinese as well, have retained the original meanings in Hokkien, while many of their counterparts in Mandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use, have been substituted with other words (some of which are borrowed from other languages while others are new developments), or have developed newer meanings. The same may be said of Hokkien as well, since some lexical meaning evolved in step with Mandarin while others are wholly innovative developments.
qas: answers: text: in the state of Wu
question: Where did the language of Min and Wu dialects originate?

answers: text: the state of Chu
question: Chinese spoken in Wu was influenced by Chinese spoken where?

answers: text: Mandarin Chinese
question: Many middle chinese words have retained their meanings in Hokkein but not in what?

context: Hokkien originated from Quanzhou. After the Opium War in 1842, Xiamen (Amoy) became one of the major treaty ports to be opened for trade with the outside world. From mid-19th century onwards, Xiamen slowly developed to become the political and economical center of the Hokkien-speaking region in China. This caused Amoy dialect to gradually replace the position of dialect variants from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. From mid-19th century until the end of World War II, western diplomats usually learned Amoy Hokkien as the preferred dialect if they were to communicate with the Hokkien-speaking populace in China or South-East Asia. In the 1940s and 1950s, Taiwan also held Amoy Hokkien as its standard and tended to incline itself towards Amoy dialect.
qas: answers: text: Quanzhou
question: Where did Hokkein originate?

answers: text: 1842
question: What year was the Opium war?

answers: text: Amoy
question: What is another name for Xiamen?

answers: text: Xiamen
question: What port became one of the major treaty ports after the Opium War?

answers: text: Amoy Hokkien
question: What dialect did western diplomats learn to communicate with the Hokkien speaking people in China?

context: In the 1990s, marked by the liberalization of language development and mother tongue movement in Taiwan, Taiwanese Hokkien had undergone a fast pace in its development. In 1993, Taiwan became the first region in the world to implement the teaching of Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwanese schools. In 2001, the local Taiwanese language program was further extended to all schools in Taiwan, and Taiwanese Hokkien became one of the compulsory local Taiwanese languages to be learned in schools. The mother tongue movement in Taiwan even influenced Xiamen (Amoy) to the point that in 2010, Xiamen also began to implement the teaching of Hokkien dialect in its schools. In 2007, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan also completed the standardization of Chinese characters used for writing Hokkien and developed Tai-lo as the standard Hokkien pronunciation and romanization guide. A number of universities in Taiwan also offer Hokkien degree courses for training Hokkien-fluent talents to work for the Hokkien media industry and education. Taiwan also has its own Hokkien literary and cultural circles whereby Hokkien poets and writers compose poetry or literature in Hokkien on a regular basis.
qas: answers: text: In the 1990s
question: When did Taiwanese Hokkien have a fast change in development?

answers: text: 1993
question: What year did Taiwan begin teaching Hokkien in schools?

answers: text: 2001
question: What year did it become mandatory to teach Hokkien in Taiwan schools?

answers: text: Tai-lo
question: What is the name of the standard Hokkien pronunciation and romanization guide?

answers: text: 2007
question: What year did the Ministry of Education develope tai-lo?

context: Hokkien dialects are typically written using Chinese characters (漢字, Hàn-jī). However, the written script was and remains adapted to the literary form, which is based on classical Chinese, not the vernacular and spoken form. Furthermore, the character inventory used for Mandarin (standard written Chinese) does not correspond to Hokkien words, and there are a large number of informal characters (替字, thè-jī or thòe-jī; 'substitute characters') which are unique to Hokkien (as is the case with Cantonese). For instance, about 20 to 25% of Taiwanese morphemes lack an appropriate or standard Chinese character.
qas: answers: text: Chinese
question: Hokkien is usually written using what characters?

answers: text: classical Chinese
question: Written Hokkein is based on what?

answers: text: Mandarin
question: What is another name for standard written chinese?

answers: text: 20 to 25%
question: Approximately what percentage of Chinese morphemes lack a standard chinese character?

context: While most Hokkien morphemes have standard designated characters, they are not always etymological or phono-semantic. Similar-sounding, similar-meaning or rare characters are commonly borrowed or substituted to represent a particular morpheme. Examples include "beautiful" (美 bí is the literary form), whose vernacular morpheme suí is represented by characters like 媠 (an obsolete character), 婎 (a vernacular reading of this character) and even 水 (transliteration of the sound suí), or "tall" (高 ko is the literary form), whose morpheme kôan is 懸. Common grammatical particles are not exempt; the negation particle m̄ (not) is variously represented by 毋, 呣 or 唔, among others. In other cases, characters are invented to represent a particular morpheme (a common example is the character 𪜶 in, which represents the personal pronoun "they"). In addition, some characters have multiple and unrelated pronunciations, adapted to represent Hokkien words. For example, the Hokkien word bah ("meat") has been reduced to the character 肉, which has etymologically unrelated colloquial and literary readings (he̍k and jio̍k, respectively). Another case is the word 'to eat,' chia̍h, which is often transcribed in Taiwanese newspapers and media as 呷 (a Mandarin transliteration, xiā, to approximate the Hokkien term), even though its recommended character in dictionaries is 食.
qas: answers: text: standard designated
question: Most Hokkein morphemes have what type of characters?

answers: text: a particular morpheme
question: In some cases, charcters are invented to represent what?

answers: text: etymological or phono-semantic
question: Hokkien morphemes are not always what?

answers: text: Similar-sounding, similar-meaning or rare characters
question: What are often borrowed to represent a particular morpheme?

context: Hokkien, especially Taiwanese, is sometimes written in the Latin script using one of several alphabets. Of these the most popular is Pe̍h-ōe-jī (traditional Chinese: 白話字; simplified Chinese: 白话字; pinyin: Báihuàzì). POJ was developed first by Presbyterian missionaries in China and later by the indigenous Presbyterian Church in Taiwan; use of this alphabet has been actively promoted since the late 19th century. The use of a mixed script of Han characters and Latin letters is also seen, though remains uncommon. Other Latin-based alphabets also exist.
qas: answers: text: Latin
question: Hokkien is sometimes written in what script?

answers: text: Pe̍h-ōe-jī
question: What is the name of the traditional Chinese alphabet?

answers: text: Pe̍h-ōe-jī
question: What is another name for POJ?

answers: text: Presbyterian missionaries in China
question: Who developed POJ?

answers: text: 19th
question: POJ alphabet has been used since late in what century?

context: Min Nan texts, all Hokkien, can be dated back to the 16th century. One example is the Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china, presumably written after 1587 by the Spanish Dominicans in the Philippines. Another is a Ming Dynasty script of a play called Romance of the Lychee Mirror (1566), supposedly the earliest Southern Min colloquial text. Xiamen University has also developed an alphabet based on Pinyin, which has been published in a dictionary called the Minnan Fangyan-Putonghua Cidian (閩南方言普通話詞典) and a language teaching book, which is used to teach the language to foreigners and Chinese non-speakers. It is known as Pumindian.
qas: answers: text: the 16th century
question: When can Min Nan texts be dated back to?

answers: text: Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china
question: What is an example of the Min Nan Texts?

answers: text: after 1587
question: What year was Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china written?

answers: text: Spanish Dominicans in the Philippines
question: Who wrote Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china?

answers: text: Romance of the Lychee Mirror
question: What is the name of the earliest Southern Min colloquial text?

context: All Latin characters required by Pe̍h-ōe-jī can be represented using Unicode (or the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set), using precomposed or combining (diacritics) characters. Prior to June 2004, the vowel akin to but more open than o, written with a dot above right, was not encoded. The usual workaround was to use the (stand-alone; spacing) character Interpunct (U+00B7, ·) or less commonly the combining character dot above (U+0307). As these are far from ideal, since 1997 proposals have been submitted to the ISO/IEC working group in charge of ISO/IEC 10646—namely, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2—to encode a new combining character dot above right. This is now officially assigned to U+0358 (see documents N1593, N2507, N2628, N2699, and N2713). Font support is expected to follow.
qas: answers: text: the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set
question: What is another name for unicode?

answers: text: diacritics
question: Using precomposed or combining characters is called what?

answers: text: Unicode
question: All LAtin characters required by POJ can be represented by what?

context: In 2002, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a party with about 10% of the Legislative Yuan seats at the time, suggested making Taiwanese a second official language. This proposal encountered strong opposition not only from Mainlander groups but also from Hakka and Taiwanese aboriginal groups who felt that it would slight their home languages, as well as others including Hoklo who objected to the proposal on logistical grounds and on the grounds that it would increase ethnic tensions. Because of these objections, support for this measure was lukewarm among moderate Taiwan independence supporters, and the proposal did not pass.
qas: answers: text: This proposal encountered strong opposition
question: How was the proposal taken from mainland and aboriginal groups?

answers: text: the proposal did not pass
question: What was the fate of the proposal to make Taiwanese the second official language?

answers: text: 2002
question: What year was it proposed to make Taiwanese the second official language?

answers: text: ethnic
question: Hoklo objected to the proposal because it would increase what tensions?

answers: text: Taiwan Solidarity Union
question: What party wanted to make Taiwanese a second official language?