Hokkien

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

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

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

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

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

question: What language is only spoken in Southeast Asia and Taiwan?

question: What language developed in southern Fuji? 

question: What language is Hokkien unrelatated to?

question: What language is Hainanese closely related to?

question: What type of dialects are found in Fuji

question: Where did Hainese originate?

question: What dialect is Min closely related to?

question: Where is the Fujian dialect spoken?

question: What happens if you speak Hokkien and its close relative Hakka?

question: What language is Min Nan distantly related to?
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: question: What does Hokkien mean?
answers: text: Fujian province

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

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?
answers: text: Hokkien

question: What term does not mean Fujian province?

question: What classification system does the term Hokkien come from?

question: What term comes from the first two syllables of the two main Hokkien regions?

question: What term is used in central assia to fefer to Min-nan dialects?

question: What does the term Quanzhang mean in Chinese?

question: What dialect does Zhangzhou refer to?

question: Where is the term Fulaohua primarily used?

question: In urban centers, what term is used to refer to Min-nan dialects?

question: Where are Min Nan and Southern Min located?
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: question: Who brought the language Hokkien to Myanmar?
answers: text: Han Chinese emigrants

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

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

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

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

question: What is the former name of the Dutch East Indies?

question: What is the current name of Burma?

question: What is the local name for Lan-nang in the Philippines?

question: Who form the largest group of non Chinese in Malaysia?

question: What does Lan-nang mean in Singapore?

question: Who forms the largest group of Lan-nang in Singapore?

question: Where were many Dutch East Indies emigrants originally from?

question: How many Chinese in Singapore speak Lan-nang?

question: What dialects are highly similar to Hoko and Lan-nang?

question: What group brought the Amoy language to Burma, Malaysia and Singapore?
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: question: The Three Kings Period was a period of time in what country?
answers: text: China

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

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

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

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

question: What was the name of the period of costant warfare across Asia?

question: What disiaster caused a massive migration out of the Fujiian region?

question: What languagewas spoken in the central plain of China after the 3rd century?

question: Who entered Fujiian mostly during the Three Kings period?

question: What court fled from the south to the north during the three Kings period?

question: What happened during the Fujian period in China?

question: What happened when the Jin court began to enter the Fujian region?

question: After the disaster of Quangzhou, what group migrated from the north?

question: What happened after the Three Kingdoms fled from north to south?

question: Where were Yongjia dialects brought by the Han Chinese, spoken?
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: question: Who was the ruler of China in 677?
answers: text: Emperor Gaozong

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

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

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

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

question: What country did Chen Yuanguang rule in 677?

question: What did Chen Yuanguang and his son lead a military exedition for?

question: When did Wang Chao and his son lead an expedition to pacify the Huanf Chao rebellion?

question: Who was Wang Chao's son?

question: What dialect did the migrations from the south help to develop?

question: Who led waves of migrations during the reign of Emperor Gaozong?

question: What did Wang Chao bring during the 7th century into Zhangzhou?

question: What did Wang Shenzhi do in China in 677?

question: What is Wang Chao's sons name?

question: Who was the ruler of Xizong in 677?
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: question: What is another name for Xiamen dialect?
answers: text: Amoy

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

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

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

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

question: During what dynasty did the Xiemen dialect disapear?

question: What is the main dialect spoken in Xiang'an and the surrouncing areas of Tong'an and Xiamen?

question: What area now includes Tong'an and Xiang'an?

question: When was Quanzhou taking over Xiamen's position as the main port of trade?

question: Who was traveling south in search of jobs?

question: What is another name for the Tong'an dialect?

question: What dialect developed in the Quanzhou dynasty?

question: What did Henan Luoyang  consider the better accent to be?

question: What happened over time to produce the Henan dialect?

question: Why did Zhangzhou peasants travel southwards?
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: question: What Chinese dialect has more consonants than standard Mandarin or Cantonese?
answers: text: Hokkien

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

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

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

question: What do Mandarin and Cantonese have more of than Hokkien?

question: What other vowels are similar to Cantonese vowels?

question: What do Hokkien varieties nolonger have that are still found in other Chinese varieties?

question: What is one of the least diverse phoneme among Chinese varieties?

question: What does Cantonese have more of among Chinese varieties?

question: In Hokkien how do the type of diverse phoneme compare to Standard Mandarin?

question: What does Mandarin have that isn't found in other Chinese varieties?

question: What has the retention of Cantonese become now in Mandarin?

question: What do Chinese varieties have more of than Standard Mandarin?
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: question: How many phonemic tones do Hokkien dialects have?
answers: text: 5 to 7

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

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

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

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

question: What dialects has less than 5 phonemic tones?

question: How many tones are there in modern Chimese?

question: What system has major variations from Quanznou tone system?

question: When is the extra tone 8 used?

question: What tone is not extensive?

question: How many phonemic tones do sandhi dialects have?

question: What two tone systems have an additional phonemic tone?

question: Name the foreign loan words that have 5 to 7 phonemic tones?

question: What do Hokkien tones follow depending on where you are in Taiwan?

question: When do dialects use entering tones according to traditional reckoning?
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: question: The Amoy dialect is a hybrid of what two dialects?
answers: text: Quanzhou and Zhangzhou

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

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

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

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

question: What is the Malay dialect a hybrid of?

question: What are the differences between Taiwanese and Chinese dialects?

question: What area is Teochew spoken, that also has loanwords from Malay?

question: Contact with China has lead to loanwords in what dialect?

question: What is Hokkien in northern Taiwan based on?
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: question: In Hokkien dialects, the arrangent of words is important to what?
answers: text: meaning

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: subject–verb–object

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

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

question: How are synthetic languages analytic?

question: What pattern do basic concept languages follow?

question: How do grammatical particles violate the usual pattern?

question: What is added to a sentence to specify plural by inflection?

question: With aspect markers, what is word arrangement important to?
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: question: What are literary and colloquial readings called?
answers: text: tha̍k-im

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

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

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

question: What is another term for philosophical concepts that are prominent in Hokkien dialects as well as Sinitic varieties? 

question: What are Sinitic and philosophical concepts called?

question: To what standard are Hokken dialects similar to?

question: What is a prominent feature of the Tang standard and also in Sinitic varieties?

question: What are the bulk of surnames based on?
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: question: Colloquial stratum can be traced to several strata in what lexicon?
answers: text: Min

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

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

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

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

question: In what era did the earliest divergence between literary pronunciations begin?

question: When did the second prestige dialect appear?

question: During the Tang Dynasty, in what year did the earliest stratum appear?

question: What lexicon can the prestige dialect be traced to?

question: What period does the earliest Min Lexicon come from?
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: question: Where did the language of Min and Wu dialects originate?
answers: text: in the state of Wu

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

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

question: What location did the language of Mandarin Chinese originate?

question: What state was not founded by Hokkien?

question: What is one thing that has happened to the Old Chinese counterparts?

question: What changes have happened to Wu compared to Mandarin?

question: Many lexical meaning words have stayed the same in Hokkien but not in what language?
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: question: Where did Hokkein originate?
answers: text: Quanzhou

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

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

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

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

question: After the 1940's and 1950's Opium War, what became a major treaty port?

question: What did Zhangzhou slowly develop into?

question: In the 1940's and 1950's what did Quanzhou use as its standard dialect?

question: In what year was South-East Asia war?

question: Where did Taiwan originate from?
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: question: When did Taiwanese Hokkien have a fast change in development?
answers: text: In the 1990s

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

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

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

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

question: When did Tai-lo develop at a fast pace?

question: In what year did Taiwan begin teaching poetry in Taiwanese schools?

question: When did Xiamen become compulsory in schools?

question: Who offers poetry or literature courses for training Hokkien-fluent talents?

question: Where was Tai-lo extended to in 2001?
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: question: Hokkien is usually written using what characters?
answers: text: Chinese

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

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

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

question: What percentage of written Chinese lacks a standard Chinese character?

question: How is Cantonese usually written?

question: What is used for Mandarin but doesn't correspond to Taiwanese words?

question: What is written Cantonese based on?

question: What is adapted to the spoken form of Chinese?
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: question: Most Hokkein morphemes have what type of characters?
answers: text: standard designated

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

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

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

question: What are borrowed in Taiwanese to represent a certain morpheme?

question: What do some literary readings have to represent Hokkien words?

question: What type of characters do most colloquial mophemes have?

question: What characteristic do personal pronouns not always have?

question: What are invented to represent a multiple and unrelated pronunciation?
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: question: Hokkien is sometimes written in what script?
answers: text: Latin

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

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

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

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

question: What is the traditional Latin alphabet called?

question: Who first developed a mixed script of Han characters?

question: What is another name for Latin script?

question: How long has the mixed script been actively used?

question: What is written in the simplified Chinese script using one of several alphabets?
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: question: When can Min Nan texts be dated back to?
answers: text: the 16th century

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

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

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

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

question: Who has developed an alphabet based on Pumindian?

question: Where has the alphabet based on the Ming Dynasty script been published?

question: What is an example of the Pumindian texts?

question: After 1587 who wrote the Pumindian?

question: When was the play Minnan Fangyan-Putonghua Cidian written?
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: question: What is another name for unicode?
answers: text: the corresponding ISO/IEC 10646: Universal Character Set

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

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

question: What is another term for interpunct?

question: What was not encoded before 1997?

question: Before June 2004, what proposal has been made to the ISO/IEC?

question: What can all vowels required by POJ be represented by?

question: What is expected to follow using diacritics?
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: question: What party wanted to make Taiwanese a second official language?
answers: text: Taiwan Solidarity Union

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

question: How was the proposal taken from mainland and aboriginal groups?
answers: text: This proposal encountered strong opposition

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

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

question: What did Mainlander groups suggest in 2002?

question: How many seats in the legislature did Taiwanese aboriginal groups have in 2002?

question: What groups suggested making Taiwanese a second official language?

question: What would increase according to Taiwan independence supporters who strongly opposed the proposal?

question: What happened to the proposal about the Legislative Yuan seats?
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.