Eastern Min


Eastern Min or Min Dong, is a branch of the Min group of Sinitic languages of China.
The prestige form and most-cited representative form is the Fuzhou dialect, the speech of the capital and largest city of Fujian.

Geographic distribution

Fujian and vicinity

Eastern Min varieties are mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province of the People's Republic of China, in and near the cities of Fuzhou and Ningde. They are also widely encountered as the mother tongue on the Matsu Islands controlled by the Republic of China. Additionally, the inhabitants of Taishun and Cangnan to the north of Fujian in Zhejiang also speak Eastern Min varieties. Eastern Min generally coexists with the official standard Chinese in all these areas.

United States

As the coastal area of Fujian has been the historical homeland of a large worldwide diaspora of overseas Chinese, varieties of Eastern Min can also be found across the world, especially in their respective Chinatowns. Cities with high concentrations of such immigrants include New York City, especially Little Fuzhou, Manhattan, Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens.

Europe

They are also found in various Chinatown communities in Europe, including London, Paris and Prato in Italy.

Japan and Malaysia

Chinese communities within Ikebukuro, Tokyo as well as Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia have significant populations of Eastern Min speakers. Fuzhou communities can also be found in Sitiawan, Perak and Yong Peng, Johor in West Malaysia.

Classification

Branches

Eastern Min is conventionally divided into three branches:
  1. Houguan dialect group, also called the Southern subgroup, including the Fuzhou dialect, Fuqing dialect, Lianjiang dialect and the dialect of the Matsu Islands.
  2. Funing dialect group, also called the Northern subgroup, including the Ningde dialect and the Fu'an dialect.
  3. Manjiang dialect, spoken in parts of Taishun and Cangnan, Wenzhou, Zhejiang.
Besides these three branches, some dialect islands in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong were classified as Eastern Min.
Zhongshan Min is a group of Min varieties spoken in the Zhongshan county of Guangdong. According to Nicholas Bodman, only the Longdu dialect and Nanlang dialect belong to the Eastern Min group, while the Sanxiang dialect belongs to Southern Min.

Phonology

The Eastern Min group has a phonology which is particularly divergent from other varieties of Chinese. Aside from the Manjiang dialect, both Houguan and Funing groups are similar in the number of initials, with the Fu'an dialect having 17 initials, two more than the Fuzhou dialect, the additions being and or as separate phonemes. The Manjiang dialect on the other hand has been influenced by the Wu dialects of Zhejiang, and hence has significantly more initials than the varieties of Fujian.
The finals vary significantly between varieties, with the extremes being represented by Manjiang dialects at a low of 39 separate finals, and the Ningde dialect representing the high at 69 finals.
Eastern Min varieties generally have seven tones, by the traditional count. In the middle of the Qing dynasty, eight tones were attested, but the historical rising tones re-merged.
Dark level 陰平Light level 陽平Rising 上聲Dark departing 陰去Light departing 陽去Dark entering 陰入Light entering 陽入
Fuzhou
福州話		 44 53 31 213 242 23 5
Fu'an
福安話		 332 22 42 21 324 2 5
Ningde
寧德話		 44 11 42 35 52 4 5
Fuding
福鼎話		 445 212 55 53 22 5 23
Taishun, Zhejiang
泰順		 213 33 455 53 42 5 43
Qianku, Cangnan, Zhejiang
蒼南錢庫蠻講		 44 214 45 41 21 5 21
Miaojiaqiao, Cangnan, Zhejiang
蒼南繆家橋蠻講		 33 213 45 41 11 5 1

Sandhi phenomena

The Eastern Min varieties have a wide of range of sandhi phenomena. As well as tone sandhi, common to many varieties of Chinese, there is also the assimilation of consonants and vowel alternations.
Tone sandhi across Eastern Min varieties can be regressive, progressive or mutual. The rules are generally quite complicated.
Initial assimilation of consonants is usually progressive, and may create new phonemes that are not phonemically contrastive in initial position but do contrast in medial position. A few varieties exhibit regressive assimilation too.