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Concept
Hokkien
Summary
The Hokkien (ˈhɒkiɛn) is a variety of Chinese language. It is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. In Chinese linguistics, these languages are known by their classification under the Quanzhang division () of Min Nan, which comes from the first characters of the two main Hokkien urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.
Hokkien (Taiwanese) is one of the national languages in Taiwan, and it is also widely spoken within the overseas Chinese diaspora in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Thailand, Brunei and across the world. The mutually intelligibility between Hokkien dialects varies, but they are still held together by ethnolinguistic identity.
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. 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.
Chinese speakers of the Quanzhang variety of Southern Min refer to the mainstream Southern Min language as
Bân-lâm-gú / Bân-lâm-ōe (, literally 'Southern Min Language/Speech') in China and Taiwan.
Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú (臺語, literally 'Taiwanese Language') or Ho̍h-ló-ōe / Hô-ló-ōe (福佬話, literally 'Hoklo Speech') in Taiwan.
Lán-nâng-ōe / Lán-lâng-ōe / Nán-nâng-ōe (咱人話 / 咱儂話, literally 'Our People's Speech') in the Philippines.
Hok-kiàn-ōe / Hok-kiàn-ōa (福建話, literally 'Hokkien Speech') in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.
Official source
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