| Fuzhou dialect | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 福 州 話 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 福 州 话 | ||||||||||||||||
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| alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 平話 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 平话 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Fuzhou dialect | ||
|---|---|---|
| 福州話; Hók-ciŭ-uâ / 平話; Bàng-uâ | ||
| Spoken in | People's Republic of China (Fuzhou and its surrounding counties); Republic of China (Matsu Islands); Malaysia (Sibu, Miri, Sarikei, Bintulu, Yong Peng, Sitiawan and Ayer Tawar); Indonesia; Singapore; and some Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the west, particularly in the Chinatowns of New York and London. | |
| Total speakers | Less than ten million | |
| Language family | Sino-Tibetan | |
| Writing system | Chinese characters and Foochow Romanized | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | none; one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the Matsu Islands, Republic of China [1] | |
| Regulated by | No official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | zh | |
| ISO 639-2 | chi (B) | zho (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | cdo | |
 1: Fuzhou City Proper, 2: Minhou, 3: Fuqing, 4: Lianjiang, 5: Pingnan 6: Luoyuan, 7: Gutian, 8: Minqing, 9: Changle, 10: Yongtai, 11: Pingtan 12: Regions in 15: Regions in Nanping, 16: Regions in Youxi |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Fuzhou dialect (福州話, Foochow Romanized: 
Hók-ciŭ-uâ (help·info)), also known as Foochow dialect, Foochow, Foochowese, Fuzhounese, or Fuzhouhua, is considered the standard dialect of Min Dong, which is a branch of Min Chinese mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province. Native speakers also call it Bàng-uâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. In Singapore and Malaysia, the language is known as Hokchiu, which is the Min Dong pronunciation of Fuzhou.
Although traditionally called a dialect, Fuzhou dialect is actually a separate language according to linguistic standards, because it is not mutually intelligible with other Min languages, let alone other Chinese languages. Therefore, whether Fuzhou dialect is a dialect or a language is highly disputable.
Centered in Fuzhou City, Fuzhou dialect mainly covers eleven cities and counties, viz.: Fuzhou (福州), Pingnan (屏南), Gutian (古田), Luoyuan (羅源), Minqing (閩清), Lianjiang (連江, Matsu included), Minhou (閩侯), Changle (長樂), Yongtai (永泰), Fuqing (福清) and Pingtan (平潭). Fuzhou dialect is also the second local language in northern and middle Fujian cities and counties, like Nanping (南平), Shaowu (邵武), Shunchang (順昌), Sanming (三明) and Youxi (尤溪).
Fuzhou dialect is also widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The city of Sibu in Malaysia is called "New Fuzhou" due to the influx of immigrants there in the early 1900s. Similarly, the language has spread to the USA, UK and Japan as a result of immigration in recent decades.
Contents |
History
Formation
After Han China's occupation of Minyue (閩越) in 110 BC, Han people began populating in what is Fujian Province today. Having lost their nationalities, the aboriginal Minyue people, a branch of Yue peoples (百越), were gradually assimilated into Chinese culture.[1] The Ancient Wu and Ancient Chu language brought by the mass influx of Han immigrants from Northern area gradually mixed with the local Minyue language and finally developed into the Ancient Min language, from which Fuzhou dialect evolved.[2]
Fuzhou dialect came into being during the period somewhere between late Tang Dynasty and "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms"[3], and has been considered by most as a Chinese dialect ever since. However, it is also worth noting that its substratum is constituted by large quantities of well-preserved Minyue vocabulary. In this sense, Fuzhou dialect is a de facto mixed language of Ancient Chinese and Minyue language.[citation needed]
The famous book Qī Lín Bāyīn (戚林八音, Foochow Romanized: Chék Lìng Báik-ĭng), which was compiled in the 17th century, is the first and the most full-scale rime book that provides a systematic guide to character reading for people speaking or learning Fuzhou dialect. It once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Chinese phonology.
Studies by Western missionaries
In 1842, Fuzhou was open to Westerners as a treaty port after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. But due to the language barrier, however, the first Christian missionary base in this city did not take place without difficulties. In order to convert Fuzhou people, those missionaries found it very necessary to make a careful study of the Fuzhou dialect. Their most notable works are listed below:[4]
-
- 1856, M. C. White: The Chinese language spoken at Fuh Chau
- 1870, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin: An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect
- 1871, C. C. Baldwin: Manual of the Foochow dialect
- 1891, T. B. Adam: An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect
- 1893, Charles Hartwell: Three Character Classic of Gospel in the Foochow Colloquial
- 1898, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin: An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition
- 1905, T. B. Adam: An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition
- 1906, The Foochow translation of the complete Bible ([2], [3])
- 1923, T. B. Adam & L. P. Peet: An English-Chinese dictionary of the Foochow dialect, 2nd edition
- 1929, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin (revised and enlarged by S. H. Leger): Dictionary of the Foochow dialect
Studies by Japanese scholars
During the Second World War, some Japanese scholars became passionate about studying Fuzhou dialect, believing that it could be beneficial to the rule of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. One of their most famous works was the Japanese-Chinese Translation: Fuzhou Dialect (日華對譯 福州語) published in Taipei 1940, in which the katakana is used to represent Foochow pronunciation. However, Foochow kana is awkward because Fuzhou dialect is phonologically much too different from Japanese: for example, a cumbersome combination of three kana "ユウイ" was invented to approximate a simple vowel /y/.
Status quo
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Fuzhou society had been largely monolingual. But for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the colloquial in school education and in media, so the number of Mandarin speakers has been greatly boosted. It is reported that merely less than half of the children and youngsters in Fuzhou are able to speak this language.[5]
Nevertheless, it should be noted that Fuzhou dialect is currently widely spoken among some native speakers as an "endearing" language. Speaking Fuzhou dialect in Fuzhou often allows mutual speakers a certain level of familiarity. Even though Mandarin Chinese is more often heard in casual conversations on the city streets, the careful observer will notice that in more communal settings, such as small neighborhoods in the city or the surrounding countryside, Fuzhou dialect is often the dominant language.
In Mainland China, Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage[6] and its promotion work is being systematically carried out. In Matsu, Taiwan, the teaching of Fuzhou dialect has been successfully introduced into elementary schools, alongside the Taiwanese localization movement.
Grammar
- This section is about Standard Fuzhou dialect only. See Regional variations for a discussion of other dialects.
Phonetics
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. |
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Phonetically, Fuzhou dialect is a tonal language, which has extremely extensive sandhi rules in the initials, rimes, and the tones. These over-complicated rules make Fuzhou dialect one of the most difficult Chinese languages.[7]
Tones
There are seven original tones in Fuzhou dialect, which preserve most of the tonal classes of Ancient Chinese:
| Name | Tone contour | Description | Example |
| Ĭng-bìng (陰平) | ˥˥ | high level | 君 |
| Siōng-siăng (上聲) | ˧˧ | middle level | 滾 |
| Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去) | ˨˩˧ | low falling and rising | 貢 |
| Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) | ˨˦ | middle rising stopped | 谷 |
| Iòng-bìng (陽平) | ˥˧ | high falling | 群 |
| Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去) | ˨˦˨ | middle rising and falling | 郡 |
| Iòng-ĭk (陽入) | ˥ | high level stopped | 掘 |
The sample characters are taken from the Qī Lín Bāyīn.
In Qī Lín Bāyīn, the Fuzhou dialect is described as having eight tones, which explains how the book got its title (Bāyīn means "eight tones"). That name, however, is somewhat misleading, because Ĭng-siōng (陰上) and Iòng-siōng (陽上) are identical in tone contour; therefore, only seven tones exist.
Ĭng-ĭk and Iòng-ĭk (or so-called entering tonal) characters are ended with either velar stop [k] or Glottal stop [ʔ].
Besides those seven tones listed above, two new tonal values, "˨˩" (Buáng-ĭng-ké̤ṳ, 半陰去) and ˧˥ (Buáng-iòng-ké̤ṳ, 半陽去) occur in connected speech (see Tonal sandhi below).
Tonal sandhi
The rules of tonal sandhi (連讀變調) in Fuzhou dialect are complicated, even compared with those of other Chinese dialects. When two or more than two characters combine into a word, the tonal value of the last character remains stable but those of its preceding characters change in most cases. For example, "獨", "立" and "日" are characters of Iòng-ĭk (陽入) with the same tonal value ˥, and are pronounced [tuʔ˥], [liʔ˥], and [niʔ˥], respectively. When combined together as the phrase "獨立日" (Independence Day), "獨" changes its tonal value to ˨˩, and "立" changes its to ˧˧, therefore the pronunciation as a whole is [tuʔ˨˩ liʔ˧ niʔ˥].
The two-character tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below:
| Ĭng-bìng (陰平 ˥˥) |
Iòng-bìng (陽平 ˥˧) |
Shǎngshēng (上聲 ˧˧) |
Ĭng-ĭk (陰去 ˨˩˧) |
|
|
Ĭng-bìng (陰平 ˥˥) |
|
|
|
|
|
Iòng-bìng (陽平 ˥˧) |
|
|
|
|
|
Siōng-siăng (上聲 ˧˧) |
|
|
|
|
Ĭng-ĭk-gák (陰入甲) are Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) characters with glottal stop and Ĭng-ĭk-ék (陰入乙) with /k/.
However, the tonal sandhi rules of more than two characters are much more complicated than can be conveniently displayed in a single table.
Initials
There are seventeen initials in all:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ (蒙) | /n/ (日) | /ŋ/ (語) | |||
| Plosive | aspiration | /pʰ/ (波) | /tʰ/ (他) | /kʰ/ (氣) | ||
| plain | /p/ (邊) | /t/ (低) | /k/ (求) | /ʔ/ (鶯) | ||
| Fricative | /β/ | /s/ (時) | /ʒ/ | /h/ (喜) | ||
| Affricate | aspiration | /tsʰ/ (出) | ||||
| plain | /ts/ (曾) | |||||
| Lateral | /l/ (柳) | |||||
The Chinese characters in the brackets are also sample characters from Qī Lín Bāyīn.
Most Chinese linguists argue that Fuzhou dialect should be described as possessing a null onset. In fact, any character that has a null onset begins with a glottal stop [ʔ].
Some speakers find it difficult to distinguish between the initials /n/ and /l/].
No such labiodental phonemes as /f/ or /v/ exist in Fuzhou dialect, which is one of the most conspicuous characteristics shared by all branches in the Min Family, as well as Korean and Japanese.
[β] and [ʒ] exist in connected speech (see Initial assimilation below) only.
Initial assimilation
In Fuzhou dialect, there are various kinds of initial assimilation (聲母類化), all of which are progressive. When two or more than two characters combine into a word, the initial of the first character stays unchanged while those of the following characters, in most cases, change to match its preceding phoneme, i.e., the coda of its preceding character.
| The Coda of the Former Character | The Initial Assimilation of the Latter Character |
| Null coda or /-ʔ/ |
|
| /-ŋ/ |
/p/ and /pʰ/ change to [m];
|
| /-k/ | Any initials remain unchanged. |
Rimes
The table below shows the eleven vowel phonemes of Fuzhou dialect.
| front | back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||
| Close | /i/ | /y/ | /u/ |
| Close-mid | /e/ | /ø/ | /o/ |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ | /œ/ | /ɔ/ |
| Open | /a/ | /ɑ/ | |
In Fuzhou dialect codas /-m/, /-n/, and /-ŋ/ have all merged as /-ŋ/; and /-p/, /-t/, /-k/ have all merged as /-ʔ/. Eleven vowel phonemes, together with the codas /-ŋ/ and /-ʔ/, are organized into forty-six rimes.
| Simple Vowels | /a, ɑ/ (蝦, 罷) | /ɛ, a/ (街, 細) | /œ, ɔ/ (驢, 告) | /o, ɔ/ (哥, 抱) | /i, ɛi/ (喜, 氣) | /u, ou/ (苦, 怒) | /y, øy/ (豬, 箸) | ||||||||
| Compound Vowels | /ia, iɑ/ (寫, 夜) | /ie, iɛ/ (雞, 毅) | /iu, ieu/ (秋, 笑) | /ua, uɑ/ (花, 話) | /uo, uɔ/ (科, 課) | /yo, yɔ/ (橋, 銳) | /ai, ɑi/ (紙, 再) | /au, ɑu/ (郊, 校) | /ɛu, ɑu/ (溝, 構) | /øy, ɔy/ (催, 罪) | /uai, uɑi/ (我, 怪) | /ui, uoi/ (杯, 歲) | |||
| Nasal Coda /-ŋ/ | /aŋ, ɑŋ/ (三, 汗) | /iŋ, ɛiŋ/ (人, 任) | /uŋ, ouŋ/ (春, 鳳) | /yŋ, øyŋ/ (銀, 頌) | /iaŋ, iɑŋ/ (驚, 命) | /ieŋ, iɛŋ/ (天, 見) | /uaŋ, uɑŋ/ (歡, 換) | /uoŋ, uɔŋ/ (王, 象) | /yoŋ, yɔŋ/ (鄉, 樣) | /eiŋ, ɑiŋ/ (恒, 硬) | /ouŋ, ɔuŋ/ (湯, 寸) | /øyŋ, ɔyŋ/ (桶, 洞) | |||
| Glottal Coda /-ʔ/ | /aʔ, ɑʔ/ (盒, 鴨) | /øʔ, œʔ/ (扔, 嗝) | /eʔ, ɛʔ/ (漬, 咩) | /oʔ, ɔʔ/ (樂, 閣) | /iʔ, ɛiʔ/ (力, 乙) | /uʔ, ouʔ/ (勿, 福) | /yʔ, øyʔ/ (肉, 竹) | /iaʔ, iɑʔ/ (擲, 察) | /ieʔ, iɛʔ/ (熱, 鐵) | /uaʔ, uɑʔ/ (活, 法) | /uoʔ, uɔʔ/ (月, 郭) | /yoʔ, yɔʔ/ (藥, 弱) | /eiʔ, ɑiʔ/ (賊, 黑) | /ouʔ, ɔuʔ/ (學, 骨) | /øyʔ, ɔyʔ/ (讀, 角) |
As has been mentioned above, there are theoretically two different entering tonal codas in Fuzhou dialect: /-k/ and /-ʔ/. But for most Fuzhou dialect speakers, those two codas are only distinguishable when in the tonal sandhi or initial assimilation. Therefore, most Chinese linguists think that the codas /-k/ and /-ʔ/ has merged together.
Close/Open rimes
All rimes come in pairs in the above table: the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the other represents an open rime (鬆韻). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones. As single characters, the tones of Ĭng-bìng (陰平), Siōng-siăng (上聲), Iòng-bìng (陽平) and Iòng-ĭk (陽入) have close rimes while Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去), Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) and Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去) have the open rimes. In connected speech, an open rime shifts to its close counterpart in the tonal sandhi.
For instance, "福" (hók) is a Ĭng-ĭk character and is pronounced [houʔ˨˦] and "州" (ciŭ) a Ĭng-bìng character with the pronunciation of [tsiu˥]. When these two characters combine into the word "福州" (Hók-ciŭ, Fuzhou), "福" changes its tonal value from ˨˦ to ˨˩ and, simultaneously, shifts its rime from [-ouʔ] to [-uʔ], so the phrase is pronounced [huʔ˨˩ tsiu˥]. While in the word "中國" [tyŋ˥˧ kuɔʔ˨˦] (Dṳ̆ng-guók, China), "中" is a Ĭng-bìng character and therefore its close rime never changes, though it does change its tonal value from ˥˥ to ˥˧ in the tonal sandhi.
The phenomenon of close/open rimes is unique to Fuzhou dialect and this feature makes it especially intricate and hardly intelligible even to other Min languages.
Phonological features
Vocabulary
Most words in Fuzhou dialect have cognates in other Chinese languages, so a non-Fuzhou speaker would find it much easier to understand Fuzhou dialect written in Chinese characters than spoken in conversation. But it should also be noted, however, that false friends do exist: for example, "莫細膩" (mŏ̤h sá̤-nê) means "don't be too polite" or "make yourself at home", "我對手汝洗碗" (nguāi dó̤i-chiū nṳ̄ sā̤ uāng) means "I help you wash dishes", "伊共伊老媽嚟冤家" (ĭ gâe̤ng ĭ lâu-mā lā̤ uŏng-gă) means "he and his wife are quarreling (with each other)", etc. Mere knowledge of Mandarin vocabulary does not help one catch the meaning of these sentences.
The majority of Fuzhou dialect vocabulary dates back to more than 1,200 years ago. Some daily-used words are even preserved as they were in the Tang Dynasty, which can be illustrated by a poem of a famous Chinese poet Gu Kuang (顧況).[8] In his poem Jiǎn (囝), Gu Kuang explicitly noted:
囝，音蹇。閩俗呼子為囝，父為郎罷。
"囝 is pronounced as 蹇. In Fujian vernacular son is called 囝, and father 郎罷."
In Fuzhou dialect, "囝" (giāng) and "郎罷" (nòng-mâ) are still in use today, without any slightest change.
Words from Ancient Chinese
Quite a few words from Ancient Chinese (mainly Ancient Wu and Ancient Chu) have retained the original meanings for thousands of years, while their counterparts in Mandarin Chinese have either fallen out of daily use or varied to different meanings.
This table shows some Fuzhou dialect words from Classical Chinese, as contrasted to Mandarin Chinese:
| Meaning | Fuzhou dialect | Foochow Romanized | Mandarin | Pinyin |
| eye | 目睭/目珠 | mĕ̤k-ciŭ [møyʔ˥ tsiu˥] | 眼睛 | yǎnjīng |
| you | 汝 | nṳ̄ [ny˧] | 你 | nǐ |
| chopstick | 箸 | dê̤ṳ [tøy˨˦˨] | 筷子 | kuàizi |
| to chase | 逐 | dṳ̆k ([tyʔ˥]) | 追 | zhuī |
| to look, to watch | 覷 | ché̤ṳ [tsʰøy˨˩˧] | 看1 | kàn |
| wet | 潤 | nóng [nouŋ˨˩˧] | 濕 | shī |
| black | 烏 | ŭ ([u˥]) | 黑 | hēi |
| to feed | 豢 | huáng [huɑŋ˨˩˧] | 養² | yǎng |
- 1 "看" (káng) is also used as the verb "to look" in Fuzhou dialect.
- 2 "養" (iōng) in Fuzhou dialect means "give birth to (a child)".
And this table shows some words that are both used in Fuzhou dialect and Mandarin Chinese, while the meanings in Mandarin Chinese have altered:
| Word | Foochow Romanized | Meaning in Classical Chinese and Fuzhou dialect | Pinyin | Meaning in Mandarin |
| 走 | cāu [tsau˧] | to flee | zǒu | to walk |
| 細 | sá̤ [sɑ˨˩˧] | tiny, small, young | xì | thin, slender |
| 湯 | tŏng [tʰouŋ˥] | hot water | tāng | soup |
| 說 | suók/siók [suɔʔ˨˦] | to explain, to clarify | shuō | to speak, to talk |
| 懸 | gèng [keiŋ˥˧] | tall, high | xuán | to hang, to suspend (v.) |
| 喙 | chói [tsʰui˨˩˧] | mouth | huì | beak |
Words from Minyue language
Some daily used words, shared by all Min languages, came from the ancient Minyue language. Such as follows:
| Word | Foochow Romanized | Min Nan / Taiwanese POJ | Meaning |
| 骹 | kă ([kʰa˥]) | kha ([kʰa˥]) | foot and leg |
| 囝 | giāng [kiaŋ˧] | kiáⁿ ([kiã˥˩]) | son, child, whelp, a small amount |
| 睏 | káung [kʰɑuŋ˧] | khùn [kʰun˨˩] | to sleep |
| 骿 | piăng [pʰiaŋ˥] | phiaⁿ [pʰiã˥] | back, dorsum |
| 儂 | nè̤ng [nøyŋ˥˧] | lâng [laŋ˨˦] | human |
| 厝 | chuó/chió [tsʰuɔ˥˧] | chhù [tsʰu˨˩] | home, house |
| 刣 | tài [tʰai˥˧] | thâi [tʰai˨˦] | to kill, to slaughter |
| 徛 | kiê/kiâ [kʰiɛ˨˦˨, kʰiɑ˨˦˨] | khiā [kʰia˧] | to stand |
| 歞 | ngâung [ŋɑuŋ˨˦˨] | gōng [goŋ˧] | stupidity, idiocy |
| 伓 | ng [ŋ] | m [m] | not (negative prefix, never used separately) |
The literary and colloquial readings
The literary and colloquial readings (文白異讀) is a feature commonly found in all Chinese dialects throughout China. The literary readings (文讀) are mainly used in formal phrases and written language, while the colloquial ones (白讀) are basically used in vulgar phrases and spoken language.
This table displays some widely used characters in Fuzhou dialect which have both literary and colloquial readings:
| Character | Literary reading | Phrase | Meaning | Colloquial reading | Phrase | Meaning |
| 行 | hèng [heiŋ˥˧] | 行李 hèng-lī | luggage | giàng [kiaŋ˥˧] | 行墿 giàng-duô | to walk |
| 生 | sĕng [seiŋ˥] | 生態 sĕng-tái | zoology, ecology | săng [saŋ˥] | 生囝 săng-giāng | childbearing |
| 江 | gŏng [kouŋ˥] | 江蘇 Gŏng-sŭ | Jiangsu | gĕ̤ng [køyŋ˥] | 閩江 Mìng-gĕ̤ng | Min River |
| 百 | báik [pɑiʔ˨˦] | 百科 báik-kuŏ | encyclopedical | báh [pɑʔ˨˦] | 百姓 báh-sáng | common people |
| 飛 | hĭ [hi˥] | 飛機 hĭ-gĭ | aeroplane | buŏi [pui˥] | 飛鳥 buŏi-cēu | flying birds |
| 寒 | hàng [haŋ˥˧] | 寒食 Hàng-sĭk | Cold Food Festival | gàng [kaŋ˥˧] | 天寒 tiĕng gàng | cold, freezing |
| 廈 | hâ [hɑ˨˦˨] | 大廈 dâi-hâ | mansion | â [ɑ˨˦˨] | 廈門 Â-muòng | Amoy (Xiamen) |
Loan words from English
The First Opium War, also known as the First Anglo-Chinese War, was ended in 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, which forced the Qing government to open Fuzhou to all British traders and missionaries. Since then, quite a number of churches and Western-style schools have been established. Consequently, some English words came into Fuzhou dialect, but without fixed written forms in Chinese characters. The most frequently used words are listed below:[9]
- kŏk, [khouʔ˥], noun, meaning "an article of dress", is from the word "coat";
- nă̤h, [nɛʔ˥], noun, meaning "a meshwork barrier in tennis or badminton", is from the word "net";
- pèng, [pheiŋ˥˧], noun, meaning "oil paint", is from the word "paint";
- pĕng-giāng, [pheiŋ˥˧ ŋiaŋ˧, noun, meaning "a small sum of money", is from the word "penny";
- tă̤h, [thɛʔ˥], noun, meaning "money", is from the word "take";
- gă̤-lō̤, [kɛ˥˧ lo˧], noun, meaning "girl" in a humorous way, is from the word "girl";
- sò̤, [so˥˧], verb, meaning "to shoot (a basket)", is from the word "shoot";
- ă-gì, [a˥ ki˥˧], verb, meaning "to pause (usually a game)", is from the word "again".
- Mā-lăk-gă, [ma˨˩ laʔ˥ ka˥], meaning "Southeastern Asian (esp. Singapore and Malaysia)", is from the word "Malacca".
Other features of Fuzhou dialect grammar
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Examples
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Some common phrases in Fuzhou dialect:
- Fuzhou dialect: 福州話 Hók-ciŭ-uâ [huʔ˨˩ tsiu˥˧ uɑ˨˦˨](
listen) - Hello: 汝好 Nṳ̄ hō̤ [ny˧ ho˧]
- Good-bye: 再見 Cái-giéng [tsai˥˧ kiɛŋ˨˩˧]
- Please: 請 Chiāng [tshiaŋ˧]; 起動 Kī-dâe̤ng [khi˥ lɔyŋ˨˦˨]
- Thank you: 謝謝 Siâ-siâ [sia˥˧ liɑ˨˦˨]; 起動 Kī-dâe̤ng [khi˥ lɔyŋ˨˦˨]
- Sorry: 對不住 Dó̤i-bók-cê̤ṳ [tøy˨˩ puʔ˥ tsøy˨˦˨]
- This: 嚽 Cuòi [tsui˥˧]; 啫 Ciā [tsia˧]; 茲 Cī [tsi˧]
- That: 噲 Huòi [hui˥˧]; 嘻 Hiā [hia˧]; 許 Hī [hi˧]
- How much?: 偌 Nuâi (niŏh-uâi) [nuai˨˦˨] ([nuoʔ˨˩ uɑi˨˦˨])
- Yes: 正是 Ciáng-sê [tsiaŋ˥˧ nɛi˨˦˨]; 無綻 Mò̤ dâng [mo˨˩ lɑŋ˨˦˨]; 著 Diŏh (Duŏh) [tyoʔ˥] ([tuoʔ˥])
- No: 伓是 Ng-sê [ŋ˥˧ nɛi˨˦˨]; 綻 Dâng [tɑŋ˨˦˨]; 賣著 Mâ̤ diŏh (Mâ̤ duŏh) [me˥ tyoʔ˥] ([me˥ tuoʔ˥])
- I don't understand: 我賣會意 Nguāi mâ̤ huôi-é [ŋuai˧ me˨˩ hui˥˧ ɛi˨˩˧]
- What's his name?: Ĭ miàng sié-nó̤h? [i˥ miaŋ˥˧ sie˨˩ nɔʔ˨˦]
- Where's the hotel?: 賓館洽底所？ Bĭng-guāng găk diē-nē̤? [piŋ˥˧ kuaŋ˧ kaʔ˥ tie˨˦ nœ˧]
- How can I go to the school?: 去學校怎樣行？ Kó̤ hăk-hâu cuōng-iông giàng? [kho˥˧ haʔ˨˩ hɑu˨˦˨ tsuoŋ˥ yɔŋ˨˦˨ kiaŋ˥˧]
- Do you speak Fuzhou dialect?: 汝會講福州話賣？ Nṳ̄ â̤ gōng Hók-ciŭ-uâ mâ̤? [ny˧ e˥˧ kouŋ˧ huʔ˨˩ tsiu˥˧ uɑ˨˦˨ ma˨˦˨]
- Do you speak English?: 汝會講英語賣？ Nṳ̄ â̤ gōng Ĭng-ngṳ̄ mâ̤? [ny˧ e˥˧ kouŋ˧ iŋ˥˧ ŋy˧ ma˨˦˨]
Regional variations
Fuqing dialect
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Writing system
Chinese characters
Most of the characters of Fuzhou dialect stem from Ancient Chinese and can therefore be written in Chinese characters. Many books published in Qing Dynasty have been written in this traditional way, such as the famous Mǐndū Biéjì (閩都別記, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dŭ Biék-gé). However, Chinese characters as the writing system for Fuzhou dialect do have many shortcomings.
Firstly, a great number of characters are unique to Fuzhou dialect, so that they can only be written in informal ways. For instance, the character "mâ̤", a negative word, has no common form. Some write it as "賣" or "袂", both of which share with it an identical pronunciation but has a totally irrelevant meaning; and others prefer to use a newly-created character combining "勿" and "會", but this character is not included in most fonts.
Secondly, Fuzhou dialect has been excluded from the educational system for many decades. As a result, many if not all take for granted that Fuzhou dialect does not have a formal writing system and when they have to write it, they tend to misuse characters with a similar Mandarin Chinese enunciation. For example, "會使 (â̤ sāi)", meaning "okay", are frequently written as "阿塞" because they are uttered almost in the same way.
Foochow Romanized
Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (平話字, BUC for short) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (福州話羅馬字), is a romanized orthography for Fuzhou dialect adopted in the middle of 19th century by American and English missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized several decades later. Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of Church circles, and was taught in some Mission Schools in Fuzhou.[10]
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Mǐnqiāng Kuàizì
Mǐnqiāng Kuàizì (閩腔快字, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-kiŏng Kuái-cê), literally meaning "Fujian Colloquial Fast Characters", is a Qieyin System (切音系統) for Fuzhou dialect designed by Chinese scholar and calligrapher Li Jiesan (力捷三) in 1896.
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Literary and art forms
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See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fuzhou dialect |
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References
- ^ In Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, it is recorded that after the fall of Minyue, Emperor Wu of Han emptied its territory by ordering an exodus of the entire Minyue population to the area between the Yangtze and Huai River (武帝時，閩越反，滅之，徙其人於江淮閒，盡虛其地。).
- ^ Li Rulong, Liang Yuzhang: Fuzhou Dialect Records, 2001, ISBN 7-80597-361-X
- ^ Ditto.
- ^ Li, Zhuqing: A study of the "Qī Lín Bāyīn", University of Washington, 1993
- ^ Survey by Fuzhou Evening Paper Showing Less Than Half of Fuzhou Youth Able to Speak Fuzhou Dialect (Chinese)
- ^ Fuzhou Dialect Protected as Intangible Cultural Heritage (Chinese)
- ^ Yuan Jiahua: Summary of Chinese Dialects, 2nd Edition, 2003, ISBN 9787801264749
- ^ Zhao Rihe: Fuzhou Dialect Rhyme Dictionary, 1998, MRXN-1998-0465
- ^ Chen Zeping: Loan Words in Fuzhou dialect, Fujian Normal University, 1994
- ^ Template:Lang zh-tw (Chinese)
Books and other sources
- Cathryn Donohue: The tone-vowel interaction in Fuzhou revisited, University of Nevada, Reno
- Chen, Leo & Norman, Jerry: An Introduction to the Foochow Dialect, San Francisco State Coll., CA, 1965.
- Li Zhuqing: Fuzhou-English Dictionary, Dunwoody Press (1998).
- Li Zhuqing: Fuzhou Phonology and Grammar, Dunwoody Press (2002).
External links
- Fuzhou Dialect Textbook: Elementary school textbook in Matsu.
- Fuzhou dialect phonology, by James Campbell.
- An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect (1870) (download linkPDF (83 MB)), by R.S. Maclay and C.C. Baldwin.
- SĬNG GÔ IÓK CIÒNG CṲ̆: Bible in Foochow Romanized.
- An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect (download linkPDF (8.48 MB)), by T.B. Adam, 1905
- Foochow Audio Bible, New Testament
- Five Languages Translator
- Fuzhou Dialect Resources
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