Datian Min

Datian Min (simplified Chinese: 大田闽语; traditional Chinese: 大田閩語; pinyin: Dàtián Mǐnyǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-chhân bân-gú) or Datian dialect (simplified Chinese: 大田话; traditional Chinese: 大田話; pinyin: Dàtián Huà) is a variety of Min Chinese which is spoken in Datian County, Sanming Prefecture, Fujian Province, China. It is a variety of Greater Southern Min which influenced by other Min Chinese, including Central Min, Eastern Min, Northern Min and Puxian Min.

Datian Min developed from Hokkien, a dialect of Southern Min. Before the year 1535, this area belonged to four counties: Youxi, Dehua, Yong'an and Zhangping. Hokkien was spoken in Dehua and Zhangping, while Yong'an and Youxi spoke Central Min and Eastern Min respectively. Datian County was set up and affiliated to Yanping Fu (延平府, mordern Nanping) which spoke Northern Min in 1535. Language contact occurred in the later days. The county changed affiliate to Yongchun Zhou (永春州, mordern Yongchun County, spoke Hokkien dialect) in 1734, then to Yong'an Division (永安专区, mordern Sanming Prefecture, spoke Central Min) in 1949. The administrative here changed so frequently that the differences between Datian Min and Hokkien dialect became more and more obvious.

Datian Min has low intelligibility with other varieties of Southern Min, and is sometimes classified as a separate branch of Min. Some Chinese scholars call it Min dialects transition area (闽方言过渡区).