Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Pu Xian Min

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Native speakers
  
2.6 million (2000)

Dialects
  
Putian Xianyou

Pu-Xian Min

Native to
  
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan (Wuqiu), United States (California)

Region
  
Fujian (Putian, Xianyou; part of Fuzhou and Quanzhou)

Ethnicity
  
Putianese (Han Chinese)

Language family
  
Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Coastal Min Puxian

Puxian (Hinghwa Romanized: Pó-sing-gṳ̂/莆仙語; simplified Chinese: 莆仙话; traditional Chinese: 莆仙話; pinyin: Púxiān huà), also known as Pu-Xian Chinese, Puxian Min, Xinghua or Hinghwa (Hing-hua̍-gṳ̂/興化語; simplified Chinese: 兴化语; traditional Chinese: 興化語; pinyin: Xīnghuà yǔ), is a branch of Min Chinese.

Contents

Puxian is spoken mostly in Fujian province, particularly in Putian city and Xianyou County (after which it is named), parts of Fuzhou, and parts of Quanzhou. It is also widely used as the mother tongue in Wuqiu Township, Kinmen County, Taiwan. More than 2000 people in Shacheng, Fuding in northern Fujian also speak Puxian. There are minor differences between the dialects of Putian and Xianyou.

Overseas populations of Puxian speakers exist in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Speakers of Puxian are also known as Henghua, Hinghua, or Xinghua.

History

Before the year 979 AD, the Puxian region was part of Quanzhou county and people there spoke a form of Southern Min. due to its origin in the past.

In 979 AD, during the Song Dynasty, the region was administratively separated from Quanzhou and the Chinese spoken there developed separately from the rest of Southern Min. Due to its proximity with Fuzhou, it absorbed some elements of Eastern Min, but its basic linguistic characteristic i.e. grammar and most vocabulary is based on Quanzhou dialect.

Puxian Min has 62% cognates with Quanzhou dialect (Southern Min) and only 39% cognates with Fuzhou dialect (Eastern Min).

Differences with Southern Min dialects

Puxian differs from most Southern Min varieties in several ways:

  • The vowel 'a' is replaced by /ɒ/ (o̤) in most cases, e.g. 腳 ko̤ "leg".
  • The vowel 'ư' /ɯ/ is replaced by /y/ ('ü'), e.g. 魚 hṳ "fish".
  • In Putian 'ng' has changed to /uŋ/ except after zero initial and h- (notation: ng), e.g. 湯 tung "soup".
  • The vowel /e/ is often replaced by /ɒ/ o̤, e.g. 馬 bo̤ "horse".
  • Where Quanzhou has 'ĩ' and Zhangzhou has 'ẽ', the corresponding Putian vowel is 'ã', e.g. 病 baⁿ "sick", where ⁿ indicates a nasalized vowel.
  • The vowel 'io' is replaced by 'iau' (notation: a̤u), e.g. 笑 ciao "laugh". This also holds for nasalized vowels, e.g. 張 da̤uⁿ corresponding to Quanzhou tioⁿ.
  • Nasals 'm' sometimes occur in place of voiced stops 'b', e.g. 夢 mang vs. Quanzhou bang.
  • Initial consonant 'ng' replaces 'g' e.g. 五 'ngo' vs. Quanzhou 'go'.
  • There is a loss of distinction between voiced and unvoiced stops, e.g. the sounds /b/ and /p/ both correspond to the same phoneme and occur in free variation.

    • Borrowings from Eastern Min

  • Wife 老媽 (Lau Ma)

    • Phonology

    Puxian has 15 consonants, including the zero onset, the same as most other Min varieties. Puxian has a lateral fricative [ɬ] instead of the [s] in other Min varieties.

    Puxian has 40 finals and 6 phonemic tones.

    Initials

  • β (only appears in connected speech. It's a result of consonant mutation of [p])

    • Finals

    Puxian Min has 39 finals.

    Assimilation

    新婦房　ɬiŋ pu paŋ　→　ɬiŋ mu βaŋ

    青草 tsʰɔŋ tsʰau　→　tsʰɔŋ nau

    Romanization

    Hing-hua̍ báⁿ-uā-ci̍ (興化平話字) is the Romanization system for Puxian Min. It has 23 letters: a a̤ b c ch d e e̤ g h i k l m n ng o o̤ p s t u ṳ.

    The Romanization only needs five tone marks for seven tones:

    陰平 Ing-báⁿ　(unmarked)

    陰上 Ing-siō̤ng　ˆ (â)

    陰去 Ing-kṳ̍　ˈ (a̍)

    陰入 Ing-ci̍h (unmarked)

    陽平 Ió̤ng-báⁿ　́ (á)

    陽去 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍　- (ā)

    陽入 Ió̤ng-ci̍h　ˈh (a̍h)　

    References

    Pu-Xian Min Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA