Pu-Xian Min

Puxian
莆仙語/莆仙話/興化話
Pó-sing-gṳ̂/Pó-sing-uā/Hing-hua̍-uā
Native to China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan (Wuqiu), United States (California)
Region Fujian (Putian, Xianyou; part of Fuzhou and Quanzhou)
Ethnicity Putianese (Han Chinese)
Native speakers
 2.6 million  (2000)[1]
Chinese characters
Hinghwa Romanized(báⁿ-uā-ci̍)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 cpx
Glottolog puxi1243[2]

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Pu-Xian Min (yellow)
Bible in Hinghwa (Xinghua) Romanised (Genesis), published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

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.

Puxian is a word combination of two place names of Putian City (莆田市) and Xianyou County (仙游县).

It is spoken mostly in Fujian province, particularly in Putian and Xianyou, parts of Fuzhou, and parts of Quanzhou. It's also widely used as the mother language in Wuqiu Township, Kinmen County, Taiwan. More than 2000 people in Shacheng, Fuding (福鼎) 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 (simplified Chinese: 兴化; traditional Chinese: 興化; pinyin: Xīnghuà), Hinghua, or Xinghua.

History of language

Before the year 979 AD, the Puxian region was part of Quanzhou county and people there spoke a form of Min Nan (Southern Min). Due to its origin in the past as part of spoken Minnan, it lies closely to the other modern Minnan dialects, see chart relationship Min Chinese#Varieties.

In 979 AD, during the Song Dynasty, the region was administratively separately from Quanzhou and the language developed separately from the rest of Southern Min. Due to its proximity with Fuzhou, it absorbed some elements of Min Dong, but its basic linguistic characteristic i.e. grammar and most vocabulary is based on Quanzhou Minnan.[3]

Characteristics of language

Differences with other Minnan dialects

Puxian differs from most Min Nan varieties in several ways:

1. The vowel 'a' is replaced by /ɒ/ (o̤) in most cases, e.g. 腳 ko̤ "leg".

2. The vowel 'ư' /ɯ/ is replaced by /y/ ('ü'), e.g. 魚 hṳ "fish".

3. In Putian 'ng' has changed to /uŋ/ except after zero initial and h- (notation: ng), e.g. 湯 tung "soup".

4. The vowel /e/ is often replaced by /ɒ/ o̤, e.g. 馬 bo̤ "horse".

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Nasals 'm' sometimes occur in place of voiced stops 'b', e.g. 夢 mang vs. Quanzhou bang.

8. Initial consonant 'ng' replaces 'g' e.g. 五 'ngo' vs. Quanzhou 'go'.

9. 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 Min Dong language

1. 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

Puxian Min Initial Chart
  Bilabial Alveolar Lateral Velar Glottal
Plosive unaspirated p 巴 (b) t 打 (d) k 家 (g) ʔ 烏
aspirated pʰ 彭 (p) tʰ 他 (t) kʰ 卡 (k)
Nasals m 麻 (m) n 拿 (n) ŋ 雅 (ng)
Fricatives voiceless ɬ 沙 (s) h 下 (h)
voiced β*
Affricates unaspirated ts 渣 (c)
aspirated tsʰ 査 (ch)
Approximant l 拉 (l)

Rimes

Puxian Min has 39 rimes.

Rime Chart
Vowel Diphthong Nasal Glottal
no glide a 鴉 (a) au 拗 (au) aŋ 王 (ang) aʔ 壓 (ah)
ɒ 奥 (o̤) ɒŋ 用 (o̤ng) ɒʔ 屋 (o̤h)
o 科 (eo) ɔu 烏 (o) oŋ 温 (eong) oʔ 熨 (eoh)
e 裔 (a̤) ai 愛 (ai) ɛŋ 煙 (eng) ɛʔ 黑 (eh)
œ 改 (e̤) œŋ 換 (e̤ng) œʔ 郁 (e̤h)
ŋ 伓 (ng)
/-i-/ i 衣 (i) iu 油 (iu) iŋ 引 (ing) iʔ 益 (ih)
ia 夜 (ia) iau 要 (a̤u) iaŋ 鹽 (iang) iaʔ 葉 (iah)
/-u-/ u 夫 (u) ui 位 (ui) uŋ 黄 (ng)
ua 画 (ua) ue 歪 (oi) uaŋ 碗 (uang) uaʔ 活 (uah)
/-y-/ y 余 (ṳ) yŋ 恩 (ṳng) yʔ 役 (ṳh)
yɒ 安 (io̤ⁿ) yɒŋ 羊 (io̤ng) yɒʔ 藥 (io̤h)
Chinese character 黃 (ńg) 方 (hng) 漲 (dn̂g) 幫 (bng) 光 (gng) 兩 (nn̄g) 毛 (mńg)
Putian ŋ̍ hŋ̍ tuŋ puŋ kuŋ nuŋ muŋ
Xianyou ŋ̍ hŋ̍ tŋ̍ pŋ̍ kŋ̍ nŋ̍ mŋ̍
Xianyou dialect nasals
IPA ã ẽ ɛ̃ ĩ ỹ ɒ̃ iã yã uã aĩ aũ uĩ iũ
Romanization aⁿ a̤ⁿ e̤ⁿ o̤ⁿ iaⁿ io̤ⁿ uaⁿ oiⁿ a̤uⁿ
Romanized IPA ã ẽ ø̃ ɒ̃ iã yɒ̃ uã oĩ ɛũ
Chinese character 爭 (caⁿ) 還 (há̤ⁿ) 段 (dē̤ⁿ) 三 (so̤ⁿ) 鼎 (diáⁿ) 張 (da̤uⁿ) 看 (kua̍ⁿ) 飯 (bōiⁿ) 贏 (ió̤ⁿ)
Xianyou tsã hĩ tỹ sɒ̃ tiã tiũ kʰuã puĩ yɒ̃
Putian tsa hi tø sɒ tia tiau kʰua puai yɒ

Tone

Tone Ing-báⁿ 陰平 Ing-siō̤ng 陰上 Ing-kṳ̍ 陰去 Ing-ci̍h 陰入 Ió̤ng-báⁿ 陽平 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍ 陽去 Ió̤ng-ci̍h 陽入
Putian ˥˧˧ (533) ˦˥˧ (453) ˦˨ (42) ʔ˨˩ (ʔ2) ˩˧ (13) ˩ (11) ʔ˦ (ʔ4)
Xianyou ˥˦˦ (544) ˧˧˨ (332) ˥˨ (52) ʔ˨ (ʔ2) ˨˦ (24) ˨˩ (21) ʔ˦ (ʔ4)

Register

Xianyou dialect register chart
Chinese character 買 黃 生 領 師 兩 火 壁 著
Colloquial pe ŋ̍ ɬã, tsʰã nia ɬai nŋ̍ hoe pia tieu
Literary mai hɒŋ ɬɛŋ liŋ ɬo løŋ hɒ piʔ tøʔ

Assimilation

新婦房　ɬiŋ pu paŋ　→　ɬiŋ mu βaŋ

青草 tsʰɔŋ tsʰau　→　tsʰɔŋ nau

Comparison between Putian Min and Quanzhou Min Nan

Chinese character 埋 (lit.) 萬 (lit.) 人 (lit.) 入 危 (lit.) 逆 內 諾
Putian pai paŋ tsiŋ tsiʔ kui kiʔ tue tɔʔ
Quanzhou bai ban dzin dzip ɡui ɡiak lue lɔk

Romanization

Main article: Hinghwa Romanized

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)　

IPA Puxian Min (Xinghua) Fuzhou
pʰ p p
tʰ t t
kʰ k k
p b b
t d d
k g g
tsʰ ch ch
ts c c
Tone 陰平 Ing-báⁿ 陰上 Ing-siō̤ng 陰去 Ing-kṳ̍ 陰入 Ing-ci̍h 陽平 Ió̤ng-báⁿ 陽去 Ió̤ng-kṳ̍ 陽入 Ió̤ng-ci̍h
Báⁿ-uā-ci̍ a â a̍ ah á ā a̍h
Pe̍h-ōe-jī a á à ah â ā a̍h

References

  1. ↑ Puxian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Pu-Xian Chinese". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ http://baike.baidu.com/view/909013.htm

External links

Pu-Xian Min test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Pu-Xian Min test of Wiktionary at Wikimedia Incubator
Pu-Xian Min repository of Wikisource, the free library