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)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Coastal Min Puxian
Dialects	Putian Xianyou
Writing system	Chinese characters Hinghwa Romanized(báⁿ-uā-ci̍)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cpx
Glottolog	puxi1243
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 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).

Characteristics

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

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)

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

Finals

Puxian Min has 39 finals.

Finals

	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	mai	man	tsin	tsiʔ	kui	kiʔ	tue	tɔʔ
Quanzhou	bai	ban	lin	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

External links

• Motoki Makajima, Conversational Texts in Two Min Dialects, 1979