Hokkien is a Southern Min language spoken in southern Fujian and Taiwan. It has one of the most diverse phoneme inventories among Sinitic languages.
Along with other Min languages, which are not directly descended from Middle Chinese, Hokkien is of considerable interest to historical linguists for reconstructing Old Chinese.
This article uses Pe̍h-ōe-jī and IPA for transcription.
Syllables A syllable in Hokkien consists of an initial, a final, and a tone.
In total, Hokkien uses around 800 toneless combinations of initials and finals, and around 2250~2450 total syllables with tones (counting only attested meaningful syllables, not all theoretically possible combinations).
The number of syllables in Hokkien is far greater than in any other Sinitic language. For comparison, Cantonese and Hokchew use around 1800 toned syllables, Beijing Mandarin has 1350 syllables, and Suzhou Wu has only 1100 syllables.
Initials Hokkien has aspirated, unaspirated as well as voiced consonant initials.
A total of 15 initials (or 14, in dialects with /dz/ merged with /l/) are used in Hokkien. This number does not include the three nasal consonants ([m], [n], [ŋ]), which are usually considered allophones of the non-nasal voiced initials (e.g. is analyzed as /bĩã⊇/, but pronounced as [mĩã²²]). This allophony also leads to a notable feature of the Hokkien accent in other languages, such as Japanese or Mandarin, when the nasal sounds like [m] are denasalized into non-nasal voiced consonants like [b]. LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalStopplainaspiratedvoiced()~~()()(nasalized)Affricateplainaspiratedvoiced~FricativeSemi-vowels
Syllables starting with vowels or approximants (//, //) are considered to have the zero initial /∅/ (which can be articulated as a glottal stop [ʔ]).
Affricates and fricatives (, , ~, ) are palatalized before , becoming , , ~, .
+ Allophones of the consonants in urban Zhangzhou HokkienPhonemePhonetic realisation_/[i; j]_/[u; w]_/[Ṽ; ŋ̍]elsewhere/p/[p][pʷ][p][p]/pʰ/[pʰ][pʰʷ][pʰ][pʰ]/b/[ɓ][βʷ][m][ɓ]/t/[t̪][t̻ʷ][t][t]/tʰ/[t̪ʰ][t̻ʰʷ][tʰ][tʰ]/l/[ɗ̪][lʷ][n][ɗ]/k/[kʲ][kʷ][k][k]/kʰ/[kʰʲ][kʰʷ][kʰ][kʰ]/g/[ɠʲ][ɣʷ][ŋ][ɠ]/∅/[ʔʲ]/∅[ʔʷ]/∅[ʔ]/∅[ʔ]/∅/s/[ɕ][ʃ][s][s]/z/[ʝ][ʒ][z][z]/h/[ħʲ][hʷ][ɦ][ħ]/ts/[tɕ][tʃ][ts][ts]/tsʰ/[tɕʰ][tʃʰ][tsʰ][tsʰ]
The phoneme /l/ in Hokkien has many possible articulations. It ranges between [d], [ɗ], [l] and [ɾ]. Its nasal allophone is uniformly described as [n]. In directly borrowed loanwords (i.e. those not borrowed orthographically via Mandarin or Japanese), foreign /d/ may be represented with Hokkien /l/: (from Dutch duit via Malay), (from English), (from Malay dukun), .
As a phoneme, /dz/ (also realized as [z]) is found predominantly in southern dialects of Hokkien. In many northern dialects, such as urban Quanzhou and Amoy, it has merged with /l/. This merger is still incomplete in some peripheral northern dialects, such as those of Tong'an or Yongchun, where /dz/ is reported to be present in some localities, in the speech of older speakers, or in a limited set of words (usually the more common ones, such as or ). Some Southern Hokkien and Lengna dialects merge /dz/ with /g/ (among the Southern Hokkien dialects, such merger is found in the north of Zhangpu, in Taichung, or, under the Lengna influence, in Hua'an).
While generally preserving /dz/, Zhangzhou Hokkien may still merge it with /l/ in some words, usually before /-u-/. E.g., characters like jūn 'wet', joán 'soft', jǒa 'how much' are now pronounced lūn, loán, lǒa even in Zhangzhou, although older Hokkien dictionaries record them with /dz/.
Finals A final in Hokkien consists of a nucleus (a vowel, a diphthong, or a syllabic nasal /m̩/ or /ŋ̍/), with an optional medial (/i/ or /u/, some dialects also allow /ɯ/) and coda (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /p/, /t/, /k/, /ʔ/).
There are around 80 to 90 finals in Hokkien. The exact number can vary depending on the specific dialect, as well as the inclusion of marginal finals from onomatopoeia and contractions. Lengna Min, which is sometimes included in Hokkien, has around 60 finals, due to the loss of the /-ʔ/ coda.
In the tables below, rare rimes used in a small number of words are shaded. Finals used only in the northern or southern dialects of Hokkien are marked with N and S respectively.
Open-vowel finals Finals with the coda /-ʔ/ are considered to be the checked tone counterparts for the open-vowel finals. +Non-nasalized finals rowspan="3" zeromedial -a -o̤N -o͘ or -o -e or -ɛS -ṳN -ai -au/-i-/ -ia -i -io -iu -iau/-u-/ -oa -u -oe -ui -oai rowspan="3" zeromedial-ah-o̤hN-o͘ h-oh-ehNS-ɛhS-ṳhN-auh/-i-/-iah-ih-io͘ hS-ioh-iuh-iauh/-u-/-oah-uh -oehNS-uihN
The vowel -a is usually .
The vowel ɛ is only found in Southern dialects of Hokkien.
The final -o͘ is realized as a diphthong -ou in many rural Zhangzhou dialects (in Pinghe, Zhangpu, Yunxiao, Chawan, etc.), similarly to Teochew. Likewise, many of those dialects diphthongize -e into -ei . Some dialects, such as Zhangpu, realize them as triphthongs and . Changtai dialect uniquely pronounces general Hokkien -o͘ as . However, it still uses the vowel , mainly in place of general Hokkien .
-o̤ and -ṳ are found in many Northern Hokkien dialects, including Quanzhou and Tong'an. In Amoy, Jinjiang and among some younger urban Quanzhou speakers, -o̤ is merged with /e/. Similarly, the final -ṳ may be merged with /i/ or /u/ in those dialects. These two finals are not found in Southern dialects of Hokkien.
Chawan dialect in Zhangzhou also has -o̤ and -ṳ . Thus, Chawan distinguishes the following finals: -ɛ , -o̤ , and -ei (latter corresponding to urban Zhangzhou -e ). The dialects of Yunxiao and rural Dongshan are notable for having -ɛ , -e (in place of Chawan -o̤ ) and -ei (in place of urban Zhangzhou -e ) as distinct finals.
In Northern Hokkien dialects where the final -o̤ is present, it is generally realized as [ɤ̟], and -o is realized as [o̜]. In dialects where -o̤ is absent, [ɤ̹] is a possible realization of -o .
+Nasalized finals rowspan="3" zeromedial -aⁿ -o͘ ⁿ or -eⁿN -ɛⁿS -aiⁿ -auⁿ-m -ng/-i-/ -iaⁿ -iⁿ -io͘ ⁿS -iuⁿNS-iauⁿ/-u-/ -oaⁿ -oeⁿS -uiⁿNS -oaiⁿ rowspan="3" zeromedial-ahⁿ-ohⁿ-ehⁿN-ɛhⁿS-aihⁿN-auhⁿ-mh-ngh/-i-/-iahⁿ-ihⁿ-iuhⁿN-iauhⁿ/-u-/ -oehⁿS-uihⁿN-oaihⁿ
Finals with codas + Finals with codas -m/-p-ng/-k-n/-t rowspan="3" zeromedial -am -o̤m N-om S -ang -o̤ng N -ong -an -ṳn N/-i-/ -iam -im -iang -eng -iong -ian -in /-u-/-oam -oang N -oan -un rowspan="3" zeromedial-ap -opS-ak -o̤k N-ok -at -ṳt N/-i-/-iap -ip -iak -ek -iok -iat -it /-u-/-oap -oat -ut
The exact realization of and varies throughout the dialects. For most of them, they are described as [iɪŋ]/[iɪk] or [iəŋ]/[iək]. Many Hokkien dialects in rural Zhangzhou and SEA have them as [eŋ] and [ek]. In urban Quanzhou and Jinjiang, is merged with , but is preserved.
Hui'an dialect merges -im and -iam into , or -ip and -iap into , etc., and thus it has the following rhymes not found in other dialects: , , , , .
While -o̤ and -ṳ are phonemically distinct as standalone finals, they are not distinct in finals with codas. The finals -o̤ng and -o̤k may also be described as and , and -ṳn and -ṳt may be described as and as well. In the conservative Quanzhou operatic pronunciation, they all are pronounced with a diphthong , except for -o̤k , which is realized as , influenced by the urban Quanzhou -o̤k/-ek/-iak merger.
However, -ṳn and -ṳt share some phonological constraints with rather than , e.g. they do not cooccur with labial initials, so *pṳn , *mṳt or *phṳ are not valid combinations, while syllables like po̤ , po̤ng or bo̤̍k do occur at least in some dialects of Quanzhou Hokkien.
In dialects that have -o̤ng and -ng , the two finals are often confounded. Likewise, -m and -o̤m may be used interchangeably. -m is assigned mainly to the syllables with zero initial, e.g. in m̄ "not", m̂, hm̂ "matchmaker", m̂ "plum", m̂ "berry", etc.
Rimes used in minor dialects Rimes with medial /-ɯ-/ Finals with the medial -ṳ- are mentioned in Lūi-im Biāu-gō͘ (彙音妙悟), an early 19th century Northern Hokkien rimebook, but now they are obsolete in most dialects of Hokkien. They are found only in a few exceptionally conservative dialects, such as Quanzhou operatic, or, per Ang Ui-jin's survey, in the Taiwanese "Old Anxi accent", spoken among older generations in some areas of New Taipei (namely Sanxia, Linkou, Pinglin, Xizhi, Qidu, Pingxi, and Taishan), in Baozhong Township, and in a few villages in Xihu and Puyan. For these dialects, Ang Ui-jin describes this medial as -o̤- rather than -ṳ- , except in the final -ṳiⁿ .
+Finals with /-ɯ-/ -ṳaN -ṳoN -ṳeN -ṳahN -ṳehN -ṳaⁿN -ṳiⁿN
/uɛ/ and related rimes Some Southern Hokkien dialects (Yunxiao and Chawan) have and as distinct finals. The latter is used in a small number of vernacular readings: in , , , , , , in both of these dialects in , , , , additionally in the Chawan dialect
Similarly, those dialects differentiate between and , but the latter is used exclusively in .
Furthermore, in Chawan dialect, the rime and are differentiated: is used in , , and is used in , , , , , and
Other rural Zhangzhou dialects (Nanjing, Pinghe, Changtai, Yunxiao, etc.) have in both groups of characters.
Zhangpu dialect uses , and consistently in place of , and .
/õ/ and related rimes Some Southern Zhangzhou dialects (such as Chawan, Yunxiao, and Zhangpu) differentiate between the rimes o͘ ⁿ and oⁿ . o͘ ⁿ is used in a small number of characters, including ngó͘, ngō͘, nô͘, nó͘, nō͘, ngó͘, ngō͘, and ngó͘. Chawan dialect also has this rime in hó͘ ⁿ, perhaps due to Teochew influence. oⁿ is used in a much larger set of words, both derived from historical syllables with a nasal initial ( ngó lit., ngô, ngô, ngô, ngô, ngō, ngô, ngō, mô, mō, mô lit., mō, mō, mo lit., mô, nō col., nō, nó, nō, nō) and those that never had a nasal consonant ( khóⁿ, hóⁿ, hóⁿ, hòⁿ, hòⁿ)
Changtai dialect also dfferentiates between these rimes, where they are pronounced as and respectively. Similar distinction is found in other Southern Min languages, such as Teochew or Luichow, but in most dialects of Hokkien the two rimes are merged into o͘ ⁿ .
The rimes ioⁿ and ohⁿ (as in mo̍h-mo̍h, mo̍h, moh) may be also described as and for the aforementioned Southern Zhangzhou dialects. There are, however, no rimes or .
Marginal finals Some marginal finals (not mentioned in the above charts) may occur in specific contexts, such as contractions. For example, in Dongshan dialect there is a final -iohⁿ , used in 即樣 chiohⁿ "like this" and 迄樣 hiohⁿ "like that". In Tong'an dialect, there is a final -iai , used in contractions (遐兮 hiâ--ê > hiâi "those") or in words with the final -ia suffixed with á (e.g. chhia-á > chhiai-á).
Tones
Traditionally, four Middle Chinese tones are called "level" piâⁿ, "rising" chiǔⁿ, "departing" khṳ̀ and "entering" ji̍p. These names are mnemonics illustrating the corresponding tone, e.g. the word "level" 平 piâⁿ has the level tone, the word "to enter" ji̍p has the entering tone, etc. In modern languages, these four tones are further divided into two categories: the "dark" ( im) or "upper" ( chiǔⁿ) tones and the "light" ( iông) or "lower" ( ě) tones, giving a total of 8 tones in traditional system.
The tones can be counted in two patterns: the "dark—light" order (the checked tones are 7 and 8) is more common in works published in China, and the "level—rising—departing—entering" order (the checked tones are 4 and 8) is more popular in Taiwan. This article follows the latter numbering system.
+ "dark tones"tone name"dark level""dark rising""dark departing""dark entering"Pe̍h-ōe-jī diacriticaáàah (-p, -t, -k)tone numberexamples si sí sì sih kun kún kùn kut tong tóng tòng tok tam tám tàm tap "light tones"tone name"light level""light rising""light departing""light entering"Pe̍h-ōe-jī diacriticâǎāa̍h (-p, -t, -k)tone numberexamples sî sǐ sī si̍h kûn kǔn kūn ku̍t tông tǒng tōng to̍k tâm tǎm tām ta̍p