Teochew Min

Teochew
Chaoshan
潮州話/潮汕話
Native to	China, overseas Chinese communities
Region	eastern Guangdong (Chaoshan), southern Fujian (Zhao'an)
Ethnicity	Han Chinese (Teochew people)
Native speakers	About 10 million in Chaoshan, 2–5 million overseas
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Min Coastal Min Southern Min Teo-Swa Teochew
Dialects	Chaozhou (Teochew proper, Shantou (Swatow)) Chaopu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	teoc1236  Teochew chao1238  Chaozhouchao1239  Chaoshan
Linguasphere	79-AAA-ji
Teo-Swa

Teochew Min
Traditional Chinese	潮州話
Simplified Chinese	潮州话
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cháozhōu huà Wu Romanization zau tseu ghae ho Hakka Romanization Tshèu-chû-fa Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Ciu4 zau1 waa2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tiê-chiu-uē Teochew Peng'im Diê⁵ziu¹ uê⁷/Dio⁵ziu¹ uê⁷ Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Dièu-ciŭ-uâ
Chaoshan dialect
Traditional Chinese	潮汕話
Simplified Chinese	潮汕话
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cháoshàn huà Wu Romanization zau sae ghae ho Hakka Romanization Tshèu-sân-fa Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tiô-sòaⁿ-uē Teochew Peng'im Diê⁵suan³ uê⁷/Dio⁵suan³ uê⁷ Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Dièu-sáng-uâ

Teochew (Chinese: 潮州話 or 潮汕話; pinyin: Cháozhōuhuà or Cháoshànhuà, Chaozhou dialect: Diê⁵ziu¹ uê⁷; Shantou dialect: Dio⁵ziu¹ uê⁷) is a Southern Min dialect spoken mainly by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. It is sometimes referred to as Chiuchow, its Cantonese name, due to the english romanisation by English colonial officials and explorers. It is closely related to some dialects of Hokkien, as it shares some cognates and phonology with it, though both are not largely mutually intelligible.

Teochew preserves many Old Chinese pronunciations and vocabulary that have been lost in some of the other modern varieties of Chinese. As such, many linguists consider Teochew one of the most conservative Chinese dialects.

Classification

Teochew is a variety of Southern Min, which in turn constitutes a part of Min Chinese, one of the seven major language groups of Chinese. As with other varieties of Chinese, it is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese and other Chinese varieties. However, it has limited intelligibility with the Hokkien dialects, such as those of Amoy, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Taiwanese. Even within the Teochew dialects, there is substantial variation in phonology between different regions of Chaoshan and between different Teochew communities overseas.

The Chaoshan dialects in China be roughly divided into three sub-groups defined by physically proximate areas:

1. Chaozhou sub-group (Standard Teochew)(潮州片): including Chaozhou, Shantou, Jieyang, Chenghai, Nan'ao County and Raoping;
2. Chaopu sub-group (潮普片): including Chaoyang, Puning and Huilai;

History and geography

A Teochew Cek temple in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia on the island of Borneo

The Chaoshan region, which includes the twin cities of Chaozhou and Shantou, is where the standard variant of Teochew (Chaoshan dialact) is spoken. Parts of the Hakka-speaking regions of Jiexi County, Dabu County and Fengshun, also contain pocket communities of Teochew speakers.

As Chaoshan was one of the major sources of Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia during the 18th to 20th centuries, a considerable Overseas Chinese community in that region is Teochew-speaking. In particular, the Teochew people settled in significant numbers in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, where they form the largest Chinese sub-language group. Teochew-speakers form a minority among Chinese communities in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia (especially in the states of Johor and Selangor) and Indonesia (especially in West Kalimantan on Borneo). Waves of migration from Chaoshan to Hong Kong, especially after the communist victory of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, has also resulted in the formation of a community there, although most descendants now primarily speak Cantonese and English.

Teochew speakers are also found among overseas Chinese communities in Japan and the Western world (notably in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Italy), a result of both direct emigration from Chaoshan to these nations and secondary emigration from Southeast Asia.

In Singapore, Teochew remains the ancestral language of many Chinese Singaporeans, with the Teochews making up second largest Chinese group in Singapore, after the Hokkiens. Despite this many Teochew, particularly the younger generations are shifting towards English and Mandarin as their main spoken language. This is due to the Singapore government's stringent bilingual policy that promotes English as the official language of education, government and commerce and promotes Mandarin at the expense of other Chinese varieties. Some Teochews assimilated with the larger Hokkien community and speak Hokkien rather than Teochew due to Hokkien's prominent role as a lingua franca previously among the Singaporean Chinese community and the similarities between the two varieties.

Teochew is indigenous language and was predominant in Bangkok, until after World War II, government force assimilation the Teochews who be Thai citizen, cause them language shift into Central Thai quickly. Today Teochew status is endangered, and still spoken among older ethnic Chinese Thai citizens, by the younger Thai Chinese is Central Thai native speaker.

Teochew was never widely spoken among Chinese communities in Japan and South Korea, since most of the Teochew people who migrated to these countries are secondary immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Most of them are second-generation people from Hong Kong and Taiwan who speak Cantonese, Hokkien and Mandarin, as well as Korean and Japanese, leaving Teochew to be spoken mostly by elders.

Relationship with Hokkien

Teochew is a variety of Southern Min and is one of the more well known Min Chinese varieties, together with Hokkien, which is spoken in southern Fujian, and the Fuzhou dialect, a dialect of Eastern Min, spoken in Fujian's capital, Fuzhou. Due to historical influence, it shares many phonetic similarities to Hokkien but has low lexical similarity. Although Teochew shares some cognates with Hokkien, there are pronounced differences in most vowels with some consonant and tone shifts. Many of its vocabulary and phrases are distinct from Hokkien. For example while Hokkien use the word beh (欲) to mean 'want' in Teochew the word ai (爱) which means 'love' in Teochew is also used to mean 'want' in Teochew. Hokkien uses the word ia (野) to mean 'very' while Teochews use the word kue (過) which also means 'to cross or to pass' in their language to mean 'very'.

Other than the -p final found in both dialects, Hokkien retains the different finals of -n, -ng, -t and -k while Teochew only has -ng and -k finals as a result of final merging. This caused many Teochews to be unable to properly pronounce the final -n in english words and in replacement they often pronounce it as -ng instead.

Teochew has only 51% intelligibility with the Hokkien variant of Tong'an Xiamen dialect (Cheng 1997) almost the same as the percentage of intelligibity between Russian and Ukrainian languages, while it has an even lower mutual intelligibilty language with other dialect variants of the Hokkien language. Both Hokkien and Teochew have different accents too.

Most Teochew do not speak Hokkien and the majority of Hokkiens and Teochews both see themselves as a distinct groups, but due to certain similarities most can understand certain dialects of Hokkien to a limited degree and may treat it as a variation of their own tongue. There are a minority of Teochew who speak Hokkien as their mother tongue, most of whom have close contact or relatives in the neighbouring three originally Teochew counties now part of South Fujian seceded to the Hokkien cultural region during the early Tang dynasty and subsequently assimilated into the Hokkien population. These Hokkien speaking Teochew people are more likely to treat Teochew simply as accented form of Hokkien. These people usually have a strong sense of Hokkien identity and due to cultural similarities, easily integrate into Hokkien culture.

Languages in contact

This refers to Chaozhou, the variant of Southern Min (Min Nan) spoken in China.

Mandarin

Chaozhou children are introduced to Standard Chinese as early as in kindergarten; however, Chaozhou remains the primary medium of instruction. In the early years of primary education, Mandarin becomes the sole language of instruction, although students typically continue to talk to one another in Chaozhou. Mandarin is widely understood, however minimally, by most younger Chaozhou speakers, but the elderly usually do not speak Mandarin since teaching was done in the local vernacular in the past.

Chaozhou accent in Mandarin

Native Chaozhou speakers find the neutral tone in Mandarin hardest to master. Chaozhou has lost the alveolar nasal ending [-n] and so the people often replace the sound in Mandarin with the velar nasal [-ŋ]. None of the southern Min dialects have a front rounded vowel, therefore a typical Chaozhou accent supplants the unrounded counterpart [i] for [y]. Chaozhou, like its ancient ancestor, lacks labio-dentals; people therefore substitute [h] or [hu] for [f] when they speak Mandarin. Chaozhou does not have any of the retroflex consonants in the northern dialects, so they pronounce [ts], [tsʰ], [s], and [z] instead of [tʂ], [tʂʰ], [ʂ] and [ʐ].

Hakka

Since Chao'an, Raoping and Jieyang border the Hakka-speaking region in the north, some people in these regions speak Hakka, though they can usually speak Chaozhou as well. Chaozhou people have historically had a great deal of contact with the Hakka people, but Hakka has had little, if any, influence on Chaozhou. Similarly, in Dabu and Fengshun, where the Chaozhou- and Hakka-speaking regions meet, Chaozhou is also spoken although Hakka remains the primary form of Chinese spoken there.

Cantonese

Because of the strong influence of Hong Kong soap operas, Guangdong provincial television programs and Cantonese pop songs, many young Chaoshan peoples can understand quite a lot of Cantonese even if they cannot speak it in certain degrees of fluency.

Other languages

In the mountainous area of Fenghuang (凤凰山; 鳳凰山), the She language, an endangered Hmong–Mien language, is spoken by the She people, who are an officially recognised non-Han ethnic minority. They predominantly speak Hakka and Teochew; only about 1,000 She still speak their eponymous language.

Phonetics and phonology

Consonants

Teochew, like other Southern Min varieties, is one of the few modern Sinitic languages which have voiced obstruents (stops, fricatives and affricates); however, unlike Wu and Xiang Chinese, the Teochew voiced stops and fricatives did not evolve from Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but from nasals. The voiced stops [b] and [ɡ] and also [l] are voicelessly prenasalised [ᵐ̥b], [ᵑ̊ɡ], [ⁿ̥ɺ], respectively. They are in complementary distribution with the tenuis stops [p t k], occurring before nasal vowels and nasal codas, whereas the tenuis stops occur before oral vowels and stop codas. The voiced affricate dz, initial in such words as 字 (dzi˩), 二 (dzi˧˥), 然 (dziaŋ˥), 若 (dziak˦) loses its affricate property with some younger speakers abroad, and is relaxed to [z].

Southern Min dialects and varieties are typified by a lack of labiodentals, as illustrated below:

Teochew consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m 毛	n 年	ŋ 雅
Stop	aspirated	pʰ 皮	tʰ 台	kʰ 可
	voiceless	p 比	t 都	k 歌	ʔ
	voiced	b 米		g 鵝/牙
Affricate	aspirated		tsʰ 菜/樹
	voiceless		ts 書/指/食
Fricative			s 士/速 (d)z 爾/貳		h 海/系 h̃ 園/遠 [h̃ŋ]
Approximant			l 來/內

Syllable

Syllables in Teochew contain an onset consonant, a medial glide, a nucleus, usually in the form of a vowel, but can also be occupied by a syllabic consonant like [ŋ], and a final consonant. All the elements of the syllable except for the nucleus are optional, which means a vowel or a syllabic consonant alone can stand as a fully-fledged syllable.

Onsets

All the consonants except for the glottal stop ʔ shown in the consonants chart above can act as the onset of a syllable; however, the onset position is not obligatorily occupied.

Finals

Teochew finals consist maximally of a medial, nucleus and coda. The medial can be i or u, the nucleus can be a monophthong or diphthong, and the coda can be a nasal or a stop. A syllable must consist minimally of a vowel nucleus or syllabic nasal.

Nucleus		-a-			-e̞-		-o̞-		-ə-	-i-	-u-	-ai-		-au-	-oi-	-ou-		-ui-	-iu-	∅-
Medial		∅-	i-	u-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-	u-	∅-	∅-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-
Coda	-∅	a	ia	ua	e	ue	o	io	ɨ	i	u	ai	uai	au	oi	ou	iou	ui	iu
	-◌̃	ã	ĩã	ũã	ẽ	ũẽ		ĩõ	ɨ̃	ĩ		ãĩ	ũãĩ	ãũ	õĩ	õũ		ũĩ	ĩũ
	-ʔ	aʔ	iaʔ	uaʔ	eʔ	ueʔ	oʔ	ioʔ		iʔ				auʔ	oiʔ
	-m	am	iam	uam						im										m̩
	-ŋ	aŋ	iaŋ	uaŋ	eŋ		oŋ	ioŋ	əŋ	iŋ	uŋ									ŋ̩
	-p	ap	iap	uap						ip
	-k	ak	iak	uak	ek		ok	iok	ək	ik	uk

Tones

Citation tones

Teochew, like other Chinese varieties, is a tonal language. It has six tones (reduced to two in stopped syllables) and extensive tone sandhi.

Teochew tones

Tone number	Tone name	Pitch contour	Description	Sandhi
1	yin level (陰平)	˧ (3)	mid	1
2	yin rising (陰上)	˥˨ (52)	falling	6
3	yin departing (陰去)	˨˩˧ (213)	low rising	2 or 5
4	yin entering (陰入)	˨̚ (2)	low checked	8
5	yang level (陽平)	˥ (5)	high	7
6	yang rising (陽上)	˧˥ (35)	high rising	7
7	yang departing (陽去)	˩ (1)	low	7
8	yang entering (陽入)	˦̚ (4)	high checked	4

As with sandhi in other Min Nan dialects, the checked tones interchange. The yang tones all become low. Sandhi is not accounted for in the description below.

Grammar

The grammar of Teochew is similar to other Min languages, as well as some southern varieties of Chinese, especially with Hakka, Yue and Wu. The sequence 'subject–verb–object' is typical, like Standard Mandarin, although the 'subject–object–verb' form is also possible using particles.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns in Teochew, like in other Chinese varieties, do not show case marking, therefore 我 [ua] means both I and me and 伊人 [iŋ] means they and them. The southern Min dialects, like some northern dialects, have a distinction between an inclusive and exclusive we, meaning that when the addressee is being included, the inclusive pronoun 俺 [naŋ] would be used, otherwise 阮 [ŋ]. No other southern Chinese variety has this distinction.

Personal Pronouns in Teochew

	Singular		Plural
1st person	我 ua˥˨	I / me	Inclusive	俺 naŋ˥˨	we / us
			Exclusive	阮 uaŋ˥˨ (uŋ˥˨ / ŋ˥˨)	we / us
2nd person	汝 lɨ˥˨	you	恁 niŋ˥˨		you (plural)
3rd person	伊 i˧	he/she/it/him/her	伊人 iŋ˧ (i˧ naŋ˥)		they/them

Possessive pronouns

Teochew does not distinguish the possessive pronouns from the possessive adjectives. As a general rule, the possessive pronouns or adjectives are formed by adding the genitive or possessive marker 個 [kai5] to their respective personal pronouns, as summarised below:

Possessive Pronouns in Teochew

	Singular		Plural
1st person	我個 ua˥˨ kai˥	my / mine	Inclusive	俺個 naŋ˥˨ kai˥	our / ours
			Exclusive	阮個 uaŋ˥˨ (uŋ˥˨ / ŋ˥˨) kai˥	ours / ours
2nd person	汝個 lɨ˥˨ kai˥	your / yours	恁個 niŋ˥˨ kai˥		your / yours (plural)
3rd person	伊個 i˧ kai˥	his / his; her / hers; its / its	伊人個 iŋ˧ (i˧ naŋ˥) kai˥		their / theirs

本書是我個。

[puŋ˥˨ tsɨ˧ si˧˥ ua˥˨ kai˥]

The book is mine.

As 個 [kai˥] is the generic measure word, it may be replaced by other more appropriate classifiers:

我條裙

[ua˥˨ tiou˥ kuŋ˥]

my skirt

Demonstrative pronouns

Teochew has the typical two-way distinction between the demonstratives, namely the proximals and the distals, as summarised in the following chart:

The Teochew Demonstratives

		Proximal		Distal
General	Singular	之個 [tsi˥˨ kai˥]	this	許個 [hɨ˥˨ kai˥]	that
	Plural	之撮 [tsi˥˨ tsʰoʔ˦]	these	許撮 [hɨ˥˨ tsʰoʔ˦]	those
Spatial		之塊 [tsi˥˨ ko˨˩˧]	here	許塊 [hɨ˥˨ ko˨˩˧]	there
		之內 [tsi˥˨ lai˧˥]	inside	許內 [hɨ˥˨ lai˧˥]	inside
		之口 [tsi˥˨ kʰau˩]	outside	許口 [hɨ˥˨ kʰau˩]	outside
Temporal		之陣 / 當 [tsi˥˨ tsuŋ˥ / təŋ˨˩˧]	now; recently	許陣 / 當 [hɨ˥˨ tsuŋ˥ / təŋ˨˩˧]	then
Adverbial		這生 [tse˥˨ sẽ˧]	like this	向生 [hia˥˨ sẽ˧]	like that
Degree		之樣 [tsĩõ˨˩˧]	this	向樣 [hĩõ˨˩˧]	that
Type		者個 [tsia˥˨ kai˥]	this kind	向個 [hia˥˨ kai˥]	that kind

Interrogative pronouns

The Teochew Interrogative Pronouns

who / whom		(底)珍 [ti tiaŋ]
		底人 [ti naŋ]
what		乜個 [miʔ kai]
what (kind of) + noun		乜 + N [miʔ]
which		底 + NUM + CL + (N) [ti]
		底個 [ti kai]
where		底塊 [ti ko]
when		珍時 [tiaŋ si]
how	manner	做呢 [tso ni]
	state	在些(樣) [tsai sẽ ĩõ]
		乜些樣 [miʔ sẽ ĩõ]
		什乜樣 [si miʔ ĩõ]
how many		幾 + CL + N [kui]
		若多 + (CL) + (N) [dzieʔ tsoi]
how much		若多 [dzieʔ tsoi]
why		做呢 [tso ni]

Numerals

Teochew numeral system

Pronunciation	Financial	Normal	Value	Notes
liŋ5	零	〇	0	〇 is an informal way to represent zero, but 零 is more commonly used, especially in schools. also 空 [kang3]
tsek8	壹	一	1	also 蜀 [tsek8] (original character) also 弌 (obsolete) also [ik4] as the last digit of a 2-or-more-digit number e.g. 二十一 [dzi6 tsap8 ik4] or days of a month e.g. 一號 [ik4 ho7] or as an ordinal number e.g. 第一 [tõĩ6 ik4] also 么(T) or 幺(S) [iou1] when used in phone numbers etc.
no6	兩(T)	二	2	also 弍 (obsolete) also 貳(T) also [dzi6] as the last digit of a 2-or-more-digit number e.g. 三十二 [sã1 tsap8 dzi6] or days of a month e.g. 二號 [dzi6 ho7] or as an ordinal number e.g. 第二 [tõĩ6 dzi6].
sã1	叄(T)	三	3	also 弎 (obsolete) also 參 [sã1].
si3	肆	四	4
ŋou6	伍	五	5
lak8	陸	六	6
tsʰik4	柒	七	7
poiʔ4	捌	八	8
kau2	玖	九	9
tsap8	拾	十	10	Although some people use 什, It is not acceptable because it can be written over into 伍.

Note: (T): Traditional characters; (S): Simplified characters.

Ordinal numbers are formed by adding 第 [tõĩ˧˥] in front of a cardinal number.

Voice

In Teochew passive construction, the agent phrase by somebody always has to be present, and is introduced by either 乞 [kʰoiʔ˦] (some speakers use [kʰəʔ] or [kʰiəʔ] instead) or 分 [puŋ˧], even though it is in fact a zero or indefinite agent as in:

伊分人刣掉。

[i˧ puŋ˧ naŋ˥ tʰai˥ tiou˩]

S/he was killed (by someone).

While in Mandarin one can have the agent introducer 被; bèi or 給; gěi alone without the agent itself, it is not grammatical to say

* 個杯分敲掉。

[kai˥ pue˧ puŋ˧ kʰa˧ tiou˩]

The cup was broken.

cf. Mandarin 杯子給打破了; bēizi gěi dǎ pòle)

Instead, we have to say:

個杯分人敲掉。

[kai˥ pue˧ puŋ˧ naŋ˥ kʰa˧ tiou˩]

The cup was broken.

Even though this 人 [naŋ˥] is unknown.

Note also that the agent phrase 分人 [puŋ˧ naŋ˥] always comes immediately after the subject, not at the end of the sentence or between the auxiliary and the past participle like in some European languages (e.g. German, Dutch)

Comparison

Comparative construction with two or more nouns

Teochew uses the construction "X ADJ 過 [kue˨˩˧] Y", which is believed to have evolved from the Old Chinese "X ADJ 于 (yú) Y" structure to express the idea of comparison:

伊雅過汝。

[i˧ ŋia˥˨ kue˨˩˧ lɨ˥˨]

She is more beautiful than you.

Cantonese uses the same construction:

佢靚過你。

Keoi5 leng3 gwo3 nei5.

She is more beautiful than you.

However, due to modern influences from Mandarin, the Mandarin structure "X 比 Y ADJ" has also gained popularity over the years. Therefore, the same sentence can be re-structured and becomes:

伊比汝雅。

[i˩ pi˥˨ lɨ˥˨ ŋia˥˨]

She is more beautiful than you.

cf. Mandarin 她比你漂亮; tā bǐ nǐ piàoliang

Comparative construction with only one noun

It must be noted that the 過- or 比-construction must involve two or more nouns to be compared; an ill-formed sentence will be yielded when only one is being mentioned:

* 伊雅過 (?)

Teochew is different from English, where the second noun being compared can be left out ("Tatyana is more beautiful (than Lisa)". In cases like this, the 夭-construction must be used instead:

伊夭雅。

[i1 iou6 ŋia2]

She is more beautiful.

The same holds true for Mandarin and Cantonese in that another structure needs to be used when only one of the nouns being compared is mentioned. Note also that Teochew and Mandarin both use a pre-modifier (before the adjective) while Cantonese uses a post-modifier (after the adjective).

• Mandarin

她比較漂亮

tā bǐjiào piàoliang

• Cantonese

佢靚啲

keoi5 leng3 di1

There are two words which are intrinsically comparative in meaning, i.e. 贏 [ĩã5] "better" and 輸 [su1] "worse". They can be used alone or in conjunction with the 過-structure:

只領裙輸(過)許領。

[tsi2 nĩã2 kuŋ5 su1 kue3 hɨ2 nĩã2]

This skirt is not as good as that one.

我內個電腦贏伊個好多。

[ua2 lai6 kai7 tiaŋ6 nau2 ĩã5 i1 kai7 hoʔ2 tsoi7]

My computer (at home) is far better than his.

Note the use of the adverbial 好多 [hoʔ2 tsoi7] at the end of the sentence to express a higher degree.

Equal construction

In Teochew, the idea of equality is expressed with the word 平 [pẽ5] or 平樣 [pẽ5 ĩõ7]:

只本書佮許本平重。

[tsi2 puŋ2 tsɨ1 kaʔ4 hɨ2 puŋ2 pẽ5 taŋ6]

This book is as heavy as that one.

伊兩人平平樣。

[i1 no6 naŋ5 pẽ5 pẽ5 ĩõ7]

They are the same. (They look the same./They're as good as each other./They're as bad as each other.)

Lit. The two people are the same same way.

Superlative construction

To express the superlative, Teochew uses the adverb 上 [siaŋ5] or 上頂 [siaŋ5 teŋ2]. However, it should be noted that 上頂 is usually used with a complimentary connotation.

只間物上頂好食。

[tsi2 kõĩ1 mueʔ8 siaŋ5 teŋ2 ho2 tsiaʔ8]

This (restaurant) is (absolutely) the most delicious.

伊人對我上好。

[i1 naŋ5 tui3 ua2 siaŋ5 ho2]

They treat me best.

Lit. The people treat me very well.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Teochew shares a lot of similarities with Cantonese because of their continuous contact with each other. Like Cantonese, Teochew has a great deal of monosyllabic words. However, ever since the standardisation of Modern Standard Chinese, Teochew has absorbed a lot of Putonghua vocabulary, which is predominantly polysyllabic. Also, Teochew varieties in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have also borrowed extensively from Malay.

Archaic vocabulary

Teochew and other Southern Min varieties, such as Hokkien, preserve a good deal of Old Chinese vocabulary, such as 目 [mak] eye (Chinese: 眼睛; pinyin: yǎnjīng, Hokkien: 目 ba̍k), 灱 [ta] dry (Chinese: 乾; pinyin: gān, Hokkien: 焦 ta), and 囥 [kʰəŋ] hide (cf. Chinese: 藏; pinyin: cáng; Hokkien: 囥 khǹg).

Romanisation

Main article: Peng'im

Teochew was romanised by the Provincial Education Department of Guangdong in 1960 to aid linguistic studies and the publication of dictionaries, although Pe̍h-ōe-jī can also be used because Christian missionaries invented it for the transcription of varieties of Southern Min.

Initials

Initial consonants of Teochew, are represented in the Guangdong Romanization system as: B, BH, C, D, G, GH, H, K, L, M, N, NG, P, R, S, T, and Z.

Examples:

• B [p] - bag (北 north)
• Bh [b]- bhê (馬 horse)
• C [tsʰ] - cên (青 green), cǔi (嘴 mouth), ciên (槍 gun)
• D [t] - diê (潮 tide)
• G [k] - giê (橋 bridge)
• GH [g] - gho (鵝 goose)
• H [h] - hung (雲 cloud)
• K [kʰ] - ke (去 to go)
• L [l] - lag (六 six)
• M [m] - mêng (明 bright)
• N [n] - nang (人 person)
• NG [ŋ] - ngou (五 five)
• P [pʰ] - peng (平 peace)
• R [(d)z] - riêg/ruah (熱 hot)
• S [s] - sên (生 to be born)
• T [tʰ] - tin (天 sky)
• Z [ts] - ziu (州 region/state)

Finals

Vowels

Vowels and vowel combinations in the Teochew dialect include: A, E, Ê, I, O, U, AI, AO, IA, IAO, IO, IU, OI, OU, UA, UAI, UE, and UI.

Examples:

• A - ma (媽 mother)
• E - de (箸 chopsticks)
• Ê - sên (生 to be born)
• I - bhi (味 smell/taste)
• O - to (桃 peach)
• U - ghu (牛 cow)

Many words in Teochew are nasalized. This is represented by the letter "n" in the Guangdong Pengim system.

Example (nasalized):

• suan (山 mountain)
• cên (青 green)

Ending

Ending consonants in Teochew include M and NG as well as the stops discussed below.

Examples:

• M - iam (鹽 salt)
• NG - bhuang (萬 ten thousand)

Teochew retains many consonant stops lost in Mandarin. These stops include a labial stop: "b"; velar stop: "g"; and glottal stop: "h".

Examples:

• B - zab (十 ten)
• G - hog (福 happiness)
• H - tih (鐵 iron)

See also

• Southern Min
• Hokkien
  • Amoy Hokkien
  • Taiwanese Hokkien
• Languages of China
• List of Chinese dialects
• Thai Chinese
• Chinese in Singapore
• Malaysian Chinese
• Indonesian Chinese

Sources

• Beijing da xue Zhongguo yu yan wen xue xi yu yan xue jiao yan shi. (2003). Han yu fang yin zi hui. (Chinese dialectal vocabulary) Beijing: Yu wen chu ban she (北京大學中國語言文學系語言學教研室, 2003. 漢語方音字彙. 北京: 語文出版社) ISBN 7-80184-034-8
• Cai Junming. (1991). Putonghua dui zhao Chaozhou fang yan ci hui. (Chaozhou dialectal vocabulary, contrasted with Mandarin) Hong Kong: T. T. Ng Chinese Language Research Centre (蔡俊明, 1991. 普通話對照潮州方言詞彙. 香港: 香港中文大學吳多泰中國語文研究中心) ISBN 962-7330-02-7
• Chappell, Hilary (ed.) (2001). Sinitic grammar : synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Oxford; New York: OUP ISBN 0-19-829977-X
• Chen, Matthew Y. (2000). Tone Sandhi: patterns across Chinese dialects. Cambridge, England: CUP ISBN 0-521-65272-3
• DeFrancis, John. (1984). The Chinese language: fact and fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press ISBN 0-8248-1068-6
• Li, Xin Kui. (1994). Guangdong di fang yan. (Dialects of Guangdong) Guangzhou, China: Guangdong ren min chu ban she (李新魁, 1994. 廣東的方言. 廣州: 廣東 人民出版社) ISBN 7-218-00960-3
• Li, Yongming. (1959). Chaozhou fang yan. (Chaozhou dialect) Beijing: Zhonghua. (李永明, 1959. 潮州方言. 北京: 中華)
• Lin, Lun Lun. (1997). Xin bian Chaozhou yin zi dian. (New Chaozhou pronunciation dictionary) Shantou, China: Shantou da xue chu ban she. (林倫倫, 1997. 新編潮州音字典. 汕頭: 汕頭大學出版社) ISBN 7-81036-189-9
• Norman, Jerry. [1988] (2002). Chinese. Cambridge, England: CUP ISBN 0-521-29653-6
• Ramsey, S. Robert (1986). Languages of China. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-06694-9
• Xu, Huiling (2007). Aspects of Chaoshan grammar: A synchronic description of the Jieyang dialect. Monograph Series Journal of Chinese Linguistics 22.
• Yap, FoongHa; Grunow-Hårsta, Karen; Wrona, Janick (ed.) (2011). "Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives". Hong Kong Polytechnic University /Oxford University : John Benjamins Publishing Company ISBN 978-9027206770

Further reading

Works on the Teochew dialect

• Josiah Goddard (1883). A Chinese and English vocabulary: in the Tie-chiu dialect (2 ed.). Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. p. 237. Retrieved 10 February 2012. (the New York Public Library) (digitized April 2, 2008)

Bibles in the Teochew dialect

• Kū-ieh sàn-bú-zṳ́ ē-kńg tshûan-tsṳ e̍k-tsò tiê-chiu pe̍h-ūe. Swatow: printed for the British and Foreign Bible Society at the English Presbyterian Mission Press. 1898. Retrieved 10 February 2012. (11 Samuel. (Tie-chiu dialect.)) (Harvard University) (digitized December 17, 2007)

External links

• Database of Pronunciations of Chinese Dialects (in English, Chinese and Japanese)
• Teochew People - Teochew dialect (in Chinese)
• Diojiu Bhung Gak
• Gaginang
• Glossika - Chinese Languages and Dialects
• Mogher (in Chinese, English and French)
• Omniglot
• Shantou University Chaozhou Studies Resources (in Chinese)
• Teochew Web (in Chinese and English)
• Tonal harmony and register contour in Chaozhou
• Teochew Federation Singapore