hokkien

Hokkien, also called Minnan or Southern Min, is a major variety of the Chinese language in the Min Nan branch. It is spoken along the southern Fujian coast, notably in Xiamen (Amoy), Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou, and by long-established communities in Taiwan and throughout the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. The Hokkien varieties form a dialect continuum; the most prominent are the Amoy (Xiamen) dialect, Quanzhou dialect, and Zhangzhou dialect. In Taiwan, the local form is referred to as Taiwanese Hokkien or Taigi and has a large role in home use and popular culture.

Hokkien is a tonal, analytic language with subject-verb-object tendency. It employs final consonants in many syllables, and its tone system varies across dialects, typically with several contrasting tones. The vocabulary shows extensive contact-induced borrowings from Malay, Indonesian, Japanese, and European languages in different communities.

Writing systems: Historically written in Chinese characters. For practical phonetic transcription, several romanization schemes are used, most notably Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) and the Taiwanese Latin alphabet (Tai-lo). In Taiwan, Hokkien is also taught with romanization in some contexts and appears in media and literature.

Sociolinguistic status: Hokkien is spoken by millions and maintains strong presence in home and community life in many regions, though Mandarin or national languages are dominant in official contexts. In Taiwan and Southeast Asia, intergenerational transmission varies and shift toward Mandarin or national languages has been reported in some communities.