Hokkien

Hokkien
Quanzhang
福建话/閩南語(泉漳片) Hō-ló-oē/Hô-ló-uē
Native to	China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Madagascar, and other areas of Hoklo settlement
Region	southern Fujian province and other south-eastern coastal areas of Mainland China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia
Ethnicity	Hoklo (Subgroup of Han Chinese)
Native speakers	37 million (date missing)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Hokkien
Dialects	Quanzhou (Chinchew) Amoy Zhangzhou (Changchew) Zhenan (disputed) Longyan Min Taiwanese Singaporean Penang Medan Philippine
Official status
Official language in	None (one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the Republic of China)
Regulated by	None
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	hokk1242 fuki1235
Distribution of Southern Min languages. Hokkien is dark green.
Distribution of Hokkien dialects within Fujian Province and Taiwan.
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Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ (from Chinese: ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hok-kiàn-oē) is a group of Southern Min (Min Nan) Chinese dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province. It is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, most of which are not mutually intelligible with Hokkien.

Hokkien historically served as the lingua franca amongst overseas Chinese communities of all dialects and subgroups in Southeast Asia, and remains today as the most spoken variety of Chinese in the region, including in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and some parts of Indochina.