Min Nan

Southern Min
Min Nan
閩南語 / 闽南语 Bân-lâm-gú
Koa-a books, Min Nan written in Chinese characters
Native to	China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and other areas of Southern Min and Hoklo settlement
Region	Southern Fujian province; the Chaozhou-Shantou (Chaoshan) area and Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong province; extreme south of Zhejiang province; much of Hainan province (if Hainanese or Qiong Wen is included); and most of Taiwan.
Native speakers	47 million (2007)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Min Coastal Min Southern Min
Dialects	Hokkien Teochew Datian (disputed) ?Zhongshan Zhenan (disputed) ?Hainanese (disputed) ?Qiong Wen (disputed)
Writing system	Chinese characters; Latin
Official status
Official language in	None; one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Taiwan
Regulated by	None (The Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	minn1241
Linguasphere	79-AAA-j
Southern Min
Subgroups of Southern Min
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	闽南语
Traditional Chinese	閩南語
Literal meaning	"Language of Southern Min [Fujian]"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǐnnán yǔ Wade–Giles Min3-nan2 yü3 IPA [mìnnǎn ỳ] Gan Romanization Mîn-lōm-ngî Hakka Romanization Mîn-nàm-ngî Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Máhn-nàahm yúh Jyutping Man5-naam4 jyu5 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Bân-lâm-gí/Bân-lâm-gú Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC Mìng-nàng-ngṳ̄
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien; both are combinations of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speeches. The Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is often considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Puxian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin.