*** Welcome to piglix ***

Teochew dialect

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. (date missing)
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Glottolog teoc1236
chao1238
chao1241
chao1239
Linguasphere 79-AAA-ji
Banlamgu.svg
     Teo-Swa
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Teochew dialect
Traditional Chinese 潮州話
Simplified Chinese 潮州话
Chaoshan dialect
Traditional Chinese 潮汕話
Simplified Chinese 潮汕话

Teochew (Chinese: 潮州話 or 潮汕話; pinyin: Cháozhōuhuà or Cháoshànhuà, Chaozhou dialect: Diê⁵ziu¹ uê⁷; Shantou dialect: Dio⁵ziu¹ uê⁷) is a dialect of Southern Min Chinese spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by the Teochew diaspora around the world. It is sometimes referred to as Chiuchow, its Cantonese name, due to the strong influence of that language over traditionally Teochew-speaking areas.

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.

Teochew is a member of the Southern Min or Min Nan dialect group, which in turn constitutes a part of Min Chinese, one of the seven major dialect groups of Chinese. As with other varieties of Chinese, it is not very mutually intelligible with other dialect groups of China but is mutually intelligible with some other Southern dialects, such as those of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. Even within the Teochew varieties, there is substantial variation in phonology between different regions of Chaoshan and between different Teochew communities overseas.

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

Modern Teochew is a variety of Southern Min. From the 9th to 15th century, groups of Min-speaking Han Chinese migrated south from Fujian to the coastal region of eastern Guangdong now known as Chaoshan. Due to its geographical isolation from other Southern Min communities of Fujian, Teochew evolved into a separate variety.


...
Wikipedia

...