Amoy dialect

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title: "Amoy dialect" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hokkien-language-dialects", "city-colloquials", "xiamen"] description: "Dialect of Hokkien spoken in the city of Xiamen" topic_path: "general/hokkien-language-dialects" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoy_dialect" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Dialect of Hokkien spoken in the city of Xiamen ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Amoy
altname	Amoyese, Amoynese, Xiamenese
nativename	廈門話 Ē-mn̂g-ōe
states	China
region	part of Xiamen (Amoy) (Siming and Huli districts), Haicang and Longhai districts to the west
speakers	2 million
date	2021
ref
familycolor	Sino-Tibetan
fam2	Sinitic
fam3	Chinese
fam4	Min
fam5	Coastal Min
fam6	Southern Min
fam7	Hokkien
ancestor	Proto-Sino-Tibetan
ancestor2	Old Chinese
ancestor3	Proto-Min
isoexception	dialect
glotto	xiam1236
glottorefname	Xiamen
lingua	79-AAA-je 79-AAA-jeb
map	Hokkien Map.svg
mapcaption	Distribution of Hokkien dialects. Amoy dialect is in magenta.
notice	IPA
::

|name=Amoy |altname=Amoyese, Amoynese, Xiamenese |nativename=廈門話 Ē-mn̂g-ōe |states=China |region= part of Xiamen (Amoy) (Siming and Huli districts), Haicang and Longhai districts to the west |speakers= 2 million |date=2021 |ref= |familycolor=Sino-Tibetan |fam2=Sinitic |fam3=Chinese |fam4=Min |fam5=Coastal Min |fam6=Southern Min |fam7=Hokkien |ancestor=Proto-Sino-Tibetan |ancestor2=Old Chinese |ancestor3=Proto-Min |isoexception=dialect |glotto=xiam1236 |glottorefname=Xiamen |lingua=79-AAA-je 79-AAA-jeb |map = Hokkien Map.svg |mapcaption = Distribution of Hokkien dialects. Amoy dialect is in magenta.

|notice=IPA

The Amoy dialect or Xiamen dialect (), also known as Amoyese, Amoynese, Amoy Hokkien, Xiamenese or Xiamen Hokkien, is a dialect of Hokkien spoken in the city of Xiamen (historically known as "Amoy") and its surrounding metropolitan area, in the southern part of Fujian province. Currently, it is one of the most widely researched and studied varieties of Southern Min. It has historically come to be one of the more standardized varieties.

Amoyese and Taiwanese are both historically mixtures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects. As such, they are very closely aligned phonologically. There are some differences between the two, especially lexical, as a result of physical separation and the differing histories of mainland China and Taiwan during the 20th century. Amoyese and Taiwanese are mutually intelligible. Intelligibility with other Hokkien, especially inland, is more difficult. By that standard, Amoyese and Taiwanese may be considered dialects of a single language. Ethnolinguistically, however, Amoyese is part of mainland Hokkien.

History

In 1842, as a result of the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, Amoy was designated as a trading port in Fujian. Amoy and Kulangsu rapidly developed, which resulted in a large influx of people from neighboring areas such as Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. The mixture of these various accents formed the basis for the Amoy dialect.

Over the last several centuries, a large number of Southern Fujianese people from these same areas migrated to Taiwan during Dutch and Qing rule. The "Amoy dialect" was considered the vernacular of Taiwan. Eventually, the mixture of accents spoken in Taiwan became popularly known as Taiwanese during Imperial Japanese rule. As in American and British English, there are subtle lexical and phonological differences between modern Taiwanese and Amoy Hokkien; however, these differences do not generally pose any barriers to communication. Amoy dialect speakers also migrated to Southeast Asia, mainly in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Special characteristics

The spoken Amoy dialect preserves many of the sounds and words from Old Chinese. However, the vocabulary of Amoy was also influenced in its early stages by the Minyue languages spoken by the ancient Minyue peoples. Spoken Amoy is known for its extensive use of nasalization.

Unlike Mandarin, the Amoy dialect distinguishes between voiced and voiceless unaspirated initial consonants (Mandarin has no voicing of initial consonants). Unlike English, it differentiates between unaspirated and aspirated voiceless initial consonants (as Mandarin does too). In less technical terms, native Amoy speakers have little difficulty in hearing the difference between the following syllables:

::data[format=table]

	unaspirated	aspirated		voiced	voiceless
bilabial stop	bo 母	po 保	pʰo 抱
velar stop	go 俄	ko 果	kʰo 科
::

However, these fully voiced consonants did not derive from the Early Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but rather from fortition of nasal initials.

Tones

Amoy is similar to other Southern Min variants in that it largely preserves the Middle Chinese tone system of six distinct tones in syllables which do not end in a stop consonant and two tones in syllables which do end in a stop consonant (the checked tones). The tones are traditionally numbered from 1 through 8, with 4 and 8 being the checked tones. The distinction between tones 2 and 6 has been lost among most speakers. ::data[format=table]

Tone number	Tone name	Tone letter
1	Yin level
2	Yin rising
3	Yin falling
4	Yin entering
5	Yang level
6 (2)	Yang rising
7	Yang falling
8	Yang entering
::

Tone sandhi

Amoy has extremely extensive tone sandhi (tone-changing) rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. What an 'utterance' is, in the context of this language, is an ongoing topic for linguistic research. For the purpose of this article, an utterance may be considered a word, a phrase, or a short sentence. The diagram illustrates the rules that govern the pronunciation of a tone on each of the syllables affected (that is, all but the last in an utterance):

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Taiwanese_Hokkien_tones.svg"] ::

Literary and colloquial readings

Like other languages of Southern Min, Amoy has complex rules for literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters. For example, the character for big/great, 大, has a vernacular reading of tōa (), but a literary reading of tāi (). Because of the loose nature of the rules governing when to use a given pronunciation, a learner of Amoy must often simply memorize the appropriate reading for a word on a case-by-case basis. For single-syllable words, it is more common to use the vernacular pronunciation.

The vernacular readings are generally thought to predate the literary readings, as is the case with the Min Chinese varieties; the literary readings appear to have evolved from Middle Chinese. The following chart illustrates some of the more commonly seen sound shifts:

::data[format=table]

Colloquial	Literary	Example
[p-], [pʰ-]	[h-]	分
[ts-], [tsʰ-], [tɕ-], [tɕʰ-]	[s-], [ɕ-]	成
[k-], [kʰ-]	[tɕ-], [tɕʰ-]	指
[-ã], [-uã]	[-an]	看
[-ʔ]	[-t]	食
[-i]	[-e]	世
[-e]	[-a]	家
[-ia]	[-i]	企
::

Vocabulary

: For further information, read the article: Swadesh list

The Swadesh word list, developed by the linguist Morris Swadesh, is used as a tool to study the evolution of languages. It contains a set of basic words which can be found in every language.

• The Amoy Min Nan Swadesh list
• The Sinitic Swadesh lists (Standard Mandarin, Sichuanese, Nanjingnese, Cantonese, Yuetai Hakka, Amoynese Hokkien, Hokchiu, Shanghainese, Suzhounese, Changshanese)

Phonology

Initials

::data[format=table] | Labial | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Velar | Glottal | Stop | voiceless | aspirated | voiced | Affricate | voiceless | aspirated | voiced | Fricative | Nasal | Approximant | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

• Word-initial alveolar consonants when occurring before are pronounced as alveo-palatal sounds .
• can fluctuate freely in initial position as either a flap or voiced alveolar plosive stop .
• can occur in both word initial and final position.
• when occurring before can be pronounced as voiceless sounds , .

Finals

::data[format=table title="style="text-align: left;" | Rimes without codas"] | - | 花 | | | | 話 | | | 水 | 歪 | | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ::

::data[format=table title="style="text-align: left;" | Rimes with nasal codas"] | | | 恩 | | 完 | | | | | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ::

::data[format=table title="style="text-align: left;" | Checked rimes"] | | | 骨 | 越 | | | 嗍 | 活 | | | | 喂 | | | | | | | | | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ::

• Final consonants are pronounced as unreleased .

::data[format=table title="style="text-align: left;" | Nasalized rimes without codas"] | | 山 | | | 莓 | 彎 | | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ::

Grammar

Amoy grammar shares a similar structure to other Chinese dialects, although it is slightly more complex than Mandarin. Moreover, equivalent Amoy and Mandarin particles are usually not cognates.

Complement constructions

Amoy complement constructions are roughly parallel to Mandarin ones, although there are variations in the choice of lexical term. The following are examples of constructions that Amoy employs.

In the case of adverbs: |伊 走 會 緊 |i cháu ē kín |he runs obtains quick |He runs quickly.}} :Mandarin: tā pǎo de kuài (他跑得快)

In the case of the adverb "very": |伊 走 真 緊 |i cháu chin kín |He runs obtains quick |He runs very quickly.}} :Mandarin: tā pǎo de hěn kuài (他跑得很快)

|伊 走 袂 緊 |i cháu bōe kín |He runs not quick |He does not run quickly.}} :Mandarin: tā pǎo bù kuài (他跑不快)

|伊 看 會 著 |i khòaⁿ ē tio̍h |He see obtains {already achieved} |He can see.}} :Mandarin: tā kàn de dào (他看得到)

For the negative, |伊 看 袂 著 |i khòaⁿ bōe tio̍h |He sees not {already achieved} |He cannot see.}} :Mandarin: tā kàn bù dào (他看不到)

For the adverb "so," Amoy uses kah (甲) instead of Mandarin de (得): |伊 驚 甲 話 著 講 袂 出來 |i kiaⁿ kah ōe tio̍h kóng bōe chhut-lâi |He startled {to the point of} words also say not {come out} |He was so startled, that he could not speak.}} :Mandarin: tā xià de huà dōu shuō bù chūlái (他嚇得話都說不出來)

Negative particles

Negative particle syntax is parallel to Mandarin about 70% of the time, although lexical terms used differ from those in Mandarin. For many lexical particles, there is no single standard Hanji character to represent these terms (e.g. m̄, a negative particle, can be variously represented by 毋, 呣, and 唔), but the most commonly used ones are presented below in examples. The following are commonly used negative particles:

1. m̄ (毋/伓) - is not + noun (Mandarin 不, bù)
2. : i m̄-sī gún lāu-bú. (伊毋是阮老母) "She is not my mother."
3. m̄ (毋/伓) - does not/will not + verb (Mandarin 不, bù)
4. : i m̄ lâi. (伊毋來) "He will not come."
5. **verb + *bōe''''' (袂/𣍐 (⿰勿會)) **+ particle - is not able to''' (Mandarin 不, *bù'')
6. : góa khòaⁿ-bōe-tio̍h. (我看袂著) "I am not able to see it."
7. bōe (袂/𣍐 (⿰勿會)) + helping verb - cannot (opposite of ē 會, "is able to") (Mandarin 不, bù)
8. : i bōe-hiáu kóng Eng-gú. (伊袂曉講英語) "He can't speak English."

• helping verbs that go with bōe (袂)
• :bōe-sái (袂使) - is not permitted to (Mandarin 不可以 bù kěyǐ)
• :bōe-hiáu (袂曉) - does not know how to (Mandarin 不會, búhuì)
• :bōe-tàng (袂當) - not able to (Mandarin 不能, bùnéng)

1. mài (莫/勿愛) - do not (imperative) (Mandarin 別, bié)
2. : mài kóng! (莫講) "Don't speak!"
3. bô (無) - do not + helping verb (Mandarin 不, bù)
4. : i bô beh lâi. (伊無欲來) "He is not going to come."

• helping verbs that go with bô (無):
• :beh (欲) - want to + verb; will + verb
• :ài (愛) - must + verb
• :èng-kai (應該) - should + verb
• :kah-ì (合意) - like to + verb

1. bô (無) - does not have (Mandarin 沒有, méiyǒu)
2. : i bô chîⁿ. (伊無錢) "He does not have any money."
3. bô (無) - did not (Mandarin 沒有, méiyǒu)
4. : i bô lâi. (伊無來) "He did not come."
5. bô (無) - is not + adjective (Mandarin 不, bù)
6. : i bô súi. (伊無媠/水) "She is not beautiful."

• hó (好) ("good") is an exception, as it can use both m̄ and bô.

Common particles

Commonly seen particles include:

• 與 (hō·) - indicates passive voice (Mandarin 被, bèi)
• 共 (kā) - identifies the object (Mandarin 把, bǎ)
• 加 (ke) - "more"
• 共 (kā) - identifies the object
• 濟 (chōe) - "more"

Romanization

A number of Romanization schemes have been devised for Amoy. Pe̍h-ōe-jī is one of the oldest and best established. However, the Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet has become the romanization of choice for many of the recent textbooks and dictionaries from Taiwan.

Notes

References

Sources

References

1. "Reclassifying ISO 639-3 [nan]: An Empirical Approach to Mutual Intelligibility and Ethnolinguistic Distinctions".
2. Mei, Tsu-lin. (1970). "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies.
3. Pulleyblank, Edwin G.. (1984). "Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology". University of British Columbia Press.
4. (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". [[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]].
5. "Amoyese".
6. Lee, Alan. (2005). "Tone Patterns of Kelantan Hokkien and Related Issues in Southern Min Tonology". University of Pennsylvania.
7. Heylen, Ann. (2001). "Authentic Chinese Christianity: Preludes to Its Development (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)". Leuven University Press.
8. Niu, Gengsen 牛耕叟. (2005-12-26). "Táiwān Héluòhuà fāzhǎn lìchéng". Zhōngguó Táiwān wǎng.
9. Kirjassof, Alice Ballantine. (March 1920). "Formosa the Beautiful".
10. (2006-04-20). "Gǔ Mǐnyuèzú yǔ Hànzú Mǐnnányǔ de yóulái".
11. Ratte, Alexander Takenobu. (2011). "Contact-Induced Phonological Change in Taiwanese". The Ohio State University.
12. (1992). "A handbook of old Chinese phonology". Mouton de Gruyter.
13. (1973). "A Study of Literary and Colloquial Amoy Chinese". Journal of Chinese Linguistics.
14. Van der Loon, Piet. (1967). "The Manila Incunabula and Early Hokkien Studies, Part 2". Asia Major.

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