The Teochew dialect (Guangdong romanization: Dio⁷ Ziu¹; Missionary romanization: Tiô-chiu-oē, Chinese:潮州话, Hanyu Pinyin: Cháozhōuhuà, Teochiu or Tiuchiu), is a Chinese language and dialect of Minnan spoken in a region of eastern Guangdong referred to as Chaoshan.

Classification

Teochew is a member of Southern Min group, one of the divisions of spoken Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, there is dispute as to whether Teochew is a language or a dialect.

Teochew is mutally intelligible with the other Min-nan languages, notably Xiamen dialect or Taiwanese. There is substantial variations in phonology and vocabulary between different regions of Chaoshan and between different Teochiu communities overseas.

History And Geography

Modern Teochew evolved from the more archaic Min-Nan. Between the 9th and the 15th century, a group of Min people migrated south from Fujian to the coastal region of eastern Guangdong known as Chaoshan. This migration was most likely due in part to over-population in Fujian.

Geographical isolation from Fujian and influences from Cantonese and the later Hakka, Teochew evolved into a separate language.

The Chaoshan region where Teochew is spoken, includes the cities of Chaozhou, Shantou, Jieyang , Chaoyang , Puning , Chao'an , Raoping, Huilai and Shanwei .

Chaoshan was one of the major sources of Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia during the 18th-20th century forming one of the larger dialect groups among the Overseas Chinese. As a result, Teochew is now spoken in many regions outside of Chaoshan.

In particular, the Teochew people settled in significant numbers in Thailand and Cambodia where they form the largest Chinese dialect group. They constitute a significant minority in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Teochew speakers also live in Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Europe; a result of both direct emigration from Chaoshan to these nations and secondary emigration from Southeast Asia.

Phonology

Syllables in Teochew contain an initial consonant, a vowel, and a final consonant.

Initial consonants of Teochiu, are represented in the Guangdong Peng'im system as: B, BH, C, D, G, GH, H, K, L, M, N, NG, P, R, S, T, and Z.

Examples:

• B - bak (北 north)
• Bh- bhê (马 horse)
• C - cên (青 green)
• D - dio (潮 tide)
• G - gio (桥 bridge)
• GH- gho (鹅 goose)
• H - hung (云 cloud)
• K - ke (走 to go)
• L - lag (六 six)
• M - mêng (明 bright)
• N - nang (人 person)
• NG - ngou (五 five)
• P - peng (平 peace)
• R - ruah (热 hot)
• S - sên (生 to be born)
• T - tin (天 heaven)
• Z - ziu (州 region/state)

Vowels and vowel combinations in the Teochew dialect include: A, E, Ê, I, O, U, AI, AO, IA, IO, IU, OI, OU, UA, UAI, UE, and UI.

Examples:

• A - ma (妈 mother)
• E - de (箸 chopsticks)
• Ê - sên (生 to be born)
• I - bhi (味 smell/taste)
• O - to (桃 peach)
• U - ghu (牛 cow)

Ending consonants in Teochew include M and NG as well as the stops discussed below.

Examples:

• M - giam (盐 salt)
• NG - bhuang (万 ten thousand)

Teochew retains many consonant stops lost in Mandarin. These stops include a labial stop: "b"; velar stop: "g"; and glottal stop: "h".

Examples:

• B - jab (十 ten)
• G - hog (福 happiness)
• H - tih (铁 iron)

Many words in Teochew are nasalized which is represent by the letter "n" in the Guangdong Pengim system.

Example (nasalized):

• suan ( mountain)
• cên (青 green)

Tones

Teochew, like other Chinese languages is a tonal language. It has eight tones and extensive tone sandhi.

Tones:

1. Middle level
2. Falling
3. Low rising
4. Low stop
5. High level
6. High rising
7. Low level
8. High stop

Here, the tones are shown following the traditional tone class categorization above, and are correlated with the tones of Middle Chinese (shown in Han characters, last column below):

1. 33; yin level (陰平)
2. 52; rising (上聲)
3. 12; yin departing (陰去)
4. 1; yin entering (陰入)
5. 24; yang level (陽平)
6. 35; declining (下聲)
7. 11; yang departing (陽去)
8. 5; yang entering (陽入)

Vocabulary

Teochew was written with proper Chinese characters. About 90% of the words they used are found in Standard Chinese characters, although 10% of the words were coined out by the Teochew themselves. There are even Chinese words that existed and were used in Mandarin but not in Teochew. Like most Min-nan dialects, most Teochew words have cognates with other Chinese dialects, especially with Min-nan dialects.

Grammar

The grammar of Teochew is similar to southern Chinese dialects, especially with Hakka and Cantonese. The sequence 'subject verb object' is typical as in (mutually) Mandarin, although 'subject object verb' or the passive voice (with the sequence 'object subject verb') is possible with particles.

Script and orthographies

Traditionally, Teochew was written with traditional Chinese characters, although a small fraction of the words were coined out by the Teochew themselves.

A romanization system exists in Guangdong province to represent Teochew pronounciation for linguistic study and dictionaries, although the Taiwanese Pe̍h-oē-jī could be used, owing to the fact that the Christian missionaries adapt it to be suitably used for all Min-nan dialects (except Qiong Wen).

A modified version of the Guangdong romanization system is also used for romanization purposes in Teochew.

See also

• List of Chinese dialects

External links

• GagiNang
• Omniglot