Hainanese

Hainanese
Hainanese
Qiongwen, Hainan Min
海南話, Hhai3 nam2 ue1, Hái-nâm-oe
Pronunciation	[hai˨˩˧ nam˨˩ ue˨˧] (Haikou dialect)
Native to	China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand
Region	Hainan
Ethnicity	Hainanese (Han Chinese subgroup)
Native speakers	Around 5 million in China (2002)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min? Qiong–Lei Hainanese; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese Proto-Min ; ;
Dialects	Haikou; Wenchang;
Writing system	Chinese characters[citation needed] Hainanese Pinyin Bǽh-oe-tu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hnm
Glottolog	hain1238
Linguasphere	79-AAA-k
	Hainanese
	Varieties of the Hainanese spoken in Hainan.
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Hainanese is a variety of Min Chinese spoken on the island of Hainan and by regional overseas Chinese communities.

In the classification by Yuan Jiahua, used by Ethnologue, it is part of the Southern Min group despite being mutually unintelligible with Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien and Teochew. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it is treated as a separate Min subgroup. Hou Jingyi combines it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group.

The term "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but it generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

Phonology

The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent, with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference.

Consonants

Below is a table for the consonants of Hainanese across the dialects of Wenchang, Haikou and the dialect of Banqiao Town, in Dongfang. For more information on a specific variety, please consult the relevant article.

		Labial	Dental		Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	/p/ 爸 pa	/t/ 洗 toi			/k/ 公 kong	/ʔ/ 啊 a
	aspirated	/pʰ/ 婆 pho	/tʰ/			/kʰ/ 去 khu
	voiced	/b/	/d/			/g/ 我 gua
	implosive	/ɓ/ 北 ɓak	/ɗ/ 茶 ɗei			(/ɠ/)
Affricate	voiceless			/ts/	/tɕ/ 食 tsia
	aspirated			/tsʰ/
	voiced			/dz/	/dʑ/ 日 jit
Fricative	voiceless	/ɸ/ 皮 fi	/θ/	/s/ 事 sei	/ɕ/	/x/	/h/ 海 hai
Fricative	voiced	/v/ 文 vun		/z/ 欲 zok			/ɦ/
Nasal		/m/ 目 mak	/n/ 念 niam			/ŋ/ 乐 ngak
Approximant		/w/ 发 wat	/l/ 老 lao		/j/ 肉 yok

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Present in the Banqiao dialect.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Present in the Haikou dialect.
1 2 3 4 Present in the Wenchang dialect, where there is a phonemic distinction between voiced and implosive stop consonants.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Present in the Wenchang dialect.
↑ Not usually transcribed as /ɠ/, and not phonemically distinct from /g/ in the Wenchang dialect or from /ŋ/ in other Hainanese varieties.

Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min.

The consonant system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular:

Etymological plain stops have undergone implosivization (*p > [ɓ], *t > [ɗ]) in the more innovative varieties such as Wenchang and Haikou.
Etymological aspirated stops have spirantized (*pʰ > [ɸ], *tʰ > [h], *tsʰ > [ɕ], *kʰ > [h~x]) in more innovative varieties.
The lenition of an historic *b into [v] in Banqiao and Haikou, though not in Wenchang.
Former *s has hardened into a stop (*s > [t]), although in the more conservative Banqiao dialect some instances have only undergone fortition to (*s > [θ]), and others have remained [s].
Former *h has become [ɦ] in Wenchang.

Additionally, [ʑ] is an allophone of /j/.

These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.

Chinese character	Mandarin	Taiwanese Hokkien	Haikou Hainanese	Sino-Vietnamese
邪	xié	siâ	dia2	da
仙	xiān	sian	din1	tiên
散	sàn	suànn	dan4	tàn
跡	jì	jiak	di1	tích
神	shén	sîn	din2	thần
痴	chī	chi	si1	si

Vowels

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels.^{[citation needed]}

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/		/u/
Close-mid	/e/		/o/
Open-mid	/ɛ/		/ɔ/
Open		/a/

Tones

Tone chart of the Hainan dialect
Tone number	Tone name	Tone contour	Example
1	yin ping (阴平)	˨˦ (24)	诗
2	yang ping (阳平)	˨˩ (21)	时
3	yin shang (阴上)	˨˩˩ (211)	死
4	yin qu (阴去)	˧˥ (35)	四
5	yang qu (阳去)	˧ (33)	是
6	yin ru (阴入)	˥ (5)	失
7	yang ru (阳入)	˧ (3)	实
8	chang ru (长入)	˥ (55)	视

Romanization

Hainanese Pinyin

Hainanese Pinyin (海南话拼音方案) is a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It marks tones with numbers.

Initials

IPA	Hainanese Pinyin	Bǽh-oe-tu	Example
/ɓ/	b	b	北
/p/	b	p	波
/pʰ/	p	ph	坡
/ɸ/	p	f	皮
/m/	m	m	摩
/b/	v	b	?
/v/	v	v	无
/t/	d	t	装
/ɗ/	dd	d	刀
/n/	n	n	挪
/l/	l	l	罗
/k/	g	k	哥
/ŋ/	ng	g	俄
/x/	h	kh	可
/h/	hh	h	号
/ɠ/	gh	g	我
/ts/	z	c	支
/s/	s	s	妻
/z/	y	j	余

Finals

IPA	Hainanese Pinyin	Bǽh-oe-tu	Example
/a/	a	a	亚
/o/	o	o	荷
/ɛ/	e	e	摩
/i/	i	i	医
/u/	u	u	呜
ai	ai	ai	哀
ɔi	oi	oi	鞋
au	ao	au	喉
ia	ia	ia	也
iɔ	io	io	腰
ua	ua	oa	换
ue	ue	oe	话
ui	ui	oi	威
uai	uai	oai	坏
ɔu	ou	ou	黑
iu	iu	iu	柚
iau	iao	iau	妖
iam	iam	iam	厌
im	im	im	音
am	am	am	暗
an	an	an	安
in	in	in	烟
un	un	un	温
uan	uan	oan	弯
aŋ	ang	ag	红
eŋ	eng	eg	英
ɔŋ	ong	og	翁
iaŋ	iang	iag	央
uaŋ	uang	oag	汪
iɔŋ	iong	iog	匈
ip	ib	ib	邑
iap	iab	iab	协
at	ad	at	遏
it	id	it	乙
ut	ud	ut	核
uat	uad	oat	挖
ak	ag	ak	鹤
ek	eg	ek	益
ok	og	ok	喔
iok	iog	iok	育
uak	uag	oak	廓
-ʔ	-h	-h	不

Grammar

Hainanese is known for having post-verbal locative prepositional phrases, as opposed to having such phrases in the pre-verbal position, as is common in most other varieties of Chinese. For example:

伊

ʔi²⁴

3SG

大聲

ɗua²⁴ tia²⁴

loudly

啼

hi²¹

cry

佇

ɗu³³

in

房裡

ɓaŋ²¹-lɛ³³

room-LOC

(Haikou)

He was crying loudly in the room.

This has been attributed to contact with the Kra–Dai languages of Hainan, such as Hlai and Be.

Notes

↑ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.
↑ or Hainamese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, Hainanese Pinyin: Hhai3 nam2 ue1, simplified Chinese: 海南话; traditional Chinese: 海南話; pinyin: Hǎinánhuà), also known as Kengbun/Kengvun (simplified Chinese: 琼文话; traditional Chinese: 瓊文話), Keng language (琼语; 瓊語) or Hainam Min (海南闽语; 海南閩語)

References

↑ Hou, Jingyi 侯精一 (2002). Xiàndài Hànyǔ fāngyán gàilùn 现代汉语方言概论 [An Introduction to Modern Chinese Dialects]. Shanghai Educational Press 上海教育出版社. pp. 207–208.
↑ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
↑ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
↑ "为新加坡琼属"寻根"的热心人——王振春". Hainan.gov (in Chinese). 中新海南网. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020. 他组织演出琼语话剧《海南四条街》，搬上新琼舞台，引起两地海南人的共鸣。
↑ Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2017). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (20th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Chinese, Min Nan.
↑ Kurpaska, Maria (2010). Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects". Walter de Gruyter. pp. 54–55, 86. ISBN 978-3-11-021914-2.
↑ Hou, Jingyi 侯精一 (2002). Xiàndài Hànyǔ fāngyán gàilùn 现代汉语方言概论 [An Introduction to Modern Chinese Dialects]. Shanghai Educational Press 上海教育出版社. p. 238.
1 2 3 4 Huang, Karen (2006). "Contact-induced changes in the languages of Hainan". Annual Student Conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature. University of Hawaii.
↑ "其中文昌话语音清晰，影响较大，被视为海南话的标准语，是海南广播电台、电视台与社会使用的主要方言。" From "《文昌县志·第二十九编社会习俗·第三章方言》". Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
↑ "Amaravati: Abode of Amritas: 08.6.20.23:50: HAINANESE 缩气音 'SHRUNKEN BREATH SOUNDS'". www.amritas.com. *Xu and Yang regard [g] (their gz) as an implosive, but it sounds like a regular [g] to me. I presume Li Fang-kuei also heard a regular [g], as he only reported two implosives in Haina[n]ese: [ɓ ɗ].
1 2 曾 [Zeng], 綉薇 [Xiuwei]; 郭 [Kwok], 必之 [Bit-chee] (6 August 2024). "從海南閩語動詞後的{在}類介詞短語看語言接觸中的句法借移". Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale (in Chinese). 54 (1): 60–96. doi:10.1163/19606028-bja10043. Retrieved 16 April 2025.

External links

Learn hainanese Archived 2018-07-01 at the Wayback Machine

[fnBQ-13] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Present in the Banqiao dialect.

[fnHaikou-14] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Present in the Haikou dialect.

[fnWCh1-15] 1 2 3 4 Present in the Wenchang dialect, where there is a phonemic distinction between voiced and implosive stop consonants.

[fnWCh2-16] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Present in the Wenchang dialect.

[Amritas-18] Not usually transcribed as /ɠ/, and not phonemically distinct from /g/ in the Wenchang dialect or from /ŋ/ in other Hainanese varieties.

[minClassification-5] Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.

[7] r Hainamese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, Hainanese Pinyin: Hhai3 nam2 ue1, simplified Chinese: 海南话; traditional Chinese: 海南話; pinyin: Hǎinánhuà), also known as Kengbun/Kengvun (simplified Chinese: 琼文话; traditional Chinese: 瓊文話), Keng language (琼语; 瓊語) or Hainam Min (海南闽语; 海南閩語)

[hou207-1] Hou, Jingyi 侯精一 (2002). Xiàndài Hànyǔ fāngyán gàilùn 现代汉语方言概论 [An Introduction to Modern Chinese Dialects]. Shanghai Educational Press 上海教育出版社. pp. 207–208.

[2] Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766

[3] Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8

[glottoMin-4] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.

[6] "为新加坡琼属"寻根"的热心人——王振春". Hainan.gov (in Chinese). 中新海南网. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020. 他组织演出琼语话剧《海南四条街》，搬上新琼舞台，引起两地海南人的共鸣。

[8] Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2017). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (20th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Chinese, Min Nan.

[9] Kurpaska, Maria (2010). Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects". Walter de Gruyter. pp. 54–55, 86. ISBN 978-3-11-021914-2.

[hou238-10] Hou, Jingyi 侯精一 (2002). Xiàndài Hànyǔ fāngyán gàilùn 现代汉语方言概论 [An Introduction to Modern Chinese Dialects]. Shanghai Educational Press 上海教育出版社. p. 238.

[Huang_2006-11] 1 2 3 4 Huang, Karen (2006). "Contact-induced changes in the languages of Hainan". Annual Student Conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature. University of Hawaii.

[wenchang_2015-12] "其中文昌话语音清晰，影响较大，被视为海南话的标准语，是海南广播电台、电视台与社会使用的主要方言。" From "《文昌县志·第二十九编社会习俗·第三章方言》". Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2023-10-23.

[17] "Amaravati: Abode of Amritas: 08.6.20.23:50: HAINANESE 缩气音 'SHRUNKEN BREATH SOUNDS'". www.amritas.com. *Xu and Yang regard [g] (their gz) as an implosive, but it sounds like a regular [g] to me. I presume Li Fang-kuei also heard a regular [g], as he only reported two implosives in Haina[n]ese: [ɓ ɗ].

[ZengKwok2024-19] 1 2 曾 [Zeng], 綉薇 [Xiuwei]; 郭 [Kwok], 必之 [Bit-chee] (6 August 2024). "從海南閩語動詞後的{在}類介詞短語看語言接觸中的句法借移". Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale (in Chinese). 54 (1): 60–96. doi:10.1163/19606028-bja10043. Retrieved 16 April 2025.