Min-nan (閩南(語); native name Bân-lâm(-gú)) literally means "Southern Min (language)", that is, the local language (sometimes categorized under the Min dialect) of which variants are spoken in southern Fujian province and eastern Guangdong province (Mainland China), on Taiwan and in the Overseas Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. In Taiwan it also has the native name of Hō-ló-oē.
There are four main variants of Min-nan corresponding to the areas of Amoy (Xiamen), Changchew (Zhangzhou), and Chinchew (Quanzhou), and Teochew (Chaozhou).
Tones
Min-nan retains seven of the eight Middle Chinese tones, namely:
- Yin-ping (44)
- Shang-sheng (51)
- Yin-qu (31)
- Yin-ru (3)
- Yang-ping (24)
- (same as 2)
- Yang-qu (33)
- Yang-ru (5)
The numbers given are tone contours where 1 is the lowest and 5 is highest
See Taiwanese language for a more extensive description for Taiwan variant thereof.
The language is registered per RFC 3066 as zh-min-nan [1].