Hokkien

The Hokkien (/ˈhɒkiɛn/)[9] variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. In Chinese linguistics, these languages are known by their classification under the Quanzhang division (Chinese: 泉漳片; pinyin: Quánzhāng piàn) of Min Nan, which comes from the first characters of the two main Hokkien urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.

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Hokkien
Min Nan
閩南話 / 福建話 / 咱人話 / 福佬話 Bân-lâm-ōe / Hok-kiàn-ōe/ōa / Lán-lâng-ōe / Ho̍h-ló-ōe
Koa-á books, Hokkien written in Chinese characters
Region	East and Southeast Asia
Ethnicity	Hoklo
Native speakers	large fraction of 27.7 million Minnan speakers in mainland China (2018), 13.5 million in Taiwan (2017), 2.02 million in Malaysia (2000),[lower-alpha 1] 1.5 million in Singapore (2017),[2] 1 million in Philippines (2010), 766,000 in Indonesia (2015), 350,000 in Cambodia (2001), 70,500 in Hong Kong (2016), 17,600 in Thailand (1984), 13,300 in Brunei (2004)[3]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Hokkien
Dialects	Amoy/Xiamen Quanzhou Zhangzhou Longyan Taiwanese Singaporean Penang Medan Philippine Southern Peninsular Malaysian
Writing system	Chinese script (see written Hokkien) Latin script (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Official status
Official language in	Taiwan[4][5][6] (also a statutory language for public transport announcements in Taiwan)[7]
Regulated by	The Republic of China Ministry of Education and some NGOs are influential in Taiwan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nan for Southern Min (hbl is proposed[8])
Glottolog	hokk1242 fuki1235
Distribution of Southern Min languages. Quanzhang (Hokkien) is dark green.
Distribution of Quanzhang (Minnan Proper) dialects within Fujian Province and Taiwan. Lengna dialect (Longyan Min) is a variant of Southern Min that is spoken near the Hakka speaking region in Southwest Fujian.
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Hokkien is one of the national languages in Taiwan, and it is also widely spoken within the Chinese diaspora in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia; and by other overseas Chinese beyond Asia and all over the world. The Hokkien 'dialects' are not all mutually intelligible, but they are held together by ethnolinguistic identity. Taiwanese Hokkien is, however, mutually intelligible with the 2 to 3 million speakers in Xiamen and Singapore.[10]

In Southeast Asia, Hokkien historically served as the lingua franca amongst overseas Chinese communities of all dialects and subgroups, and it remains today as the most spoken variety of Chinese in the region, including in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and some parts of Indochina (particularly Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia).[11] The Betawi Malay language, spoken by some five million people in and around the Indonesian capital Jakarta, includes numerous Hokkien loanwords due to the significant influence of the Chinese Indonesian diaspora, most of whom are of Hokkien ancestry and origin.