Consonants

Vowels

Codas

Onsets

All the consonants except for the glottal stop ʔ shown in the consonants chart above can act as the onset of a syllable; however, the onset position is not obligatorily occupied.

Finals

Teochew finals consist maximally of a medial, nucleus and coda. The medial can be /i-/ or /u-/, the nucleus can be a monophthong or diphthong, and the coda can be a nasal or a stop. A syllable must consist minimally of a vowel nucleus or syllabic nasal.

In most dialects of Teochew, historical codas -n and -t are merged with -ŋ and -k. They were still present in mainstream Teochew in the 19th century, but now they are found only in certain peripheral dialects of Teochew, as well as in Hai Lok Hong Min.^[12]

Chaozhou /ieng/ and /iek/ are used in syllables that previously had /ien/ and /iet/, e.g. 顯 is different from 響 in Chaozhou (as /hieŋ˥˧/ and /hiaŋ˥˧/) and Hokkien (as /hien˥˧/ and /hiaŋ˥˧/), but not Swatow (both are /hiaŋ˥˧/).

Apart from the aforementioned rhymes, there are a few limitedly used finals with both glottal stop and nazalization, usually found in ideophones and interjections, e.g. he̍hⁿ 嚇 /hẽʔ˥˦/ "agitated; confused", hauhⁿ 殽 /hãũʔ˧˨/ "to eat in large bites", khuàhⁿ-ua̍hⁿ 快活 /kʰũãʔ˨˩˨꜒꜔.ũãʔ˥˦/ "comfortable".

Northern Teochew

Northern Teochew dialects are not too different from each other in their tones. There are small differences in pronunciation of the tone ⑦, which can vary between low falling (21 ˨˩) and low level (22 ˨) among different dialects and individual speakers.^[8][13]

There are minor differences in tone sandhi among the Northern Teochew dialects:^[13]

• The most important difference is that the dark departing tone (③) becomes high falling (53 ˥˧) in Chaozhou and Jieyang and high level (55 ˥) in Shantou and Raoping.
• In Chaozhou, the two level tones (① and ⑤) become slightly rising in sandhi (34 ˧˦ and 23 ˨˧ respectively), rather than level (33 ˧ and 22 ˨ ~ 21 ˨˩) as in other dialects.
• In Jieyang and Chaozhou, the tones ②, ③, and ④ have two pronunciations, one being slighly higher (35 ˧˥, 53 ˥˧, 54 ˥˦), used before syllables with high-onset tones (⑤ 55 ˥, ② 53 ˥˧, and ⑧ 54 ˥˦), and another one slightly lower (24 ˨˦, 42 ˦˨, 43 ˦˧), used before all other tones. In Shantou and Raoping, these tones have the same post-sandhi value regardless of the next syllable's tone.

The light departing tone (⑦) after sandhi is usually merged with the post-sandhi tone ⑤ or ⑥, depending on the dialect. For convenience, since the difference between them is still not large, all three light tones after sandhi may be described as identical and equal to pre-sandhi tone ⑦. The sandhi rules for Northern Teochew may be simplified as follows:

Southern Teochew

Southern Teochew tones are noticeably diverse. Based on their tones, the Southern Teochew dialects can be divided into two broad areas: Teoyeo and Hui-Pou.^[8][14]

Currently, a tone shift is ongoing in the Teoyeo dialect. There is a continuum between the "old accent" and "new accent". This shift is more advanced in urban dialects in Eastern Chaoyang (incl. Haojiang, especially the Dahao dialect), among female speakers, and in the younger generations (born after 1980s). The principal features of this shift are as follows:^[8]

• Dark level tone (①) shifts from 21 ˨˩ to 31 ˧˩.
• Light level tone (⑤) shifts from high level 44 ˦ to mid-level 33 ˧ or mid-rising 23 ˨˧.
• Dark rising tone (②) shifts from high fallig 551 ˥˥˩ to high level 55 ˥, and in urban Eastern Teoyeo dialects it can even become high rising 45 ˦˥ or 35 ˧˥.
• Dark departing tone (③) and light departing tone (⑦) are falling in a "parallel" pattern (53 ˥˧ and 42 ˦˨ respectively) in the old accent, while in the new accent they are still falling, but the light departing tone (⑦) is more "flat" (52 ˥˨ and 43 ˦˧~44 ˦ respectively).

"Old" Teoyeo accent is notable for the fact that out of its five non-checked tones, four tones have falling contour.^[15]

Hui-Pou dialects are more homogeneous in their tones than Teoyeo dialects. Puning and Eastern Huilai dialects have 8 tones, while Central and Western Huilai have 7 tones (tone ⑦ is merged with other tones). Some of the Huilai dialects undergo tone shift similar to that in Teoyeo dialects, but to a lesser extent (particularly, tone ② becomes high level 55 rather than high falling 53).

Neutral tone

Like Hokkien, Teochew has the neutral tone. In pronunciation, the neutral tone is considered to be identical to the light departing tone (⑦) in the respective dialect, but when the original tone of the syllable was dark rising (②), the neutral tone is identical to the dark departing tone (③), and when the original tone was an entering tone (④ or ⑧), the neutral tone is identical to the dark entering tone (④).

Some works refer to the neutral tone as "left-dominant tone sandhi". However, unlike the general ("right-dominant") Teochew tone sandhi, which is a regular phonetic change, the neutral tone is lexical and its occurrence cannot be predicted. Compare the following examples with the morpheme nî 年 ni⁵ "year", where some words have the neutral tone, while others preserve the original tone.^[16]

tsâiⁿ--nî 前年 zain⁵ ni⁵ "year before last"

ău--nî 後年 ao⁶ ni⁵ "year after next"

tuā-tsâiⁿ--nî 大前年 dua⁷ zain⁵ ni⁵ "three years ago"

jĭ-káu--nî 二九年 ri⁶ gao² ni⁵ "year 29"

but:

kim-nî 今年 gim¹ ni⁵ "this year"

kū-nî 舊年 gu⁷ ni⁵ "last year"

mê-nî 明年 mên⁵ ni⁵ "next year"

jĭ-tsa̍p-ngŏu-nî 二十五年 ri⁶ zab⁸ ngou⁶ ni⁵ "25 years"

Pronouns

Numerals

Some numerals in Teochew have two variants: the literary one and the vernacular one.

Generally, vernacular variants are used, and literary readings are limited to certain set compounds and idioms, e.g.: Sam-kok 三國, ngóu-kim 五金, kiú-siau 九霄, ngóu-tsháiⁿ-phiang-hung 五彩繽紛, sam-sṳ-jṳ̂-kiâⁿ 三思而行, kiú-liû-sam-kàu 九流三教, etc.

However, literary forms of 一 and 二 are more commonly used, particularly in the following cases:

• for the last digit in compound numbers:

tsa̍p ik 十一 zab8 ig4 "eleven"

saⁿ tsa̍p jĭ 三十二 san1 zab8 ri6 "thirty two"

• for counting tens (but not hundreds or thousands) in compound numbers

jĭ tsa̍p ik 二十一 ri6 zab8 ig4 "twenty one"

but:

tse̍k peh 一百 zêg8 bêh4 "one hundred"

nŏ tshoiⁿ 兩千 no6 coin1 "two thousands"

• in ordinal numbers, names for days, and dates

tŏiⁿ jĭ 第二 doin6 ri6 "second"

tsheⁿ khî ik 星期一 cên1 ki5 ig4 "Monday"

tsiaⁿ gue̍h tshiu ik 正月初一 zian1 ghuêh8 ciu1 ig4 "first day of the Lunar New Year"

jĭ-khàng-iau-poih-nî jĭ-gue̍h jĭ-hō 2018年二月二號 ri6 kang3 iao1 boih4 ni5 ri6 ghuêh8 ri6 ho7 "February 2, 2018"

Comparative construction with two or more nouns

Teochew, like Cantonese but unlike Hokkien, uses the construction "X ADJ kuè 過 guê3 Y", to express the comparison:

伊	雅	過	汝。
i	ngiá	kuè	lṳ́
i1	ngia2	guê3	le2
s/he	beautiful	EXCEED	you
"She is more beautiful than you."

(cf. Cantonese 佢靚過你; keoi5 leng3 gwo3 nei5)

However, due to modern influences from Mandarin, the Mandarin structure "X 比 Y ADJ" has also gained popularity over the years. Therefore, the same sentence can be re-structured and becomes:

伊	比	汝	雅。
i	pí	lṳ́	ngiá
i1	bi2	le2	ngia2
s/he	COMPARE	you	beautiful
"She is more beautiful than you."

(cf. Mandarin 她比你漂亮; tā bǐ nǐ piàoliang)

Comparative construction with only one noun

The 過- or 比-construction must involve two or more nouns to be compared; an ill-formed sentence will be yielded when only one is being mentioned:

* 伊雅過 (?)

Teochew is different from English, where the second noun being compared can be left out ("Tatyana is more beautiful (than Lisa)". In cases like this, the 夭-construction must be used instead:

伊	夭	雅。
i	iău	ngiá
i1	iau6	ngia2
s/he	comparatively	beautiful
"She is more beautiful."

The same holds true for Mandarin and Cantonese in that another structure needs to be used when only one of the nouns being compared is mentioned. Teochew and Mandarin both use a pre-modifier (before the adjective) while Cantonese uses a post-modifier (after the adjective).

• Mandarin

• Cantonese

There are two words which are intrinsically comparative in meaning, i.e. iâⁿ 贏 ian5 "to win" and su 輸 su1 "to lose". They can be used alone or in conjunction with the 過-structure:

只	領	裙	輸	(過)	許	領。
tsí	niá	kûng	su	(kuè)	hṳ́	niá
zi2	nian2	gung5	su1	(guê3)	he2	nian2
"This skirt is not as good as that one."

我	內	個	電腦	贏	伊	個	好	濟。
uá	lăi	kâi	tiĕng-náu	iâⁿ	i	kâi	hoh	tsōi
ua2	lai6	gai5	diêng6 nao2	ian5	i1	gai5	hoh4	zoi7
"My computer (at home) is far better than his."

Note the use of the adverbial hoh tsōi 好濟 hoh4 zoi7 at the end of the sentence to express a higher degree.

Equal construction

In Teochew, the idea of equality is expressed with the word pêⁿ 平 bên5 or pêⁿ-iōⁿ 平樣 bên5 ion7:

只	本	書	佮	許	本	平	重。
tsí	púng	tsṳ	kah	hṳ́	púng	pêⁿ	tăng
zi2	bung2	ze1	gah4	he2	bung2	bên5	dang6
"This book is as heavy as that one."

伊	兩	儂	平	平樣。
i	nŏ	nâng	pêⁿ	pêⁿ-iōⁿ
i1	no6	nang5	bên5	bên5 ion7
"They are the same."

("They look the same/They're as good as each other/They're as bad as each other"; lit. "The two people are the same same way")

Superlative construction

To express the superlative, Teochew uses the adverb siăng 上 siang6 or siăng-téng 上頂 siang6 dêng2. The latter variant is usually used with a complimentary connotation.

只	間	物	上頂	好食。
tsí	koiⁿ	mue̍h	siăng-téng	hó-tsia̍h
zi2	goin1	muêh8	siang6 dêng2	ho2 ziah8
"This (restaurant) is (absolutely) the most delicious."

伊儂	對	我	上	好。
i-nâng	tùi	uá	siăng	hó
i1 nang5	dui3	ua2	siang6	ho2
"They treat me best." lit. "The people treat me very well."