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Min
閩語/闽语
Geographic distribution:	Mainland China: Fujian, Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou and Leizhou peninsula), Hainan, Zhejiang-Shengsi, Putuo and Wenzhou, Jiangsu- Liyang and Jiangyin; Taiwan (Overseas, United States-New York City)
Linguistic classification:	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min
Subdivisions:	Min Bei Min Dong Min Zhong Puxian Min Min Nan

A map of the primary varieties of Min.

Mǐn or Miin^[1] (simplified Chinese: 闽语; traditional Chinese: 閩語; pinyin: Mǐn yǔ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bân gú; BUC: Mìng ngṳ̄) is the name of a broad group of Chinese languages spoken by 60 million people in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this province in Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou, or Chaoshan area, and the Leizhou peninsula), Hainan, three counties in southern Zhejiang, and Zhoushan archipelago off Ningbo, and some towns in Liyang and Jiangyin city in Jiangsu province, and Taiwan. There are many Min speakers also among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in New York City in the United States. The most widely spoken variety of Min outside Fujian (the Min Province) is Hokkien, which includes Taiwanese and Amoy, amongst other dialects; while in Fujian, Min Dong is considered the standard. The Min dialects preserve many of the archaic pronunciations of Old Chinese.^{[2][not in citation given]}

Varieties[link]

Min has greater dialectal diversity than any other division of Chinese. It is typically divided, on the basis of mutual intelligibility, into five to nine languages, such as Min Dong (Eastern Min) and Min Nan (Southern Min). Phylogenetically, there is a primary split between an Inland Min group consisting of Shao-Jiang Min (disputed), Min Bei, and Min Zhong and a Coastal Min consisting of Min Dong, Pu-Xian Min, Min Nan, and Qiong Wen. Shaojiang Min may also be classified as an outgroup within Min Chinese branching off first from the other Min languages.

Min Dong is centered around the city of Fuzhou (Fuzhou dialect is the standard dialect of Min Dong), capital of Fujian province, while Min Nan is dominant in the south of Fujian and into eastern Guangdong. Pu-Xian Min originated as a Min Nan dialect which underwent major phonological influence from Fuzhou Min Dong. Similarly, Qiong Wen, spoken in Hainan, is sometimes classed as a separate language; it originated from a Min Nan dialect that underwent major phonological shifts over time.

Min-Nan is also called by the name of its regional variants in the places it is spoken, especially Taiwanese. The Amoy dialect of Xiamen is the prestige dialect of Min Nan in mainland China and Taiwan, with Teochew also being an important variety.

Glossika divides the Min languages into eight: Northern Min (Min Bei in Nanping prefecture in Fujian, but Jian'ou dialect is the standard dialect of Min Bei), Shaojiang (eastern Nanping and surrounding areas; in broader classifications treated as a dialect of Min Bei), Eastern Min (Min Dong in Fuzhou and Ningde prefectures), Central Min (Min Zhong in Sanming prefecture), Puxian Min in Putian prefecture, Southern Min (Min Nan in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen (Amoy) prefectures and on Taiwan (Hokkien dialect), and in eastern Guangdong province (Teochew dialect); Hokkien and Teochew are sometimes considered separate languages), Leizhou (on the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong), and Hainanese (on Hainan Island; in broader classifications Leizhou and Hainanese are treated as a Qiongwen language or as dialects of Min Nan).

The Southern Min language in Guangdong is known as Hoklo, in Hainan as Qiong Wen or Qiongzhou hua (though some class Qiong Wen as a separate sub-group). Min Nan is the dominant Chinese dialect spoken by the Chinese minority in the Philippines, where it is known as Lan-nang. In Taiwan, Min Nan is known as Hō-ló-oē and is spoken by the majority of the population as their native language. In Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other areas in Southeast Asia, Min Nan is known as Hokkien, in addition to the Teochew variant, originating in the Chaoshan region, which is the ancestral home of many ethnic Chinese in Singapore as well as in Bangkok, Thailand (see Thai Chinese for more information about the Chinese community in Thailand).

History[link]

There are controversies among scholars about when Min Chinese was initially formed. But it is generally consensus that several huge immigrations from Zhongyuan greatly shaped and influenced Min Chinese. By the Middle Chinese period, Min Chinese had already split off,^[3] just like Ba-Shu Chinese.

• In 308 AD (晋永嘉二年), a big immigration from north to south happened in China because of Wu Hu uprising (more commonly referred in Chinese as 永嘉之乱). Sanshanzhi (三山志) stated that the population in Jinjiang county almost doubled. The tide of immigration brought the Chinese spoken in Jin Dynasty to Fujian.^[4][5]
• In 669 AD, Chen Zheng and his son Chen Yuanguang from Gushi County in Henan set up a regional administration in Fujian and governed the area of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou for four generations.^[6] They brought with them the Chinese spoken in early Tang Dynasty.
• During Tang Dynasty, following the development of Imperial examination (科舉), Qieyun's vowel system was introduced into Min Chinese.^[7]
• At the end of Tang Dynasty, in 892 AD, Wang Chao was appointed jiedushi of Fujian and his brother Wang Shenzhi founded Min Kingdom in 909 AD following the fall of Tang Dynasty. Min Kingdom was one of the Ten Kingdoms in Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi were also from Gushi County in Henan and the Chinese spoken in late Tang Dynasty entered Fujian.

Writing system[link]

When using Chinese characters to write a non-Mandarin form, standard practice is to use characters that correspond etymologically to the words being represented, and to invent new characters for words with no evident ancient Chinese etymology or in some cases for alternative pronunciations of existing characters, especially when the meaning is significantly different. Written Cantonese has carried this process out to the farther extent of any non-Mandarin variety, to the extent that pure Cantonese vernacular can be unambiguously written using Chinese characters. Contrary to popular belief, a vernacular written in this fashion is not in general comprehensible to a Mandarin speaker, due to significant changes in grammar and vocabulary and the necessary use of large number of non-Mandarin characters.

A similar process has never taken place for any of the Min languages and there is no standard system for writing Min, although some specialized characters have been created. Given that Min combines Chinese languages from several different periods and contains some non-Chinese vocabulary, one may have trouble finding the appropriate Chinese characters for some Min vocabulary. In the case of Taiwanese, there are also indigenous words loaned from the Taiwanese aborigines, as well as a substantial number of loan words from Japanese. In Singapore and Malaysia, the Min variants spoken have borrowed heavily from Malay and to a lesser extent, from English and other languages. The result is that cases of Min languages written purely in Chinese characters do not represent actual Min speech, but contain a heavy mixture of Mandarin forms.

Attempts to faithfully represent Min speech necessarily rely on romanization, i.e. representation using Latin characters. Some Min speakers use the Church Romanization (Chinese: 教會羅馬字; pinyin: Jiaohui Luomazi). For Min Nan the romanization is called Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) and for Min Dong called Bàng-uâ-cê (BUC). Both systems were created by foreign missionaries in the 19th century (see Min Nan and Min Dong Wikipedia). There are some uncommon publications in mixed writing, using mostly Chinese characters but using the Latin alphabet to represent words that cannot easily be represented by Chinese characters.

See also[link]

• List of Chinese dialects

Notes[link]

1. ^ While it is usually classified with Minbei, sometimes it's excluded from Min and classified as Gan instead

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Branner, David Prager (2000). Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka. Trends in Linguistics series, no. 123. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-015831-0. 
• DeBernardi, J. E. (1991). "Linguistic nationalism--the case of Southern Min". Order from Dept. of Oriental Studies, University of Pennsylvania.. 

External links[link]

Min Nan edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Min Dong edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Classification of Min Dialects
• Min Bei Chinese at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Min Dong Chinese at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Min Nan Chinese at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Min Zhong Chinese at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Pu-Xian Chinese at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Seaside Min Language Forum (Chinese)

Li Min (Chinese: 李敏; pinyin: Lǐ Mǐn; born 1936 in Zhidan, Yan'an, Shaanxi with family roots in Xiangtan, Hunan), original name Mao Jiaojiao (Chinese: 毛姣姣; pinyin: Máo Jiāojiāo), is the daughter of Mao Zedong, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the Peoples' Republic of China and his second (or third) wife, He Zizhen. Her surname is Li rather than Mao, because Mao had changed his name to "Li Desheng" (simplified Chinese: 李德胜; traditional Chinese: 李德勝; pinyin: Lǐ Déshèng) for a period of time to prevent from being chased by Kuomintang army during the Chinese Civil War.

Biography[link]

She married Kong Linghua (simplified Chinese: 孔令华; traditional Chinese: 孔令華; pinyin: Kǒng Lìnghuá) in 1959. She has one son, Kong Jining (simplified Chinese: 孔继宁; traditional Chinese: 孔繼寧; pinyin: Kǒng Jìníng) and one daughter, Kong Dongmei (simplified Chinese: 孔东梅; traditional Chinese: 孔東梅; pinyin: Kǒng Dōngméi).

Li Min was a member of the 10th National Congress of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^[1]

Notes[link]

Ma Long at the 2009 World Championships in Yokohama, Japan.
Personal information
Nationality	China
Playing style	Righted-handed, shakehand grip
Highest ranking	1 (Current)[1]
Born	(1988-10-20) October 20, 1988 (age 23)[2] Liaoning, China
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)[3]
Weight	70 kg (150 lb; 11 st)[3]
Medal record Men's table tennis Competitor for  China World Championships Gold 2012 Dortmund Team Bronze 2011 Rotterdam Singles Gold 2011 Rotterdam Doubles Gold 2010 Moscow Team Bronze 2009 Yokohama Singles Silver 2009 Yokohama Doubles Gold 2008 Guangzhou Team Gold 2006 Bremen Team World Cup Gold 2011 Magdeburg Team Gold 2010 Dubai Team Bronze 2009 Moscow Singles Gold 2009 Linz Team Bronze 2008 Liege Singles Asian Championships Gold 2012 Macau Singles Bronze 2012 Macau Doubles Gold 2012 Macau Team Gold 2009 Lucknow Singles Gold 2009 Lucknow Doubles Gold 2009 Lucknow Mixed Doubles Gold 2009 Lucknow Team Silver 2007 Yangzhou Singles Gold 2007 Yangzhou Doubles Gold 2007 Yangzhou Team Bronze 2005 Jeju-do Mixed Doubles Gold 2005 Jeju-dаккакo Team

Ma Long (simplified Chinese: 马龙; traditional Chinese: 馬龍; pinyin: Mǎ Lóng; born October 20, 1988 in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, China) is a male table tennis player.^[2] He is now ranked 1° as of January, 2012 in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).^[1] Ma Long has won a record 5 ITTF Pro Tour tournaments in a row. In this streak he has won 35 sets in a row. He is the only player to win a tournament without dropping a set (Swedish open 2011.).

Equipment[link]

Ma Long currently uses a custom made DHS PG-7 FL with a DHS Skyline III National Version (blue sponge, black) for his forehand and a Butterfly Tenergy 05(red) for his backhand

Career records[link]

Singles (as of March 4, 2012)^[4]

• World Championships: SF (2009, 11).
• World Cup appearances: 2. Record: 3rd (2008, 09).
• Pro Tour winner (13): Kuwait, German Open 2007; Korea, Singapore Open 2008; Danish, Kuwait, China (Suzhou), English Open 2009; German Open 2010; China (Suzhou), Austrian, Swedish Open 2011; Hungarian Open 2012.
  Runner-up (6): German Open 2005; Japan, Swedish Open 2007; UAE, China (Shenzen) Open 2011; Slovenian Open 2012.
• Pro Tour Grand Finals appearances: 5. Record: winner (2008, 2009, 2011); SF (2007).
• Asian Games: winner (2010).
• Asian Championships: winner (2009, 12); runner-up (2007).
• Asian Cup: 1sкккп (2008, 09, 11).
• World Junior Championships: winner (2004).

Men's Doubles

• World Championships: winner (2011); runner-up (2009).
• Pro Tour winner (11): China (Harbin) Open 2005; Slovenian Open 2006; Swedish Open 2007; Danish, Qatar, English Open 2009; Kuwait, German Open 2010; China (Shenzen), Austrian Open 2011; Slovenian Open 2012.
  Runner-up (7): China (Shenzhen) Open 2005; Singapore Open 2006; China (Shenzhen) Open 2007; Qatar, Korea Open 2008; Kuwait Open 2009; China (Suzhou) Open 2011.
• Pro Tour Grand Finals appearances: 3. Record: winner (2006); runner-up (2011); SF (2007).
• Asian Games: SF (2006).
• Asian Championships: winner (2007, 09); SF (2012).

Mixed Doubles

• Asian Games: QF (2006).
• Asian Championships: winner (2009); SF (2005).

Team

• World Championships: 1st (2006, 08, 10).
• World Team Cup: 1st (2009, 10, 11).
• Asian Games: 1st (2006, 10).
• Asian Championships: 1st (2005, 07, 09, 12).

Other

• Winning Streak: He went unbeaten for 40 single matches by December 2011.^[5]

References[link]

• Career profile of Ma Long Table Tennis Master

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