Hokkien phonology
is a Southern Min language spoken in southern Fujian and Taiwan. It has one of the most diverse phoneme inventories among Sinitic languages.
Along with other Min languages, which are not directly descended from Middle Chinese, Hokkien is of considerable interest to historical linguists for reconstructing Old Chinese.
This article uses Pe̍h-ōe-jī and IPA for transcription.
Syllables
A syllable in Hokkien consists of an initial, a final, and a tone.In total, Hokkien uses around 800 toneless combinations of initials and finals, and around 2250~2450 total syllables with tones.
The number of syllables in Hokkien is far greater than in any other Sinitic language. For comparison, Cantonese and Hokchew use around 1800 toned syllables, Beijing Mandarin has 1350 syllables, and Suzhou Wu has only 1100 syllables.
Initials
Hokkien has aspirated, unaspirated as well as voiced consonant initials.A total of 15 initials are used in Hokkien. This number does not include the three nasal consonants, which are usually considered allophones of the non-nasal voiced initials. This allophony also leads to a notable feature of the Hokkien accent in other languages, such as Japanese or Mandarin, when the nasal sounds like are denasalized into non-nasal voiced consonants like .
Syllables starting with vowels or approximants are considered to have the zero initial /∅/.
Affricates and fricatives are palatalized before, becoming,, ~,.
The phoneme /l/ in Hokkien has many possible articulations. It ranges between , , and . Its nasal allophone is uniformly described as . In directly-borrowed loanwords, foreign /d/ may be represented with Hokkien /l/: , , ,.
As a phoneme, /dz/ is found predominantly in southern dialects of Hokkien. In many northern dialects, such as urban Quanzhou and Amoy, it has merged with /l/. This merger is still incomplete in some peripheral northern dialects, such as those of Tong'an or Yongchun, where /dz/ is reported to be present in some localities, in the speech of older speakers, or in a limited set of words. Some Southern Hokkien and Lengna dialects merge /dz/ with /g/.
While generally preserving /dz/, Zhangzhou Hokkien may still merge it with /l/ in some words, usually before /-u-/. E.g., characters like jūn 'wet', joán 'soft', jǒa 'how much' are now pronounced lūn, loán, lǒa even in Zhangzhou, although older Hokkien dictionaries record them with /dz/.
Finals
A final in Hokkien consists of a nucleus, with an optional medial and coda.There are around 80 to 90 finals in Hokkien. The exact number can vary depending on the specific dialect, as well as the inclusion of marginal finals from onomatopoeia and contractions. Lengna Min, which is sometimes included in Hokkien, has around 60 finals, due to the loss of the /-ʔ/ coda.
In the tables below, rare rimes used in a small number of words are shaded. Finals used only in the northern or southern dialects of Hokkien are marked with N and S respectively.
Open-vowel finals
Finals with the coda /-ʔ/ are considered to be the checked tone counterparts for the open-vowel finals.| rowspan="3" | zero medial | -a | -o̤ N | -o͘ or | -o | -e or | -ɛ S | -ṳ N | -ai | -au | |
| /-i-/ | -ia | -i | -io | -iu | -iau | - | |||||
| /-u-/ | -oa | -u | -oe | -ui | -oai | - | |||||
| rowspan="3" | zero medial | -ah | -o̤h N | -o͘ h | -oh | -eh NS | -ɛh S | -ṳh N | -auh | ||
| /-i-/ | -iah | -ih | -io͘ h S | -ioh | -iuh | -iauh | - | ||||
| /-u-/ | -oah | -uh | -oeh NS | -uih N | - |
The vowel -a is usually.
The vowel ɛ is only found in Southern dialects of Hokkien.
The final -o͘ is realized as a diphthong -ou in many rural Zhangzhou dialects, similarly to Teochew. Likewise, many of those dialects diphthongize -e into -ei. Some dialects, such as Zhangpu, realize them as triphthongs and. Changtai dialect uniquely pronounces general Hokkien -o͘ as. However, it still uses the vowel, mainly in place of general Hokkien.
-o̤ and -ṳ are found in many Northern Hokkien dialects, including Quanzhou and Tong'an. In Amoy, Jinjiang and among some younger urban Quanzhou speakers, -o̤ is merged with /e/. Similarly, the final -ṳ may be merged with /i/ or /u/ in those dialects. These two finals are not found in Southern dialects of Hokkien.
Chawan dialect in Zhangzhou also has -o̤ and -ṳ. Thus, Chawan distinguishes the following finals: -ɛ, -o̤, and -ei . The dialects of Yunxiao and rural Dongshan are notable for having -ɛ, -e and -ei as distinct finals.
In Northern Hokkien dialects where the final -o̤ is present, it is generally realized as , and -o is realized as . In dialects where -o̤ is absent, is a possible realization of -o.
| rowspan="3" | zero medial | -aⁿ | -o͘ ⁿ or | -eⁿ N | -ɛⁿ S | -aiⁿ | -auⁿ | -m | -ng | ||
| /-i-/ | -iaⁿ | -iⁿ | -io͘ ⁿ S | -iuⁿ NS | -iauⁿ | - | |||||
| /-u-/ | -oaⁿ | -oeⁿ S | -uiⁿ NS | -oaiⁿ | - | ||||||
| rowspan="3" | zero medial | -ahⁿ | -ohⁿ | -ehⁿ N | -ɛhⁿ S | -aihⁿ N | -auhⁿ | -mh | -ngh | ||
| /-i-/ | -iahⁿ | -ihⁿ | -iuhⁿ N | -iauhⁿ | - | ||||||
| /-u-/ | -oehⁿ S | -uihⁿ N | -oaihⁿ | - |
Finals with codas
The exact realization of and varies throughout the dialects. For most of them, they are described as / or /. Many Hokkien dialects in rural Zhangzhou and SEA have them as and . In urban Quanzhou and Jinjiang, is merged with, but is preserved.In dialects with -ṳng and -ng, the two finals are often confounded. Likewise, -m and -o̤m may be used interchangeably. -m is assigned mainly to the syllables with zero initial, e.g. in 毋 m̄ "not", 媒 m̂, hm̂ "matchmaker", 梅 m̂ "plum", 莓 m̂ "berry", etc.
Hui'an dialect merges -im and -iam into, or -ip and -iap into, etc, and thus it has the following rhymes not found in other dialects:,,,,.
While -o̤ and -ṳ are phonemically distinct as standalone finals, they are not distinct in compound finals, and /ɯŋ/, /ɯn/, /ɯk/, /ɯt/ may be described as /əŋ/, /ən/, /ək/, /ət/ as well. In Quanzhou operatic pronunciation, this sound is pronounced as in compound finals. These rimes also share some phonological constraints with rather than, e.g. they do not cooccur with labial initials.
Rimes used in minor dialects
Rimes with medial /-ɯ-/
Finals with the medial -ṳ- are mentioned in Lūi-im Biāu-gō͘, an early 19th century Northern Hokkien rimebook, but now they are obsolete in most dialects of Hokkien. They are found only in a few exceptionally conservative dialects, such as Quanzhou operatic, or, per Ang Ui-jin's survey, in the Taiwanese "Old Anxi accent", spoken among older generations in some areas of New Taipei, in Baozhong Township, and in a few villages in Xihu and Puyan. For these dialects, Ang Ui-jin describes this medial as -o̤- rather than -ṳ-, except in the final -ṳiⁿ.| -ṳa N | -ṳo N | -ṳe N | |
| -ṳah N | -ṳeh N | ||
| -ṳaⁿ N | -ṳiⁿ N |
/uɛ/ and related rimes
Some Southern Hokkien dialects have and as distinct finals. The latter is used in a small number of vernacular readings:- in,,,,,, in both of these dialects
- in,,,, additionally in the Chawan dialect
Furthermore, in Chawan dialect, the rime and are differentiated:
- is used in,, and
- is used in,,,,, and
Zhangpu dialect uses, and consistently in place of, and.