| Teochew | |
| Also Known As: | Chaozhou, Chaoshan, Teo-Swa |
| Nativename: | Chinese: 潮州話 / Chinese: 潮汕話 / Chinese: 潮語[1] |
| States: | Chaoshan |
| Region: | Eastern Guangdong (Chaoshan), Thailand, Southern Vietnam and Cambodia, Indonesia (Jambi and West Kalimantan), Singapore |
| Ethnicity: | Teochew people |
| Speakers: | About 14 million in Chaoshan (2004) more than 5 million overseas |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Sinitic |
| Fam3: | Chinese |
| Fam4: | Min |
| Fam5: | Coastal Min |
| Fam6: | Southern Min |
| Dia1: | Chaozhou dialect (Teochew proper) |
| Dia2: | Swatow dialect (Shantou) |
| Dia3: | Jieyang dialect |
| Dia4: | Chaoyang dialect |
| Dia5: | Puning dialect |
| Dia6: | Huilai dialect |
| Dia7: | Bangkok Teochew |
| Ancestor: | Proto-Sino-Tibetan |
| Ancestor2: | Old Chinese |
| Ancestor3: | Proto-Min |
| Glotto: | chao1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Chaozhou |
| Lingua: | 79-AAA-ji |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Iso3: | none |
| Iso3comment: | (is proposed[2]) |
| Map: | Banlamgu.svg |
| Script: | Chinese characters Teochew Romanization Peng'im |
Teochew, also known as Teo-Swa (or Chaoshan), is a Southern Min language spoken by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. It is sometimes referred to as Chiuchow, its Cantonese rendering, due to English romanization by colonial officials and explorers. It is closely related to Hokkien, as it shares some cognates and phonology with Hokkien.
Teochew preserves many Old Chinese pronunciations and vocabulary that have been lost in some of the other modern varieties of Chinese. As such, Teochew is described as one of the most conservative Chinese languages.[3]
Historically, the Teochew prefecture included modern prefecture-level cities of Chaozhou, Jieyang and Shantou. In China, this region is now known as Teoswa. Parts of the Hakka-speaking Meizhou city, such as Dabu County and Fengshun, were also parts of the Teochew prefecture and contain pocket communities of Teochew speakers.
As Teochew region was one of the major sources of Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia during the 18th to 20th centuries, a considerable Overseas Chinese community in that region is Teochew-speaking. In particular, the Teochew people settled in significant numbers in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, where they form the largest Chinese sub-language group. Additionally, there are many Teochew-speakers among Chinese communities in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia (especially in the states of Johor and Selangor) and Indonesia (especially in West Kalimantan on Borneo). Waves of migration from Teochew region to Hong Kong, especially after the communist victory of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, has also resulted in the formation of a community there, although most descendants now primarily speak Cantonese and English.
Teochew speakers are also found among overseas Chinese communities in Japan and the Western world (notably in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Italy), a result of both direct emigration from Teochew to these nations and secondary emigration from Southeast Asia.
In Singapore, Teochew remains the ancestral language of many Chinese Singaporeans, with Chinese of Teochew descent making up second largest Chinese group in Singapore, after the Hoklo. Despite this many Teochew people, particularly the younger generations, are shifting towards English and Mandarin as their main spoken language. This is due to the Singapore government's stringent bilingual policy that promotes English as the official language of education, government and commerce and promotes Mandarin at the expense of other Chinese languages. Some Teochew assimilated with the larger Hokkien community and speak Hokkien rather than Teochew due to Hokkien's prominent role as a lingua franca previously among the Singaporean Chinese community.
Teochew is a Southern Min language. As with other Sinitic languages, it is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Cantonese or Shanghainese. It has only limited intelligibility with Hokkien. Even within the Teochew dialects, there is substantial variation in phonology between different regions and between different Teochew communities overseas.
The dialects of Teochew include:[4]
Some classifications consider the Hai Lok Hong dialect a part of Teochew (as the third branch), while others consider it a part of Hokkien or an independent Southern Min variety.[5]
In the Namoa island, there are two dialects, both distinct from the mainland Teochew, with Western Namoa dialect inclining towards the Northern Teochew, and Eastern Namoa dialect showing Hokkien influence, as this part of the island was included in Zhangzhou prefecture in 16—19 centuries.[6]
Chawan dialect, spoken in Fujian along the Guangdong border, is quite different from other southern dialects of Hokkien. It has some lexical influence from Teochew and relatively higher mutual intelligibility with it, yet in other aspects it clusters more with Hokkien than Teochew.
The main criterion in the classification of Teochew dialects is the presence or absence of the vowel pronounced as //ɯ//. It is found in Northern Teochew in words like hṳ̂ 魚 "fish" and sṳ̄ 事 "thing; matter". Southern Teochew has pronounced as //u// instead (hû 魚 , sū 事 ). Hai Lok Hong and Eastern Namoa dialects have pronounced as //i// or pronounced as //u// instead, depending on the etymology of the word (hî 魚 , but sū 事 ), similarly to the Chiangchew Hokkien. Southern Teochew may be further divided into Huilai—Puning dialects and Teoyeo dialects, based on their tone contours.[4]
The prestige dialects of Teochew all belong to the Northern branch. The Northern Teochew dialects are mutually intelligible between each other, but less so with the Southern branch.[7]
Various stereotypes and cultural traits are associated with different Teochew dialects. For instance, within the Shantou city, the urban Swatow dialect is perceived as "energetic", "gentle", but also "snobbish" or "pretentious" by speakers of other dialects; the Chenghai dialect (similar to urban Chaozhou dialect) is perceived as "soft", "cute", and "high-pitched"; the Teoyeo dialect is perceived as "harsh", "aggressive" and "countrified".
Written Southern Min is known since at least the 16th century. The earliest known work is a 1566 edition of the Tale of the Lychee Mirror, a folk drama written in a mixture of Teochew and Chinchew Hokkien.
Teochew writing is neither standardized nor is widely used. In Imperial China, most writing was conducted in Classical Chinese, while vernacular writing was only used in novels, songbooks and opera scripts. After the Xinhai revolution, only written Mandarin was supported by the government, while speakers of other Sinitic languages, including Teochew, remaining largely illiterate in their own tongues.
Teochew rime dictionaries appeared relatively late, the earliest of them being "Fifteen consonants of Teochew language" (Chinese: 潮語十五音, 1911) by Chio Ju-lim (Chinese: 蔣儒林) and "Fifteen consonants of Teochew sound" (Chinese: 潮聲十五音, 1913) by Teo See-tiang (Chinese: 張世珍).
Most of the Teochew vocabulary can be traced back to Old Chinese, and thus can be written using Chinese characters. There are different ways to write words that do not have a clearly associated etymological character, including:
Teochew shares characters with Hokkien for cognate words, but it is also influenced by the Cantonese written tradition.
| Possible spellings | |||||
| Semantic | Phonetic | Invented character | Presumed original character | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pak / "to know" | , | ||||
| tiâng / "who" | , | [{{wikt-lang|zh|底儂}}] | |||
| tsōi / "many" | , | , | |||
| thâi / "to kill" | |||||
| m̆ / "not" | |||||
| tse̍k / "one" | , | ||||
| kûiⁿ / "tall; high" | |||||
| tshâng / "field" | , |
See main article: article, Peng'im and Pe̍h-ūe-jī. There are two principal romanization systems for Teochew:
While Peng'im has some presence in academic works published in PRC, many publications on Teochew use their custom IPA-based romanizations.
| pronounced as /link/ | p | b | |
| pronounced as /link/ | ph | p | |
| pronounced as /link/ | b | bh | |
| pronounced as /link/ | m | m | |
| pronounced as /link/ | t | d | |
| pronounced as /link/ | th | t | |
| pronounced as /link/ | l | l | |
| pronounced as /link/ | n | n | |
| pronounced as /link/ | h | h | |
| pronounced as /link/ | k | g | |
| pronounced as /link/ | kh | k | |
| pronounced as /link/ | g | gh | |
| pronounced as /link/ | ng | ng | |
| pronounced as /link/ | ts | z | |
| pronounced as /link/ | tsh | c | |
| pronounced as /link/ | z | r | |
| pronounced as /link/ | s | s |
| pronounced as /link/ | a | a | |
| pronounced as //ia// | ia | ia | |
| pronounced as //ua// | ua | ua | |
| pronounced as //ai// | ai | ai | |
| pronounced as //au// | au | ao | |
| pronounced as //uai// | uai | uai | |
| pronounced as //iau// | iau | iao | |
| pronounced as /link/ | o | o | |
| pronounced as //io// | io | io | |
| pronounced as //oi// | oi | oi | |
| pronounced as //ou// | ou | ou | |
| pronounced as //iou// | iou | iou | |
| pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | e | ê | |
| pronounced as //ie// or pronounced as //iɛ// | ie | iê | |
| pronounced as //ue// or pronounced as //uɛ// | ue | uê | |
| pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | ṳ | e | |
| pronounced as /link/ | i | i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | u | u | |
| pronounced as //ui// | ui | ui | |
| pronounced as //iu// | iu | iu |
| pronounced as /link/ | -ng | -ng | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -k | -g | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -h | -h | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -ⁿ | -n | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -m | -m | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -p | -b | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -n | — | |
| pronounced as /link/ | -t | — |
Teochew, like other Southern Min varieties, is one of the few modern Sinitic languages which have voiced obstruents (stops, fricatives and affricates); however, unlike Wu and Xiang Chinese, the Teochew voiced stops and fricatives did not evolve from Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but from nasals.
The voiced stops pronounced as /[b]/ and pronounced as /[ɡ]/ and also pronounced as /[l]/ are voicelessly prenasalized pronounced as /[ᵐ̥b]/, pronounced as /[ᵑ̊ɡ]/, pronounced as /[ⁿ̥ɺ]/, respectively.
The voiced affricate pronounced as /link/, initial in such words as jī (/dzi˩/), jĭ (/dzi˧˥/), jiâng (/dziaŋ˥/), jia̍k (/dziak˦/) loses its affricate property with some younger speakers abroad, and is relaxed to [z].
| Voiced (no frictions) | nasal | pronounced as /ink/ 毛 | pronounced as /ink/ 年 | pronounced as /ink/ 雅 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive or lateral | pronounced as /ink/ 米 | pronounced as /ink/ 來/內 | pronounced as /ink/ 鵝/牙 | |||
| Voiceless stops | aspirated | pronounced as /ink/ 皮 | pronounced as /ink/ 台 | pronounced as /ink/ 可 | ||
| plain | pronounced as /ink/ 比 | pronounced as /ink/ 都 | pronounced as /ink/ 歌 | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Voiceless affricates | aspirated | pronounced as /ink/ 菜/樹 | ||||
| plain | pronounced as /ink/ 書/指/食 | |||||
| Fricatives | pronounced as /ink/ 士/速 | pronounced as /ink/ 海/系< | --h̃ 園/遠 [h̃ŋ]--> | |||
| pronounced as /ink/ 爾/貳 | ||||||
Unlike in Hokkien, nasal initials in Teochew are not generally considered allophones of the voiced plosives, as nasals are relatively more common in Teochew and have less usage restrictions. For example, Teochew allows for syllables like nge̍k 逆 , which are impossible in Hokkien.
In Southern dialects of Teochew, labial initials (/p/, /pʰ/, /b/, /m/) have labiodental allophones ([pf], [pfʰ], [bv], [mv~ɱ]) before /-u-/.[8]
| pù | pronounced as /[pu²¹²]/ | pronounced as /[pfu⁵²]/ | |||
| puaⁿ | pronounced as /[pũã³³]/ | pronounced as /[pfũã³¹]/ | |||
| phuâ | pronounced as /[pʰua⁵⁵]/ | pronounced as /[pfʰua²³]/ | |||
| phuè | pronounced as /[pʰue²¹²]/ | pronounced as /[pfʰue⁵²]/ | |||
| bú | pronounced as /[bu⁵²]/ | pronounced as /[bvu⁴⁵]/ | |||
| bué | pronounced as /[bue⁵²]/ | pronounced as /[bvue⁴⁵]/ | |||
| muē | pronounced as /[mũẽ¹¹]/ | pronounced as /[mvũẽ⁴³]/ | |||
| muá | pronounced as /[mũã⁵²]/ | pronounced as /[mvũã⁴⁵]/ |
Syllables in Teochew contain an onset consonant, a medial glide, a nucleus, usually in the form of a vowel, but can also be occupied by a syllabic consonant like [ŋ], and a final consonant. All the elements of the syllable except for the nucleus are optional, which means a vowel or a syllabic consonant alone can stand as a fully-fledged syllable.
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.
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.
| Nucleus | -pronounced as /ink/- | -pronounced as /ink/- | -pronounced as /ink/- | -pronounced as /ink/- | -pronounced as /ink/- | -pronounced as /ink/- | -ai- | -au- | -oi- | -ou- | -ui- | -iu- | ∅- | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medial | ∅- | i- | u- | ∅- | i- | u- | ∅- | i- | ∅- | ∅- | ∅- | ∅- | u- | ∅- | i- | ∅- | ∅- | i- | ∅- | ∅- | ||
| Coda | -∅ | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /ia/ | pronounced as /ua/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /ue/ | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /io/ | pronounced as /ɯ/ | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /ai/ | pronounced as /uai/ | pronounced as /au/ | pronounced as /iau/ | pronounced as /oi/ | pronounced as /ou/ | pronounced as /ui/ | pronounced as /iu/ | |||
| -pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ã/ | pronounced as /ĩã/ | pronounced as /ũã/ | pronounced as /ẽ/ | pronounced as /ũẽ/ | pronounced as /ĩõ/ | pronounced as /ɯ̃/ | pronounced as /ĩ/ | pronounced as /ãĩ/ | pronounced as /ũãĩ/ | pronounced as /ãũ/ | pronounced as /ĩãũ/ | pronounced as /õĩ/ | pronounced as /õũ/ | pronounced as /ũĩ/ | pronounced as /ĩũ/ | ||||||
| -pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /aʔ/ | pronounced as /iaʔ/ | pronounced as /uaʔ/ | pronounced as /eʔ/ | pronounced as /ueʔ/ | pronounced as /oʔ/ | pronounced as /ioʔ/ | pronounced as /ɯʔ/ | pronounced as /iʔ/ | pronounced as /uʔ/ | pronounced as /auʔ/ | pronounced as /oiʔ/ | pronounced as /iuʔ/ | |||||||||
| -pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /am/ | pronounced as /iam/ | pronounced as /uam/ | pronounced as /im/ | pronounced as /m̩/ | |||||||||||||||||
| -pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /aŋ/ | pronounced as /iaŋ/ | pronounced as /uaŋ/ | pronounced as /eŋ/ | pronounced as /ieng/ | pronounced as /ueŋ/ | pronounced as /oŋ/ | pronounced as /ioŋ/ | pronounced as /ɯŋ/ | pronounced as /iŋ/ | pronounced as /uŋ/ | pronounced as /ŋ̩/ | ||||||||||
| -pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ap/ | pronounced as /iap/ | pronounced as /uap/ | pronounced as /ip/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| -pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ak/ | pronounced as /iak/ | pronounced as /uak/ | pronounced as /ek/ | pronounced as /iek/ | pronounced as /uek/ | pronounced as /ok/ | pronounced as /iok/ | pronounced as /ɯk/ | pronounced as /ik/ | pronounced as /uk/ | |||||||||||
In most dialects of Teochew, historical codas pronounced as /-n/ and pronounced as /-t/ are merged with pronounced as /-ŋ/ and pronounced as /-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.[9]
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 /hẽʔ˥˦/ "agitated; confused", hauhⁿ /hãũʔ˧˨/ "to eat in large bites", khuàhⁿ-ua̍hⁿ /kʰũãʔ˨˩˨꜒꜔.ũãʔ˥˦/ "comfortable".
Teochew, like other Chinese varieties, is a tonal language. Like other Southern Min varieties, Teochew has split the Middle Chinese four tone into two registers (four "dark tones" and four "light tones"). The tones are numbered from 1 through 8, either in the "dark—light" order (the checked tones are 7 and 8) or in the "level—rising—departing—entering" order (the checked tones are 4 and 8). This section follows the second order, as used in Peng'im.
| Chinese: 平level | Chinese: 上rising | Chinese: 去departing | Chinese: 入entering | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 陰 dark | tone number (Peng'im) | Chinese: ① | Chinese: ② | Chinese: ③ | Chinese: ④ |
| tone diacritic (Pe̍h-ūe-jī) | none | ́ | ̀ | none (ending on -p, -t, -k, -h) | |
| tone name | Chinese: 陰平 Im-phêⁿ "Dark-level" | Chinese: 陰上 Im-siăng "Dark-rising" | Chinese: 陰去 Im-khṳ̀ "Dark-departing" | Chinese: 陰入 Im-ji̍p "Dark-entering" | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | tone number (Peng'im) | Chinese: ⑤ | Chinese: ⑥ | Chinese: ⑦ | Chinese: ⑧ |
| tone diacritic (Pe̍h-ūe-jī) | ̂ | ˘ | ̄ | ̍ (ending on -p, -t, -k, -h) | |
| tone name | Chinese: 陽平 Iôⁿ-phêⁿ "Light-level" | Chinese: 陽上 Iôⁿ-siăng "Light-rising" | Chinese: 陽去 Iôⁿ-khṳ̀ "Light-departing" | Chinese: 陽入 Iôⁿ-ji̍p "Light-entering" |
Depending on the position of a word in a phrase, the tones can change and adopt extensive tone sandhi.
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.[10]
| citation tones | post-sandhi tones | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | ||
| Chaozhou, Chenghai | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 33 ˧ | ② 53 ˥˧ | ③ 212 ˨˩˨ | ④ 32 ˧˨ | 34 ˧˦ | 35 ˧˥ | 53 ˥˧ | 54 ˥˦ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 55 ˥ | ⑥ 35 ˧˥ | ⑦ 21 ˨˩ ~ 22 ˨ | ⑧ 54 ˥˦ | 23 ˨˧ | 21 ˨˩ ~ 22 ˨ | 23 ˨˧ | 32 ˧˨ | |
| Jieyang | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 33 ˧ | ② 53 ˥˧ | ③ 212 ˨˩˨ | ④ 32 ˧˨ | 33 ˧ | 35 ˧˥ | 53 ˥ | 54 ˥˦ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 55 ˥ | ⑥ 35 ˧˥ | ⑦ 22 ˨ ~ 21 ˨˩ | ⑧ 54 ˥˦ | 22 ˨ ~ 21 ˨˩ | 21 ˨˩ ~ 22 ˨ | 32 ˧˨ | ||
| Shantou, Raoping | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 33 ˧ | ② 53 ˥˧ | ③ 212 ˨˩˨ | ④ 32 ˧˨ | 33 ˧ | 35 ˧˥ | 55 ˥ | 54 ˥˦ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 55 ˥ | ⑥ 35 ˧˥ | ⑦ 21 ˨˩ ~ 22 ˨ | ⑧ 54 ˥˦ | 21 ˨˩ ~ 22 ˨ | 22 ˨ ~ 21 ˨˩ | 32 ˧˨ | ||
There are minor differences in tone sandhi among the Northern Teochew dialects:
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:
| citation tones | post-sandhi tones | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | ||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | Chinese: ① | Chinese: ② | Chinese: ③ | Chinese: ④ | Chinese: ① | Chinese: ⑥ | Chinese: ② or Chinese: ⑤ | Chinese: ⑧ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | Chinese: ⑤ | Chinese: ⑥ | Chinese: ⑦ | Chinese: ⑧ | Chinese: ⑦ | Chinese: ④ | |||
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.[11]
| citation tones | post-sandhi tones | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | ||
| Teoyeo (old) | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 21 ˨˩ | ② 551 ˥˥˩ | ③ 53 ˥˧ | ④ 43 ˦˧ | 33 ˧ | 53 ˥˧ | 33 ˧ | 5 ˥ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 44 ˦ | ⑥ =③ | ⑦ 42 ˦˨ | ⑧ 45 ˦˥ | 44 ˦ | 21 ˨˩ | 3 ˧ | ||
| Teoyeo (new) | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 31 ˧˩ | ② 55 ˥˥ ~ 35 ˧˥ | ③ 52 ˥˨ | ④ 32 ˧˨ | 31 ˧˩ | 52 ˥˨ | 23 ˨˧ | 5 ˥ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 33 ˧ ~ 23 ˨˧ | ⑥ =③ | ⑦ 43 ˦˧ ~ 44 ˦ | ⑧ 45 ˦˥ | 33 ˧ ~ 23 ˨˧ | 21 ˨˩ | 3 ˧ | ||
| Haimen | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 31 ˧˩ | ② 551 ˥˥˩ | ③ 51 ˥˩ | ④ 43 ˦˧ | 33 ˧ | 41 ˦˩ | 44 ˦ | 54 ˥˦ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 44 ˦ | ⑥ =① | ⑦ 441 ˦˦˩ | ⑧ 45 ˦˥ | 44 ˦ | 33 ˧ | 43 ˦˧ | ||
| Dahao | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 21 ˨˩ | ② 24 ˨˦ | ③ 52 ˥˨ | ④ 3 ˧ | 21 ˨˩ | 52 ˥˨ | 33 ˧ | 45 ˦˥ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 33 ˧ | ⑥ =③ | ⑦ 31 ˧˩ | ⑧ 45 ˦˥ | 33 ˧ | 21 ˨˩ | 3 ˧ | ||
| Puning and Huilai | |||||||||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | ① 34 ˧˦ | ② 53 ˥˧ or 55 ˥ | ③ 31 ˧˩ | ④ 32 ˧˨ | 33 ˧ | 34 ˧˦ | 55 ˥ | 54 ˥˦ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | ⑤ 44 ˦ | ⑥ 23 ˨˧ | ⑦ 42 ˦˨ or =③ or =⑥ | ⑧ 54 ˥˦ | 31 ˧˩ | 33 ˧ | 32 ˧˨ | ||
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:
"Old" Teoyeo accent is notable for the fact that out of its five non-checked tones, four tones have falling contour.[12]
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).
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).
| citation tones | neutral tone | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | Chinese: 平 level | Chinese: 上 rising | Chinese: 去 departing | Chinese: 入 entering | ||
| Chinese: 陰 dark | Chinese: ① | Chinese: ② | Chinese: ③ | Chinese: ④ | Chinese: ⑦ | Chinese: ③ | Chinese: ⑦ | Chinese: ④ | |
| Chinese: 陽 light | Chinese: ⑤ | Chinese: ⑥ | Chinese: ⑦ | Chinese: ⑧ | Chinese: ⑦ | ||||
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 "year", where some words have the neutral tone, while others preserve the original tone.[13]
tsâiⁿ--nî "year before last"
ău--nî "year after next"
tuā-tsâiⁿ--nî "three years ago"
jĭ-káu--nî Chinese: 二九年 "year 29" but:
kim-nî "this year"
kū-nî "last year"
mê-nî "next year"
jĭ-tsa̍p-ngŏu-nî Chinese: 二十五年 "25 years"
The grammar of Teochew is similar to other Min languages, as well as some southern varieties of Chinese, especially with Hakka, Yue and Wu. The sequence 'subject–verb–object' is typical, like Standard Mandarin, although the 'subject–object–verb' form is also possible using particles.
The personal pronouns in Teochew, like in other Chinese languages, do not show case marking, therefore uá Chinese: 我 means both I and me and i-nâng Chinese: 伊人 means they and them. The Southern Min languages, like some Mandarin dialects, have a distinction between an inclusive and exclusive we, meaning that when the addressee is being included, the inclusive pronoun náng Chinese: 咱 would be used, otherwise uáng Chinese: 阮 is employed. Outside Southern Min varieties like Teochew, no other southern Chinese variety has this distinction.[13]
| Plural | ||||||
| 1st person | uá Chinese: 我 | I / me | Inclusive | náng Chinese: 咱 | we / us | |
| Exclusive | uáng Chinese: 阮 | we / us | ||||
| 2nd person | lṳ́ Chinese: 汝 | you | nṳ́ng, níng Chinese: 恁 | you (plural) | ||
| 3rd person | i Chinese: 伊 | he/she/it/him/her | ing Chinese: i-nâng Chinese: 伊儂 | they/them | ||
Teochew does not distinguish the possessive pronouns from the possessive adjectives. As a general rule, the possessive pronouns or adjectives are formed by adding the genitive or possessive marker kâi Chinese: 個 to their respective personal pronouns, as summarized below:
| Plural | ||||||
| 1st person | uá-kâi Chinese: 我個 | my / mine | Inclusive | náng-kâi Chinese: 咱個 | our / ours | |
| Exclusive | uáng-kâi Chinese: 阮個 | ours / ours | ||||
| 2nd person | lṳ́-kâi Chinese: 汝個 | your / yours | nṳ́ng-kâi, níng-kâi Chinese: 恁個 | your / yours (plural) | ||
| 3rd person | i-kâi Chinese: 伊個 | his / his; her / hers; its / its | i-nâng-kâi Chinese: 伊儂個 | their / theirs | ||
As kâi is the generic measure word, it may be replaced by other more appropriate classifiers:[13]
Teochew has the typical two-way distinction between the demonstratives, namely the proximals and the distals. The basic determiners are tsí Chinese: 只 "this" and hṳ́ Chinese: 許 "that", and they require at least a classifier (generic kâi Chinese: 個 , collective tshoh Chinese: 撮 , or another), which can be optionally preceded by a numeral.
| Proximal | Distal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Singular | tsí (kâi) Chinese: 只(個) | this (one) | hṳ́ (kâi) Chinese: 許(個) | that (one) | |
| Collective | tsí tshoh Chinese: 只撮 | these (few) | hṳ́ tshoh Chinese: 許撮 | those (few) | ||
| Plural (non-specific) | tsió Chinese: 照 | these | hió Chinese: 向 | those | ||
| Type | tsiá Chinese: 者 | this kind of | hiá Chinese: 遐 | that kind of | ||
| Spatial | tsí kò Chinese: 只塊 | here | hṳ́ kò Chinese: 許塊 | there | ||
| tsí lăi Chinese: 只內 | here inside | hṳ́ lăi Chinese: 許內 | there inside | |||
| tsí kháu Chinese: 只口 | here outside | hṳ́ kháu Chinese: 許口 | there outside | |||
| Temporal | tsí tsûng Chinese: 只陣 | now; recently | hṳ́ tsûng Chinese: 許陣 | then | ||
| Degree | tsiòⁿ Chinese: 照 | this much | hiòⁿ Chinese: 向 | that much | ||
| Adverbial | tsiòⁿ seⁿ (iōⁿ) Chinese: 照生(樣) | like this | hiòⁿ seⁿ (iōⁿ) Chinese: 向生(樣) | like that | ||
| who / whom | tiâng Chinese: | |
|---|---|---|
| tī tiâng Chinese: 底 | ||
| tī nâng Chinese: 底儂 | ||
| what | mih kâi Chinese: 乜個 | |
| what (kind of) + noun | mih Chinese: 乜 + N | |
| which | tī Chinese: 底 + NUM + CL + N | |
| tī kâi Chinese: 底個 | ||
| where | tī kò Chinese: 底塊 | |
| when | tiang sî Chinese: 時 | |
| manner | tsò nî Chinese: 做呢 | |
| state | mih seⁿ iōⁿ Chinese: 乜生樣 | |
| tsò nî iōⁿ Chinese: 做呢樣 | ||
| tsăi seⁿ (iōⁿ) Chinese: 在生(樣) | ||
how many
| kúi Chinese: 幾 + CL + N | |
| jio̍h tsōi Chinese: 若濟 + CL + N | ||
Some numerals in Teochew have two variants: the literary one and the vernacular one.
| 0 | lêng / | khàng / | may also be written as . | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ik / | tse̍k / | is often considered the original character for tse̍k / . When spelling numbers digit by digit, iau is also used for "one". | |
| 2 | jĭ / | nŏ / | nŏ / may also be written as The character has a literary reading liáng / . | |
| 3 | sam / | saⁿ / | Literary reading is used in some set compounds. | |
| 4 | sṳ̀ / | sì / | Literary reading is extremely rare. | |
| 5 | ngóu / | ngŏu / | Literary reading is used in some set compounds. Also pronounced as ngŏm / in Southern Teochew. | |
| 6 | la̍k / | Only vernacular reading. | ||
| 7 | tshik / | Only literary reading. | ||
| 8 | poih / | Only vernacular reading. | ||
| 9 | kiú / | káu / | Literary reading is used in some set compounds. | |
| 10 | tsa̍p / | Only vernacular reading. | ||
| 100 | peh / | Only vernacular reading. | ||
| 1000 | tshoiⁿ / | Only vernacular reading. Also tshaiⁿ / (in Kekyeo and Southern Teochew). | ||
| 10000 | buāng / | Only literary reading Also buēng / (in Chaozhou). Also bāng / (variant in Southern Teochew). | ||
Generally, vernacular variants are used, and literary readings are limited to certain set compounds and idioms, e.g.: Sam-kok, ngóu-kim, kiú-siau, ngóu-tsháiⁿ-phiang-hung, sam-sṳ-jṳ̂-kiâⁿ, kiú-liû-sam-kàu, etc.
However, literary forms of Chinese: 一 and Chinese: 二 are more commonly used, particularly in the following cases:
tsa̍p ik Chinese: 十一 "eleven"
saⁿ tsa̍p jĭ Chinese: 三十二 "thirty two"
jĭ tsa̍p ik Chinese: 二十一 "twenty one"
but:
tse̍k peh Chinese: 一百 "one hundred"
nŏ tshoiⁿ Chinese: 兩千 "two thousands"
tŏiⁿ jĭ Chinese: 第二 "second"
tsheⁿ khî ik Chinese: 星期一 "Monday"
tsiaⁿ gue̍h tshiu ik Chinese: 正月初一 "first day of the Lunar New Year"
jĭ-khàng-iau-poih-nî jĭ-gue̍h jĭ-hō Chinese: 2018年二月二號 "February 2, 2018"
In Teochew passive construction, the agent phrase by somebody always has to be present, and is introduced by the preposition khṳh Chinese: 乞 or pung Chinese: 分 , both literally meaning "to give". If the agent is not explicitly named, its position is taken by nâng Chinese: 儂 (lit. "a person; one; somebody").
While in Mandarin one can have the agent introducer or alone without the agent itself, in Teochew it is not grammatical to omit this dummy agent nâng Chinese: 儂 .
(cf. Mandarin)
The agent phrase pung nâng Chinese: 分儂 always comes immediately after the subject, not at the end of the sentence or between the auxiliary and the past participle like in some European languages (e.g. German, Dutch).
Teochew, like Cantonese but unlike Hokkien, uses the construction "X ADJ kuè Chinese: 過 Y", to express the comparison:
(cf. Cantonese)
However, due to modern influences from Mandarin, the Mandarin structure "X Chinese: 比 Y ADJ" has also gained popularity over the years. Therefore, the same sentence can be re-structured and becomes:
(cf. Mandarin)
The Chinese: 過- or Chinese: 比-construction must involve two or more nouns to be compared; an ill-formed sentence will be yielded when only one is being mentioned:
* Chinese: 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 Chinese: 夭-construction must be used instead:
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).
There are two words which are intrinsically comparative in meaning, i.e. iâⁿ Chinese: 贏 "to win" and su Chinese: 輸 "to lose". They can be used alone or in conjunction with the Chinese: 過-structure:
Note the use of the adverbial hoh tsōi Chinese: 好濟 at the end of the sentence to express a higher degree.
In Teochew, the idea of equality is expressed with the word pêⁿ Chinese: 平 or pêⁿ-iōⁿ Chinese: 平樣 :
("They look the same/They're as good as each other/They're as bad as each other"; "The two people are the same same way")
To express the superlative, Teochew uses the adverb siăng Chinese: 上 or siăng-téng Chinese: 上頂 . The latter variant is usually used with a complimentary connotation.
Teochew vocabulary consists of several layers, including:
ì-kièng "opinion",
kok-ke "state; country",
kak-hung "to marry",
khùng-nâng "hard; difficult",
seng-mĕng "life",
tāu-hū "tofu"
tiĕng-uē "telephone",
tshuk-kháu "exit",
huang-uàⁿ "plan; scheme",
bûng-huè "culture",
kāng-huâ-kok "republic",
tiĕng-náu "computer"
lṳ́ "you",
ma̍k "eye",
tṳ̄ "chopsticks",
nâng "man; person",
saⁿ "shirt"
ta "dry",
khṳ̀ng "to hide",
khṳh "to give",
lim "to drink"
tàⁿ "to say; to talk",
ĭⁿ "to sleep",
ngà "stupid; foolish",
jṳ̂ "to wipe; to mop",
tsò-nî "why; how"
Most of the Teochew vocabulary (around 70-80%) consists of the pan-Sinitic words. However, their proportion is much lower among the most basic words used in daily speech, as they tend to belong to the last three categories. This pattern is also seen in other languages of the Sinosphere, e.g. in Japanese, where the Sino-Japanese words constitute around 60-70% of total vocabulary, but only around 20% of words used in common speech.
See main article: article and Literary and colloquial readings.
In Teochew, like in other Min languages, it is common for a character to have at least two readings, called "literary" and "vernacular". The number of such doublets in Teochew is somewhat smaller than in Hokkien, due to Teochew being prone to use only vernacular readings and lose their literary counterparts.
Teochew and Hokkien are both Southern Min languages. Hokkien, which is spoken in southern Fujian, shares many phonetic similarities with Teochew, but they have low lexical similarity. Although Teochew and Hokkien share some cognates, there are pronounced differences in most vowels with some consonant and tone shifts. Teochew has only 51% intelligibility with the Tong'an Xiamen dialect of Hokkien (Cheng 1997), approximately the same as the percentage of intelligibility as between Russian and Ukrainian languages, while it has even lower mutual intelligibility language with other dialects of the Hokkien language.
Most Teochew people do not speak Hokkien and the majority of Hokkien and Teochew people both see themselves as a distinct groups. There are a minority of Teochew people who speak Hokkien as their mother tongue, most of whom have close contact or relatives in the neighbouring three originally-Teochew counties of what is now South Fujian, which were seceded to Fujian during the early Tang dynasty and subsequently assimilated into the Hokkien population. These Hokkien-speaking Teochews are more likely to treat Teochew simply as accented dialect of Hokkien. These people usually have a strong sense of Hokkien identity.
In Hokkien, denasalization of initial consonants is extensive, and sounds [m], [n], [ng] are usually viewed as allophones of /b/, /l~d/, /g/ used with nasalized rhymes. In Teochew and Hai Lok Hong, denasalization is less common.
| 'to go against' | nge̍k | ge̍k |
| 'jade' | ge̍k | |
| 'suitable' | ngî | gî |
| 'doubt' | gî | |
| 'handle; knob' | niú | liú |
| 'willow' | liú | |
| 'man' | nâng | lâng |
| 'cage' | lâng | |
| 'slow' | măng | bān |
| 'ten thousand' | buāng | |
| 'eye' | ma̍k | ba̍k |
| 'ink' | ba̍k |
Hokkien and Hai Lok Hong have three pairs of codas: -ng/-k, -m/-p and -n/-t. Most dialects of Teochew have merged -n/-t with -ng/-k. On the other hand, many Teochew dialects, except urban Swatow and Chenghai, do not dissimilate the Middle Chinese rhyme -jom, e.g. they have huàm, huăm, huap, while Hokkien has huàn, huǎn, huat .
Teochew (except some Southern Teochew dialects) and Hai Lok Hong have 8 citation tones, while most dialects of Hokkien have 7 tones.
In individual rhymes, the differences between Hokkien and Teochew are comparable to differences between the dialects of each language. For example, both Northern Hokkien and Northern Teochew have the /ɯ/ sound, which is not found in Southern Teochew and Southern Hokkien. Northern Hokkien and Teochew both have -ng (in Hokkien and Southern Teochew) or -ung (in Northern Teochew) rhyme in words like pn̄g/pūng, mn̂g/mûng, while Southern Hokkien and Hai Lok Hong have -uiⁿ instead (pūiⁿ, mûi).
Teochew grammar shows some Cantonese or Hakka influence. For example,
Teochew differs from Hokkien in function words:
| kâi | kâi | ê | possessive particle | |
| tŏ lŏ (dialectal) | ló | leh tǐ-leh | progressive aspect marker | |
| -tŏ-kò | -nín | --leh | durative aspect marker | |
| pung khṳh | pun kho | hō͘ | passive or causative agent preposition | |
| àiⁿ | àiⁿ | beh | "to want" (modal verb) | |
| hoh | hoh | chin | "very" (dummy adverb in adjectival sentences) |
Teochew has many differences with Hokkien in its basic vocabulary. Some of the differences are due to influence from Cantonese, while others are alternative yet still native Min words.
| "to see" | thóiⁿ | tái | khòaⁿ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "to read" | tha̍k-tsṳ | duhksyū | tha̍k-chheh | |
| "to sleep" | n̍gh, ĭⁿ | fan | khùn | |
| "beautiful" | ngiá | leng | súi | |
| "to speak" | tàⁿ | góng | kóng seh | |
| "what" | mih-kâi | mātyéh | siáⁿ-mi̍h | |
| "child" | nou-kiáⁿ | sailouh | gín-á | |
| "black" | ou | hāk | o͘ |
Teochew tends to use more vernacular readings where Hokkien prefers the literary readings. For instance, Hokkien uses to-siā for "Thank you", with literary reading for the first character, while Teochew reads it with the vernacular reading as tsōi-siā. The character has both literary reading (Teochew ang, Hokkien an) and vernacular reading (both uaⁿ), the latter more commonly used in Teochew (uaⁿ-tshuâng, uaⁿ-sim, uaⁿ-úng, tī-uaⁿ, etc), while being rare in Hokkien (used in a few place names: Tâng-uaⁿ, Lâm-uaⁿ, Hūi-uaⁿ).
For some characters, literary readings only exist in Hokkien (even if used exclusively for declamation of Classical Chinese texts), while many vernacular readings are used only in Teochew.
| 'meat' | literary | jio̍k | MC nyuwk |
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vernacular | ne̍k | he̍k | PSM *nhɯk3 | ||
| 'white' | literary | pe̍k | MC baek |
| |
| vernacular | pe̍h | pe̍h | PSM *peʔ8 | ||
| 'before' | literary | chiân | MC dzen |
| |
| vernacular | tsôiⁿ | chêng / châiⁿ / chûiⁿ | PSM *tsõi2 | ||
| 'ant' | literary | gí | MC ngjeX |
| |
| vernacular | hiă | hiă | PSM *hia4 | ||
| 'branch' | literary | chi | MC tsye |
| |
| vernacular | ki | ki | PSM *ki1 | ||
| 'abundant' | literary | hù | MC pjuwH |
| |
| vernacular | pù | pù | PSM *pu5 | ||
| 'beautiful' | literary | múi | bí | MC mijX |
|
| vernacular | bué | — |