Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A group of local languages/dialects which can trace their origins to southern Fujian province, China. The most prominent dialects are Amoy (referred to as Taiwanese in Taiwan, and Hokkien in Southeast Asia), Teochew, and Qiongwen. It belongs to the Min dialect group of the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Mandarin Chinese 閩南 / 闽南 (Mǐn Nán), "Southern Min" (i.e. south of the Min river in Fujian).

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Examples

  • Taiwanese Minnan is a variant of Min Nan, closely related to the Amoy dialect.

    Two by Adams Michael Turton 2009

  • Nevertheless, counting all Min, or even all Min Nan speakers as Hokkien speakers is dubious.

    languagehat.com: NATIVE SPEAKER. 2004

  • Academician Michael Ming-Chiao Lai, also stated, the College of Liberal Arts has made outstanding achievements in the research of Min Nan and Cheng-Kung Cheng culture in the past; however, they should take the responsibility of bringing the spirit and historical culture of Cheng-Kung Cheng into NCKU and onto the next level.

    The Earth Times Online Newspaper 2010

  • 3 This may account for the difficulty in finding the appropriate Chinese characters for some Min Nan vocabulary.

    Two by Adams Michael Turton 2009

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