Amoy dialect

Amoy (Chinese: 廈門話; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ē-mn̂g-ōe or Ē-mûiⁿ-ōa), also known as Amoy Min, Xiamenese or Xiamen dialect, is a Hokkien dialect spoken in Southern Fujian province (in Southeast China), in the area centered on the city of Xiamen. Amoy Min is often known by its Hokkien or Min Nan in Southeast Asia. It is one of the most widely researched varieties of Min Nan, and has historically come to be one of the more standardized varieties.

Spoken Amoy and Taiwanese are both mixtures of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou speech. As such, they are very closely aligned phonologically. However, there are some subtle differences between the two, as a result of physical separation and other historical factors. The lexical differences between the two are slightly more pronounced. Generally speaking the Hokkien dialects of Amoy, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia are mutually intelligible.

History

In 1842, as a result of the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, Xiamen (Amoy) was designated as a trading port. Xiamen and Gulangyu islands rapidly developed, which resulted in a large influx of people from neighboring areas such as Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. The mixture of these various accents formed the basis for Amoy.

Xiamen

Xiamen ([ɕjâmə̌n]), also historically known as Amoy (/əˈmɔɪ/, POJ Hokkien ε̄-mûiⁿ, Ē-mn̂g), is a major city on the southeast (Taiwan Strait) coast of the China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province, with an area of 1,699.39 square kilometres (656.14 sq mi) and population of 3,531,347 at the 2010 Census. The city's urban area includes the old urban island area and covers all six districts of Xiamen (Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, Haicang and recently Xiang'an), and has a total urban population of 1,861,289. It also borders Quanzhou to the north and Zhangzhou making this a unique built-up area of more than five million people. The Jinmen (Kinmen) Islands administered by the Republic of China are less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

Being one of the major Hokkien-speaking cities in China, Xiamen and the surrounding southern Fujian cities and counties such as Zhangzhou and Quanzhou are the ancestral homes to large communities of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, especially Singapore, various parts of Malaysia as well as the Indonesian Riau Province. The city was a treaty port in the 19th century and one of the four original Special Economic Zones opened to foreign investment and trade when China began economic reforms in the early 1980s. It is endowed with educational and cultural institutions supported by the overseas Chinese diaspora. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as China's second "most suitable city for living", as well as China's "most romantic leisure city" in 2011.

Xiamen (disambiguation)

Xiamen is a city in Fujian, China.

Xiamen may also refer to: