Bible in Hinghwa (Xinghua) Romanised (Genesis), published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Puxian (Simplified Chinese: 莆仙话 ; Traditional Chinese : 莆仙話 ; Hanyu pinyin : Púxiān huà), also known as Xinghua is a subcategory of Min Chinese.

Puxian is a word combination of two place names of Putian City (莆田市) and Xianyou County (仙游县).

It is spoken mostly in Fujian province particularly in Putian and Xianyou, parts of Fuzhou, and parts of Quanzhou. More than 2000 people in Shacheng, Fuding (福鼎) in northern Fujian also speak Puxian. There are minor differences between the dialects of Putian and Xianyou.

Overseas populations of Puxian speakers exist in Malaysia and Singapore. Speakers of Puxian are also known as Henghua (Simplified Chinese : 兴化 ; Traditional Chinese : 興化 ; Hanyu pinyin : Xīnghuà), Hinghua, or Xinghua.

[edit] History of language

Before the year AD 979, Puxian region spoke a form of Minnan akin to Quanzhou Minnan since it was part of Quanzhou county. In the year AD 979 Song Dynasty, the region was administratively separated from Quanzhou region and the language developed separately from the rest of Southern Min. Due to its proximity with Fuzhou, it absorbed some elements of Min Dong language.

[edit] Characteristics of language

Puxian have 15 consonants, including zero onset, the same as most of other Min directs. Puxian have lateral fricative [ɬ] instead of [s] in other Min dialects.

Puxian have 40 finals and 7 tones.

Puxian is closer to Quanzhou Minnan than Zhangzhou Minnan as is evidenced by certain phonetic similarities eg. 黃 is pronounced as 'ng' instead of 'ui' as in Zhangzhou Minnan.

Puxian differ from most Minnan dialects in several ways

1. The vowel 'a' is replaced by vowel 'o' in most cases. Eg. 腳 (Leg) Ka is Ko.

2. The vowel 'ư' /ɯ/ is replaced by vowel 'ü'. Eg. 魚 (Fish) Hu is Hü.

3. The vowel 'eng' is replaced by vowel 'oong' /uŋ/. Eg. 湯 (Soup) Teng is Toong.

4. The vowel /e/ is replaced by vowel 'o'. Eg.馬 (Horse) is Bo.

5. The vowel 'i' is replaced by vowel 'a', eg. 病 (Sick) Bi is Ba. (Note: slight nasal sound present)

6. The vowel 'io' is replaced by vowel 'iao', eg. 笑 (Laugh) Cio is Ciao.

[edit] External links

• Pu-Xian Chinese at Ethnologue
• Motoki Makajima, Conversational Texts in Two Min Dialects, 1979
• [1] Chinese version