Origin of Hainanese Min language

Introduction

There are many different languages spoken in Hainan but this article narrates the origin of the Sinitic language spoken by Hainanese Min people which is the largest ethnic group living on Hainan island.

Homeland

The homeland of the Hainanese Min people is in the northeastern part of Hainan island from around Haikou to Wenchang.

Homeland of Hainanese Min

From the Sui (6th century AD) to the Northern Song dynasty (12th century AD), Hainan was a very remote region from northern China and isn't considered a good place to live for the Han Chinese as it was far from any civilized Han Chinese cities.

This location made it an ideal place of exile for disgraced officials (the Song-dynasty poet Su Dongpo was banished to Hainan in 1094 AD) and also other unwanted criminals.

Original homeland

The majority of Han Chinese ancestors in Hainan could be traced to Fujian province with more than 80% from Putian (Hing-Hua) prefecture judging from their genealogy books and 65 surnames.

The six most numerous Han Chinese surnames in Hainan are in decreasing order Tan (陳), Ong (王), Lee (李), Goh (吳), Fu (符), Lim (林).

Fu surname ancestors in Hainan

It was recorded in history books that there were two large population increase in Hainan which were in the Song and Ming dynasty. These population increases corresponded to the two massive waves of migration detailed below.

First wave

The first massive wave happened during the Southern Song dynasty when the Mongols attacked Fujian, its history is similar to the Leizhou Min people. (Refer to Origin of Leizhou Min article). Hundreds of thousands of war refugees fled from southern Fujian to Hainan during this period.

One such recorded event was Qiu Wencai/Khoo Boon-Cai (丘文材) who came from Putian prefecture in Southern Fujian. He was one of the army personnel who followed General Zhang Shijie (張世傑) to retake Mongol occupied cities in Leizhou Peninsular. After losing the battle, he found a safe haven in northeast Hainan (present-day Chengmai county) in 1278 AD.

First massive wave

Second wave

The second massive wave happened during the Southern Ming dynasty (1644-1662 AD) and early Qing dynasty (1644-1692 AD) when the Manchu invaded Southern China. It was recorded that there was a sudden huge increase in population in Hainan during the Southern Ming dynasty.

According to the contemporary genealogy books of Hainanese Min people, more than 80% can be traced to Putian/Hing Hua prefecture and we know that most Leizhou Min people also came from the same area during the earlier Song dynasty in the first massive wave.

War refugees from Leizhou and also the remnant of the Leizhou army that was defeated by the Manchu escaped to Hainan.

Second massive wave

Whereas their compatriots from southern Fujian (Quanzhou & Zhangzhou) under general Zheng Chenggong (鄭成功) escaped to Taiwan during the same period.

Southern Min sub-language family

Both Leizhou Min and Hainanese Min are actually separate languages within the Southern Min sub-language family and not dialects of each other, which is commonly mistaken, as they have limited mutual intelligibility. Refer to the chart below.

Leizhou Min has higher mutual intelligibility to Hokkien and other Southern Min languages as can be seen from the tables below compared to Hainanese Min.

Hainanese Min language

There are five Hainanese Min aka Qiongwen Min dialects identified in Language Atlas of China which are

Wenchang (文昌) - Standard Hainan Min, Qionghai
Fucheng - Haikou, Chengmai, Ding-An
Wanning - Wanning, Lingshui
Ya-Xian
Changgan - Changjiang

Wenchang dialect is the standard Hainanese Min language which will be discussed in the next section. However, it is not known whether the other four 'dialects' has the same linguistic characteristic as the Hainanese Min language or are actually closer linguistically to Leizhou Min language.

Ong-Be language influence

According to the linguist Li Rulong of Xiamen University, the original proto-Putian language in Hainan underwent drastic changes due to the influence of the Ong-Be language, which is a part of Kra-Dai languages.

Only the initial consonants in Hainanese Min that are different from both Leizhou Min and Hokkien are listed to highlight the differences.

Table 1:

Hainanese Min has lost all its aspirated voiceless initial consonants, they were transformed into other initial consonants.

English	Chinese	Hokkien	Leizhou Min	Hainanese Min
To go	去	kʰi	kʰu	hu
Skin	皮	pʰuei	?	fi
Moist	潮	tiau	t͡sʰiau	siau
Vegetable	菜	t͡sʰai	t͡sʰai	sai
Sky	天	tʰinn	tʰinn	hinn

Table 2:

Its unaspirated voiceless consonants t, p, h have changed to voiced implosive initial consonants ɓ, ɗ, (ɦ or f) respectively.

English	Chinese	Hokkien	Leizhou Min	Hainanese Min
Brother	弟	ti	ti	ɗi
Cloth	布	pɔ	pu	ɓu
Attach	附	hu	hu	fu
Number	號	hou	hou	ɦou

Table 3:

The 's' and 'ts' consonants are transformed to 't'.

English	Chinese	Hokkien	Leizhou Min	Hainanese Min
Heart	心	sim	sim	tim
Water	水	tsui	tsui	tui

As can be seen from the tables above, there is a drastic shift in initial consonants of Hainanese Min from traditional Southern Min languages due to the influence of the phonology of Ong-Be language. For example, the Ong-Be language doesn't have aspirated initial consonants kʰ, pʰ, t͡sʰ, tʰ (IPA symbols).

However, another possible source of influence from the native Hlai language can be ruled out because the Hlai language does contain these aspirated initial consonants.

Conclusion

Hainanese Min language first formed at the end of the Song dynasty when large number of Han Chinese migrated to the island to escape from the Mongol attacks.

The two massive waves mentioned above explains why most Han Chinese people in Hainan are Southern Min people instead of the Yue Chinese people from Guangdong which is nearer to Hainan island.

The Hainanese Min language underwent drastic changes due to the influence of Ong-Be language, who once lived in northeastern Hainan before the Han Chinese displaced them.

Statue of Kuan-Yin guarding the shore of Hainan

Sources

Contact-induced changes in the languages of Hainan. By Karen Huang.
Surnames in Hainan. https://kknews.cc/culture/xq53ex8.html
https://www.sunnyhainan.com/history-of-hainan-island-china/
https://kknews.cc/culture/9m3545.html
https://liangdian.cc/d/F1qAnRhAAIM
History of Hainan's migrants《海南移民史略》
http://www.sanyau.edu.cn/newsDetails.asp?did=3088
http://www.drben.net/ChinaReport/Hainan_Province/Sources/History/History_Hainan_Province-2-Hainan_Song_Tang_Dynasties.html
https://kknews.cc/culture/pxkqqb2.html
https://kknews.cc/history/8lxavee.html
http://www.sanyau.edu.cn/newsDetails.asp?did=3088
http://www.nanchens.com/xqxx/xqxx32/xqxx32605.htm
https://kknews.cc/zh-cn/history/lv3pzme.html
History of Hainan. 《海南島志》
https://kknews.cc/history/nlkg9q5.html

Last updated: 22 June 2021

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