Min Bei

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Min Bei 闽北语
Spoken in:	Southern China, United States (mostly California)
Region:	central & southern Fujian; Nanping and USA (California)
Total speakers:	10.3 million
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Min Bei
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`zh`
ISO 639-2:	`chi (B)`	`zho (T)`
ISO 639-3:	`zh-stp`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Min Bei (simplified Chinese: 闽北; traditional Chinese: 閩北; pinyin: Mǐnběi) or Northern Min is a collection of mutually intelligible dialects of Min spoken in Nanping in northwestern Fujian. The Chinese languages in Fujian are traditionally divided into northern Min and southern Min or Min Nan. However, Min dialectologists divide Min more finely into eastern Min, Puxian, southern Min, central Min and northern Min^[1]. By the narrow definition, northern Min is represented by the dialects of Shibei (in Pucheng County), Chong'an (in Wuyishan City), Xingtian (in Wuyishan City), Wufu (in Wuyishan City), Zhenghe (in Zhenghe County), Zhengqian (in Zhenghe County), Jianyang and Jian'ou^[1].

[edit] References

Branner, David Prager (2000). Problems in Comparative Chinese Dialectology — the Classification of Miin and Hakka, Trends in Linguistics series, no. 123. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 31-101-5831-0.

[edit]

Chinese: spoken varieties

Generally accepted first-level categories:

Mandarin | Wu | Cantonese | Min | Hakka | Xiang | Gan |

Often accepted first-level categories:

Jin | Hui | Ping

Unclassified:

Danzhouhua | Shaozhou Tuhua

Subcategories of Mandarin: