Introduction
The Teochew language (潮州話, Teochew1: Diê5(7)ziu1-uê7, Mandarin: Cháozhōu huà) is a language that belongs to the Min 閩 group of Chinese (Sinitic) languages, more specifically to the Southern Min 閩南 (T: Mang5(7)lam5, M: Mǐnnán) subgroup. It is spoken in the Teochew 潮州 (T: Diê5(7)ziu1, M: Cháozhōu) region, also known as Teo-Swa 潮汕 (T: Diê5(7)suan1, M: Cháoshàn), in the Eastern part of Guangdong Province, China, as well as in ethnic Chinese communities around the world, particularly in Southeast Asia. The Sinitic language family is large and diverse, and although its members are commonly called “dialects”, they are often not mutually intelligible. Therefore it is appropriate to call them “languages” in their own right, or “topolects” (a term that was coined from Chinese 方言, T: huang1ngang5, M: fāngyán).
Contents
- Geography and history of Teochew prefecture
- Teochew culture
- Trade, emigration, and the Teochew diaspora
- Characteristics of the Min languages
- Unique features of Teochew language
- Future of the Teochew language
- References and further reading
Geography and history of Teochew prefecture
The Teochew (Chaozhou) region is located on the Eastern boundary of Guǎngdōng 廣東 (T: Geng2(6)dang1) province. It is bordered by Fújiàn 福建 (T: Hog(4)8giêng3) province to the East and the South China Sea to the South. Further up North along the coastline is the port city of Xiàmén (廈門, T: Ê6(7)mung5, also known as Amoy) in Fujian, and further down South along the coastline are the port cities of Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou (廣州, T:Keung6tsiu1, also known as Canton) on the Pearl River Delta.
The terrain of the Chaozhou region comprises coastal plains fed by numerous rivers and tributaries, bordered by mountainous areas further inland. The largest rivers are the Róngjiāng 榕江 (T: Iong5(7)kang1), which runs through Shantou port city, the Hánjiāng 韓江 (T: Hang5(7)gang1), which runs through Chaozhou City, and the Liànjiāng 練江 (T: Liêng7gang1), which is to the south of the Rongjiang. The island of Nán’ào 南澳 (T: Lam5(7)o3) lies in front of the mouth of the Hanjiang river, and has been connected to the mainland by a bridge since 2015.
Map of counties in Teochew Prefecture in 1911
This map is based on the China Historial GIS (CHGS) project dataset, version 6, and was rendered with QGIS v3.8.1.
Counties of Teochew Prefecture in 1911
| Characters | Mandarin (Pinyin) | Teochew (Pêng’im) | Teochew (IPA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 大埔 | Dàpǔ | Dua7bou1 | tua¹¹ pou³³ |
| 豐順 | Fēngshùn | Hong1sung6 | hoŋ³³ suŋ³⁵ |
| 饒平 | Ráopíng | Riou5(7)pêng5 | ziou¹¹ pʰeŋ⁵⁵ |
| 海陽* | Hǎiyáng | Hai2(6)ion5 | hai³⁵ ĩõ⁵⁵ |
| 揭陽 | Jiéyáng | Gêg4(8)ion5 | kek⁵ ĩõ⁵⁵ |
| 澄海 | Chénghǎi | Têng5(7)hai2 | tʰeŋ¹¹ hai⁵³ |
| 普寧 | Pǔníng | Pou2(6)lêng5 | pʰou³⁵ leŋ⁵⁵ |
| 潮陽 | Cháoyáng | Dio5(7)ion5 | tio¹¹ ĩõ⁵⁵ |
| 惠來 | Huìlái | Hui6(7)lai5 | hui¹¹ lai⁵⁵ |
* Also known as Dio5(7)ang1 潮安
The name Teochew 潮州 (M: Cháozhōu, “Chao prefecture”) made its first appearance during the Sui dynasty in 591. It is said to reflect the ebb and flow of the tides (潮) at the extensive coastline of the prefecture. Prior to that, the region was known under several different names. In the Qín 秦 dynasty, it was part of the Nánhǎi commandery 南海群 (T: Lam5(7)hai2(6)-kung5), that covered modern day Guangdong and Guangxi. After the fall of the Qin in 206 BCE, the region came under the control of the Nányuè Kingdom 南越王國 (T: Lam5(7)uêg4-uang5(7)gog4), an ethnic Yue kingdom that also included modern-day Yúnnán and parts of northern Vietnam. The county of Jiéyáng 揭陽 (T: Gêg4(8)ion5) within Nanyue encompassed modern-day Chaozhou. During the Eastern Jìn 東晉 dynasty, the region was renamed the Yì’ān commandery 義安群 (T: Ngi6(7)ang1-kung5) in 413 CE. There were further name changes over the years. The prefectural seat was named Cháozhōu Fǔ 潮州府 (T: Diê5(7)ziu1-hu2) during the Míng 明 dynasty in 1369, and the Qing 清 dynasty succeeding it retained that name. In 1738 CE, a number of new counties were created under this prefecture, resulting in a total of nine (see map and table). This administrative structure persisted until the Republican period at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Teochew/Chaozhou region is also known today as Teo-Swa 潮汕 (M: Cháoshàn), from the names of its two largest cities: Teochew/Chaozhou City and Shàntóu/Swatow City 汕頭市. The former was historically the administrative center, whereas the latter is the modern day economic center. Today, the former Teochew prefecture is organized into three city-level administrative regions of Chaozhou, Shantou, and Jieyang, as well as two counties to the North, Fengshun and Dapu, which are not as density settled.
Teochew culture
Teochew culture is closely tied to the language of the Teochew people. Teochew opera is probably the best known art form that uses the Teochew language. There is also a tradition of folk rhymes and songs that were orally transmitted, usually through women, some of which were recorded in song books.
The coastal environment is also a big part of Teochew life. Many Teochew people are devotees of the goddess Māzǔ (媽祖, T: Ma2(6)zou2), whom they believe protects people at sea. Fishing is an important economic activity, and seafood is important to Teochew cuisine, in condiments such as dried shrimp and in dishes like steamed fish. Teochews have also developed an elaborate ritual around drinking tea, known as gōngfū chá (功夫茶, T: gang1hu1 dê5).
Trade, emigration, and the Teochew diaspora
The earliest records of trade between the Southern coast of China and Southeast Asia date from the 1st century BCE. The goods coming from Southeast Asia included metals and tropical luxury goods, such as rhinoceros horns, birds’ nests, and kingfisher feathers, which were traded for fabrics and manufactures from the North of China. Goods imported into China later included incense, religious goods, and spices, but the overall volume of trade grew slowly over the centuries because of limited demand. The Southern coastal regions, including what would later become Chaozhou, were also on the political periphery of the Chinese state. The area was originally settled by non-Han-Chinese peoples. From the Han dynasty onwards, it was gradually colonized and settled by Han Chinese from the North.
The coastal provinces, including Guangdong province where Chaozhou is located, were seen as a political and military risk to central governments because of their distance from the Chinese capitals in the North, and their contact with the outside world through the sea. The founding emperor of the Ming dynasty imposed a sweeping “sea ban” in 1394 CE, forbidding private maritime trade along the entire coast. Emigration from Canton (Guangzhou) was also banned soon afterwards, in 1398. This was aimed at stamping out piracy, as well as to stop any potential supporters or loyalists of the previous dynasty who might try to hide along the coast. However, illicit trade and smuggling still went on, through bases such as Nan‘ao island. The Ming sea ban was eventually lifted in 1567, because it was seen as ineffective.
After the founding of the Qing dynasty, which succeeded the Ming, another sea ban was imposed, which lasted from 1644 to 1684. Once again, rebel holdouts who were loyal to the previous regime were the reason. Zhèng Chénggōng 鄭成功, also known as Koxinga, was the son of a Ming loyalist, and founded his own independent state in Fujian that clashed with the Qing forces. He later retreated to Taiwan (the island of Formosa) in 1661, where he died in 1662. After his kingdom was finally defeated by the Qing in 1683, the sea ban was lifted and private trade could legally resume.
As population density grew during the Qing, and agricultural production became more commoditized, the demand for goods and hence the volume of foreign trade also increased. The port of Zhanglin 樟林, located in Chenghai county, was originally a fishing port. After the end of the sea ban, it became an important trading port. Many of the famous red-headed boats (紅頭船, M: hóngtóu chuán, T: ang5(7)tao5(7) zung5) set sail from there. Their design dated from a 1723 regulation, where boats were to be painted different colors according to their province of origin, with red for Guangdong. The period after the sea ban was the first big wave of Teochew migration in modern history.
One of the main goods shipped to Zhanglin was rice from Siam (Thailand). As traders regularly went to Southeast Asia, many Teochews and other Chinese also settled there. Siam was one of the main destinations for Teochew traders and migrants, such that Teochews are the largest language group within the ethnic Chinese living in Thailand today. King Taksin, who led the Siamese in overthrowing Burmese rule and who founded the Thonburi kingdom, actually had a Teochew father.
After the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, Swatow was opened up as a treaty port to Western traders, who were not only allowed to do trade, but also given extraterritorial legal rights within those cities. Swatow had only been a small fishing village, but then became the main port and economic center of the region. This was the start of the second major wave of Teochew emigration. Unlike the first wave, this was driven by the demand for cheap labor in European colonies and plantations, the so-called “coolie trade”.
Today, there are large communities of Teochew people in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and in other Southeast Asian countries, as well as in the West from secondary migration. Prominent overseas Teochews include the banker Lien Ying Chow of Singapore, and the businessman Li Ka-Shing of Hong Kong. Swatow was one of the first Special Economic Zones in China to be opened to foreign investment and free market capitalism in the 1980s. Although it has not grown as aggressively as its neighbors in the Pearl River Delta like Shenzhen and Hong Kong, it is still a vibrant major city of over 5 million people.
Characteristics of the Min languages
Min languages such as Teochew are a distinctive and divergent branch of the Chinese languages. Its center of origin is today’s Fujian province on the Southern coast of China. In terms of their sounds (phonology), what Min languages have in common is a systematic pattern of sound distinctions in certain tone categories, where other Chinese languages do not make such a distinction:
“It is generally recognized that the Min dialects, spoken by over 5 per cent of all Chinese, lie outside the mainstream of Chinese linguistic development. The defining characteristic of Min is the presence of lower register tones of both aspirated and unaspirated correspondences to the old voiced stops and affricates of Common Chinese.”
(Norman 2003)
This is a technical point that is based upon the comparison of pronunciation across Chinese languages and reconstruction of the hypothetical ancient pronunciation. Other unusual characteristics of Min are not strictly unique to it, but in combination make it special. Min languages preserve the final -p, -t, -k sounds (stops) that were present in ancient Chinese but which have been lost in many modern Chinese languages. Compared to northern languages like Mandarin, Min languages have a more complex tonal system (usually 7 tones), a higher proportion of monosyllabic words, and more numerous words for negation (e.g. about ten in Teochew vs. only three in Mandarin).
The original inhabitants of the Min region did not speak Sinitic languages. Chinese historians referred to them as the Yue or Min-Yue people, and they probably spoke an Austroasiatic language. Ethnic Han Chinese brought their Sinitic language with them when they began settling in the Southern coast during the Han dynasty. This Han-era Chinese was the basis for Min Chinese. Later immigration from the North, as well as the posting of government officials speaking the court language, also contributed to the evolution of Min. Some words in Min languages are hypothesized to be survivals from the ancient Yue language, some of which are common everyday words (examples from Norman, 1991).
/tam⁵⁵/ • dam5 • “wet”
/kĩã⁵²/ • gian2 • “child”
/pak⁵/ • bag8 • “to know”
The Min language group is itself further divided into Northern and Southern Min. Northern Min is spoken in the Northern part of Fujian, while Southern Min has a wider geographical spread. Apart from Teochew, the other members of the Southern Min group are Hokkien (福建話, Hokkien: Hok-kiàn-ōe, M: Fújiàn huà), which is spoken in Fujian Province and Taiwan, and Hainanese (海南話, Hainanese: Hái-nâm-oe, M: Hǎinán huà), which is spoken on Hainan Island and the adjacent Leizhou Peninsula that is part of Guangdong Province. Each of these is composed of many more local dialects, which are mutually intelligible within but not (or only to a limited extent) across these languages.
Unique features of Teochew language
Teochew can be understood to some extent by speakers of other Southern Min languages, especially Hokkien, to which it is the most closely related. However, there are several features that set it apart. In terms of pronunciation, Teochew retains the low-rising 陽上 tone (traditionally numbered 6, see “Pronunciation and orthography”), which has been lost in most other Southern Min languages. Teochew lacks syllables that end in the -n and -t consonants, e.g. Hokkien huat 發 vs. Teochew huag4.
Some high-frequency words are different between Teochew and Hokkien, for example:
| Teochew | Hokkien | Meaning | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (IPA) | (Pêng’im) | Character | (Peh-oi-ji) | Character | |
| uk⁵ | ug8 | 夗 | khùn | 睏 | to sleep |
| tʰõĩ⁵² | toin2 | 睇 | khòaⁿ | 看 | to see |
| tã²¹³ | dan3 | 呾 | kóng | 講 | to say |
| a³³ai⁵⁵ | a1ai5 | 阿嬡 | lāu-bú | 老母 | mother (third person) |
The word “to sleep” is also pronounced differently between different regions of Chaozhou: ug8 (Teochew), ngh8 (Swatow, Thenghai), in6 (Jieyang), inh8 (Swatow, Chaoyang) 夗. The usage of some words is also different between Teochew and Hokkien: tag8(4)ze1 讀書 vs. tag8(4)cêh4 讀冊 “read/study” respectively.
Future of the Teochew language
Southern Min languages as a whole have about 50 million speakers worldwide, most of whom are first-language speakers (Ethnologue, 2019). It is hard to find an accurate estimate for the number of Teochew speakers within this group. In the 1950s, it was estimated at over 4 million in mainland China (Li 1959), and about 2 million in Southeast Asia (Phua, 1950). The number of Teochew speakers worldwide today is probably somewhere between 5 and 10 million speakers, which would be on the order of languages like Swedish and modern Greek.
With so many speakers, should there be any cause for concern? After all, in terms of language vitality, Southern Min languages have collectively been described as “vigorous”, corresponding to level 6a on the EGIDS (Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale) system (Ethnologue, 2019). This means that the language does not have a standardized form but is in “vigorous use” among all generations. That description would probably apply to Teochew within China. In diaspora communities, however, Teochew may be more accurately considered to be at risk (e.g. Veniranda 2015). Several factors contribute to this situation.
Language and educational policy. Most countries with Teochew diaspora communities have a non-Chinese national language that is the main medium of education and public life. In some cases, the use of Teochew was actively suppressed, e.g. during the period of discrimination against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, and to a less drastic extent, the Speak Mandarin policy in Singapore which promoted Mandarin over so-called dialects. In Mainland China, Standard Mandarin, or Putonghua, is promoted as the national language over regional languages in public life.
Language evolution and change. Languages are dynamic and perpetually evolving. Where Teochew is a minority language, speakers will tend to assimilate foreign vocabulary and other linguistic elements in their speech. For example, this is seen in the numerous Hokkien, Malay, and English loanwords in Malaysian and Singaporean Teochew. The sounds of the language have also evolved, although this is hard to trace as the Teochew language has only been phonetically recorded since the late 19th century, but even in this period of time there have been phonological changes (Xu 2013).
Standardization and orthography. Pronunciation even within Teochew homeland has much regional variation, despite short geographical distances. Standard orthography is not widely adopted. Few texts are systematically written in romanized form. Use of Chinese characters not standardized, either.
References and further reading
- Lǐ Yǒngmíng 李永明 (1959), 《潮州方言》, Chapter 1
- Lín Lúnlún 林倫倫 (2012), 《潮汕方言：潮人的精神家園》
- Xu Hui Ling 許惠玲, (2007), Aspect of Chaozhou grammar, Chapter 1
- Norman, Jerry (1991), The Mǐn dialects in historical perspective.
- Norman, Jerry (2003), The Chinese dialects: phonology.
- Ethnologue: Chinese, Min Nan
- Glottolog: Min Nan Chinese
On Teochew/Chaozhou history, geography and emigration:
- Wū Qīuyù 巫秋玉 (2003), 「明清時期 潮汕港口發展與潮人下南洋」
- Phua Chay Leong 潘醒農 (1993), 《潮僑溯源集》
- Wang Gungwu (2003) [1958], The Nanhai Trade.
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The romanization schemes used here are explained in “Pronunciation and Orthography”. ↩