Min Bei

All you want to know about Min Bei

Northern Min (Min Bei) 闽北语
Spoken in:	Southern China, United States (mostly California)
Region:	northwestern & central Fujian; Nanping

Total speakers:	10.3 million
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Min Northern Min (Min Bei)
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`zh`
ISO 639-2:	`chi (B)`	`zho (T)`
ISO 639-3:	`mnp`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Northern Min language, or Min Bei (simplified Chinese: 闽北; traditional Chinese: 閩北; pinyin: Mǐnběi) 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 Language 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].

References

^ ^a ^b Zev Handel (2003). "Northern Min Tone Values and the Reconstruction of Softened Initials" (^{[dead link]}). Language and Linguistics 4.1: 47–84, http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/publish/LL4.1-03-Handel-paper.pdf. Retrieved on 25 April 2007.

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.

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Chinese language

Spoken varieties

Major Subdivisions

Mandarin	Northeastern · Beijing · Ji-Lu · Jiao-Liao · Zhongyuan · Dungan · Southwestern · Taiwanese Mandarin

Wu	Hangzhou · Ningbo · Quzhou · Shanghainese · Suzhou · Wenzhou · Wuxi

Yue	Cantonese · Gaoyang · Taishanese

Min	Min Bei · Min Dong · Min Nan · Min Zhong · Puxian · Qiong Wen · Taiwanese · Teochew

Xiang	Changsha

Hakka

Gan	Nanchang

Often accepted	Huizhou · Jin · Ping