Teochew Min

Classification

Teochew is a Southern Min language. As with other Sinitic languages, it is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, Cantonese or Shanghainese. It has only limited intelligibility with Hokkien. Even within the Teochew dialects, there is substantial variation in phonology between different regions and between different Teochew communities overseas.

The dialects of Teochew Min include:

• Northern Teochew, or Chaozhou division (潮州片), including:
  • Chaozhou / Teochew dialect (潮州话 / 潮州話), spoken in urban Chaozhou (Xiangqiao District); a similar dialect is spoken in Chenghai
  • Jieyang / Kekyeo dialect (揭阳话 / 揭陽話), spoken in urban Jieyang (Rongcheng District); related dialects are spoken in adjacent areas in Jiedong, Jiexi, as well as in northern parts of Puning and Chaoyang
  • Shantou / Swatow dialect (汕头话 / 汕頭話), spoken in urban Shantou (Jinping and Longhu)
  • Raoping dialect (饶平话 / 饒平話), spoken in Raoping County
• Southern Teochew, or Chaoyang-Puning division (潮普片), including:
  • Chaoyang / Teoyeo dialect (潮阳话 / 潮陽話), spoken in the historical Teoyeo (Chaoyang) county, which includes modern Chaoyang, Chaonan, and Haojiang
  • Puning dialect (普宁话 / 普寧話), spoken in urban Puning
  • Huilai dialect (惠来话 / 惠來話), spoken in Huilai County

Language Atlas of China consider the Hai Lok Hong dialect a part of Chaoshan Min (as the third branch(海陸片)), while others consider it a part of Hokkien or an independent Southern Min variety.

In the Nan'ao island, there are two dialects, both distinct from the mainland Teochew, with Western Nan'ao dialect inclining towards the Northern Teochew, and Eastern Nan'ao dialect showing Hokkien influence, as this part of the island was included in Zhangzhou prefecture in 16—19 centuries.

Chawan dialect, spoken in Fujian along the Guangdong border, is quite different from other southern dialects of Hokkien. It has some lexical influence from Teochew and relatively higher mutual intelligibility with it, yet in other aspects it clusters more with Hokkien than Teochew.

The main criterion in the classification of Teochew dialects is the presence or absence of the vowel . It is found in Northern Teochew in words like hṳ̂ 魚 he⁵ "fish" and sṳ̄ 事 se⁷ "thing; matter". Southern Teochew has instead (hû 魚 hu⁵, sū 事 su⁷). Hai Lok Hong and Eastern Namoa dialects have or instead, depending on the etymology of the word (hî 魚 hi⁵, but sū 事 su⁷), similarly to the Ciangciu Hokkien. Southern Teochew may be further divided into Huilai—Puning dialects and Chaoyang dialects, based on their tone contours.

The prestige dialects of Teochew all belong to the Northern branch. The Northern Teochew dialects are mutually intelligible between each other, but less so with the Southern branch.

Various stereotypes and cultural traits are associated with different Teochew dialects. For instance, within the Shantou city, the urban Swatow dialect is perceived as "energetic", "gentle", but also "snobbish" or "pretentious" by speakers of other dialects; the Chenghai dialect (similar to urban Chaozhou dialect) is perceived as "soft", "cute", and "high-pitched"; the Chaoyang dialect is perceived as "harsh", "aggressive" and "countrified".

Writing system

Written Southern Min is known since at least the 16th century. The earliest known work is a 1566 edition of the Tale of the Lychee Mirror, a folk drama written in a mixture of Teochew and Chinchew Hokkien.

Teochew writing is neither standardized nor is widely used. In Imperial China, most writing was conducted in Classical Chinese, while vernacular writing was only used in novels, songbooks and opera scripts. After the Xinhai revolution, only written Mandarin was supported by the government, while speakers of other Sinitic languages, including Teochew, remaining largely illiterate in their own tongues.

Teochew rime dictionaries appeared relatively late, the earliest of them being "Fifteen consonants of Teochew sound" (潮聲十五音, 1913) by Zhang Shizhen (張世珍), "Ji Mu Zhi Yin"(擊木知音, 1915) by Jiangxia Maotingshi (江夏懋亭氏) and "Fifteen consonants of Teochew language" (潮語十五音, 1921) by Jiang Rulin (蔣儒林).

Chinese characters

Most of the Teochew vocabulary can be traced back to Old Chinese, and thus can be written using Chinese characters. There are different ways to write words that do not have a clearly associated etymological character, including:

• using a character with the same meaning regardless of its reading
• borrowing a phonetically close character regardless of its meaning
• inventing a new character
• attempting to find an original character

Teochew shares characters with Hokkien for cognate words, but it is also influenced by the Cantonese written tradition.

Romanization

There are two principal romanization systems for Teochew:

• Pe̍h-ūe-jī, originally invented for Hokkien in the 19th century and adapted for Teochew (particularly the Swatow dialect)
• Peng'im, invented in the 1960s and based on the Hanyu Pinyin romanization for Mandarin

While Peng'im has some presence in academic works published in PRC, many publications on Teochew use their custom IPA-based romanizations.

Phonetics and phonology

Consonants

Teochew, like other Southern Min varieties, is one of the few modern Sinitic languages which have voiced obstruents (stops, fricatives and affricates); however, unlike Wu and Xiang Chinese, the Teochew voiced stops and fricatives did not evolve from Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but from nasals.

The voiced stops and and also are voicelessly prenasalized , , , respectively.

The voiced affricate , initial in such words as jī 字 ri⁷ (/dzi˩/), jĭ 二 ri⁶ (/dzi˧˥/), jiâng 然 riang⁵ (/dziaŋ˥/), jia̍k 若 riag⁸ (/dziak˦/) loses its affricate property with some younger speakers abroad, and is relaxed to [z].

Unlike in Hokkien, nasal initials in Teochew are not generally considered allophones of the voiced plosives, as nasals are relatively more common in Teochew and have less usage restrictions. For example, Teochew allows for syllables like nge̍k 逆 ngêg⁸, which are impossible in Hokkien.

In Southern dialects of Teochew, labial initials (/p/, /pʰ/, /b/, /m/) have labiodental allophones ([pf], [pfʰ], [bv], [mv~ɱ]) before /-u-/.

Syllables

Syllables in Teochew contain an onset consonant, a medial glide, a nucleus, usually in the form of a vowel, but can also be occupied by a syllabic consonant like [ŋ], and a final consonant. All the elements of the syllable except for the nucleus are optional, which means a vowel or a syllabic consonant alone can stand as a fully-fledged syllable.

Onsets

All the consonants except for the glottal stop ʔ shown in the consonants chart above can act as the onset of a syllable; however, the onset position is not obligatorily occupied.

Finals

Teochew finals consist maximally of a medial, nucleus and coda. The medial can be /i-/ or /u-/, the nucleus can be a monophthong or diphthong, and the coda can be a nasal or a stop. A syllable must consist minimally of a vowel nucleus or syllabic nasal.

Apart from the aforementioned rhymes, there are a few limitedly used finals with both glottal stop and nasalization, usually found in ideophones and interjections, e.g. he̍hⁿ 嚇 /hẽʔ˥˦/ "agitated; confused", hauhⁿ 殽 /hãũʔ˧˨/ "to eat in large bites", khuàhⁿ-ua̍hⁿ 快活 /kʰũãʔ˨˩˨꜒꜔.ũãʔ˥˦/ "comfortable".

In most dialects of Teochew, historical codas and are merged with and . They were still present in mainstream Teochew in the 19th century, but now they are found only in certain peripheral dialects of Teochew, as well as in Hai Lok Hong Min.

The rime /ɯ/ is only found in Northern Teochew. In Southern Teochew (the Chaoyang dialect), this rime is merged with /u/. Chaozhou and Shantou rimes /ɯŋ/ (as in 銀 /ŋɯŋ˥/) and /ɯk/ (as in 迄 /ŋɯk˧˨/), derived from historical /ɯn/ and /ɯt/, are merged with /iŋ/ and /ik/ in Southern Teochew (as well as in Jieyang dialect, where /eŋ/ and /ek/ are used for /ɯŋ, iŋ/ and /ɯk, ik/).

The rime /ŋ̍/, used in vernacular readings, is preserved in all dialects, yet in Northern Teochew it is usually analyzed as identical to /ɯŋ/ (e.g. in 光 /kɯŋ˧~kŋ̍˧/, 堂 /tɯŋ˥~kŋ̍˧/). In Teochew proper and Shantou dialects, this vernacular rime /ɯŋ~ŋ̍/ is merged with /uŋ/ after labial initials (e.g. general Teochew (including Jieyang and Chaoyang) 門 /mɯŋ˥~mŋ̍˥/ and 飯 /pɯŋ˨˩~pŋ̍˨˩/ are pronounced /muŋ˥/ and /puŋ˨˩/ in Chaozhou and Shantou).

Chaozhou /ieng/ and /iek/ are used in syllables that historically had /ien/ and /iet/, e.g. 顯 is different from 響 in Chaozhou (as /hieŋ˥˧/ and /hiaŋ˥˧/) and Hokkien (as /hien˥˧/ and /hiaŋ˥˧/), but not Shantou (both are /hiaŋ˥˧/).

Similarly, Chaozhou /ueŋ/ (as in 亂 /lueŋ˧˥/) and /uek/ (as in 發 /huek˧˨/), historically derived from /uan/ and /uat/, are merged with /uaŋ/ and /uak/ in other dialects (including Shantou, Jieyang, and Chaoyang). There are few cases with the rimes /ueŋ/ and /uek/ in Jieyang and Chaoyang, not derived from /uan/ and /uat/ and corresponding to Teochew proper and Shantou /uaŋ/ and /uak/, e.g. 傾 and 獲 are pronounced /kʰuaŋ˧/ and /uak˥˦/ in Chaozhou and Shantou, but /kʰueŋ˧/ and /uek˥˦/ in Jieyang and Southern Teochew.

Tones

Teochew, like other Chinese varieties, is a tonal language. Like other Southern Min varieties, Teochew has split the Middle Chinese four tone into two registers (four "dark tones" and four "light tones"). The tones are numbered from 1 through 8, either in the "dark—light" order (the checked tones are 7 and 8) or in the "level—rising—departing—entering" order (the checked tones are 4 and 8). This section follows the second order, as used in Peng'im.

Depending on the position of a word in a phrase, the tones can change and adopt extensive tone sandhi.

Northern Teochew

Northern Teochew dialects are not too different from each other in their tones. There are small differences in pronunciation of the tone ⑦, which can vary between low falling (21 ˨˩) and low level (22 ˨) among different dialects and individual speakers.

There are minor differences in tone sandhi among the Northern Teochew dialects:

• The most important difference is that the dark departing tone (③) becomes high falling (53 ˥˧) in Chaozhou and Jieyang and high level (55 ˥) in Shantou and Raoping.
• In Chaozhou, the two level tones (① and ⑤) become slightly rising in sandhi (34 ˧˦ and 23 ˨˧ respectively), rather than level (33 ˧ and 22 ˨ ~ 21 ˨˩) as in other dialects.
• In Jieyang, Chenghai and Chaozhou, the sandhi of tones ②, ③, and ④ have two pronunciations, one being slightly higher (35 ˧˥, 53 ˥˧, 54 ˥˦), used before syllables with high-onset tones (⑤ 55 ˥, ② 53 ˥˧, and ⑧ 54 ˥˦), and another one slightly lower (24 ˨˦, 42 ˦˨, 43 ˦˧), used before all other tones. In Shantou and Raoping, these tones have the same post-sandhi value regardless of the next syllable's tone.
• In Jieyang, Chenghai and Chaozhou, the pronunciation of tone ② will become low level (21 ˨˩) after post-sandhi syllables of tone ②, ③, and ④, which is caused by the assimilation of falling tones.

The light departing tone (⑦) after sandhi is usually merged with the post-sandhi tone ⑤ or ⑥, depending on the dialect. For convenience, since the difference between them is still not large, all three light tones after sandhi may be described as identical and equal to pre-sandhi tone ⑦. The sandhi rules for Northern Teochew may be simplified as follows:

Southern Teochew

Southern Teochew tones are noticeably diverse. Based on their tones, the Southern Teochew dialects can be divided into two broad areas: Chaoyang and Hui-Pou.

Currently, a tone shift is ongoing in the Chaoyang dialect. There is a continuum between the "old accent" and "new accent". This shift is more advanced in urban dialects in Eastern Chaoyang (incl. Haojiang, especially the Dahao dialect), among female speakers, and in the younger generations (born after the 1980s). The principal features of this shift are as follows:

• Dark level tone (①) shifts from 21 ˨˩ to 31 ˧˩.
• Light level tone (⑤) shifts from high level 44 ˦ to mid-level 33 ˧ or mid-rising 23 ˨˧.
• Dark rising tone (②) shifts from high falling 551 ˥˥˩ to high level 55 ˥, and in urban Eastern Chaoyang dialects it can even become high rising 45 ˦˥ or 35 ˧˥.
• Dark departing tone (③) and light departing tone (⑦) are falling in a "parallel" pattern (53 ˥˧ and 42 ˦˨ respectively) in the old accent, while in the new accent they are still falling, but the light departing tone (⑦) is more "flat" (52 ˥˨ and 43 ˦˧~44 ˦ respectively).

"Old" Chaoyang accent is notable for the fact that out of its five non-checked tones, four tones have falling contour.

Hui-Pou dialects are more homogeneous in their tones than Chaoyang dialects. Puning and Eastern Huilai dialects have 8 tones, while Central and Western Huilai have 7 tones (tone ⑦ is merged with other tones). Some of the Huilai dialects undergo tone shift similar to that in Chaoyang dialects, but to a lesser extent (particularly, tone ② becomes high level 55 rather than high falling 53).

Neutral tone

Like Hokkien, Teochew has the neutral tone. In pronunciation, the neutral tone is considered to be identical to the light departing tone (⑦) in the respective dialect, but when the original tone of the syllable was dark rising (②), the neutral tone is identical to the dark departing tone (③), and when the original tone was an entering tone (④ or ⑧), the neutral tone is identical to the dark entering tone (④).

Some works refer to the neutral tone as "left-dominant tone sandhi". However, unlike the general ("right-dominant") Teochew tone sandhi, which is a regular phonetic change, the neutral tone is lexical and its occurrence cannot be predicted. Compare the following examples with the morpheme nî 年 ni⁵ "year", where some words have the neutral tone, while others preserve the original tone.

tsâiⁿ--nî 前年 zain⁵ ni⁵ "year before last"

ău--nî 後年 ao⁶ ni⁵ "year after next"

tuā-tsâiⁿ--nî 大前年 dua⁷ zain⁵ ni⁵ "three years ago"

jĭ-káu--nî 二九年 ri⁶ gao² ni⁵ "year 29"

but:

kim-nî 今年 gim¹ ni⁵ "this year"

kū-nî 舊年 gu⁷ ni⁵ "last year"

mê-nî 明年 mên⁵ ni⁵ "next year"

jĭ-tsa̍p-ngŏu-nî 二十五年 ri⁶ zab⁸ ngou⁶ ni⁵ "25 years"

Grammar

The grammar of Teochew is similar to other Min languages, as well as some southern varieties of Chinese, especially with Hakka, Yue and Wu. The sequence 'subject–verb–object' is typical, like Standard Mandarin, although the 'subject–object–verb' form is also possible using particles.

Morphology

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns in Teochew, like in other Chinese languages, do not show case marking, therefore uá 我 ua² means both I and me and i-nâng 伊人 i¹ nang⁵ means they and them. The Southern Min languages, like some Mandarin dialects, have a distinction between an inclusive and exclusive we, meaning that when the addressee is being included, the inclusive pronoun náng 咱 nang² would be used, otherwise uáng 阮 uang² is employed. Outside Southern Min varieties like Teochew, no other southern Chinese variety has this distinction.

Possessive pronouns

Teochew does not distinguish the possessive pronouns from the possessive adjectives. As a general rule, the possessive pronouns or adjectives are formed by adding the genitive or possessive marker kâi 個 gai⁵ to their respective personal pronouns, as summarized below:

本

púng

bung²

CL-books

書

tsṳ

ze¹

book

是

sĭ

si⁶

be

我

uá

ua²

I

個。

kâi

gai⁵

POS

"The book is mine."

As kâi 個 gai⁵ is the generic measure word, it may be replaced by other more appropriate classifiers:

我

uá

ua²

I

條

tiâu

diao⁵

CL-clothes

裙

kûng

gung⁵

skirt

"my skirt"

Demonstrative pronouns

Teochew has the typical two-way distinction between the demonstratives, namely the proximals and the distals. The basic determiners are tsí 只 zi² "this" and hṳ́ 許 he² "that", and they require at least a classifier (generic kâi 個 gai⁵, collective tshoh 撮 coh⁴, or another), which can be optionally preceded by a numeral.

Interrogative pronouns

Numerals

Some numerals in Teochew have a literary and vernacular variant.

Generally, vernacular variants are used, and literary readings are limited to certain set compounds and idioms, e.g.: Sam-kok 三國, ngóu-kim 五金, kiú-siau 九霄, ngóu-tsháiⁿ-phiang-hung 五彩繽紛, sam-sṳ-jṳ̂-kiâⁿ 三思而行, kiú-liû-sam-kàu 九流三教, etc.

However, literary forms of 一 and 二 are more commonly used, particularly in the following cases:

• for the last digit in compound numbers:

tsa̍p ik 十一 zab⁸ ig⁴ "eleven"

saⁿ tsa̍p jĭ 三十二 san¹ zab⁸ ri⁶ "thirty two"

• for counting tens (but not hundreds or thousands) in compound numbers

jĭ tsa̍p ik 二十一 ri⁶ zab⁸ ig⁴ "twenty one"

but:

tse̍k peh 一百 zêg⁸ bêh⁴ "one hundred"

nŏ tshoiⁿ 兩千 no⁶ coin¹ "two thousands"

• in ordinal numbers, names for days, and dates

tŏiⁿ jĭ 第二 doin⁶ ri⁶ "second"

tsheⁿ khî ik 星期一 cên¹ ki⁵ ig⁴ "Monday"

tsiaⁿ gue̍h tshiu ik 正月初一 zian¹ ghuêh⁸ ciu¹ ig⁴ "first day of the Lunar New Year"

jĭ-khàng-iau-poih-nî jĭ-gue̍h jĭ-hō 2018年二月二號 ri⁶ kang³ iao¹ boih⁴ ni⁵ ri⁶ ghuêh⁸ ri⁶ ho⁷ "February 2, 2018"

Passive construction

In Teochew passive construction, the agent phrase by somebody always has to be present, and is introduced by the preposition khṳh 乞 keh⁴ or pung 分 bung¹, both literally meaning "to give". If the agent is not explicitly named, its position is taken by nâng 儂 nang⁵ (lit. 'a person' or 'somebody').

伊

i

i1

s/he

分

'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-000000C<sup>7</sup>-QINU`"'pung

bung1

give

儂

'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-000000C<sup>8</sup>-QINU`"'nâng

nang5

person

刣

thâi

tai5

kill

掉。

tiāu

diao7

be lost

"S/he was killed (by someone)."

While in Mandarin one can have the agent introducer 被; bèi or 給; gěi alone without the agent itself, in Teochew it is not grammatical to omit this dummy agent nâng 儂 nang⁵.

個

kâi

gai5

CL

杯

pue

buê1

cup

分

pung

bung1

give

儂

nâng

nang5

person

敲

khà

ka3

break

掉。

tiāu

diao7

be lost

"The cup was broken."

(cf. Mandarin 杯子給打破了; bēizi gěi dǎ pòle)

The agent phrase pung nâng 分儂 bung¹ nang⁵ always comes immediately after the subject, not at the end of the sentence or between the auxiliary and the past participle like in some European languages (e.g. German, Dutch).

Comparison

Comparative construction with two or more nouns

Teochew, like Cantonese but unlike Hokkien, uses the construction "X ADJ kuè 過 guê³ Y", to express the comparison:

伊

i

i1

s/he

雅

ngiá

ngia2

beautiful

過

kuè

guê3

exceed

汝。

lṳ́

le2

you

"She is more beautiful than you."

(cf. Cantonese 佢靚過你; keoi5 leng3 gwo3 nei5)

However, due to modern influences from Mandarin, the Mandarin structure "X 比 Y ADJ" has also gained popularity over the years. Therefore, the same sentence can be re-structured and becomes:

伊

i

i1

s/he

比

pí

bi2

compare

汝

lṳ́

le2

you

雅。

ngiá

ngia2

beautiful

"She is more beautiful than you."

(cf. Mandarin 她比你漂亮; tā bǐ nǐ piàoliang)

Comparative construction with only one noun

The 過- or 比-construction must involve two or more nouns to be compared; an ill-formed sentence will be yielded when only one is being mentioned:

* 伊雅過 (?)

Teochew is different from English, where the second noun being compared can be left out ("Tatyana is more beautiful (than Lisa)". In cases like this, the 夭-construction must be used instead:

伊

i

i¹

s/he

夭

iău

iau⁶

comparatively

雅。

ngiá

ngia²

beautiful

"She is more beautiful."

The same holds true for Mandarin and Cantonese in that another structure needs to be used when only one of the nouns being compared is mentioned. Teochew and Mandarin both use a pre-modifier (before the adjective) while Cantonese uses a post-modifier (after the adjective).

• Mandarin

她

tā

比較

bǐjiào

漂亮

piàoliang

• Cantonese

佢

keoi5

靚

leng3

啲

di1

There are two words which are intrinsically comparative in meaning, i.e. iâⁿ 贏 ian⁵ "to win" and su 輸 su¹ "to lose". They can be used alone or in conjunction with the 過-structure:

只

tsí

zi²

領

niá

nian²

裙

kûng

gung⁵

輸

su

su¹

(過)

(kuè)

(guê³)

許

hṳ́

he²

領。

niá

nian²

"This skirt is not as good as that one."

我

uá

ua²

內

lăi

lai⁶

個

kâi

gai⁵

電腦

tiĕng-náu

diêng⁶ nao²

贏

iâⁿ

ian⁵

伊

i

i¹

個

kâi

gai⁵

好

hoh

hoh⁴

濟。

tsōi

zoi⁷

"My computer (at home) is far better than his."

Note the use of the adverbial hoh tsōi 好濟 hoh⁴ zoi⁷ at the end of the sentence to express a higher degree.

Equal construction

In Teochew, the idea of equality is expressed with the word pêⁿ 平 bên⁵ or pêⁿ-iōⁿ 平樣 bên⁵ ion⁷:

只

tsí

zi²

本

púng

bung²

書

tsṳ

ze¹

佮

kah

gah⁴

許

hṳ́

he²

本

púng

bung²

平

pêⁿ

bên⁵

重。

tăng

dang⁶

"This book is as heavy as that one."

伊

i

i¹

兩

nŏ

no⁶

儂

nâng

nang⁵

平

pêⁿ

bên⁵

平樣。

pêⁿ-iōⁿ

bên⁵ ion⁷

"They are the same."

("They look the same/They're as good as each other/They're as bad as each other"; lit. "The two people are the same same way")

Superlative construction

To express the superlative, Teochew uses the adverb siăng 上 siang⁶ or siăng-téng 上頂 siang⁶ dêng². The latter variant is usually used with a complimentary connotation.

只

tsí

zi²

間

koiⁿ

goin¹

物

mue̍h

muêh⁸

上頂

siăng-téng

siang⁶ dêng²

好食。

hó-tsia̍h

ho² ziah⁸

"This (restaurant) is (absolutely) the most delicious."

伊儂

i-nâng

i¹ nang⁵

對

tùi

dui³

我

uá

ua²

上

siăng

siang⁶

好。

hó

ho²

"They treat me best." lit. "The people treat me very well."

Vocabulary

Teochew vocabulary consists of several layers, including:

• Pan-Sinitic words, found in most other languages of the Sinosphere (such as Hokkien, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, etc.), often derived from Literary Chinese or orthographically borrowed from Japanese or Mandarin

ì-kièng 意見 i³ giêng³ "opinion",

kok-ke 國家 gog⁴ gê¹ "state; country",

kak-hung 結婚 gag⁴ hung¹ "to marry",

khùng-nâng 困難 kung³ nang⁵ "hard; difficult",

tāu-hū 豆腐 dao⁷ hu⁷ "tofu"

tiĕng-uē 電話 diêng⁶-uê⁷ "telephone",

tshuk-kháu 出口 cug⁴ kao² "exit",

huang-uàⁿ 方案 huang¹ uan³ "plan; scheme",

bûng-huè 文化 bhung⁵ huê³ "culture",

kāng-huâ-kok 共和國 gang⁷ hua⁵ gog⁴ "republic",

tiĕng-náu 電腦 diêng⁶ nao² "computer"

• Basic words derived from Old Chinese, usually via Proto-Min; generally, they are not found in other languages of the Sinosphere, except as morphemes in compound words

lṳ́ 汝 le² "you",

ma̍k 目 mag⁸ "eye",

tṳ̄ 箸 de⁷ "chopsticks",

nâng 儂 nang⁵ "man; person",

saⁿ 衫 san¹ "shirt"

• Min-specific words, usually shared with other Min languages (or at least Southern Min languages like Hokkien)

ta 灱 da¹ "dry";

khṳ̀ng 囥 keng³ "to hide";

khṳh 乞 keh⁴ "to give";

lim 啉 lim¹ "to drink";

𠀾歹 bhoi6 pai2: "not bad"; "good"; "pretty good";

查某 za1-bhou2: a woman or girl.

• Teochew-specific words

tàⁿ 呾 dan³ "to say; to talk";

ĭⁿ 夗 in⁶ "to sleep";

ngà 㦙 nga³ "stupid; foolish";

jṳ̂ 㧫 re⁵ "to wipe; to mop";

tsò-nî 做呢 zo³-ni⁵ "why; how";

唔着 m6 diêh8: incorrect or wrong;

𠁞孬 bhoi6 mo2: "not bad"; "good"; "pretty good";

孬意思 mo2 i3 se3: "sorry"; "excuse me";

孬物 mo2 muêh8: "bad thing"; a person who is "difficult to deal with", or "troublesome";

𠁞物 bhoi6 muêh8: "unable to do" or "incapable";

夭壽 yao1-siu7: a common curse, cursing someone with a shortened life.

Most of the Teochew vocabulary (around 70-80%) consists of the pan-Sinitic words. However, their proportion is much lower among the most basic words used in daily speech, as they tend to belong to the last three categories. This pattern is also seen in other languages of the Sinosphere, e.g. in Japanese, where the Sino-Japanese words constitute around 60-70% of total vocabulary, but only around 20% of words used in common speech.

Literary and vernacular readings

In Teochew, like in other Min languages, it is common for a character to have at least two readings, called "literary" and "vernacular". The number of such doublets in Teochew is somewhat smaller than in Hokkien, due to Teochew being prone to use only vernacular readings and lose their literary counterparts.

Relationship with Hokkien

Teochew and Hokkien are both Southern Min languages. Hokkien, which is spoken in southern Fujian, shares many phonetic similarities with Teochew, but they have low lexical similarity. Although Teochew and Hokkien share some cognates, there are pronounced differences in most vowels with some consonant and tone shifts.

Teochew has only 51% intelligibility with the Tong'an Xiamen dialect of Hokkien, approximately the same as the percentage of intelligibility as between Russian and Ukrainian languages, while it has even lower mutual intelligibility language with other dialects of the Hokkien language.

Most Teochew people do not speak Hokkien and the majority of Hokkien and Teochew people both see themselves as a distinct ethnic groups / nation. There are a minority of Teochew people who speak Hokkien as their mother tongue, most of whom have close contact or relatives in the neighbouring three originally-Teochew counties of what is now South Fujian, which were ceded to Fujian during the early Tang dynasty and subsequently assimilated into the Hokkien population. These Hokkien-speaking Teochews are more likely to treat Teochew simply as accented dialect of Hokkien. These people usually have a strong sense of Hokkien identity.

Pronunciation

In Hokkien, denasalization of initial consonants is extensive, and sounds [m], [n], [ŋ] are usually viewed as allophones of /b/, /l~d/, /g/ used with nasalized rhymes. In Teochew and Hai Lok Hong, denasalization is less common.

Hokkien and Hai Lok Hong have three pairs of codas: -ng/-k, -m/-p and -n/-t. Most dialects of Teochew have merged -n/-t with -ng/-k. On the other hand, many Teochew dialects, except urban Shantou and Chenghai, do not dissimilate the Middle Chinese rhyme 凡 -jom, e.g. they have huàm 泛, huăm 範, huap 法, while Hokkien has huàn 泛, huǎn 範, huat 法.

Teochew (except some Southern Teochew dialects) and Hai Lok Hong have 8 citation tones, while most dialects of Hokkien have 7 tones.

In individual rhymes, the differences between Hokkien and Teochew are comparable to differences between the dialects of each language. For example, both Northern Hokkien and Northern Teochew have the /ɯ/ sound, which is not found in Southern Teochew and Southern Hokkien. Northern Hokkien and Teochew both have -ng (in Hokkien and Southern Teochew) or -ung (in Northern Teochew) rhyme in words like 飯 pn̄g/pūng, 門 mn̂g/mûng, while Southern Hokkien and Hai Lok Hong have -uiⁿ instead (飯 pūiⁿ, 門 mûi).

Grammar

Teochew grammar shows some Cantonese or Hakka influence. For example,

• Teochew uses comparative structure with -kuè 過 "to exceed, to surpass", as in Cantonese, while Hokkien uses native Min comparative construction with an adverb khah 較 "more".
• Teochew, like Cantonese, uses bare classifiers to mean "this", but this usage is not typical for Hokkien.
• Teochew uses relevant classifiers to indicate possession; e.g., the phrase "my book" may be expressed with both uá púng tsṳ 我本書 (with classifier for books) and uá kâi tsṳ 我個書 (with possessive particle) in Teochew, but in Hokkien, only góa ê tsṳ 我兮書 is used.

Teochew differs from Hokkien in function words:

Vocabulary

Teochew has many differences with Hokkien in its basic vocabulary. Some of the differences are due to influence from Cantonese, while others are alternative yet still native Min words.

Teochew tends to use more vernacular readings where Hokkien prefers the literary readings. For instance, Hokkien uses 多謝 to-siā for "Thank you", with literary reading for the first character, while Teochew reads it with the vernacular reading as tsōi-siā. The character 安 has both literary reading (Teochew ang, Hokkien an) and vernacular reading (both uaⁿ), the latter more commonly used in Teochew (安全 uaⁿ-tshuâng, 安心 uaⁿ-sim, 安穩 uaⁿ-úng, 治安 tī-uaⁿ, etc.), while being rare in Hokkien (used in a few place names: 同安 Tâng-uaⁿ, 南安 Lâm-uaⁿ, 惠安 Hūi-uaⁿ).

For some characters, literary readings only exist in Hokkien (even if used exclusively for declamation of Classical Chinese texts), while many vernacular readings are used only in Teochew.