Chinese FAQ
By James Campbell
Updated January 25, 2004

1. How many languages does China have?
2. What is the official language of China?
3. How many Sinitic languages are in China?
4. What is the definition of a language and a dialect? What is the difference between Chinese dialects? What is the definition of Chinese dialects?
5. How many Chinese dialects are there? What is the number of dialects?
6. Did Ancient Chinese have dialects?
7. What Chinese dialect is most similar to Middle Chinese?
8. What are the dialect names?
9. How many tones does Chinese have?
10. How many tones does Mandarin have?
11. Why does Mandarin only have 4 tones? How did tones develop in Mandarin?
12. How did tones develop in Cantonese?
13. How many tones does Cantonese have?
14. Why can't I find my hometown dialect listed on this site?
15. What is tone sandhi?
16. What is a sandhi phrase?
17. What is a citation tone?
18. What is syllable dominance?
19. Are the Chinese Dialects Mutually Intelligible?

1. Q: How many languages does China have?

A: China has over 50 recognized minorities, most with their own language. The major languages besides Chinese include the following: Manchurian, Mongolian, Uyghur, Tibetan, Yi, Zhuang and a great number of minor languages concentrated in the southern provinces of China bordering Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.

Within Chinese, several languages can be distinguished. Often these are confused with dialects, but these languages are not mutually intelligible and some differ more than the European languages that neighbor each other.

The languages that are related to each other and to Chinese within China are called Sinitic languages. "Sinitic" can also mean "of or relating to China." The Sinitic languages are related to various Tibetan and Burmese languages and together form a language family called Sino-Tibetan.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Map of the Sinitic Languages--with links to more information

2. Q: What is the official language of China?

A: The Beijing Guanhua (Mandarin) dialect is the official language in China.

At the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, there was no single, national language in China nor an education system that could teach the proper sounds of any of the languages. There were archaic dictionaries and a literary Chinese over a thousand years old that little resembled the spoken vernacular. The new government decided a national language (Guoyu) must be established and so it was decided by a group of scholars in 1913 that Mandarin be made the standard. A set of phonetic symbols were created (zhuyin fuhao) and a dictionary created called Guoyin zidian (Dictionary of National Phonics). However, this dictionary did not resemble Mandarin as it was spoken because it retained pronunciations of the Ru-sheng characters, so it was a mix of northern pronunciation with the rhymes of the southern languages. Not a single person could speak the language set down in this dictionary except Yuen Ren Chao (Zhao Yuanren), a native Wu speaker but skilled linguist and phonetician who is famous for developing the tone contour system used by linguists and doing much of the early dialect fieldwork. He is the one who made a set of recordings of this dictionary for use in schools. Nobody really could learn from this dictionary, and it wasn't until 1932 that a dictionary based on the pronunciation and speech of Beijing came about. Now, in addition to the term "Guoyu" (which is the term now used in Taiwan), Putonghua or "universal language" has become the national term for the official language. This is usually called Huayu "Chinese language" by most overseas Chinese. Another term, zhongwen is used to refer to Chinese in a more literary sense.

It was originally thought in the early stages of developing Mandarin as the national standard that within 100 years, or by 2030, that the whole nation would be unified linguistically under Mandarin. Because of the sheer size of China and the number of various languages spoken there, teaching everybody Mandarin and making it the national standard has been a very long journey, and even now with less than 30 years to go, most of the languages and dialects are thriving. In many schools, classes are given in the local language and Mandarin is studied as the universal language (much like a foreign language class) to use for speaking with any non-locals.

3. Q: How many Sinitic languages are in China?

A: It is difficult to measure the differences between languages and dialects when the definitions are not clear. However, the Sinitic languages of China (which exclude other minority languages such as Tibetan, Uyghur, Manchu, etc.) can be grouped into several large groups. The northern language, Mandarin, is more or less uniform over most of the country, and within that region has two areas that may be considered slightly more unintelligible to the other Mandarin dialects: the Jin language of Shanxi province and Huainan of southern Anhui province. The other languages are located in Southeast China: Xiang in Hunan province, Gan in Jiangxi province, Wu mostly in Zhejiang province, Hakka--spread over several provinces, Yue mostly in Guangdong province, Pinghua an offshoot of Yue, and finally Min in Fujian, Taiwan, and Hainan provinces. Min can further be divided into a northern and southern language, and there are several more branches that can be distinguished. Min is thought to have branched off from Ancient Chinese at an earlier date than the other dialects, and thus has a greater amount of variation developed among them.
In all, this accounts for 11 languages:

4. Q: What is the definition of a language and dialect? What is the difference between Chinese dialects? What is the definition of Chinese dialects?

A: Languages evolve slowly over time. One or two small changes happen with each new generation of speakers of a language. During the course of a few hundred years, the same language may have evolved so much, it could become a completely different language. Or, a language that is spread out over a large area where travel between cities is difficult could cut a language up letting each area develop independently of each other. This is what happens when a language is spread out over many islands, such as in Indonesia or the Philippines. The result: hundreds of related languages have developed in these two countries. Or after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the distances between Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Romania remained so great, the dialects developed into separate languages. At around the same time that happened, dialects had already appeared in China and they too have been developing, over a vast area of land, into their own languages for about two millennia now.

So how do we distinguish a dialect from a language? A separate dialect is a form of speech different than your own that you can still understand (intelligibility) and the speaker of that dialect can still understand you (mutual intelligibility), though sometimes with difficulty, or you may not recognize the use of some words. Dialects often appear humorous or fun, because you can still understand, but it just sounds funny. After some exposure, most people can imitate the speech of a different dialect without difficulty. Most recognizable in dialects is an intonation different than your own speech and the use of different vowel shapes in addition to some different vocabulary. But what makes a dialect not a language is that the grammar and syntax are pretty much the same. This is apparent between the main American and British dialects of English.

A separate language is a form of speech different than your own that you cannot understand. Not only is the intonation different, but the use of different vowels and consonants together with different use of vocabulary, grammar and syntax make it very difficult to understand. If the language is closely related to your own language, you may be able to recognize some words and may feel a little comfortable with grammatical patterns. But your overall comprehension would remain quite low. Languages differ from each other in a myriad of ways, some only by a little, and others by a lot. This is why it's difficult to draw lines between what is a dialect and what is a language.

All of the Chinese languages use the same vocabulary and roots, more or less. They have a unified syllable and tonal structure as well. And all of these languages originate in one country: China. Traditionally, languages have been identified with countries and nations, and dialects with local varieties. Although Denmark and Norway are separate countries, speakers of Danish and Norwegian can still understand each other. What makes them languages and not dialects? Will Serbo-Croatian remain as one language (even though it has two writing systems) or will its dialects develop into several different languages soon? Now the language is spread over Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia (Yugoslavia), so will these be considered separate languages? Mandarin Chinese in Beijing and Mandarin Chinese in Taipei have different writing too, but these will remain as just dialects of the same language. Taking into consideration that Chinese dialects were in fact just dialects more than a thousand years ago, the Chinese term" 方言 "dialect" has remained until today. The word "方言" could arguably have a different meaning than its English counterpart "dialect". Where we can argue that many of the speech samples found in China are not dialects but rather languages, a Chinese can still indefinitely refer to them as 方言 because this means only "speech of some place." So, because of the wider semantic use of "方言," and its narrow translation into English, the problem of calling Chinese languages as dialects will remain as indefinitely as the term 方言 is used.

But the facts are clear: so much deviation has happened over time that we can now recognize these major dialects as separate languages. We can identify different phonologies, different vocabulary, different grammar, different syntax, and tonal developments.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Phonologies of 50 Chinese dialects (Sample Beijing Phonology)
Tones in about 1000 Chinese Dialects

5. Q: How many Chinese dialects are there? What is the number of dialects?

A: To date, approximately 1500 dialects have been recorded. There are tens of thousands of villages in China however, and not every single one of them has a distinct dialect. We can group villages, cities, or even counties together as belonging to a single dialect. But if every minute detail is considered as a separate dialect, then it is nearly impossible to create an exact count. Since people living in the same region speaking dialects of the same language can more or less understand each other, it is safe to say that each of the Chinese languages have only a few dialects.

Mandarin can be divided into seven main dialect areas: Central Plateau (Zhongyuan), Beijing, Southwestern, Northeastern, Jiaoliao, Jilu, and Lanyin. Jin is concentrated within the northern Mandarin speaking area and has eight dialect divisions. Huainan is nestled between Mandarin, Wu and Gan speaking areas and has five dialect divisions. Wu, located on the eastern coast, with six main dialects, with the majority of the people speaking varieties of Taihu. Xiang and Gan each have several dialect divisions. Min, spoken along the east coast, can be further divided into sub-languages, each with their own dialects, the main languages being Northern and Southern Min. Hakka and Cantonese each have several dialect divisions with Pinghua (Cantonese) recognized by some as a separate language.

If we just count the main dialect divisions in the classification of each language group, we can say the following:

Mandarin: 7 dialects, 42 subdialects
Jin: 8 dialects
Huainan: 5 dialects
Wu: 6 dialects, 13 subdialects
Xiang: 3 dialects
Gan: 11 dialects
Min: 2 languages, 6 dialects, 9 subdialects
Hakka: 8 dialects
Cantonese: 8 dialects
Pinghua: 2 dialects

Total: 11 languages, 64 dialects, 64 subdialects (of just some of the dialects)

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Classification of Chinese Dialects
Dialect Name Index
Tones in about 1000 Chinese Dialects

6. Q: Did Ancient Chinese have dialects?

A: All languages, both modern and historical, have (had) regional varieties and so-called dialects. Different varieties of speech and languages are often mentioned by authors in historical records.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Comparison of Middle Chinese Initials
Comparison of Middle Chinese Finals

7. Q: What Chinese dialect is most similar to Middle Chinese?

A: No single dialect is exactly like Middle Chinese, however it is possible to find one that is more similar than any other. Middle Chinese had a great number more sounds than any modern Chinese dialect. Most dialects have lost parts of those sounds. In Mandarin, the most apparent sound loss is the syllable-final occlusive /-p, -t, -k/ sounds. Yue (Cantonese) keeps most of these traditional sounds, however several dialects have many words that have mixed the -p, -t, and -k around. Most dialects have lost voiced consonants which helped to differentiate high and low tone registers. Wu dialects are some of the few dialects that still have voiced consonants and still differentiate high and low tone registers in this way. However, the earliest branching of Chinese dialects occurred with the Min dialects, so these dialects share some characteristics that resemble Middle Chinese in many ways; more so than most other dialects. Here is a chart that shows the branching of the Chinese dialects. Notice that Min has its own branch on the far right. There is currently much debate about the accuracy of this (when and how early the Min dialects branched). However, I believe there are two points in support of this argument: 1. Geng (Geñ) rhyme pronunciations in Baihua Min, and 2. Geng (Geñ) rhyme pronunciations in Vietnamese of characters borrowed from Chinese during the Chinese occupation of Vietnam.

Check the ancient rhymes pages on this website and investigate what Hashimoto has written in his works. Min readings of characters usually have two readings: a literary and colloquial. It has been written that most literary readings are borrowings from the north (northern Chinese dialects), and the nasal endings in colloquial Min are the truely ancient development from palatalized /n/ (ñ).

The beginning of the Chinese occupation of Vietnam coincides with the proposed branch of Min here, and the borrowed Sinitic vocabulary in Vietnam has retained the original "ñ" (written 'nh' now in Vietnamese).

Later, Middle Chinese Geng rhyme changed to a "ng" ending. The branching of Min and the Vietnam occupation precede the proposed branch off of other Sinitic languages such as Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Jin, Xiang, Gan, etc, including borrowings into Korean and Japanese (the latter of which has had even further phonological change).

8. Q: What are the dialect names?

A: Most dialects are named after their city. You can find lists of these names on this website. The languages are usually named after the region or province from where they originated. For example 閩 (Min) is the nickname used for 福建 (Fujian) province; 湘 (Xiang) for 湖南 (Hunan) province, etc.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Dialect Name Index
List of Mandarin Dialects
List of Jin Dialects
List of Huainan Dialects
List of Xiang Dialects
List of Gan Dialects
List of Wu Dialects
List of Min Dialects
List of Kejia (Hakka) Dialects
List of Yue (Cantonese) Dialects
List of Pinghua Dialects
List of Vietnamese Dialects

9. Q: How many tones does Chinese have?

A: Based on the Ancient Chinese tonal system, there are 4 tones. These are not the same 4 tones of modern Mandarin. The tone names are Ping, Shang, Qu, and Ru.
Each of these four tones have split in multiple ways in the modern Chinese languages. This split can generally be characterized by words with voiced initial consonants dropping to a lower tone register referred to as Yang tones (in contrast with high register Yin tones that have unvoiced initial consonants). This split exists in all the modern Sinitic languages, thus yielding eight tones. However, in several languages such as Mandarin, the tones have merged with each other yielding only a subset of the original system.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Universal Tone System
Tone Contours
More Tonal Divisions
Tones in about 1000 Chinese Dialects

10. Q: How many tones does Mandarin have?

A: Mandarin has four tones, corresponding to three ancient tone categories: Ping, Shang, and Qu. All Ru tones have merged with the other tones. Only the first category, Ping, has a split in Yin and Yang (Mandarin 1st and 2nd tones) thus yielding four tones.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Tones in over 500 Mandarin dialects--Compare each dialect with each other as some have more or less than 4 tones
Tones in about 1000 Chinese Dialects

11. Q: Why does Mandarin only have 4 tones? How did tones develop in Mandarin?

A: Over the course of the development of Mandarin into its own language, the stop endings characteristic of the Ru tones, disappeared from the phonology of Mandarin. This caused these syllables to be lengthened, and with time they adopted one of the other tones. There is no general rule that applies to which tones these Ru tones adopted, and they differ from dialect to dialect throughout the Mandarin speaking area. Both Shang and Qu tones did not split, leaving only a split in Ping (but also not splitting in some dialects such as Urumqi). This left only four tones: Yin Ping (1st), Yang Ping (2nd), Shang (3rd), and Qu (4th).

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Universal Tone System
Tone Contours
More Tonal Divisions
Tones in over 500 Mandarin dialects--Compare each dialect with each other as some have more or less than 4 tones
Tones in about 1000 Chinese Dialects

12. Q: How did tones develop in Cantonese?

A: Cantonese did not undergo any rearrangement of tones, all eight tones remain. In addition to this, several more divisions have occurred. For example, Middle Chinese Yin Ru-tone words with /ɑ/ and /a/ were recognized by Cantonese as having such different traits that Yin Ru-tone words with these sounds developed into separate tones. This gave way to a 9th tone: a mid Yin Ru versus a high Yin Ru. There are also other differences: such as two separate readings of the Yin Ping first tone, and different lengths of the Yang Ru tone.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Universal Tone System
Tone Contours
More Tonal Divisions
Tones in Cantonese dialects--Compare each dialect with each other as some have more or less than 9 tones
Tones in about 1000 Chinese Dialects

13. Q: How many tones does Cantonese have?

A: There is more than one way to count Cantonese tones. There are four traditional categories. Each category is split in Yin and Yang (8 divisions), and Cantonese has an extra split in the fourth category (Yin-Ru), yielding 9 divisions, or tones. But if we count all the contours, there are 10, as there are two realizations of the first tone. However, if we compare the different contours, we will notice that all three divisions in the fourth category (identified as any word with stop endings) each match one of the other contours, so 10 - 3 = 7 different tone contours. Many textbooks will not actually consider the two 1st tone readings, since it has disappeared in some areas, therefore it is common to see citation of 9 tones, but 6 individual contours (many textbooks number the tones 1-6). This is a confusing matter, but it must be kept in mind that any number (6, 7, 9, 10) is correct, it just depends on what you are counting. I have seen claims of as many as 13, but these are clearly misleading and exaggerations and are usually made by people who cannot support the claim. To sum up:

6 = individual contours as found in most textbooks
7 = individual contours, including alternate 1st tone reading
9 = three 4th category tones with words ending in -p, -t, -k are included, but only counting one 1st tone contour
10 = all tone divisions considered, including the extra 1st tone contour

14. Q: Why can't I find my hometown dialect listed on this site?

A: This site is not all inclusive and I've only included what I can find from my references. If you have accurate information you would like to submit, please send me an email and I will list you as a reference on this site. In addition to citation tones, I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide on tone sandhi patterns, and accompanying phonology of your home dialect.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Dialect Name Index

15. Q: What is tone sandhi?

A: Tone sandhi is the change of a tone to a different tonal contour when a syllable occurs in a particular environment. The dialects of some languages, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, have relatively few tone sandhi environments. Others, like the Min languages have as many tone sandhi as citation tones. And at the far extreme are the dialects of Wu and Jin that have separate sandhi for each single tone based on all the different kinds of combinations each tone could occur in.

16. Q: What is a sandhi phrase?

A: Depending on whether a dialect has first or final syllable dominant sandhi, a phrase differs in definition. Another way to word this question is: to what extent can sandhi be applied in a sentence. For example, in Hokkien or Southern Min dialects, every citation tone has corresponding sandhi and should undergo tone sandhi when not pronounced in isolation. However, this can only be applied to the extent of phrasing. In such final syllable dominant dialects, the last syllable in a phrase retains its citation tone. In addition, Southern Min dialects also have a neutral tone into which many syllables occuring post-finally fall. Many of such syllables are grammatical particles, such as the Southern Min aspect marker "-a".
In dialects with first syllable dominance, sandhi phrases tend to be shorter and occur primarily on bound lexical items, as found in Shanghai Wu. The difference here with dialects of final syllable dominance can be seen in the use of pronouns and verbs: in Southern Min, pronouns undergo sandhi before verbs; in Shanghai Wu, pronouns do not. In first syllable dominance, tone sandhi covers polysyllabic forms such as resultative compounds, expressions (成語), compound nouns, and to a more limited extent verb-object compounds. Take the following examples from Shanghai Wu:

梳頭 sɨ⁵³ dɤ¹³ (to comb (one's) hair); all citation tones

The monosyllabic verb is a lexical item by itself and the object is not bound by it.
梳頭髮團 sɨ⁵³ dɤ^13-11 ɸaʔ^5-3 dø^13-33 (to comb (out) knots); sandhi phrase is underlined

Here, "knot" is a three-syllable single lexical item. Sandhi contour changes are noted numerically after the dash for each syllable.
梳頭家生 sɨ^53-55 dɤ^13-55 kɑ^53-55 sã^53-31 (dressing table combs)

Here the whole phrase makes up a single lexical unit and every syllable undergoes sandhi.

The Jin dialects go further by distinguishing how many syllables are in each bound section of a sandhi phrase, such as 1 syllable-2 syllables, 2 syllables-1 syllable, etc. with different results for each kind of combination and making distinctions between resultative compounds, verb-object compounds, etc. In the Pingyao Jin dialect, there are more than 40 disyllabic sandhi combinations, and about 350 trisyllabic sandhi combinations which can be collapsed into about 24 unique variations. Very complex indeed.
The Chongming Wu dialect uses a mix between the two kinds of syllable dominance occurring among Chinese dialects. With the existence of a dialect such as this, it is apparent that many dialects are at a different point in historical development between tone sandhi and accent.
It can be summed up that dialects with final syllable dominance may have longer sandhi phrases with sandhi occurring over grammatical boundaries unlike dialects with first syllable dominance.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Shanghai Wu Phonology
Chongming Wu Phonology
Map of Shanghai and Chongming (Island)
Pingyao Jin Tone Sandhi
Pingyao Jin Phonology
Map of Pingyao (in exact center of Shanxi province)

17. Q: What is a citation tone?

A: Citation tones are the tones of characters that occur in isolation. These are often the tones marked in dictionary entries. However, when a syllable occurs together with other syllables, or is bound grammatically, it may undergo tone sandhi, and therefore is no longer pronounced with its citation tone. In certain dialects with tone sandhi, the use of citation tones have specific functions, for example, emphasis.

18. Q: What is syllable dominance?

A: Throughout Chinese dialects, two kinds of syllable dominance, or accent, are found: first syllable dominance and last syllable dominance. Most speakers of Chinese are familiar with the last syllable dominance type. This kind occurs in Mandarin, Min, Southern Wu and in some cases also in Yue and Kejia dialects. The simplest type of sandhi in this type simply change tone contour when followed by another syllable that may or may not be bound grammatically. In other words, the last syllable is stronger and more dominant in that it does not undergo sandhi. This is known as left-spreading. Tone changes take effect on syllables to the left of the dominant syllable.

In first syllable dominance, such as those found in Northern Wu and Jin dialects, the sandhi of each syllable in a phrase is determined by characteristics of the first syllable. This is known as right-spreading. For example, in Shanghai Wu, generally speaking if the first syllable is 1st tone (unvoiced onset consonant), then the whole sandhi phrase will have a descending contour. If 2nd tone (unvoiced onset consonant), then the whole sandhi phrase will have a rising-descending contour. If 3rd tone (voiced onset consonant), again it will have a rising-descending contour, but at a lower pitch. In shorter phrases of 2 syllables, there is generally only a rising contour. The actual record of all these combinations of syllables and tone sandhi is quite complex in first syllable dominant sandhi patterns. Some dialects such as Ningbo, have as many as 80 different possible combinations.

19. Q: Are the Chinese Dialects Mutually Intelligible?

A: In most cases, a substantial NO is in favor of this argument.

According to lexical statistical data of any two languages within the Sinitic branch (for example Wu and Mandarin), the data will always reveal that there is less intelligibility between them than any two Romance languages in Europe. For example, French has lexical similarity of about 75% to several other Romance languages. In comparison, Mandarin has 31% lexical similarity with Wu (Shanghaiese) and 19% with Yue (Cantonese). Compare this with European languages of separate branches: English and Russian have 24%, French and German have 29%, English and French have 27%, and two Germanic languages: English and German have 60% (source: Ethnologue), which is still twice as high as Mandarin and Wu. What this is saying is that Mandarin and Wu are different enough lexically, that they could belong to different branches of Sinitic.

Lexical statistics is not all that influences mutual intelligibility. An American may not understand all the words a Cockney speaker says, but within a few minutes one may be able to map the pronunciation scheme to familiar words that are shared by the two dialects. This is very much how the Chinese try to understand each other even though they're speaking different languages. Those who grow up in borderline areas that also have a large Hakka population, then it is not uncommon for these people to grow up understand three or four Sinitic languages. Not surprisingly, when looking at phonological intelligibility between the languages and dialects, the numbers rise a bit, meaning that the overall structure of shared words are quite similar indeed. Almost all the languages share between 60% and 70% phonological intelligibility with Mandarin except Jin 44%, Kejia (Hakka) 83%, and Yue 53%.

Finally, if we look at overall intelligibility between the languages, which incorporates both lexical and phonological data, those languages that are most intelligible to Mandarin are Jin 61%, Xiang 58% and Gan 56%, naturally as these border the Mandarin speaking areas. Those least intelligible with Mandarin are Southern Min and Cantonese, both at ~46%.

How about dialects within languages? Are the Mandarin dialects mutually intelligible? Are the Wu dialects mutually intelligible? Are the Min dialects mutually intelligible? In most cases, NO is also in favor here. Of all the dialects within the various languages probably the most uniform group, and ironically because of its geographical spread, is Mandarin. I know based on experience that Southwestern and Zhongyuan Mandarin are not difficult to understand with Beijing and the other northern varieties. The most difficult are those of Jianghuai, specifically in Jiangsu province. For example, Yangzhou Mandarin has overal mutual intelligibility of 54% with Beijing, which is actually lower intelligibility than Beijing has with the languages Jin, Xiang and Gan.

Also based on experience, I know that speaking a dialect of one of the southern languages, whether it be one of the more common, standard varieties (such as Xiamen, Shanghai, Meixian, or Guangzhou), does not mean you will be able to communicate with others who speak related dialects of those respective languages. For example, the tones are always quite different and play a major role in understanding; getting them wrong means the difference of night and day. Speakers from Shanghai and Suzhou may have a little difficulty in communication even though they are both Northern Wu (Taihu) speakers. The tones are different and when attached to words, convey greatly divergent meanings. Of course Shanghai and Wenzhou (Southern Wu) are completely unintelligible, as I can attest from experience; their overall intelligibility is actually 51%--that's pretty low to make any sense out of what is said.

I've heard Singaporeans speak Southern Min and although I could understand, the accent was so strong, it was quite amuzing (from my point of view) to listen to them. When I first heard it I was trying to identify the language, and I didn't realize it was Southern Min until I was actually understanding what they were saying. Although I learned my Southern Min in Taiwan, when I hear speakers around the Xiamen area, I feel quite comfortable with what is said, unlike the feeling I had with the Singaporeans I heard. On the contrary, speakers from Chaozhou are completely incomprehensible. Even though Xiamen, Taiwanese and Chaozhou are all Southern Min, Chaozhou is hopelessly different. According to the overall intelligibility, Xiamen and Chaozhou have 50%. Personally, I think I understand as much Chaozhou as I do of Fuzhou, which is considered a different language, Eastern Min (and grouped with Northern Min). So I feel the statistics are quite accurate when they say that Xiamen and Fuzhou have almost 52% intelligibility.

For more information about these statistics, refer to the links below.

Follow these links for more in-depth information:
Index of Mutual Intelligibility in Chinese Dialects

Have any more questions? Please send an email.