Lan-nang

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Lan-nang, or more properly known as 'Lan-nang-oé', is the Philippine variant of Min Nan, also known as Southern Fujianese or Hokkien. The name lan-nang-oé means 'our (lán) people's (lâng) language (oé)'. Its mother dialect is the Xiamen or Amoy dialect. Lan-nang is spoken among the Chinese residing in the Philippines. It is characterized by borrowings from Tagalog, Spanish, and Cantonese languages. It is also characterized by the heavy usage of words which are considered as colloquial forms in both China and Taiwan. About 592,200 people, or 98.5% of all Chinese in the Philippines speak it as their mother language. Although Lan-nang is not recognized in the linguistic academe, in this article, however, it is treated as a variant of the Xiamen dialect, and not as a dialect, per se.

Sino-Tibetan ⊃ Chinese ⊃ Min ⊃ Southern Min ⊃ Lan-nang-oé (Philippine Hokkien)

Contents

1 Phonetics
2 Sample phrases
3 Geographic Spread
4 Uniqueness
5 See also

Phonetics

In some situations, Lan-nang is written in the Latin alphabet. But because there seems to be no standard form for romanisation for the Philippine variant, many groups have come up with different spellings (often to the confusion of outsiders).

To an average English speaker, it could look something like this simplified system:

a ------ animal
b ------ boy
c ------ cheese, never hard as in country or crown (sometimes spelt as ch)
d ------ dog
e ------ fun
eh ---- elephant
g ------ good
h ------ why (like hw)
i ------- see
k ------ carry
kh ---- curl
l ------- lemon
m ----- Melt (can stand as a word on its own)
n ------ never
o ------ born
p ------ pear
ph ---- page
s ------ sizzle
t ------ tan
th ---- teeth
u ----- loose
w ---- (added to u to form a “oo” sound, e.g. wu)
y ----- (added to i to form a “ee” sound, e.g. yi)
z ----- mints, never like zebra (sometimes spelt as ts)

Dipthongs

ai -------- eye
ei -------- Like in “say”
ua ------- wand (Like Taiwanese goá)
ueh ----- sweat
oe ------- (like ueh)
ui -------- sweet
ia -------- yeah
io -------- Roughly equal to yawn
ie -------- “ee” + “u” in “urn”
yu ------- pure

Extras

abc' ----- Glottal stop
abcⁿ ---- Nasal sound

Sample phrases

Hello!: Dí hō, dí hō? (lit. "[Are] you well, you well?)
I don't understand.: Guá m̄ zai yaⁿ.
Do you know how to speak Lan-nang?: Dí eh-hiao kong Lan-nang-oé bâ?
Where is the soap?: Hï-gé sá-bun tí-to-lò' bâ?; Note: 'sá-bun', though sounds similar to the Tagalog sabon, is not borrowed from that language. In Taiwanese, which is a variation of Minnan that is not influenced by Tagalog, it is pronounced as sap-bûn. Etymologically speaking, perhaps both Taiwanese and Tagalog ultimately derive sap-bûn/sabon from the Romance languages that had brought the concept of soap to them (Portuguese sabão and Spanish jabón respectively).
Please get me a glass.: Dí e choé-dit ká-oá tuè bá-su bâ?; Note: 'bá-su' is borrowed from Tagalog baso, and ultimately from Spanish vaso.
Do you eat noodles?: Dí e ziá' pan-sit bâ?; Note: 'pan-sit' is borrowed from Tagalog pansit.
Do you eat sweet potatoes?: Dí e ziá' ka-mú-ti bâ?; Note: 'ka-mú-ti' is borrowed from Tagalog kamote, and ultimately from Spanish camote.
When are you going to China?: Dí ti-si beh'-khï Tňg-soa?; Note: 'Tňg-soa', meaning China, is the colloquial term for 'Tiong-kok'. In the Lan-nang variant of the Xiamen dialect, the former is more used.
His friend is in the hospital: Yi e siong-hó ti pi-chù.; Note: 'siong-hó', meaning friend, is the colloquial term for 'pêng-iú', while 'pi-chù', meaning hospital, is the colloqial term for 'yi-î'.
Where are you going?: Dí beh'-khí to-lò' bâ?; Note: Lan-nang-oe has an extensive use of the particle 'bâ' as compared with that of other Min Nan dialects and varieties; this is due to the fact that both Lan-nang-oe and Tagalog has the same meaning of the word 'ba'.

Geographic Spread

Lan-nang-oé is spoken throughout the Philippines where there are significant numbers of Min Nan Chinese. Cities in the Philippines that have a significant number of Chinese include Metro Manila, Angeles City, Davao City, Vigan, Ilocos Sur, San Fernando City, Pampanga, Ilagan, Isabela, Cauayan City, Isabela, Naga City, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Zamboanga.

Uniqueness

Although Lan-nang-oé is generally mutually comprehensible with both Min Nan and Taiwanese, certain words in Lan-nang-oé are only used in the Philippines. Oftentimes, this results in confusion in Lan-nang-oé speakers, especially in China. Other aspects of Lan-nang-oé's uniqueness is its massive use of Min Nan colloquial words (see Sample Phrases above). Because there is an absence of a central agency governing Lan-nang-oé, various subvarieties have developed. In Cebu, for example, instead of Tagalog, Cebuano words are also incorporated. The vast majority of the Chinese who came to the Philippines had their ancestral roots in China, so Lan-nang-oé is more closer to the Min Nan dialects spoken in China.

Lan-nang

Phonetics

Sample phrases

Geographic Spread

Uniqueness

See also