Southern Min (also known as Hokkien or Minnan) is a major branch of Chinese spoken mainly in Fujian and Taiwan, but also in Guangdong, Hainan and Hong Kong, as well as in many countries of Southeast Asia. Highly conservative in its linguistic profile, it is considered by many scholars to be a living language fossil due to the preservation of many archaic features that reflect its long-lasting history and culture. Yet to date there has been no comprehensive study of Southern Min using a typological framework, as the tendency is to base analyses on the model of Mandarin Chinese, the standard language. This grammar aims to present a systematic description of the Hui'an variety of Southern Min, mainly based on data collected via naturally occurring conversation. The volume includes four parts: nominal structure, predicate structure, clause structure and complex sentences, as well as a brief overview of phonology. It will have great appeal for heritage speakers, graduate students and scholars in both Chinese linguistics and typology.

This book presents multilingualism as a social phenomenon, which arises when speakers of a different language move to a new society and learn to speak the dominant language of the society. It offers case studies of Hokkien migrating families when they encounter new languages in Burma, Macao and San Francisco, showing how a family changes across generations from monolingual to bilingual/multilingual and back to monolingual. In the process language shift occurs as a result of transitional bilingualism. The dynamic status of Hokkien is also attested at the societal level in Singapore, Taiwan and south Fujian, the homeland of Hokkien.

Dieser Band versammelt zehn Aufsätze, in denen Monosyllaba in verschiedenen Sprachen Asiens, Afrikas und Europas aus unterschiedlichsten Perspektiven betrachtet werden. Einsilber sind in fast allen Sprachen der Welt vertreten. Sprachen wie das Chinesische bevorzugen bekanntermaßen diesen Silbentyp. In anderen, wie z. B. den Bantusprachen, muss ein Wort aus mindestens zwei Silben bestehen. In den europäischen Sprachen rücken Einsilber gerade erst in den Fokus linguistischen Interesses. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes beschäftigen sich sowohl mit phonetischen und phonologischen als auch mit morphologischen und funktionalen Aspekten von Einsilbern. Der Fokus richtet sich auf das Zusammenwirken von Silben- und Wortstruktur, wie auch auf die phonologischen und morphologischen Regeln der Wohlgeformtheit. Es wird sowohl die Entwicklung von Einsilbern in Sprachen, die diesen Silbentyp bevorzugen (ostasiatische Sprachen, aber auch Dänisch), als auch ihre spezielle Rolle als Ausnahmeform innerhalb des Lexikons und bei speziellen Wortformen wie z.B. den Imperativen diskutiert. Methodisch reicht die Spannweite von experimenteller Phonetik, über quantitative Linguistik und Analysen von Einzelsprachen bis hin zu großangelegten typologischen Vergleichen.

This volume explores the diverse linguistic landscape of Southeast Asia’s Chinese communities. Based on archival research and previously unpublished linguistic fieldwork, it unearths a wide variety of language histories, linguistic practices, and trajectories of words. The localized and often marginalized voices we bring to the spotlight are quickly disappearing in the wake of standardization and homogenization, yet they tell a story that is uniquely Southeast Asian in its rich hybridity. Our comparative scope and focus on language, analysed in tandem with history and culture, adds a refreshing dimension to the broader field of Sino-Southeast Asian Studies.

China, with the world's largest population, numerous ethnic groups and vast geographical space, is also rich in languages. Since 2006, China's State Language Commission has been publishing annual reports on what is called "language life" in China. These reports cover language policy and planning invitatives at the national, provincial and local levels, new trends in language use in a variety of social domains, and major events concerning languages in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Now for the first time, these reports are available in English for anyone interested in Chinese languge and linguistics, China's language, education and social policies, as well as everyday language use among the ordinary people in China. The invaluable data contained in these reports provide an essential reference to researchers, professionals, policy makers, and China watchers.

Based on analysis of more than 1,000 languages, this volume reconstructs more than 500 processes of grammatical change in the languages of the world.

This book mainly focuses on the close relationship between Chinese dialects and Chinese culture. It reveals,on the one hand, a long, rich and splendid Chinese culture from the perspective of Chinese dialects; on the other hand, it unveils the evolution, the development of Chinese dialects as well as their diversity and charm at the cultural angle. By combining the study of Chinese dialects with that of the history of Chinese culture, the author attempts to explore the cultural background of Chinese dialects’ formation and evolution,and at the same time, the author attempts to view Chinese dialects as the key access to find solutions to related questions appeared in the history of Chinese culture. Thus, it not only opens a new research scope for the Chinese dialectology, but it also finds a new path for the study of cultural history. The book is the first of its kind to create the concept of cultural linguistics, which leads to a new era of combined research on both language and culture.

Countries in Africa, America, Asia and Europe provide the sociolinguistic contexts described in this volume. They involve settings where three or more languages are spoken and where speakers are trilingual. With the focus on family, school and the wider community, the book illustrates personal, social, cultural and political factors contributing to the acquisition and maintenance of trilingualism and highlights a rich pattern of trilingual language use.

From invisible to visible: Stories of Taiwanese Hakka heritage teachers journeys is a study exploring teachers views and experiences with Hakka heritage language education and instruction in Taiwan. These teachers are involved in Taiwans current heritage language program and also experienced the Mandarin Movement which started several decades ago. Data for this qualitative study was collected from interviews with 10 Hakka teachers involved in Hakka heritage language instruction in elementary schools in Taiwan. The research findings indicate that the heritage language program reinforces the value of Hakka culture and Hakka identity. In addition, this study shows that the Mandarin Movement demonstrated the elementary schools important role in the cultivation of students language use habits and perceptions toward the various Taiwanese languages.