Dialect fieldwork on the Penghu archipelago
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The Penghu (/ˈpʌŋˈhuː/ PUNG-HOO, Hokkien POJ: Phîⁿ-ô͘ or Phêⁿ-ô͘ ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, about 50 kilometres (25 nautical miles) west of the main island of Taiwan across the Penghu Channel, covering an area of 141 km2 (54 sq mi). The archipelago collectively forms Penghu County. The largest city is Magong, on the largest island, which is also named Magong. …Population 101,758 (2014) (Wikipedia)
Neil Kubler reports:
Just returned from 2 weeks of fieldwork on the Southern Min subdialects of the 21 inhabited islands of the Penghu archipelago, work I began in 1975-78 (1st generation), continued in 2002-04 (2nd generation), and am continuing this year and next (3rd generation). Complicated but the bottom line is (no surprises but I can show all this in great detail): (1) differences among the subdialects on the different islands are being leveled out and they are becoming much like Kaohsiung Southern Min; and (2) unlike 50 years ago, when the younger generation was stronger in S. Min than Mandarin, the reverse is now the case, with many younger people only able to understand S. Min.
Southern Min being one of our favorite topics on Language Log, I'm especially pleased to have this news of the continuation of Neil's fieldwork on Penghu that he began half a century ago.
Selected readings
- "The classification of [nan] Chinese (Min Nan)" (7/27/24)
- "Taiwan(ese) Taiwanese" (7/22/24) — and subsequent parts of this series
- Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Taiwan's language situation
- "Confessions of an Ex-Hokkien Creationist" (9/20/16)
- "Hoklo, part 2" (12/6/21)
Jerry Packard said,
December 31, 2025 @ 11:36 pm
Hooray Neil!!
Chris Button said,
January 1, 2026 @ 9:34 am
@ Neil
Out of curiosity, did you happen to elicit any words for "salt"?
The reason I ask is I'm trying to figure out the messy relationship between 鹽, 鹼, 鹹 …
It's interesting (albeit quiet possibly coincidental) that "garam" in Malay apparently means "salt".
katarina said,
January 1, 2026 @ 10:50 am
In Cantonese 鹼 "alkaline" is gaan2,
鹽 "salt" is yim and 鹹 "salty" is haam, so I wonder
if there is any relationship.
katarina said,
January 1, 2026 @ 11:22 am
jim4 "salt"
haam4 "salty"
Chris Button said,
January 1, 2026 @ 5:24 pm
@ Katarina
Time has eroded the similarity. You need to look at older reconstructed forms to see that they were once connected.
Jonathan Smith said,
January 1, 2026 @ 10:55 pm
One Southern Min 'salt (n.)' question is does any contemporary language use s- onset: Norman's idea was that items like Amoy sĩ A2 'pickled~salted & minced meat/fruit/etc.' (dated?) were earlier 'salt', but clear contemporary evidence is lacking AFAIK, salt (n.)' being now (late borrowed?) iam5 and similar… but note sĩ C2 'to salt' and the like remain common words in many of these languages.
Anyway if e.g. Amoy sĩ A2 'salt (n.)' (?) and kiam A2 'salty' are traceable to "Proto-Min", they should (?) have coda *-m but different main vowels and begin with *z- and *g- respectively. Coda *-m is also the only point of similarity in e.g. Schuessler's "OC", "Late Han" FWIW.
katarina said,
January 1, 2026 @ 11:46 pm
Thanks, Chris.
Chas Belov said,
January 5, 2026 @ 6:09 pm
@Katarina –
When studying Cantonese, it threw me off that adjectives could be so different from their related verbs (especially as adjectives in Cantonese are semantically verbs, per the Defense Language Institute Cantonese Basic Course). However, I see they at least share the semantophore 鹵. The MDGB Chinese dictionary (one of the few of my hundreds of bookmarks that I actually use) lists 14 characters having the semantophore 鹵.
Chas Belov said,
January 5, 2026 @ 6:13 pm
Wait, salt is a noun not a verb (blush). Okay, adjectives in Cantonese are different from their related nouns. Annoying but not strange. I obviously had a brain fart.
Chas Belov said,
January 5, 2026 @ 6:17 pm
Wait, salt *is* a verb, but 鹽 isn't. To verb 鹽 in Cantonese, you have to say 加鹽 "ga jim," add salt.
Chas Belov said,
January 5, 2026 @ 6:19 pm
As an amusing (hopefully) side note, I was once told by a waitperson not to use 加 (add) when asking for a modification to my dish because they would have to charge me more.
Chas Belov said,
January 5, 2026 @ 7:49 pm
And noting an issue with that site.
Jonathan Smith said,
January 6, 2026 @ 10:22 pm
@Chas Belov
FWIW medieval "rime books" record (something like) level tone "yem" and depa
Jonathan Smith said,
January 6, 2026 @ 10:24 pm
oops
@Chas Belov
FWIW medieval "rime books" record (something like) level tone "yem" and departing tone "yemH", 'salt (n.)' and 'to salt' respectively. These are (according to some proposals) continued in certain S. Min languages into recent times, though now in e.g. Taiwanese there is really just departing tone sinn5 'to salt'.