Medan Hokkien

Chinese dialect spoken in parts of Indonesia
Medan Hokkien
棉蘭福建話
Mî-lân Hok-kiàn-oā (POJ)
Native toIndonesia
RegionMedan, Pematangsiantar, Kisaran, Rantau Prapat, Tebing Tinggi, Tanjungbalai, Binjai, Jakarta and other cities in North Sumatra, Java and other regions of Indonesia with significant Chinese community.
Native speakers
800.000~1.000.000 (2010)[citation needed]
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Early forms
Latin (Indonesian orthography)
Language codes
ISO 639-3nan for Southern Min / Min Nan (hbl for Hokkien Bân-lâm is proposed[4]) which encompasses a variety of Hokkien dialects including "Penang-Medan Hokkien"/"Medan Hokkien".[5]
GlottologNone
Linguasphere79-AAA-jek

Medan Hokkien is a local variety of Hokkien spoken amongst Chinese Indonesians in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. It is the lingua franca in Medan as well as the surrounding cities in the state of North Sumatra. It is also spoken in some Medan Chinese migrant communities such as in Jakarta. Medan Hokkien is a subdialect of the Zhangzhou (漳州) Hokkien, particularly of Haicheng (海澄) subdialect. It borrows heavily from Teochew, Deli Malay and Indonesian.

It is predominantly a spoken dialect: Vernacular Hokkien, including Medan Hokkien, is traditionally passed down orally and is rarely transcribed in written Hokkien. Moreover, Indonesia's New Order Era imposed martial laws to supress and ban display of Chinese characters and Chinese tradition in public.[6] However, with the rise of social media, Medan Hokkien is often transcribed in EYD, ignoring tone markings altogether.[7]

When comparing Medan Hokkien to other Hokkien dialects spoken in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, Medan Hokkien can be relatively intelligible. It is, however, most similar to Penang Hokkien. Both are strikingly similar that it could be difficult to tell the difference between the two if a Medan Hokkien speaker does not heavily mix Deli Malay and Indonesian borrowings in their conversation.

History

Medan Hokkien’s origin could be linguistically traced back to Penang Hokkien[8] and its Kedahan roots.[9] Early presence of Chinese in Medan could be found in Pulau Kampai[10] and Kota China,[11] with archaeological discoveries pointing out the presence of Chinese traders as far back as 12th century CE. When John Anderson was sent for a diplomatic mission to eastern coasts of Sumatra in 1823, he recounted the presence very few Chinese in what was known as Deli,[12] and around 50 to 100 Chinese in Asahan.[13] Trade between eastern coasts of Sumatra and Penang and Malacca was already very much established by then.

The rise of Deli as a major exporter of Tobacco brought in great influx of Chinese Coolies (indentured labourers) from Penang. By 1890, Chinese Coolies in East Sumatra rose up to 53,806.[14] The significance of Penang's role in Deli's economy and the influence of Penang's elite Babanyonya and the Five Big Kongsi cannot be denied. Cheah Choo Yew (1841-1931) was one of the founding fathers of Cheah Kongsi was native to Langkat, East Sumatra. Khoo Cheow Teong (1840-1916) was the great grandson of Koh Lay Huan (Penang's first Kapitan China) and grandson of Khoo Wat Seng (founding father of Khoo Kongsi). He was the Kapitan Cina of Asahan for 26 years. Penang's famous Cheong Fatt Tze was also related to Medan's Kapitan Cina Tjong A Fie and Tjong Yong Hian, and the three of them monopolised major commodities in East Sumatra. The cultural link between Penang and Medan was beyond mere proximity. One could even find strong similarities in rituals such as worship of Datuk and in mutually shared Peranakan dishes.

Russell Jones, in his article 'The Chiangchew Hokkiens, the true pioneers in Nanyang' took the effort to confirm the early presence of Zhangzhou Hokkiens, not only in Penang, but also in Malacca, Batavia and the rest of the archipelago.[15] In addition, the uncanny similarity of the Malay loanwords (batu, mana, binatang, tapi), 'Hokkien-ised' Malay terms (lokun, sukak) and as well as Kedahan dialect (gatai) in Penang Hokkien that has become canonic to Medan Hokkien vocabularies is evident of its lineage.

Medan Hokkien also had substantial influence from Teochew dialect, due to the dominant presence of Teochew coolies during the Tobacco boom. The events of Japanese invasion, East Sumatra revolution and New Order regime sundered the cross-strait cultural kinship between the two cities. The two dialects ever since diverged and evolved separately, where Penang Hokkien became more Anglicised and Mandarinised, while Medan Hokkien became more Indonesianised.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.[1][2][3]

References

  1. ^ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
  2. ^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  4. ^ "Change Request Documentation: 2021-045". 31 August 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  5. ^ "Reclassifying ISO 639-3 [nan]" (PDF). GitHub. 31 August 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  6. ^ Suryadinata, L. (1976). Indonesian Policies toward the Chinese Minority under the New Order. Asian Survey, 16(8), 770–787. doi:10.2307/2643578
  7. ^ "KUMPULAN KALIMAT DENGAN BAHASA HOKKIEN". Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  8. ^ "2. Penang and the Big Five in Regional Context", Penang Chinese Commerce in the 19th Century, ISEAS Publishing, pp. 14–46, 2015-12-31, retrieved 2023-10-13
  9. ^ Wilson, H. E.; Khoo, Gilbert; Lo, Dorothy (1980). "Asian Transformation. A History of South-East, South and East Asia". Pacific Affairs. 53 (2): 306. doi:10.2307/2757476. ISSN 0030-851X.
  10. ^ Dussubieux, Laure; Soedewo, Ery (2018). "The glass beads of Kampai Island, Sumatra". Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 10 (5): 1129–1139. doi:10.1007/s12520-016-0438-5. ISSN 1866-9557.
  11. ^ McKinnon, E. E. (1977). "Research at Kota Cina, a Sung-Yüan period trading site in East Sumatra". Archipel. 14 (1): 19–32. doi:10.3406/arch.1977.1355.
  12. ^ Anderson, John (1826). Mission to the east coast of Sumatra, in 1823, under the direction of the Government of Prince of Wales Island. United Kingdom: Edinburgh : Blackwood ; London : Cadell. p. 296.
  13. ^ Anderson, John (1826). Mission to the east coast of Sumatra, in 1823, under the direction of the Government of Prince of Wales Island. United Kingdom: Edinburgh : Blackwood ; London : Cadell. p. 318
  14. ^ Anthony Reid, An Indonesian Frontier: Acehnese & Other Histories of Sumatra (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2005), p. 223.
  15. ^ Jones, R. (2009). The Chiangchew Hokkiens, the True Pioneers in the Nanyang. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 82(2 (297)), 46. JSTOR 41493748

External links

  • Medan & Penang Hokkien Podcast (in Min Nan Chinese)
  • v
  • t
  • e
Sino-Tibetan branches
Western Himalayas
(Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim)
Greater Magaric
Map of Sino-Tibetan languages
Eastern Himalayas
(Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal)Myanmar and Indo-Burmese border
"Naga"
Sal
East and Southeast Asia
Burmo-Qiangic
Dubious (possible isolates)
(Arunachal)
Greater Siangic
Proposed groupingsProto-languages
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches.
  • v
  • t
  • e
Languages
Eastern Min
Houguan
Funing
Others
A map showing the geographical distribution of the primary varieties of Min Chinese.
Southern Min
Chaoshan Min
Hokkien
Others
Pu–Xian Min
(Hinghwa)
Northern Min
Shao–Jiang Min
Central Min
Leizhou Min
Hainanese
Logographic
Alphabetic
Mixed
Research
Proto-languages
Rime dictionaries
  • v
  • t
  • e
Major groups
Mandarin
Northeastern
Beijing
Jilu
Jiaoliao
Central Plains
Southwestern
Huai
Wu
Taihu
Taizhou Wu
Oujiang
Wuzhou
Chu–Qu
Xuanzhou
Gan
Xiang
Min
Eastern
Southern
Hokkien
Chaoshan
Zhongshan
Other
Other
Hakka
Yue
Yuehai
Siyi
Other
Pinghua
Proposed
Unclassified
Standard
forms
Phonology
Grammar
Idioms
Input
History
Literary
forms
Official
Scripts
Logographic
Script styles
Braille
Phonetic
  • v
  • t
  • e
Malayo-Sumbawan
Javanese
Celebic
Lampungic
Northwest Sumatra–
Barrier Islands
South Sulawesi
Barito
Kayan–Murik
Land Dayak
North Bornean
Philippine languages
Central Philippine
Gorontalo-Mongondow
Minahasan
Sangiric
Aru
Central Maluku
Flores–Lembata
Halmahera-
Cenderawasih
Kei-Tanimbar
Selaru
Sumba–Flores
Timor–Babar
Western Oceanic
North Halmahera
Timor–Alor–Pantar
Asmat–Mombum
West Bird's Head
South Bird's Head
East Bird's Head
West Bomberai
Dani
Paniai Lakes
Digul River
Foja Range
Lakes Plain
East Cenderawasih Bay
Yawa
Demta–Sentani
Ok
Momuna–Mek
Skou
South Pauwasi
East Pauwasi
West Pauwasi
Kaure–Kosare
Marind–Yaqai
Bulaka River
Kayagar
Border
Senagi
Mairasi
Kolopom
Yam
Lower Mamberamo
Others
Other languages
Creoles and Pidgins
Malay-based creoles
Other creoles and pidgins
Immigrant languages
Chinese
European
Indian
Middle Eastern
Others
Sign languages


Stub icon

This China-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

  • v
  • t
  • e
Stub icon

This Sino-Tibetan languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

  • v
  • t
  • e