Is Chaozhou dialect a branch of Minnan dialect?

Also known as Chaoshan dialect and Chaozhou dialect, it is a sub-dialect of Minnan dialect, which is distributed in Chaoshan area and overseas Chinese area in eastern Guangdong Province. The English name is Teochew or Chiuchow, which is a transliteration of the word "Chaozhou". Chaozhou dialect has been widely recognized by Chaoshan people at home and abroad because it has been used for more than 1000 years, and academic works such as dictionaries and monographs are all based on Chaozhou dialect. In recent years, a new name has appeared in Chaoshan dialect, but some people (mainly Chaozhou city) are opposed to naming it Chaoshan dialect and insist on using it.

Chaozhou dialect mainly comes from Putian dialect in Minnan dialect, and Putian dialect itself is different from Quanzhou dialect and Zhangzhou dialect, so Chaozhou dialect is very different from Quanzhou dialect from the beginning, and Chaozhou dialect has seriously deviated from Quanzhou dialect. Because Chaozhou is adjacent to Zhangzhou, it is influenced by Zhangzhou dialect. Although a large number of Putian people immigrated to Hainan, Guangdong Province, a large number of Putian people still stayed in Putian, and the Putian dialect of Putian people who stayed in Putian continued to be influenced by Fuzhou dialect, which was somewhat different from Chaozhou dialect. Chaozhou has long been far away from Putian, whose ancestral home is in southern Fujian, and is not adjacent to Fuzhou, but adjacent to Zhangzhou, which is easily influenced by Zhangzhou dialect and other dialects. However, Chaozhou dialect is based on Putian dialect in southern Fujian and influenced by Zhangzhou dialect. Because Fuzhou is the provincial capital, there are many exchanges between Putian and the provincial capital, but Putian is not adjacent to Zhangzhou, so Putian dialect is more influenced by Fuzhou conversation than Quanzhou dialect, and Putian is 200 kilometers away from Zhangzhou, so Putian dialect is hard to be influenced by Zhangzhou dialect. Putian is the earliest and longest place where the contradiction between people and land occurred in southern Fujian. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Putian was overpopulated and became a place of population export, and Putian began to export more people. Some Putian people immigrated to other places hundreds of years after they immigrated to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and their Putian dialect has been assimilated into Quanzhou dialect or Zhangzhou dialect. Because a large part of Putian people immigrate to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou every year, ranging from a few hundred to thousands, and from 10,000 to more. Compared with Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, they are a minority, so they are easily assimilated by Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. What's more, some Putian immigrants have been assimilated by Zhangzhou people in Quanzhou for hundreds to thousands of years! Putian dialect and Cantonese have a lot to communicate with each other, but some differences between Putian dialect and Cantonese are difficult. Chaozhou dialect influenced by Cantonese still retains some features of Putian dialect in other aspects. Judging from the ancient language phenomenon, Chaozhou dialect should be the language of ancient Xinghua (now Putian), just like Putian dialect. Because of the existence of a large number of ancient sounds, many people think that Xinghua dialect is "easier said than written" and cannot be written. In fact, most of Lan Jiao dialect in Xinghua dialect can be written in words, and most of the words have their origins, so Chaozhou dialect is considered as the oldest Fulao dialect (the language of Fujian people, and Guangfu people call Minnan Fulao people). Because the bottom of Zhangzhou dialect in many Quanzhou dialects has the roots of Chaozhou dialect, not Zhangzhou dialect in Quanzhou dialect. An obvious evidence is that many of them are still commonly used in Chaozhou dialect, with sounds and words. Looking at Quanzhou dialect and Zhangzhou dialect alone, you will feel that there are no words to write, but you can write according to the pronunciation of Chaozhou dialect.

The origin of the name of Chaozhou dialect is the language used by the ancient Chaozhou government, including modern Chaozhou, Jiedong, Shantou, Jieyang, Chaoyang, Puning, Chaoan, Raoping, Huilai and Chenghai. Both Tai Po and Fengshun in Hakka dialect areas have residents who speak Chaozhou dialect. And Raoping and other major Chaozhou dialect distribution areas, there are also residents who speak Hakka dialect. In addition, Chaozhou dialect is also spoken near the top three areas in Lufeng.

/kloc-from 0/8 to the 20th century, Chaozhou residents were one of the main ethnic groups of Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia, so Chaozhou dialect became one of the main dialects of overseas Chinese. So many Chinese communities outside Chaozhou also speak Chaozhou dialect.

Among them, many Chaoshan people have settled in Thailand and Cambodia, becoming the largest Chinese ethnic group in the region. Chaozhou people has formed important ethnic groups in Hongkong, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia (especially Riau, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Kundian and Chittagong in West Kalimantan). Some Chaoshan people also live in Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe, some from Chaozhou and some from Southeast Asia.

However, with the popularization of globalization, the number of people who speak Chaozhou dialect as their mother tongue is gradually decreasing. Influenced by the same culture and media, many Chinese-Singaporean teenagers, whose mother tongue was Chaozhou dialect, switched to English, Chinese and Minnan dialect (which has some interoperability with Chaozhou dialect). Chinese has gradually replaced Chaozhou dialect and become the mother tongue of young people. Nevertheless, Chaozhou dialect is still the mother tongue of many Chinese in Singapore, and chaozhou people is the second largest ethnic group of Chinese in Singapore, second only to Minnan people.