The mainland is a vast land with great resources, and the cultural differences between regions are also very large. According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there are 129 dialects in China. Some of these dialects are very similar to Mandarin, but some are very different from Mandarin.
Today, I will take you to talk about our Hokkien dialect, I believe that many people do not understand Hokkien dialect, but Hokkien songs are quite fond of listening, such as "Love to Fight to Win", "Haihai Life", "Prodigal Son Turns Back", "Avoid Losing Will", "Thousands of Mistakes", "Who Knows What is in Your Heart" and so on, everyone must be no stranger.
Hokkien is a "living fossil" of ancient Chinese
Hokkien language, it also has a very long history, originated in the Yellow River, Luoshui Basin, so Hokkien dialect is also known as Heluo dialect, today's Hokkien dialect still magically retains a large number of ancient Chinese in the Central Plains before the Sui and Tang dynasties, which can be called the "living fossil" of ancient Chinese. Now it is mainly distributed in southern Fujian and Taiwan, and is also used by many people in northeast Fujian and eastern Zhejiang.
Hokkien directly inherited the initial system of ancient Chinese and did not undergo the phonetic evolution of the Middle Ages. Compared with Old Chinese, Middle Chinese has two great changes in phonetics, namely the differentiation of labial and tongue sounds. During the Sui Dynasty, the initials of "fang" and "zhong" in the Central Plains Chinese were pronounced as warped tongues, while Hokkien did not change its religion and still read b and d initials.
Hokkien has 14 initials, 83 finals, and 7 tones. In Mandarin, there are 23 initials, 24 finals, and 4 tones. From this, it can be seen that the difference between Hokkien and Mandarin is very large. In addition, Hokkien is less influenced by other languages, so its development is relatively slow, and it is not much different from the language of Hokkien hundreds of years ago, it retains more of the characteristics of ancient Chinese, so it is also a very difficult dialect to understand.
Drive foreign eavesdroppers crazy
So, how difficult is Hokkien to understand?
It is said that Hokkien is a nightmare for eavesdroppers, and Hokkien makes eavesdropping experts stay in place for a month, and finally comes to the conclusion that it is not Chinese.
During the Vietnam War, many countries in order to take a secret will engage in surveillance and steal intelligence, many Vietnamese soldiers have been trained in Chinese military academies, resulting in our wireless calls are often recognized, have tried Mandarin and Hakka are not good, and later set up a communication company, on Hokkien to communicate, more than 80 finals, 2200 syllables, almost double Mandarin, things, classmates, do not understand, a building, cave, supervision, poison, a "east" The words are 7 tones, and the Vietnamese agents are dumbfounded when they hear it, and all the communications are like foreign languages, and none of them can understand a word.
In this battle, the "Cangnan Minnan Dialect Communication Network" sent and received more than 1,300 sets of newspapers, and there was not a single mistake, and 2 of the 11 Cangnan soldiers on the communication network were awarded first-class meritorious service, 5 were awarded second-class meritorious service, 1 was awarded third-class meritorious service, 2 were sacrificed, and 4 were wounded. For the first time, the Hokkien dialect was used on the battlefield to achieve unexpected results, and valuable experience was accumulated in defeating the enemy. After the war, Cangnan Hokkien dialect communication was included in the "Selected Combat Cases of the People's Liberation Army".
Later, during the Korean War, the Americans did not give up, and hired experts from Canada and Russia to listen to heaven at all.
Later, in 2012, Lao Mei, who suffered a loss, simply made a strategic list, and in addition to Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien were also listed as strategic languages. This is very difficult for the US Navy soldiers, who have learned Mandarin so much, and what Cantonese and Hokkien languages they learn are simply torturous. In order to encourage these soldiers to study hard, the U.S. Navy gives soldiers a foreign language ability subsidy of $100 to $500 a month. If you can master multiple dialects, you can get 12,000 US dollars a year, which is equivalent to about 100,000 yuan, but only if you pass a foreign language proficiency certification exam.
But if you want me to say, Lao Mei, you can rest assured and learn boldly, so that you know what is called Hardcore Chinese.
In addition to driving foreign eavesdroppers crazy, Hokkien is also a bridge on the Maritime Silk Road.
The bridge of the Maritime Silk Road
Minnan people went out of southern Fujian very early, went abroad, and roamed the rivers and lakes. With the introduction of Hokkien people into countries around the world, especially Southeast Asia, many words have been absorbed by local languages; some typical words of foreign Chinese languages such as Southeast Asia have also been integrated into the local Hokkien dialect. Hokkien people "cautiously chase the distance" Ye fell back to their roots, and they also brought these language words back to Minnan when they returned to China. The infiltration, communication and evolution of language have recorded the history of exchanges and cultural exchanges along the ancient Maritime Silk Road.
For example, in ancient Sino-Philippine relations, there was a saying in Quanzhou that "if you slander it, it will go to Luzon, and if it is spread, it will go to Taiwan."
It shows that Quanzhou has close relations with the Philippines and Taiwan. In the Tagalog language of the Philippines, there are many Hokkien loanwords. Filipino Tagalog and Malay loanwords in Hokkien were first reflected in the local Hokkien dialects, and some of them were also transmitted back to Hokkien.
According to incomplete statistics, there are about 15 million people in Fujian's southern Fujian region who speak Hokkien, but in the world, there are more than 70 million people who speak Hokkien, that is to say, in addition to Fujian's Minnan area, there are about 55 million people who speak Hokkien, which shows the great influence of Hokkien language.
Hokkien has become a Chinese dialect that crosses regional, provincial and cross-border borders. For us, we should promote language inheritance by strengthening cultural identity, such as establishing a national-level cultural and ecological reserve in the mainland, the "Minnan Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Zone", attaching importance to promoting the culture and art with the Minnan dialect as the carrier, and promoting the inheritance of the Hokkien language.
We can also promote cultural dissemination by promoting language learning, strengthening the teaching of Hokkien language in primary and secondary schools, teaching Hokkien songs, popularizing Hokkien customs, and popularizing Hokkien through new forms of communication such as short videos, so as to further promote the external and internal dissemination of Hokkien culture.