Southern Min, Minnan or Banlam is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese, spoken in Fujian, most of Taiwan, Eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and Southern Zhejiang. It is the most widely spoken branch of Min.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count2020-2022 estimate, first-language (L1) speakers; the infobox also gives a second-language total of 12 million (2020) and a combined total of 46 million (2020-2022), not captured here. RegionChina, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia 1 Connections
Written In
Southern Min, where written, uses Chinese characters (Han script), sometimes supplemented with Latin-based romanization systems such as Peh-oe-ji.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Southern Min
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Southern Min, Minnan or Banlam is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian, most of Taiwan, Eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and Southern Zhejiang. Southern Min dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably in Southeast Asia. Minnan is the most widely-spoken branch of Min, with approximately 34 million native speakers as of 2025.
Infobox, ISO 639-3
nan
Infobox, Speakers
L1: 34 million (2020-2022)
Infobox, Region
China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia
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