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. StatusWikipedia article on Southern Min: a currently spoken living language with an active native-speaker population; checked 2026-09-27. RegionChina, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia 2 Classification
Language Kind Connections
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Southern Min
Source Wikipedia: Southern Min
Written In
Southern Min, where written, uses Chinese characters (Han script), sometimes supplemented with Latin-based romanization systems such as Peh-oe-ji.
In the Other Atlases
Original Language Of
Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.
Also in Film and Media Atlas: a work originally in this language.
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Wikipedia: Southern MinLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
Southern Min dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Southern Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Southern and Central Vietnam, as well as major cities in the United States, including in San Francisco, in Los Angeles and in New York City.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Wikipedia: Southern MinLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
Southern Min dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Southern Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Southern and Central Vietnam, as well as major cities in the United States, including in San Francisco, in Los Angeles and in New York City.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Min Nan Chinese (Glottolog languoid minn1241)
GlottologEndangerment, AES statusQuote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
2. Wikipedia: Southern Min
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Minnan is the most widely-spoken branch of Min, with approximately 34 million native speakers as of 2025.
Infobox, ISO 639-3
nan
Infobox: speakers2
L2: million (2020) Total: million (2020-2022)
Infobox, Region
China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia
In Family: Sinitic, Infobox, Language family
Sinitic
In Family: Min Chinese, Infobox, Language family
Min
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