Hokkien, a variety of Chinese spoken by approximately 47 million people, is widely used across China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian countries. Belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family, Hokkien is traditionally written with Chinese characters and is known for its complex tonal system, with five tones in many dialects. As an analytic language with SVO word order, Hokkien has played a significant role in trade, business, and cultural exchange, particularly among overseas Chinese communities. Despite Mandarin's dominance, Hokkien remains an important linguistic and cultural heritage, with continued efforts to preserve its use through media and education.
Stats
Language Family: Sino-Tibetan
Writing System: Chinese
Writing System Type: Logographic
Writing Direction: L to R
Tones / Pitch Accent: 5
Morphology: Analytic
Cases: None
Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: None
Number of Verb Tenses: None
Word Order: SVO
Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 8
Number of Consonants: 17
Areas Where Spoken
Brunei (2.94%) (13,300)
Cambodia (2.07%) (350 k)
China (1.96%) (27.7 mil)
Hong Kong (0.94%) (70,500)
Indonesia (0.28%) (766 k)
Malaysia (5.89%) (2.02 mil)
Philippines (0.85%) (1 mil)
Singapore (25.3%) (1.5 mil)
Taiwan (57.6%) (13.5 mil)
Thailand (0.02%) (17,600)
Vietnam (0.05%) (45 k)