Bit-Chee Kwok - Böcker

Southern Mǐn refers to a group of Chinese dialects spoken mainly in Southeast China and Taiwan. This group occupies a special position in the study of Chinese dialects, not only because of its large population of speakers (around 48 million) but also because of its preservation of various archaic linguistic features long lost in other dialects. In this book, B.C. Kwok applies the comparative method on new fieldwork data to reconstruct the common sound system of ‘Proto-Southern Mǐn’, from which all modern Southern Mǐn varieties emerged. The syllable initials, finals and tonal categories of Proto-Southern Mǐn are illustrated by more than 500 examples. In addition, this book offers an alternative view on the subgrouping of 12 Southern Mǐn varieties. It proposes that the Quánzhōu dialect and the Zhāngzhōu dialect form the two main branches of the dialect group. This book should be of great interest to advanced students and scholars in the fields of historical linguistics and Chinese dialectology.

In traditional Chinese dialectology, Cantonese is widely regarded as the standard variety of the Yue (粵) dialect group. According to Ethnologue 2025, Cantonese has an estimated 86 million native speakers worldwide. It is predominantly spoken in the southernmost regions of China, including Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, and Nanning, as well as in various overseas communities.This Handbook, organized into 46 chapters across seven sections, offers a systematic and comprehensive exploration of Cantonese. It delves into a broad spectrum of topics in Cantonese linguistics, such as phonetics and phonology, syntax, semantics, and morphology, alongside extralinguistic aspects like Cantonese teaching and learning, language and society, the history of Cantonese, and its study in the era of big data. The contributors represent a diverse range of regions, including Australia, Canada, Mainland China, the Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Macau, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.This Handbook serves as an indispensable resource for scholars and students of Chinese and general linguistics. It not only deepens readers' understanding of the Cantonese language system but also highlights its connections with other languages and academic disciplines.