Margaret Mian YAN
The Min dialect group is the most divergent and complicated of China’s seven major languages. At least six Min subdialect groups exist.
Min is a geographic short term for “Fujian Province” in China. It is named after the largest river “Min jiang” 闽江 in the province. Chinese dialectologists have used Min for decades as a linguistic term refering to the Min dialects. Among the seven major Chinese languages—Mandarin, Min, Wu, Yue, Gan, Hakka, and Xiang—the