Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, Hainanese Pinyin: Hhai3 nam2 ue1, ), also known as Qiongwen, Qiongyu or Hainan Min is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hainan and regional Overseas Chinese communities such as in Singapore and Thailand. In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, being mutually unintelligible with other Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien–Taiwanese and Teochew. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup. Hou Jingyi combined it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the neighboring mainland Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group. "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

Phonology

The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent, with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference.

Consonants

Below is a table for the consonants of Hainanese across the dialects of Wenchang, Haikou and Banqiao. For more information on a specific variety, please consult the relevant article. Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, and, which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min, lack them. The consonant system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular: Additionally, is an allophone of. These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.

Vowels

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels.

Tones

Romanization

Hainanese Pinyin

Hainanese Pinyin (海南话拼音方案) is a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It marks tones with numbers.

Initials

Finals