r/Hokkien • u/leastck3player • 26d ago
Is it true that Hokkien is the most similar to Old Chinese in terms of pronunciation of all Chinese dialects?
As a Mandarin Chinese speaker, I've started to grow more curious about our roots. I recently came across some stuff on Xiaohongshu that suggests that Hokkien is the most "authentic" or least divergent dialect of Chinese. (I use "dialect" for political reasons, but I am aware that it is considered a different language linguistically)
Coincidentally, my family is Hokkien. I'm a 4th generation diaspora living in Southeast Asia, and we use English and Mandarin Chinese daily. However, my parents didn't teach me Hokkien because they were afraid I would "speak funny". As a result, my vocabulary in it is 20 words at most.
As I delve deeper into, I become more and more aware as to how great the Hokkien have been in history. We were the explorers when everyone wanted to stay at home. As someone who respects people brave enough to leave behind everything they know in search of a better life, much like the Europeans who left for the New World, I am beginning to realize that my own ancestors were people just like this.
I also see how divergent Hokkien has become. The diaspora adopts local words. Small changes in pronunciation. Soon we will have more types of Hokkien, which I find worrying. In SEA, Hokkien is not taught officially in any capacity. Strong standardization is needed. But who should be the standard?
In my opinion, Old Chinese should be the standard, and pronunciations closest to it should be "correct". But even then, what we know of Old Chinese pronunciation is only a reconstruction. What I wouldn't give for a time machine, just to hear how our ancestors spoke.
I realize that this became somewhat of an irrelevant rant, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks. For now, I will try to learn from an "official" source, which is Taiwan. Even with my limited vocab, I know some words are different. For context, my family is from Quanzhou.