ABSTRACT
Chinese from elsewhere, on first hearing the language spoken in the city of Fuzhou in northern Fujian Province, often refused to believe that it is a form of Han Chinese at all. Fujian has been called the province of a hundred dialects, and the complexity is greater to the north than in the Minnan region. The Minbei region has closely interacted with the island of Taiwan, long administered from Fuzhou as part of Fujian Province. The dialect of the city of Fuzhou is usually taken as the standard for the Minbei linguistic region. Fuzhou is the only Minbei dialect that has been the subject of much systematic study by Westerners. The inhabitants of Putian and Xianyou, two counties inland from Xinghua Bay, halfway down the Fujian coast, form a special community speaking a rather distinct dialect. The dialect group in the northernmost part of interior Fujian will be referred to here as Kienning, or North-western Minbei.
