A widespread language in
South China, Taiwan, and Singapore that Min speakers use to interact with each other. Hokkien is also known in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia to some extent. Originally, Hokkien is an
Austronesian language that descended from the Min
Yue Kingdom. When the Han dynasty annexed the Min Yue Kingdom, the Hans slaughtered a bunch of Min Yue natives to enforce the Han (Mandarin) language to displace the Min Yue language and forced them to write in
Hanzi characters, but the Hokkien language still preserves its Austronesian phrases and accent way more than Mandarin overall, so it is not considered to be a Han or Sino-Tibetan language. Compellingly,
Hokkien's closest relative, Teochew, shares a very common ancestral Min language with Hokkien too and Teochew is spoken in South China, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, and France.