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On the e-ue issue

A good reference is at:


Basically, Middle-Hoklo has two vowels that evolved separately into today's /e/ and /ue/ vowels in the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou dialects.

Teochew language is particular good at identifying the exact path of change. While other dialects mix up some of the vowels, Teochew's case is very clear:

case A  (TC /ue/, QZ /ə/): 皮 (skin)
case B (TC /oi/, QZ /ue/): 雞 (chicken)

Some other cases do not suffer the e-ue mix up. For these cases, the Quanzhou vowel coincides with the Teochew vowel.

case C (TC /ue/, QZ /ue/): /kue/ 瓜 (cucumber)
case D (TC /e/, QZ /e/): /ge/ 家 (family)

We probably have to suggest special interdialectal solutions for the cases A and B. The choice [eu] is of course a natural candidate, but we still need another one. Tentatively we can choose [oe] for case A, and [eu] for case B. 

Arguments in favor of [oe] for case A: I have tried also [we] and [ew]. Neither of them really look friendly after many trials. Although [oe] has been used for a long time by myself in words like zoec 做 to take care of o-ue interdialectals, I think the importance of case A overrides all other usages. Middle-Hoklo pronunciation of [oe] would something like a diphthong vowel /uə/.

Argument in favor of [eu] for case B: [eu] is also pronounced as /oi/ in German. Middle-Hoklo pronunciation of [eu] would be something like a diphthong vowel /əi/. Although I thought about keeping Teochew's [oi] or something along the line (or switching the roles of [oe] and [eu]), there are some problems with the pronunciations of these variants in English: (1) the digraph [oe] in English/German/French is very rarely pronounced as /oi/, whereas [eu] is attested in German, and in proper names like Euler, (2) the digraph [oi] is very difficult to be accepted as a representation for /e/, which is actually the pronunciation used by many Hoklo speakers. So, in a sense, I have sacrificed what would be more natural to Teochew and Middle-Hoklo's needs, so to adapt better to the needs of Mainstream-Hoklo.

Therefore, we have

case A (TC /ue/, QZ /ə/): 皮火麋貨飛 poee, hoel, moee, hoec, boe
case B (TC /oi/, QZ /ue/): 買鞋雞題 veul, eeu, geu, deeu
case C (TC /ue/, QZ /ue/): 瓜杯 gue, bue
case D (TC /e/, QZ /e/): 家西 ge, se


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