Fuzhounese

English

Alternative forms

• Foochownese

Etymology

From Fuzhou +‎ -n- +‎ -ese.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfud͡ʒoʊˈniz/

Adjective

Fuzhounese (comparative more Fuzhounese, superlative most Fuzhounese)

1. Of, from or pertaining to Fuzhou.
   • 2013, Kenneth J. Guest, “From Mott Street to East Broadway: Fuzhounese Immigrants and the Revitalization of New York's Chinatown”, in Bernard P. Wong, Chee-Beng Tan, editors, Chinatowns around the World: Gilded Ghetto, Ethnopolis, and Cultural Diaspora‎^[1], Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 42:

     Since the early 1980s, Fuzhounese immigrants have been the primary force behind the transformation and revitalization of New York's Chinatown.

Noun

Fuzhounese (plural Fuzhounese)

1. (chiefly in the plural) An inhabitant of Fuzhou; a person of Fuzhounese descent.
   • 2003, Kenneth J. Guest, God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York's Evolving Immigrant Community‎^[2], New York and London: New York University Press, page 32:

     A sixth wave, largely visible to the public, if not to the Fuzhounese themselves, is made up of children born in the United States but sent back to China as infants.

   • 2009, Danling Fu, “New Chinese Immigrant Students' Literacy Development: From Heritage Language to Bilingualism”, in Jerrie Cobb Scott, Dolores Y. Straker, Laurie Katz, editors, Affirming Students' Right to Their Own Language: Bridging Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices‎^[3], New York: Routledge, page 251:

     But actually we Fuzhounese are the hardest workers. We are working hard to change the bad impression the people have on us. I am glad I am a Fuzhounese, because we are the hardest workers among all immigrants.

   • 2013, Lee Khoon Choy, Golden Dragon And Purple Phoenix: The Chinese and Their Multi-Ethnic Descendants in Southeast Asia‎^[4], Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, page 461:

     Conflict between the Ibans and the Fuzhounese were inevitable as such. A particular incident involving large influx of Fuzhounese into Sarawak as planters was worthy of mention.

Usage notes

As with other terms for people formed with -ese, the countable singular noun in reference to a person (as in "I am a Fuzhounese", "writing about Fuzhounese cuisine as a Fuzhounese") is uncommon and often taken as incorrect. In its place, the adjective is used, by itself (as in "I am Fuzhounese") or before a noun like person, man, or woman ("writing about Fuzhounese cuisine as a Fuzhounese person"). See also -ish, which is similarly only used primarily as an adjective or as a plural noun.

Proper noun

Fuzhounese

1. The dialect of Eastern Min that is spoken in Fuzhou.
   • 2010, Julie Y. Chu, Cosmologies of Credit: Transnational Mobility and the Politics of Destination in China‎^[5], Durham and London: Duke University Press, page 263:

     Nine months of intensive Fuzhounese lessons got me only so far in listening comprehension of the local chitchat in Longyan. Once I opened my mouth and needed to communicate predominantly in the national dialect of Mandarin (with a smattering of simple Fuzhounese), phenotype be damned—my foreignness was marked.