Like many other varieties of Chinese, the Fuzhou dialect is dominated by monosyllabic morphemes that carry lexical tones,[8] and has a mainly analytic syntax.

It is also the second local language in many northern and middle Fujian cities and counties such as Nanping, Shaowu, Shunchang, Sanming and Youxi.

[9] The Fuzhou dialect is also widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Malaysian city of Sibu is called "New Fuzhou" due to the influx of immigrants there in the late 19th century and early 1900s.

In older works written in English, the variety is called "Foochow dialect", based on the Chinese postal romanization of Fuzhou.

After the Qin dynasty conquered the Minyue kingdom of Southeast China in 110 BC, Chinese people began settling what is now Fujian Province.

It once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Min Chinese phonology.

Their most notable works are listed below:[11] During the Second World War, some Japanese scholars became passionate about studying the Fuzhou dialect, believing that it could be beneficial to the rule of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

But for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the vernacular in school education and in media, so the number of Mandarin speakers has been greatly boosted.

[12] In Mainland China, the Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage[13] and promotion work is being systematically carried out to preserve its use.

[16] Like all Chinese varieties, the Fuzhou dialect is a tonal language, and has extensive sandhi rules in the initials, rimes, and tones.

Little discussed in the existing literature, there is some evidence that Fuzhou uses non-modal phonation with certain tones: creaky for 陰去 ĭng-ké̤ṳ, 陰入 ĭng-ĭk, 陽去 iòng-ké̤ṳ, and breathy for 上聲 siōng-siăng.

The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable): Iòng-bìng (陽平 ˥˧) Iòng-ĭk (陽入 ˥) Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去 ˨˩˧) Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去 ˨˦˨) Ĭng-ĭk (陰入 ˨˦) Ĭng-bìng (陰平 ˥) Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去 ˨˩˧) Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去 ˨˦˨) Ĭng-ĭk-ék (陰入乙 ˨˦) Iòng-bìng (陽平 ˥˧) Iòng-ĭk (陽入 ˥) Siōng-siăng (上聲 ˧) Ĭng-ĭk-gák (陰入甲 ˨˦) Ĭng-ĭk-gák (陰入甲) are ĭng-ĭk (陰入) syllables ending with -k /k/ and ĭng-ĭk-ék (陰入乙) are those with a final -h /ʔ/.

[20] The three patterns of tone sandhi exhibited in the Fuzhou dialect may be a reflex of the voicing split from Middle Chinese into different registers.

No labiodental phonemes, such as /f/ or /v/, exist in the Fuzhou dialect, which is one of the most conspicuous characteristics shared by all branches in the Min Family.

[26] Note that although /-k/ and /-ʔ/ are generally pronounced the same in isolation, realized as a final glottal stop [-ʔ], they cause drastically different effects on the initials that follow.

When these two syllables combine into the word "福州" (Hók-ciŭ, Fuzhou), "福" changes its tonal value from ˨˦ to ˨˩ and, simultaneously, shifts its rime from [-ɔuʔ] to [-uʔ], so the phrase is pronounced [huʔ˨˩ tsiu˥].

[26] The phenomenon of close/open rimes is nearly unique to the Fuzhou dialect and this feature makes it especially intricate and reduces its intelligibility, even to speakers of other Min varieties.

Mere knowledge of Mandarin vocabulary, with the cognates 細膩 xìnì, 對手 duìshǒu and 冤家 yuānjiā, does not assist in understanding the nuance of such sentences.

Some everyday words are still in use as they were in the Tang dynasty, as illustrated by a poem of a renowned Chinese poet of the era, Gu Kuang.

Phonologically, a large range of phonemes can differ between the character's two readings: in tone, final, initial, or any and all of these features.

Many books published during the Qing dynasty had been written in this traditional way, such as the famous Mǐndū Biéjì (閩都別記, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dŭ Biék-gé).

[33] Mǐnqiāng Kuàizì (閩腔快字, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-kiŏng Kuái-cê), literally meaning "Fujian Colloquial Fast Characters", is a Qieyin System (切音系統) for Fuzhou dialect designed by Chinese scholar and calligrapher Li Jiesan (力捷三) in 1896.

Below is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in the Fuzhou dialect, using both Foochow Romanized (left) and Chinese characters (center).