It is sometimes referred to as Chiuchow, its Cantonese rendering, due to English romanization by colonial officials and explorers.

[6] Historically, the Teochew[iv] prefecture included modern prefecture-level cities of Chaozhou, Jieyang and Shantou.

[8] In particular, the Teochew people settled in significant numbers in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, where they form the largest Chinese sub-language group.

[9] Additionally, there are many Teochew-speakers among Chinese communities in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia (especially in the states of Johor, Malacca, Penang, Kedah and Selangor with significant minorities in Sarawak) and Indonesia (especially in West Kalimantan).

Waves of migration from Teochew region to Hong Kong, especially after the communist victory of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, has also resulted in the formation of a community there, although most descendants now primarily speak Cantonese and English as a result of colonialism and assimilation to the dominant Cantonese culture.

[10] Teochew speakers are also found among overseas Chinese communities in Japan and the Western world (notably in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Italy), a result of both direct emigration from the Chaoshan region to these nations and also secondary emigration from Southeast Asia.

Despite this many Teochew people, particularly the younger generations, are shifting towards English and Mandarin as their main spoken language.

It is found in Northern Teochew in words like hṳ̂ 魚 he5 "fish" and sṳ̄ 事 se7 "thing; matter".

Hai Lok Hong and Eastern Namoa dialects have /i/ or /u/ instead, depending on the etymology of the word (hî 魚 hi5, but sū 事 su7), similarly to the Chiangchew Hokkien.

The earliest known work is a 1566 edition of the Tale of the Lychee Mirror, a folk drama written in a mixture of Teochew and Chinchew Hokkien.

After the Xinhai revolution, only written Mandarin was supported by the government, while speakers of other Sinitic languages, including Teochew, remaining largely illiterate in their own tongues.

買bóibhoi2[ᵐ̥boi鵝gôgho5ᵑ̊ɡo來lāilai7ⁿ̥ɺai食tsia̍hziah8tsiaʔ]買 鵝 來 食bói gô lāi tsia̍hbhoi2 gho5 lai7 ziah8[ᵐ̥boi ᵑ̊ɡo ⁿ̥ɺai tsiaʔ]"buy geese to eat"Teochew, like other Southern Min varieties, is one of the few modern Sinitic languages which have voiced obstruents (stops, fricatives and affricates); however, unlike Wu and Xiang Chinese, the Teochew voiced stops and fricatives did not evolve from Middle Chinese voiced obstruents, but from nasals.

In Southern dialects of Teochew, labial initials (/p/, /pʰ/, /b/, /m/) have labiodental allophones ([pf], [pfʰ], [bv], [mv~ɱ]) before /-u-/.

Apart from the aforementioned rhymes, there are a few limitedly used finals with both glottal stop and nazalization, usually found in ideophones and interjections, e.g. he̍hⁿ 嚇 /hẽʔ˥˦/ "agitated; confused", hauhⁿ 殽 /hãũʔ˧˨/ "to eat in large bites", khuàhⁿ-ua̍hⁿ 快活 /kʰũãʔ˨˩˨꜒꜔.ũãʔ˥˦/ "comfortable".

Based on their tones, the Southern Teochew dialects can be divided into two broad areas: Teoyeo and Hui-Pou.

[21] but: The grammar of Teochew is similar to other Min languages, as well as some southern varieties of Chinese, especially with Hakka, Yue and Wu.

As a general rule, the possessive pronouns or adjectives are formed by adding the genitive or possessive marker kâi 個 gai5 to their respective personal pronouns, as summarized below: 本púngbung2CL-books書tsṳze1book是sĭsi6be我uáua2I個。kâigai5POS本 書 是 我 個。púng tsṳ sĭ uá kâibung2 ze1 si6 ua2 gai5CL-books book be I POS"The book is mine.

The basic determiners are tsí 只 zi2 "this" and hṳ́ 許 he2 "that", and they require at least a classifier (generic kâi 個 gai5, collective tshoh 撮 coh4, or another), which can be optionally preceded by a numeral.

Generally, vernacular variants are used, and literary readings are limited to certain set compounds and idioms, e.g.: Sam-kok 三國, ngóu-kim 五金, kiú-siau 九霄, ngóu-tsháiⁿ-phiang-hung 五彩繽紛, sam-sṳ-jṳ̂-kiâⁿ 三思而行, kiú-liû-sam-kàu 九流三教, etc.

However, literary forms of 一 and 二 are more commonly used, particularly in the following cases: In Teochew passive construction, the agent phrase by somebody always has to be present, and is introduced by the preposition khṳh 乞 keh4 or pung 分 bung1, both literally meaning "to give".

"The agent phrase pung nâng 分儂 bung1 nang5 always comes immediately after the subject, not at the end of the sentence or between the auxiliary and the past participle like in some European languages (e.g. German, Dutch).

她tā比較bǐjiào漂亮piàoliang她 {比較} 漂亮tā bǐjiào piàoliang佢keoi5靚leng3啲di1佢 靚 啲keoi5 leng3 di1There are two words which are intrinsically comparative in meaning, i.e. iâⁿ 贏 ian5 "to win" and su 輸 su1 "to lose".

"Note the use of the adverbial hoh tsōi 好濟 hoh4 zoi7 at the end of the sentence to express a higher degree.

In Teochew, the idea of equality is expressed with the word pêⁿ 平 bên5 or pêⁿ-iōⁿ 平樣 bên5 ion7: 只tsízi2本púngbung2書tsṳze1佮kahgah4許hṳ́he2本púngbung2平pêⁿbên5重。tăngdang6只 本 書 佮 許 本 平 重。tsí púng tsṳ kah hṳ́ púng pêⁿ tăngzi2 bung2 ze1 gah4 he2 bung2 bên5 dang6"This book is as heavy as that one.

In Teochew, like in other Min languages, it is common for a character to have at least two readings, called "literary" and "vernacular".

Although Teochew and Hokkien share some cognates, there are pronounced differences in most vowels with some consonant and tone shifts.

There are a minority of Teochew people who speak Hokkien as their mother tongue, most of whom have close contact or relatives in the neighbouring three originally-Teochew counties of what is now South Fujian, which were seceded to Fujian during the early Tang dynasty and subsequently assimilated into the Hokkien population.

[citation needed] In Hokkien, denasalization of initial consonants is extensive, and sounds [m], [n], [ng] are usually viewed as allophones of /b/, /l~d/, /g/ used with nasalized rhymes.

The character 安 has both literary reading (Teochew ang, Hokkien an) and vernacular reading (both uaⁿ), the latter more commonly used in Teochew (安全 uaⁿ-tshuâng, 安心 uaⁿ-sim, 安穩 uaⁿ-úng, 治安 tī-uaⁿ, etc), while being rare in Hokkien (used in a few place names: 同安 Tâng-uaⁿ, 南安 Lâm-uaⁿ, 惠安 Hūi-uaⁿ).