河洛

河洛

1. Yellow River and Luo River
2. the area between the Yellow River and Luo River
3. Short for 河圖洛書／河图洛书.

The endonym of some Hokkien speakers in Taiwan, not used in Hokkien-speaking areas of Fujian. It is etymologically unrelated to Etymology 1 河洛 (Héluò, “Yellow River and Luo River”) (Wei and Lee, 2019). The earliest origins of the term are:

• As an exonym for Han people in Fujian used by She people, attested in the form 河老 in 天下郡國利病書 [17th century]. The first syllable was written as 河 (hé, “Yellow River”) and associated with Henan by intellectuals at the time, but it is likely etymologically unrelated to 河 (hé) as 河 (hé) lacks a stop coda in Hakka and Southern Min.

• As a derogatory exonym for Southern Min speaking people used by Hakka people in eastern Guangdong, first attested in the form 貉獠 in the place name 貉獠坪 in then Yong'an county, Huizhou prefecture (present day Zijin, Heyuan) in the Annals of Yong'an County [1586]. The alternative form of the place name, 貉老坪, is recorded in Gujin Tushu Jicheng [1725]. This exonym was likely derogatory given the use of the character 貉 (ho̍k) to write the first syllable, even though the first syllable may not be related to 貉 (“racoon dog”) etymologically. Note 學老／学老 (ho̍k-ló) remains an exonym for Southern Min speaking people in Hakka to this day, and 學老 is commonly attested in place names in Hakka-speaking areas of eastern Guangdong (ibid.).

The earliest attestation of 鶴老 is found in Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum [1626–1642] as the name for Hokkien speaking people. In Taiwan, 鶴老 appeared no later than 1769, while 學老 appeared no later than 1796. The association with 河洛 (Héluò) is a late folk etymology, with the first attestation of 河洛 (Héluò) found in Taiwan scholar Wu Huai's 1957 paper titled 〈河洛語中之唐宋故事〉, and has since become popular.

The form 福佬 is possibly the result of reanalysis of this word based on associating the first syllable with Hokkien 福 (Hok) (as in 福建 (Hok-kiàn, “Fujian”).

河洛

1. Hoklo people

• 學佬／学佬
• 福佬 (fúlǎo)