Editing Min Chinese (section)

===Inland Min===
Although they have far fewer speakers, the inland varieties show much greater variation than the coastal ones.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=234–235}}
Pan and colleagues divided the inland varieties into two groups:{{sfnp|Kurpaska|2010|p=52}}
* [[Northern Min]] (Min Bei) is spoken in [[Nanping]] prefecture in Fujian, with [[Jian'ou dialect]] taken as typical.
* [[Central Min]] (Min Zhong), spoken in [[Sanming]] prefecture.
The ''[[Language Atlas of China]]'' (1987) included a further group:{{sfnp|Kurpaska|2010|p=71}}
* [[Shao-Jiang Min]], spoken in the northwestern Fujian counties of [[Shaowu]] and [[Jiangle County|Jiangle]], were classified as [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]] by Pan and his associates.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=233}} However, [[Jerry Norman (sinologist)|Jerry Norman]] suggested that they were inland varieties of Min that had been subject to heavy [[Gan Chinese|Gan]] or Hakka influence.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=235, 241}}

Although coastal varieties can be derived from a [[proto-language]] with four series of stops or affricates at each point of articulation (e.g. {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/tʰ/}}, {{IPA|/d/}}, and {{IPA|/dʱ/}}), inland varieties contain traces of two further series, which Norman termed "softened stops" due to their reflexes in some varieties.{{sfnp|Norman|1973}}{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=228–230}}{{sfnp|Branner|2000|pp=100–104}} Inland varieties use pronouns and negatives cognate with those in Hakka and [[Yue Chinese|Yue]].{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=233–234}} Inland varieties have little or no tone sandhi.{{sfnp|Norman|1988|p=239}}