<p>It is not Toishanese, which does have the -n sound for 門。 In Cantonese, "mun4" (Jyutping). In Toishanese, which doesn't have an official transliteration system that I know of, I would transliterate it something like "moen" or "moeen".</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-07T02:04:32.840Z
2015-01-07T02:04:32.840Z
Alan Chin
<p>There's a Cantonese restaurant in Mountain View, CA called Fu Lam Mum -- the characters are clearly 富臨門.</p>

<p>But 門 has always had a -n final, in any topolect I know of, and back to MC and OC <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Baxter-Sagart_Old_Chinese_reconstruction">according to Baxter's reconstruction</a>. Therefore this must be a sound change (assimilation at a distance) in a daughter language.</p>

<p>In what topolect, if any, does 門 have an -m final? Being a Cantonese restaurant in the US, I'd suspect Taishan, but that's just a guess.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-05T10:26:51.487Z
Toisanese [preserves -n](http://www.stephen-li.com/TaishaneseVocabulary/Taishanese.htm) usually, and like most Chinese varieties would modify the nasal to -ng in colloquial layers. Also, *m--m looks like it violates the [labial dissimilation rule](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2554/dissimilation-of-bilabial-finals-following-middle-chinese-%e6%b3%95-%e5%93%81-%e5%87%a1/2558#2558) that Yue varieties of Chinese follow. I'd guess it's just a marketer's pun!
Michaelyus
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2015-01-05T12:15:46.893Z
In [粵語](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yueyu?kaiOrder=1094), [平話](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/pinghua?kaiOrder=1094), [客語](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/keyu?kaiOrder=1094), none of the topolects has the "-um" sound for 門. So maybe they just made a mistake.
Stan
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2015-01-05T21:26:36.563Z
@Michaelyus Exactly why I thought it was suspicious in the first place... Cantonese speakers often play fast and loose with transcription, but it seemed strange to me that they would choose 'Mum'. Maybe it's not Yue -- maybe some topolect where 門 has a nasalised vowel, and this is their way of transcribing it?
jogloran
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-06T22:05:23.633Z
Don't know if this is of interest, but in Min Nan it is bun (literary) and mng (vernacular).
MickG
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-15T02:48:27.550Z
Typo or misspelling or mis-transcription only.  It is very hard to pronounce mum in Cantonese.
OmniBus
<pronunciation><topolect>
In which Chinese topolect might 門 be transcribed as <mum>?
# In which Chinese topolect might 門 be transcribed as <mum>?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-05)

There's a Cantonese restaurant in Mountain View, CA called Fu Lam Mum -- the characters are clearly 富臨門.

But 門 has always had a -n final, in any topolect I know of, and back to MC and OC [according to Baxter's reconstruction](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Baxter-Sagart_Old_Chinese_reconstruction). Therefore this must be a sound change (assimilation at a distance) in a daughter language.

In what topolect, if any, does 門 have an -m final? Being a Cantonese restaurant in the US, I'd suspect Taishan, but that's just a guess.

**Tags:** pronunciation, topolect

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Toisanese [preserves -n](http://www.stephen-li.com/TaishaneseVocabulary/Taishanese.htm) usually, and like most Chinese varieties would modify the nasal to -ng in colloquial layers. Also, *m--m looks like it violates the [labial dissimilation rule](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2554/dissimilation-of-bilabial-finals-following-middle-chinese-%e6%b3%95-%e5%93%81-%e5%87%a1/2558#2558) that Yue varieties of Chinese follow. I'd guess it's just a marketer's pun!  
> **username_2**: In [粵語](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yueyu?kaiOrder=1094), [平話](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/pinghua?kaiOrder=1094), [客語](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/keyu?kaiOrder=1094), none of the topolects has the "-um" sound for 門. So maybe they just made a mistake.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Exactly why I thought it was suspicious in the first place... Cantonese speakers often play fast and loose with transcription, but it seemed strange to me that they would choose 'Mum'. Maybe it's not Yue -- maybe some topolect where 門 has a nasalised vowel, and this is their way of transcribing it?  
> **username_3**: Don't know if this is of interest, but in Min Nan it is bun (literary) and mng (vernacular).  
> **username_4**: Typo or misspelling or mis-transcription only.  It is very hard to pronounce mum in Cantonese.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2015-01-07. Score: 0

It is not Toishanese, which does have the -n sound for 門。 In Cantonese, "mun4" (Jyutping). In Toishanese, which doesn't have an official transliteration system that I know of, I would transliterate it something like "moen" or "moeen".


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