Chinese languages

Actually, old definition of Minbei and Mindong are not very good divisions. The old definition apparently based on a few sounds like ü /y/ (and maybe b/g) and this can easily be areal influence. 1. The greater number of different characters/words used (not the difference in sound). eg. mandarin use ...

Some words has base tone of first falling, some are high flat and some are high falling. It's said that the base tone is high flat if the morpheme is noun. In the example above it should be 班 in 班長.

I've heard that the first falling tone changes to first flat tone if it's before another first tone...

ong wrote:汝 =you in minnan is actually from 女。

Yes, "汝" was used for substitute of "女". "汝" should be something with j- in Hokkien. (hm... isn't it a name of a river?)
Hokkien avoided to use "女" as "female" because it will confuse with "you".