Hokkien (also known as "Amoy") evolved from Old Chinese and separated from the rest of the Chinese languages when the Han Chinese migrated from the north during the Three Kingdoms war in the third century AD, bringing their language with them and displacing the non-Chinese Baiyue people in the region.

Though it evolved alongside Middle Chinese through military expeditions, sharing many grammatical features and giving Hokkien literary (more formal) pronunciations. But because of the mountainous nature of the Min region, it stayed relatively isolated from the rest of the Chinese languages, keeping some of the archaic features of Old Chinese.

As such, many linguists considered Hokkien (and other Min languages) to be separated from the rest of the Chinese language families, and the closest link to Old Chinese.

When overseas trade bans were relaxed during the Qing dynasty around late 17th century, Xiamen was selected as one of the ports to be open to foreign trade, and overtook the city of Yuegang as the main port in the Fujian province, which also made the Xiamen (called "Amoy") dialect to become the main Hokkien dialect for trade and communication overseas.

Thus when the British colonised Singapore and opened up the island as a tax-free haven, many of them migrated and settled onto the island, forming the first Chinese communities in Singapore, which included Hokkien communities.

This gradually became the largest ethnically Chinese group on the island, and their language became a common language for general communication among Chinese communities.

Starting from the 1800s, the Hokkien language was used not only for trade, but also as a lingua franca within Chinese communities to communicate with one another.

But nowadays, the language is largely spoken among the older generations, with a small percentage of the younger generations being able to comprehend, but not proficient enough to speak the language.

While many regard the downfall of Hokkien communication in the 1970s, it was already declining in the early 20th century, which was brought about by the rise of Mandarin-medium schools in Singapore. This was further amplified by the promoting of Mandarin with the "Speak Mandarin Campaign", pushed by the Singaporean government, which also included the restricted and censorship of the use of Hokkien in mainstream media.

It also brought along a negative side-effect from the public population, in which the language grew a reputation that it was the language for the "phai-khnia" ("bad kids" in Hokkien, referring to secret societies and gangs) and the lower-class.

This prejudice is likely formed from educated Chinese families trying to distance themselves away from the Hokkien language, which also discouraged children from speaking it.