Hmong language

Hmong / Mong (; RPA: ''Hmoob,'' ; Nyiakeng Puachue: ; Pahawh: , ) is a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmongic languages spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hainan, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. There are some 2.7 million speakers of varieties that are largely mutually intelligible, including over 280,000 Hmong Americans as of 2013. Over half of all Hmong speakers speak the various dialects in China, where the Dananshan (大南山) dialect forms the basis of the standard language. However, Hmong Daw and Mong Leng are widely known only in Laos and the United States; Dananshan is more widely known in the native region of Hmong.

Varieties

Mong Leng (Moob Leeg) and Hmong Daw (Hmoob Dawb) are part of a dialect cluster known in China as ''Chuanqiandian Miao'', that is, "Sichuan–Guizhou–Yunnan Miao", called the "Chuanqiandian cluster" in English (or "Miao cluster" in other languages) as West Hmongic is also called ''Chuanqiandian'', while the variety spoken from Sichuan in China to Thailand and Laos is referred to as the "First Local Variety" () of the cluster. Mong Leng and Hmong Daw are just those varieties of the cluster that migrated to Laos; the Western names, ''Mong Leng'', ''Hmong Dleu/Der'', and ''Hmong Daw'' are also used in China for various dialects of the Chuanqiandian Miao cluster.

Ethnologue once distinguished only the Laotian varieties ( Hmong Daw, Mong Leng), Sinicized Miao ( Hmong Shua), and the Vietnamese varieties ( Hmong Dô, Hmong Don). The Vietnamese varieties are very poorly known; population estimates are not even available. In 2007, Horned Miao, Small Flowery Miao, and the Chuanqiandian cluster of China were split off from Mong Leng lu These varieties are as follows, along with some alternative names ('Ch.' = Chinese name, 'auto.' = autonym elf name:
* Hmong/Mong/ Chuanqiandian Miao (China, Laos) macrolanguage (also spoken by minorities in Thailand and the United States) including:
** Hmong Daw (White Miao, Ch. ''Bai Miao'', auto. ''Hmoob Dawb''; Forest Miao, ''Hmong Rongd''; ''Hmong Dleu / Hmongb Dleub''; in the US, “White Hmong”, frequently just “Hmong”, auto. ''Hmong Der'');
** Mong Leng (Blue Miao, Green Miao, Ch. ''Qing Miao''; ''Moob Ntsuab / Mong Nzhuab''; in the US, also “Blue/Green Hmong”, ''Mong Leng'' / ''Len'', auto. ''Moob Leeg''; ''Mongb Shib'')
** Hmong Shua (Sinicized Miao, auto. ''Hmongb Shuat'');
** Horned Miao (Ch. ''Jiao Miao'', auto. ''Hmo'' or ''A-Hmo'');
** Small Flowery Miao;
** the part of the Chuanqiandian Miao cluster located in China.
* Individual Hmong languages of Vietnam, not considered part of the China/Laos macrolanguage, and possibly forming their own distinct macrolanguage; they are still not very well classified even if they are described by Ethnologue as having a vigorous use (in Vietnam) but without population estimates; they have most probably been influenced by Vietnamese, as well as French (in the former Indochina colonies) and later by American English, and they may be confused with varieties spoken by minorities living today in the United States, Europe or elsewhere in Asia (where their varieties may have been assimilated locally, but separately in each area, with other Hmong varieties imported from Laos and China) :
** Hmong Dô (Vietnam);
** Hmong Don (Vietnam, assumed).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that the White and Leng dialects "are said to be mutually intelligible to a well-trained ear, with pronunciation and vocabulary differences analogous to the differences between British and American English."Chapter 2. Overview of Lao Hmong Culture
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Archive
''Promoting Cultural Sensitivity: Hmong Guide''. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. p. 14. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.

Many of the above names used outside (White Miao, Blue/Green Miao, Flowery Miao, Mong Leng, etc.) are also used in China. Several Chinese varieties may be more distinct than the varieties listed above:
* Dananshan Miao (Hmong Dou, auto. ''Hmong Drout Raol, Hmong Hout Lab''), the basis of the Chinese standard of the Chuanqiandian cluster
* Black Miao (Ch. ''Hei Miao'', auto. of subgroups: ''Hmong Dlob, Hmong Buak / Hmoob Puas'')
* Southern Hmong (auto. of subgroups: ''Hmongb Shib, Mong Leng, Hmongb Lens, Hmongb Dlex Nchab, Hmongb Sad''; includes some of Mong Leng above)
* Northern Hmong (auto. of subgroups: ''Hmongb Soud, Hmong Be / Hmongb Bes, Hmongb Ndrous'')
* Western Sichuan Miao (Ch. ''Chuan Miao'')

In the 2007 request to establish an ISO code for the Chuanqiandian cluster, corresponding to the "first local dialect" () of the Chuanqiandian cluster in Chinese, the proposer made the following statement on mutual intelligibility:

Varieties in Laos

According to the CDC, "although there is no official preference for one dialect over the other, White Hmong seems to be favored in many ways": the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA) most closely reflects that of White Hmong (''Hmong Daw''); most educated Hmong speak White Hmong because White Hmong people lack the ability to understand Mong Leng; and most Hmong dictionaries only include the White Hmong dialect. Moreover, younger generations of Hmong are more likely to speak White Hmong, and speakers of Mong Leng are more likely have the ability to understand White Hmong than speakers of White Hmong are to understand Mong Leng.

Varieties in the United States

Most Hmong in the United States speak the White Hmong (''Hmong Daw'') and Mong Leeg (''Moob Leeg'') dialects, with about sixty percent speaking White Hmong and about forty percent Mong Leeg. The CDC states that "though some Hmong report difficulty understanding speakers of a dialect not their own, for the most part, Mong Leng seem to do better when understanding both dialects.".

Phonology

The three dialects described here are known as Hmong Daw (also called White Miao or ''Hmong Der''), Mong Leeg (also called Leng Miao or ''Mong Leng''), and Dananshan (Standard Chinese Miao). Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg are the two major dialects spoken by Hmong Americans. Although mutually intelligible, the dialects differ in both lexicon and certain aspects of phonology. For instance, Mong Leeg lacks the voiceless/aspirated of Hmong Daw (as exemplified by their names) and has a third nasalized vowel, ; Dananshan has a couple of extra diphthongs in native words, numerous Chinese loans, and an eighth tone.

Vowels

The vowel systems of Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg are as shown in the following charts. Phonemes particular to Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg are color-coded and indicated by a dagger or double dagger respectively.)

# 1st Row: IPA, Hmong RPA
# 2nd Row: Nyiakeng Puachue
# 3rd Row: Pahawh

The Dananshan standard of China is similar. Phonemic differences from Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg are color-coded and marked as absent or added.

Dananshan occurs only after non-palatal affricates, and is written , much like Mandarin Chinese. is pronounced after palatal consonants. There is also a triphthong , as well as other i- and u-initial sequences in Chinese borrowings, such as .

Consonants

Hmong makes a number of phonemic contrasts unfamiliar to English speakers. All non-glottal stops and affricates distinguish aspirated and unaspirated forms, most also prenasalization independently of this. The consonant inventory of Hmong is shown in the chart below. (Consonants particular to Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg are color-coded and indicated by a dagger or double dagger respectively.)

#1st Row: IPA, Hmong RPA
#2nd Row: Nyiakeng Puachue
#3rd Row: Pahawh

The Dananshan standard of China is similar. (Phonemic differences from Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg are color-coded and marked as absent or added. Minor differences, such as the voicing of prenasalized stops, or whether is an affricate or is velar, may be a matter of transcription.) Aspirates, voiceless fricatives, voiceless nasals, and glottal stop only occur with ''yin'' tones (1, 3, 5, 7). Standard orthography is added in angled brackets. Glottal stop is not written; it is not distinct from a zero initial. There is also a , which occurs only in foreign words.

The status of the consonants described here as single phonemes with lateral release is controversial. A number of scholars instead analyze them as biphonemic clusters with as the second element. The difference in analysis (e.g. between and ) is not based on any disagreement in the sound or pronunciation of the consonants in question, but on differing theoretical grounds. Those in favor of a unit-phoneme analysis generally argue for this based on distributional evidence (i.e. if clusters, these would be the only clusters in the language, although see below) and dialect evidence (the laterally released dentals in Mong Leeg, e.g. , correspond to the voiced dentals of White Hmong), whereas those in favor of a cluster analysis tend to argue on the basis of general phonetic principles (other examples of labial phonemes with lateral release appear extremely rare or nonexistent).

Some linguists prefer to analyze the prenasalized consonants as clusters whose first element is . However, this cluster analysis is not as common as the above one involving .

Only used in Hmong RPA and not in Pahawh Hmong, since Hmong RPA uses Latin script and Pahawh Hmong does not. For example, in Hmong RPA, to write , the order Consonant + Vowel + Tone (CVT) must be followed, so it is ''k'' + ''ee'' + ''b'' = , but in Pahawh Hmong, it is just "" (2nd-Stage Version).

Syllable structure

Hmong syllables have simple structure: all syllables have an onset consonant (except in a few particles), nuclei may consist of a monophthong or diphthong, and the only coda consonants that occur are nasals. In Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg, nasal codas have become nasalized vowels, though they may be accompanied by weakly articulated . Similarly, a short may accompany the low-falling creaky