Hmong-Mien languages
Encyclopedia
The Hmong–Mien, or Miao–Yao, languages are a language family
of southern China
and Southeast Asia
. They are spoken in mountainous areas of southern China, including Guizhou
, Hunan
, Yunnan
, Sichuan
, Guangxi
, and Hubei
provinces, where its speakers have been relegated to being "hill people," while the Han Chinese
have settled the more fertile river valleys. Within the last 300–400 years, the Hmong and some Mien people have migrated to Thailand
, Laos
, Vietnam
, and Burma. As a result of the Indochina Wars
, many Hmong speakers left Southeast Asia for Australia
, the United States
, and other countries.
(Miao) and Mien (Yao) are clearly distinct, but closely related. For internal classifications, see Hmongic languages
and Mienic languages
. The relationship of the poorly known Ho Ne
(or Huo Nie) of the Shē
is obscure; it may be closest to Mien, but it has also been strongly argued to be Hmongic. Part of the difficulty is that it has been strongly influenced by neighboring languages.
Earlier linguistic classifications placed the Hmong–Mien languages into the Sino-Tibetan
language family
, where they remain in many Chinese classifications, but the current consensus among Western linguist
s is that they constitute a family of their own. The family has its origins in southern or perhaps even central China. The current area of greatest agreement is that the languages appeared in the region between the Yangtze
and Mekong rivers, but there is reason to believe that speakers migrated there from further north with the expansion of the Han Chinese
.
Paul K. Benedict
, an American scholar, extended the Austric theory to include the Tai–Kadai family of Southeast Asia and the Hmong–Mien languages, together forming an Austro-Tai superfamily. The Austro-Tai hypothesis never received wide acceptance for Hmong–Mien, however.
Meo, Hmu, Mong, and Hmong are local names for Miao, but since most Laotian refugees in the United States call themselves Hmong/Mong, this name has become better known in English than the others in recent decades. However, the name Hmong is not used in China, where the majority of the Miao live.
The Chinese name Yao, on the other hand, is for the Yao nationality, which is a cultural rather than ethno-linguistic group. It includes peoples speaking the Mien, Tai–Kadai, Yi
, and Miao languages. For this reason the ethnonym
Mien may be preferred as less ambiguous.
languages in the world: Longmo and Zongdi Hmong have as many as twelve distinct tones. They are notable phonologically for the occurrence of voiceless
sonorant
s and uvular consonant
s; otherwise their phonology is also quite typical of the region.
They are SVO in word order but are not as rigidly right-branching as the Tai–Kadai languages or most Mon–Khmer languages, since they have genitives and numerals
before the noun like Chinese. They are extremely poor in adposition
s: serial verb constructions replace most functions of adpositions in languages like English. For example, a construction translating as "be near" would be used where in English preopositions like "in" or "at" would be used.
Besides their tonality and lack of adpositions, another striking feature is the abundance of numeral classifiers and their use where other languages use definite articles
or demonstratives to modify nouns.
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
of southern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. They are spoken in mountainous areas of southern China, including Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
, Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
, Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
, Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
, Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
, and Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
provinces, where its speakers have been relegated to being "hill people," while the Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
have settled the more fertile river valleys. Within the last 300–400 years, the Hmong and some Mien people have migrated to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, and Burma. As a result of the Indochina Wars
Indochina Wars
The Indochina Wars were a series of wars fought in Southeast Asia from 1947 until 1979, between nationalist Vietnamese against French, American, and Chinese forces. The term "Indochina" originally referred to French Indochina, which included the current states of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. In...
, many Hmong speakers left Southeast Asia for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and other countries.
Relationships
HmongHmong language
Hmong or Mong is the common name for a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmong–Mien/Miao–Yao language family spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos...
(Miao) and Mien (Yao) are clearly distinct, but closely related. For internal classifications, see Hmongic languages
Hmongic languages
The Hmongic languages is a language branch including the Miao language used by Miao people, Pa-Hng, and Greater Bunu languages used by non-Mien Yao people.-Classification:Hmongic is one of the primary branches of the Hmong–Mien language family, with the other...
and Mienic languages
Mienic languages
The Mienic languages are spoken by the Yao people of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.-Classification:Mienic is one of the primary branches of the Hmong–Mien language family, with the other being Hmongic...
. The relationship of the poorly known Ho Ne
She language
The She language , spoken by the She people, is a Hmong–Mien language. Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak Hakka Chinese...
(or Huo Nie) of the Shē
She people
The She people are a Chinese ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China....
is obscure; it may be closest to Mien, but it has also been strongly argued to be Hmongic. Part of the difficulty is that it has been strongly influenced by neighboring languages.
Earlier linguistic classifications placed the Hmong–Mien languages into the Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan languages
The Sino-Tibetan languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers...
language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
, where they remain in many Chinese classifications, but the current consensus among Western linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
s is that they constitute a family of their own. The family has its origins in southern or perhaps even central China. The current area of greatest agreement is that the languages appeared in the region between the Yangtze
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
and Mekong rivers, but there is reason to believe that speakers migrated there from further north with the expansion of the Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
.
Paul K. Benedict
Paul K. Benedict
Paul K. Benedict was an American linguist who specialized in languages of East and Southeast Asia. He is well-known for his 1942 proposal of the Austro-Tai language family and also his reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan and Proto-Tibeto-Burman.-References:...
, an American scholar, extended the Austric theory to include the Tai–Kadai family of Southeast Asia and the Hmong–Mien languages, together forming an Austro-Tai superfamily. The Austro-Tai hypothesis never received wide acceptance for Hmong–Mien, however.
Names
The Mandarin names for these languages are Miáo and Yáo.Meo, Hmu, Mong, and Hmong are local names for Miao, but since most Laotian refugees in the United States call themselves Hmong/Mong, this name has become better known in English than the others in recent decades. However, the name Hmong is not used in China, where the majority of the Miao live.
The Chinese name Yao, on the other hand, is for the Yao nationality, which is a cultural rather than ethno-linguistic group. It includes peoples speaking the Mien, Tai–Kadai, Yi
Yi language
Nuosu , also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language and, as such, is the only one taught in school, both in its oral and written form...
, and Miao languages. For this reason the ethnonym
Ethnonym
An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
Mien may be preferred as less ambiguous.
Characteristics
Like many languages in southern China, the Hmong–Mien languages tend to be monosyllabic and syntactically analytic. They are some of the most highly tonalTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
languages in the world: Longmo and Zongdi Hmong have as many as twelve distinct tones. They are notable phonologically for the occurrence of voiceless
Voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of...
sonorant
Sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and...
s and uvular consonant
Uvular consonant
Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...
s; otherwise their phonology is also quite typical of the region.
They are SVO in word order but are not as rigidly right-branching as the Tai–Kadai languages or most Mon–Khmer languages, since they have genitives and numerals
Number names
In linguistics, number names are specific words in a natural language that represent numbers.In writing, numerals are symbols also representing numbers...
before the noun like Chinese. They are extremely poor in adposition
Adposition
Prepositions are a grammatically distinct class of words whose most central members characteristically express spatial relations or serve to mark various syntactic functions and semantic roles...
s: serial verb constructions replace most functions of adpositions in languages like English. For example, a construction translating as "be near" would be used where in English preopositions like "in" or "at" would be used.
Besides their tonality and lack of adpositions, another striking feature is the abundance of numeral classifiers and their use where other languages use definite articles
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
or demonstratives to modify nouns.
See also
- Proto-Hmong–Mien language
- Classification schemes for Southeast Asian languagesClassification schemes for Southeast Asian languagesBelow is a list of different classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages. Language families represented include:*Tai–Kadai*Austronesian*Austro-Asiatic*Hmong–Mien*Sino-Tibetan-Macrofamilies:...
Further reading
- Paul K. Benedict (1942). "Thai, Kadai and Indonesian: a new alignment in south east Asia." American Anthropologist 44.576-601.
- Paul K. Benedict (1975). Austro-Thai language and culture, with a glossary of roots. New Haven: HRAF Press. ISBN 0875363237.
- Enwall, J. (1995). Hmong writing systems in Vietnam: a case study of Vietnam's minority language policy. Stockholm, Sweden: Center for Pacific Asian Studies.
- Enwall, J. (1994). A myth become reality: history and development of the Miao written language. Stockholm East Asian monographs, no. 5-6. [Stockholm?]: Institute of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University. ISBN 171532692
- Lombard, S. J., & Purnell, H. C. (1968). Yao-English dictionary.
- Lyman, T. A. (1979). Grammar of Mong Njua (Green Miao): a descriptive linguistic study. [S.l.]: The author.
- Lyman, T. A. (1974). Dictionary of Mong Njua: a Miao (Meo) language of Southeast Asia. Janua linguarum, 123. The Hague: Mouton.
- Lyman, T. A. (1970). English/Meo pocket dictionary. Bangkok, Thailand: German Cultural Institute, Goethe-Institute.
- Purnell, H. C. (1965). Phonology of a Yao dialect spoken in the province of Chiengrai, Thailand. Hartford studies in linguistics, no. 15.
- Smalley, W. A., Vang, C. K., & Yang, G. Y. (1990). Mother of writing: the origin and development of a Hmong messianic script. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226762866
- Smith, P. (1995). Mien–English everyday language dictionary = Mienh in-wuonh dimv nzangc sou. Visalia, CA: [s.n.].