What is the Hmong alphabet called?
The Hmong ‘Thoob Teb’ alphabet is by far the most popular Romanized alphabet representing the sounds and words of the Hmong language. It is not difficult to learn.
How many tones are in the Hmong language?
Hmong is a tone language and makes use of seven (Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg) or eight (Dananshan) distinct tones . The Dananshan tones are transcribed as pure tone. However, given how similar several of them are, it is likely that there are also phonational differences as in Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg.
How many Hmong people are there?
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.
What is the Hmong Mien language?
hmn – inclusive code for the Hmong/Mong/ Miao (China, Laos) macrolanguage, including all the following varieties except hmf and hmv. Map of Hmong-Mien languages, the West Hmongic language is in purple. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols.
Is there a Hmong alphabet?
The written language, known as “the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA)” or “Hmong RPA” was developed in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by missionaries and Hmong advisors. While it is the most common form, Pahawh Hmong is also used.
How many vowels are in a Hmong?
White Hmong has approximately thirteen vowel sounds, which include short vowels and diphthongs. Surprisingly, Hmong does not have any long vowels. To go into more depth, White Hmong has six short vowels as shown in (Figure 3). The places of articulation are as shown in (Figure 4) below.
Who created the Hmong alphabet?
This was developed by Cher Ze Xiong, who died in May 2013 in Chicago. He allegedly developed the script in the 1950s while still in Laos.
Is there a written Hmong language?
In the 1600s, the Qing Dynasty made it illegal to write the Hmong language. So, Hmong became an oral language. In the 1950s, a Christian missionary created a new written Hmong language based on the Romanized Popular Alphabet. An illiterate peasant name Shong Lue Yang also created a written Hmong language in 1959.
Is Hmong a dying language?
Hmong is a heritage language from the Southeast Asian ethnic group and a major component of Hmong culture. The practice of speaking the language is dying out from a loss of teachings in school.
What language is Hmong similar to?
Hmong is a tonal language, in a similar way to Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Laothian. There are eight tones (though some say there are seven).
What country speaks Hmong?
Hmong-Mien languages, also called Miao-Yao languages, family of languages spoken in southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.
Is Hmong hard to learn?
"Hmong is one of the hardest languages to learn because it's a tonal language," she said. "A lot of Westerners have a hard time speaking Mandarin because it's four tones. With Hmong, you double those, so it's eight tones." A tonal language is one in which the meaning of a word changes based on the tone of voice used.
How do you say yes in Hmong?
A: Mus. Yes. (Literally: Go.)
Are Hmong Chinese?
The Hmong are an ethnic group of people with specific language and culture. The Hmong originally came from China with over 4,000 years of history. Some Hmong left China to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma beginning in the early 1800's as a result of land expansion by the Chinese government.
What is Green Hmong?
A Hmongic lect spoken in Laos and elsewhere, including among Hmong American communities, and written using the Latin or Pahawh Hmong scripts.
Is Hmong similar to Mandarin?
Hmong is a tonal language like Mandarin, but while Mandarin has four tones, Hmong has eight. The different tone could change the word for “red” into “rice paddy” or “disgusting.” The two most common dialects in the U.S. are the White Hmong (Hmoob Dawb) and the Green Hmong (Hmoob Ntsuab or Moob Leeg).
What are the vowels in Hmong?
0:172:30Lesson 3 - Hmong Vowels - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipLet's take a look the single vowel a in Hmong is aa e is a I is e all of you ooh W so we have a i EOMoreLet's take a look the single vowel a in Hmong is aa e is a I is e all of you ooh W so we have a i EO. You the English bubbles with the exception of W.
How many phonemes are in Hmong?
Hmong is a tonal language. There are 6 tones and they are phonemic. In other words they mean different things even when the same consonant-vowel combination is uses. The six tones are described as high, mid, low, high falling, mid rising, creaky (my personal favorite), and low falling breathy.
How do you say yes in Hmong?
A: Mus. Yes. (Literally: Go.)
How do you pronounce Hmong consonants?
2:4412:09Lesson Two - Hmong Compound Consonants - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipA just like the a alphabet.MoreA just like the a alphabet.
What alphabet is used to write Hmong?
During the 1980s and 1990s several other alphabets were invented to write Hmong: Ntawv Paj Ntaub, based on Thai letters and Chinese characters, and Ai Ao Lo .
What are the two main types of Hmong?
There are two major varieties of Hmong: White Hmong ( Hmoob Dawb) and Green/Blue Hmong ( Moob Leeg/Hmoob Ntsuab ), which are named after the traditional colours worn by women of the different groups. In China Hmong is known as Miao and is written with Chinese characters or with an alphabet known as Pollard Miao.
What language do Hmong speak?
Today most Hmong write their language with the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), a version of the Latin alphabet developed mainly by American missionary linguists in the 1950s in Laos. In the RPA tones are indicated by final consonants.
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How many letters are in the Hmong language?
At first Shong created a script with a different glyph for every distinct sound in the Hmong language — 151 letters in all — but over the next decade, sometimes working from prison, he introduced increasingly sophisticated and streamlined versions of Pahauh, which had come to be seen by many Hmong as sacred.
What are the two factors that worked against the Hmong people?
In every case, two factors worked against them: they had no homeland, and they had no written language.
How many people have been executed for creating an alphabet?
Here’s a sign of how potent writing is, how important and inspiring and threatening it can be to create an alphabet: at least one person has been executed for creating a writing system for his people. Not in some colonial insurrection in, say, South America five hundred years ago, or in Africa in the nineteenth century, but in 1971.
What are the syllables of Hmong?
Hmong syllables have a very simple structure: onsets are obligatory (except in a few particles), nuclei may consist of a monophthong or diphthong, and coda consonants apart from nasals are prohibited. In Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg, nasal codas have become nasal vowels, though they may be accompanied by a weak coda [ŋ]. Similarly, a weak coda [ʔ] may accompany the low-falling creaky tone.
What are the three dialects of Hmong?
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 /m̥/ of Hmong Daw (as exemplified by their names) and has a third nasalized vowel, /ã/; Dananshan has a couple of extra diphthongs in native words, numerous Chinese loans, and an eighth tone.
What is the Hmong dialect?
Varieties in the United States. Most Hmong in the United States speak the White Hmong ( Hmong Daw) and Hmong Leeg ( Moob Leeg) dialects, with about sixty percent speaking White Hmong and about forty percent Hmong Leeg.
What are the names of the Miao varieties?
Ethnologue once distinguished only the Laotian varieties (Hmong Daw, Mong Njua), 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 Njua [blu]. These varieties are as follows, along with some alternative names ('Ch.' = Chinese name, 'auto.' = autonym [self name]):
What are the names of the mong njua?
Mong Njua and Hmong Daw are just those varieties of the cluster that migrated to Laos; the Western names Mong Njua, 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 Njua), Sinicized Miao (Hmong Shua), ...
What is the dialect of Hmong Daw?
Mong Njua (Hmoob Ntsuab) 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" ( 第一土语) of the cluster. Mong Njua and Hmong Daw are just those varieties of the cluster that migrated to Laos; the Western names Mong Njua, Mong Leng, Hmong Dleu/Der, and Hmong Daw are also used in China for various dialects of the Chuanqiandian Miao cluster.
How many tones are there in Hmong?
Hmong is a tone language and makes use of seven (Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg) or eight (Dananshan) distinct tones .
What are the three symbols of the Pahawh Hmong alphabet?
Pahawh Hmong alphabet. Each syllable is written with three symbols: a rime, a tone marker and an onset. When reading, the onset comes first. The tone markers appear above the onsets. If there is no tone marker, the syllable has a middle tone. If there is no onset marker, the syllble begins with k. A null-onset marker is used to indicate syllables ...
How many people speak Hmong?
Hmong, a Hmong-Mien language spoken by about 2.6 million people in China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, USA, and French Guiana. There are two major varieties of Hmong: White Hmong ( Hmoob Dawb) and Green/Blue Hmong ( Moob Leeg/Hmoob Ntsuab ), which are named after the traditional colours worn by women of the different groups.
When was the Pahawh alphabet invented?
The Pahawh Hmong alphabet was invented in 1959 by Shong Lue Yang ( ), an illiterate Hmong farmer living in northern Laos close to the border with Vietnam. Shong Lue Yang believed that the alphabet was revealed to him by God, a belief shared by many among the Hmong.
What is the writing direction of the Hmong?
Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines. Though few Hmong use the Pahawh Hmong alphabet, they are very proud of the fact that it exists and that is was created by one of their people.
Who created the alphabet for the Khmu language?
Shong Lue Yang also created an alphabet for the Khmu language (a member of the Mon-Khmer family), but it never caught on and soon disappeared.
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