Hmongic languages

Spoken in

  • Hmong - Mien languages Hmong

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Hmn

Hmn

  • 2.2.2.1 Text sample
  • 2.2.3.1 Text sample

Classification

The languages ​​of the Miao ( Hmong ) belong to the language group of the Hmong - Mien languages ​​( Miao - Yao languages).

Chinese scientists include the Miao - Yao languages ​​usually to the Sino-Tibetan language family languages.

However, they are also often attributed together with the Austronesian languages ​​and Austro- Asiatic languages ​​a proposed superfamily of Austrischen languages. However, this thesis has only a few followers.

In China, people of the Miao nationality be expected which will not speak Miao. In Chengbu and Suining (Hunan ) in Longsheng and Ziyuan (Guangxi ) and Jinping ( Guizhou ) Miao there who speak Chinese ( a total of about 100,000 ); in Sanjiang (Guangxi ) be Speaker of the Dong / Gaeml language Miao attributed ( over 30,000 ); in the island province of Hainan are the Miao Yao spokesman attributed ( more than 100,000 ). The A- HMAO (400,000 ) use a dialect of the Miao.

Written languages

The Hmong / Miao use multiple written languages ​​.

Historical written languages

In the 19th century Shi Bǎntáng石板 塘created a Miao script based on Chinese characters; Shí Qǐguì石启贵created a simpler font for the language of the Miao. Both were speakers of the dialect of western Hunan. Lóng Shaohua龙 绍华from Guizhou Miao wrote several textbooks, for which he used IPA.

Other writing systems were created by Christian missionaries from Europe and North America, including the font, the British missionary Samuel Pollard ( Chinese: Bǎi Gélǐ柏格 理) designed together with the Miao - intellectuals Yáng Yǎgè杨 雅各in 1905 to the dialect to verschriften of Shíménkǎn石门坎. She made several reforms until the publication of a New Testament in 1936 was given its final shape. Pollard Miao (A- HMAO ) used 24 large characters and 8 characters combinations for Silbenanlaute, and 15 smaller signs for Silbenauslaute. Even in the 1980s, this font of about 250,000 Miao has been used in China, of which about 50,000 dominated also actively very good. 1988, for example, published the Patriotic Catholic Church of China a New Testament in Pollard Miao.

1949 created by the French Catholic missionary Bertrais in the area of Luang Prabang in Laos, a Miao script. The Protestant missionary Barney from the USA designed around the same time and also in Laos, a Miao alphabet. Both documents were reformed and unified in consultation with the American missionary and linguist William Smalley and the result, the novel Popular Alphabet ( RPA) today in several countries (especially of refugees in the U.S.) will be used.

Shong Lue Yang invented in 1959 ( Yaj Soob LWJ ) in the north of Laos to the border with Vietnam a font that became known as Pahawh Hmong. Shong Lue Yang claimed that God had revealed to him that this font. It is a complex system, which has been reformed several times. The letters are written from left to right, but the Silbenauslaut stands in front of the syllable. Eight different tones are expressed by diacritics. The font is still used today - in two different versions Reformed ( Pahawh Njia Dua O / Phajhauj Ntsiab Duas Whether and Pahawh Njia Dua Pe / Phajhauj Ntsiab Duas Peb ), but very few Hmong speakers. A radically simplified version of the font ( Pahawh Tsa / Phajhauj Txha ), Shong Lue Yang who published in 1971, sat down at all by.

Written languages ​​in China

After the founding of the People 's Republic of China were due to the large differences between the various dialects of the Miao in China three (or four ) different written languages ​​based on the Latin alphabet created: for in Western Hunan, for in Eastern Guizhou and for the in Sichuan, Yunnan and other parts of Guizhou - as well as a draft written language of a fourth dialect, which, however, never gained official status.

These four written languages ​​are hardly used by the speakers. Various political campaigns - the Great Leap Forward, the movement against the rightist, the four cleansing and the Cultural Revolution - had devastating consequences for the languages ​​of national minorities in China, first in the 80s, the use of many languages ​​could be made. The market reforms, however, have let remain the educational system and thus the teaching of minority languages ​​in the poorer rural areas of China. The Neurausrichtung the publishers to profit orientation promoted not the publication of books and magazines in languages ​​of minorities with relatively small numbers of speakers and low purchasing power.

Dut Xongb

The written language of the Miao in West Hunan (eastern dialect; proper name of the language: Dut Xongb [ tu53 ɕoŋ35 ] ) was created in 1956 and reformed in April 1959. The written language is provided for the 1.1 million speakers of this dialect and pulls the dialect of Làyǐpíng腊 乙 坪村in the community Jiwei吉 卫 乡in a circle Huayuan花垣 县as a standard approach. It differs Silbenanlaute 49, 35 end of a word and six tones, which are expressed by letters that are placed at the end of a syllable.

Initial sounds
End of a word
Tones
Text sample

From the Declaration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Hmub

The written language of the Miao in eastern Guizhou ( central dialect; 2.1 million speakers; own name: Hmub ) is based on the dialect of Yǎnghāo养 蒿 村in the large village Sānkēshù三棵树 镇that belongs to the city Kǎilǐ凯里 市, and 32 different initial sounds, 26 end of a word and eight tones.

Text sample

Hmongb or Hmaob

The third official language of the Miao in China, the Sichuan - Guizhou - Yunnan dialect ( Chinese: Chuan - Qian - Dian Fangyan川黔 滇 方言; own names: Hmongb and Hmaob ) is based on the dialect of Dànánshān大 南山 村in the large village Yànzikǒu 燕子 口镇that belongs to the city of Bijie毕节 市in Guizhou Province. It differs initial sounds 56, 27 end of a word and eight tones. The western dialect is very inconsistent, one distinguishes seven sub-categories: Sichuan - Guizhou - Yunnan in the narrow sense, Northeast Yunnan (with its own written language, see below), Guiyang贵阳, huìshuǐ惠 水, Mashan麻 山, Luobo Hé罗 泊 河and Zhongan Jiang 重 安 江. It is spoken by about 2.5 million people.

Text sample

Northwest Yunnan

The fourth written language is a dialect of Northeast Yunnan. Their status is not entirely clear. According to the official classification is a subgroup of the Western dialect (Sichuan - Guizhou - Yunnan ). The written form is based on the dialect of Shíménkǎn石门坎in Weining Autonomous County of Yi, Hui and Miao ( Weining Yizu Huizu Miaozu Zizhixian威宁 彝族 回族 苗族 自治县) in Guizhou Province. It differs initial sounds 55, 21 end of a word and eight tones. The dialect had in 1990 about 400,000 speakers.

In 1999, a dictionary tries a normalization of this variety appeared. The dialect was verschriftlicht therein in a modified version of the Pollard alphabet. 2007, a proposal for encoding this modified Pollard alphabet was filed in Unicode. ( newer version:; discussion on the state of the end of 2009 :)

Modern written languages ​​outside of China

In the late 1980s, the Protestant pastor Txawj Vang designed a font for the Hmong, which he called Ntawv Paj Ntaub ( " embroidery font "). It consists of a total of sixty characters, and is used by some Christian communities under the influence of the United Christian Liberty Evangelical Church in the United States.

In Thailand Hmong / Miao is written with the Thai alphabet.

In Vietnam, Hmong / Miao ( Meo, Meo, Hmong ) is written with the Latin alphabet, modeled on the Vietnamese spelling.

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