Languages hmong

The languages hmong are spoken by the populations Hmong, living in the south of the China (especially the area of the Guizhou), like in the north of the Vietnam and the Laos. They are languages belonging to the linguistic group hmong-mien, still called miao-yao. These are tonal languages whose sentences are organized according to the mode SVO (Subject-Verb-Object)

There exist very many forms, some sometimes considered as languages with whole share, or if not dialectal varieties, much probably not having been indexed yet besides. Two more widespread belong to the group Western Hmong; they are the “green hmong” (Hmong njua or hmong leng) and the “white hmong” (Hmong daw), spoken in Laos and to the Vietnam, which owe their name with the color of the female traditional costumes of the speakers. Both are spoken by the diaspora hmong installed mainly in North America and Europe.

The first forms of writing hmong go back to the beginning of the 20th century. Several were thus formed by missionaries, in particular in the years 1950, thanks to the Latin alphabet.

Another alphabet, carried out in 1959 by an illiterate person (Shong Read Vang), is also used. It is the only alphabet hmong developped at the point by a native speaker (Lao-hmong). It is a semi-syllabic alphabet called pahawh hmong astonishing case, since it is thus about the only known nonsyllabic alphabet in the world created by a person not well-read woman. The pahawh hmong would have been revealed with its creator by a divine vision…

However, Lemoine (1972, pp145-146), which studied all the known alphabets hmong, described the hmong pahawh thus: “The main difficulty consisted in noting all tons them. And to find a sign invariable for each tone on each vowel required a strict phonological analysis, that in spite of its undeniable genius, YA Chong Leu could not produce. From where the use of different signs to transcribe the same vowel with different let us tons, and of the same diacritic to distinguish the vowels enters they, without taking account of the tone. These two defects complicate the reading considerably, although one can memorize all these C-Ws communication indeed if one wants to try hard of it. These characters are as a parents majority of the Indian alphabets used by Taï of Tonkin and Lao. Some point out the Roman alphabet, and at least two of between-them the Cyrillic alphabet without there being phonetic agreement in the reading. Contaminations were certainly possible, since in the disputed zones of North-Laos one finds a quantity of material military of recovery, various sources, either Eastern European countries of Europe, or of the United States, of China, etc…, carrying inscriptions in the writing of the country of origin. The most brilliant dreams always leave reality, the writing dreamed by Ya Chong Leu, takes as a starting point the characters which it could see around him. ”

Examples

One will find below the article 1^er Universal declaration of the Human rights, in three regional varieties hmong of the south of China. It will be noted that these varieties, often qualified " dialectes" , are in fact very different one from the other.

Laix laix diangl dangt lol sob dab yangx ghax maix zit yef, niangb diot gid zenb nieef haib gid quaif bed gid nongd juice diel pinf denx. Nenx fraud maix laib lix xent haib jox hvib vut, nenx fraud nongt liek bed C id xit deit dait.
Leb leb nis zib youl nangs, mex AD sheit nangd zend yanl nhangs njanl lib. Mix mex lix xinb gaot liangt send, leb leb dregs nhangs ghob nab ghob geud nangd.
Cuat lenx cuat zif fraud bongb deul ndax dex douf muax youx, nyaob shout zunb yinx ndas back id, dax zis ib suk. The Nile buab Daf lol jaox muax lid xinf hlub hout liangx xinb shab nzhuk, yinf gaib keuk suk gud ten mol lol nit jinb shenx lol shib Daf shib hlad.

See too

External bonds

History, culture and language of Hmong
Hmong let us injure
Hmong Language FAQ
Pahawh Hmong alphabet
Prononciation hmong
Newsgroup on the language teaching hmong
Web site of the Hmong community in France

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