Hmong

Hmong is a language of Southeast Asia. It is the most widely spoken member of the Hmong–Mien family, with at least 3.5 million speakers of mutually-intelligible varieties spread across the highlands of Southeast Asia, from China’s Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces to northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. (In China, the language is called Miao, and the family Miao–Yao.)

Today, there are more than 300,000 ethnic Hmong living in diaspora communities around the world—mainly in the United States, but also in Canada, Australia, France (both L’Hexagone and French Guiana), and other countries. These communities are mainly refugees from the Secret War and their descendants.

Three main varieties of Hmong are spoken in the diaspora: White Hmong (RPA: Hmoob Dawb; sometimes Anglicized as ‘Hmong Daw’ or ‘Hmong Der’), Green Mong (RPA: Moob Ntshuab; sometimes ‘Blue Mong’ or ‘Mong Njua’), and Mong Leng (RPA: Moob Leeg). These varieties are closely related—so much so that the latter two are sometimes thought to be the same dialect. The grammars of these three varieties are nearly identical, but there are notable differences in vocabulary and pronunciation.

For those interested in learning more about Hmong and Hmong linguistics, I maintain a list of useful resources.

If you speak any variety of Hmong, and you’re interested in learning more about how linguistic research works, please feel free to reach out!