Hmong Language Puns

NOTE: This is an extension of a question that I've posted in Quora last year.

DETAILS:

>In his personal page (now through Internet Archive; the original link that I've posted as link in my Quora question had long gone), linguist Andrew Hsiu hypothesized that proto-Hmong-Mien (and by extension, proto-Tai-Kadai) was a creole language formed in northern Hunan (in case of proto-Tai-Kadai, Pearl River Delta) involving "Old Middle Yangtze" substrate, Austroasiatic, a missing Sino-Tibetan branch called "Donor Hmong-Mien" and Old Chinese (in the case of proto-Tai-Kadai: pre-Austronesian, "Old Middle Yangtze" substrate, Austroasiatic and Old Chinese). In fact, it seems that in another post, he also compared both proto-Hmong-Mien and proto-Austroasiatic (the hyphenated link is also archived). What's your personal thoughts on such hypothesis. By the way, here's the updated version of Andrew Hsiu's personal site. Thanks!

I'm trying to learn Hmong so I can talk to the Hmong people in my community, some of the shopkeepers don't speak English to well. I haven't seen any good online learning for Hmong, and the ones I found didn't really teach much. Or is there any good tips or alternative methods to learning Hmong. (I'm a native English speaker and this is my first time learning a new language)

Hi! I’m not Hmong, but I live near the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin and there’s a large population of Hmong people here. I’m currently in school to be an English as a second language teacher and, from most job postings, it looks like I’m not required to know Hmong but I will be working with Hmong kids. I have two years until I graduate and I would like to learn as much of the language as I can because I think it would help me be a better ESL teacher.

I assume most people on this subreddit are native speakers, but I was wondering if anyone had any resources to learn the language? When I’ve self-learned languages in the past (Japanese and German), I relied heavily on reading books and watching movies in the language. I’m struggling to find these in Hmong. I’m also finding that there aren’t really any textbooks available. I’ve started a course called Learn Hmong the Jay Way, but I don’t think it will get me past a basic level. If anyone has any advice or resources to offer, I am open to that! Thank you so much :)

In my readings it tells me that Hmong people originated from modern day north/central China down to present day southern China and present day northern areas of Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand , and Vietnam.

Does anyone know if your language is similar or close to any of the ethnic minorities from the central to northern region of modern day China

Hello, I’m a 25 year old woman. I work at a school and many of our parents speak the languages I am seeking. I feel horrible when I can’t find an interpreter for us to use. I just want to help them feel more comfortable. If you are interested please let me know!

Hmong (RPA: Hmoob) or Mong (RPA: Moob), known as First Vernacular Chuanqiandian Miao in China (Chinese: 川黔滇苗语第一土语; pinyin: Chuānqiándiān miáo yǔ dì yī tǔyǔ), is a dialect continuum of the West Hmongic branch of the Hmongic languages spoken by the Hmong people of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. There are some 2.7 million speakers of varieties that are largely mutually intelligible, including 260,000 Hmong Americans. 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. However, Hmong Daw (White Miao) and Mong Njua (Green Miao) are widely known only in Laos and the United States; Dananshan is more widely known in the native region of Hmong.

Linguistics:

Language classification and influences:

The language classification is as follows: Hmong–Mien > Hmongic > Western Hmongic > Chuanqiandian cluster > Hmong

Script:

Robert Cooper, an anthropologist, collected a Hmong folktale saying that the Hmong used to have a written language, and important information was written down in a treasured book. The folktale explains that cows and rats ate the book, so, in the words of Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, "no text was equal to the task of representing a culture as rich as that of the Hmong." Therefore, the folktale states that the Hmong language was exclusively oral from that point onwards.

Natalie Jill Smith, author of "Ethnicity, Reciprocity, Reputation and Punishment: An Ethnoexperimental Study of Cooperation among the Chaldeans and Hmong of Detroit (Michigan)", wrote that the Qing Dynasty had caused a previous Hmong writing system to die out when it stated that the death penalty would be imposed on those who wrote it down

However, since the late 19th Century over two dozen different scripts have been devised by missionaries, linguists and others. Some of these systems used Chinese, Lao, Russian, Thai, and Vietnmese characters and alphabets. One, an 81-symbol system known as Pahawh was created by a completely illiterate man.

The Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), the most widely used script for Hmong Daw and Mong Njua, was developed in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by three Western missionaries. In the United States Hmong do not use RPA for spelling of proper nouns, because they want their names to be easily pronounced

It's called the Refugee Educators Network - Quoting the website, "With the support of the Central Valley Foundation, we developed a literacy kit for teaching the White Hmong language, with books that can printed and used for free, from any computer in the world'. Containing some links works written discussing the language, history, culture and even music of the Hmong people. There are also texts in French in addition to those mostly in English.

It also informs that 'The Refugee Educators’ Network, Inc., was dissolved in September 2015'. However, There are additional links that you might find useful.

Crossposted from /r/askscience -- a couple good answers in this thread

(Numbers in the example were pulled out of thin air, obviously.)

What would be involved in making such a scale, and what might the formula approximate? What variables would be compared, and which would be most heavily weighted: Phonetics? Grammar?

I am not a linguist; but I'm willing to read challenging things. Many thanks for your time and your expertise.

Hello, redditors of r/Hmong!

I'm u/kungming2, a mod over at r/translator. We're working to make our multilingual community the universal place on Reddit to go for a translation, no matter what language people may be looking for. We are however somewhat lacking in the Hmong languages, and I was hoping some wonderful multilingual people here could help us out.

Would anyone be interested in helping translate any future requests for Hmong languages on r/translator? You don't even need to subscribe to our subreddit! We usually get a request for these languages very occasionally, once every few months or so. Most requests that come in are pretty simple and don't need advanced knowledge of the languages.

We have a notifications system that only sends you a message when a request for a Hmong language comes in. Just send a message to our subreddit bot at the link below.

>> Get Hmong Daw (White Hmong) translation notifications <<

>> Get Mong Njua/Leng (Green Hmong) translation notifications <<

>> Get Chuanqiandian Miao (Chinese Hmong) translation notifications <<

You can unsubscribe from those messages at any time, and you'll be helping out redditors in need. If you want to help with a Hmong language that isn't listed here, please let me know. Thank you!

^(Mods, hopefully this post is okay!)

Hello Sacramento, I want to learn a new language. Are there any places or anyone that offers Hmong language classes? I'm already enrolled in some online language courses but I want to study with a living person.

Hi, everybody! Thank you for taking the time to read my post!

I was inspired to create this game after seeing a group of community elders teach their young ones the basic number and color vocabulary of their endangered language with UNO. I thought: why has no one specifically made a game for this purpose? It might help protect and revitalize languages for children! Well, now, I have done it!

In this game, each player can use any language they want to try to win. Each card will prompt the player to speak a specific type of word (like types of places, foods, or animals) and then they should put down their card by matching it to another card of the same color or name. The first player to put down all their cards wins!

To learn more about this game, I warmly welcome you to visit my shop --> https://languagecardgames.com/product/language-guardians/

If you'd like to leave any questions or comments below, I'd be happy to answer!

Cheers and good luck with your Hmong studies!

--Matt

I am WhisperToMe, an English Wikipedia editor. The admin at Translatewiki, which handles translation of the Wikipedia/Wikimedia interface is telling me that he is ready to accept Hmong Dawb translations for the Wikipedia/Wikimedia interface. Is anyone interested in being a translator? https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=User_talk:WhisperToMe&offset=20131207115941&lqt_mustshow=39685#Hmoob_Dawb_39685

I am currently working on learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone and other resources. Do you know of any good resources for learning to be fluent in Hmong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

i'm just looking a list of what are some good Hmong language songs?