LINGUISTIG OF THE TIBETO-BURMANAREA James A. Matisolf. Editor University of California. Berkeley EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Paul L BENEDICT Nicholas C. BODMAN Brkrcliff Manor. NY Cornell University David BRADLEY Scott DE LANCET La Trobe University. University 01 Oregon Melbourne. Australia Inga-LiIi HANSSON F-K. LEHMAN Uniwrsity of Lund. Sweden University al Illinois Martine WAZAUDON Boyd MICHAILOVSW Centre National pour la Centre National pour ia Recherche Scientilique. Paris Recherche Scientifique. Paris Graham THURGOOD Julian t;. WHEATLEY CaliIornia Stale University, Cornell University Fresno ! 010 -LCCN 022 - LSSN 050 - Call number (LC) I OCLC number: 4790670 FROM TJ3E EDITOR This issue of LTBA is devoted entirely to the fascinating and understudied Hrnong-Mien (Miao-Yao] language family. Many of the articles date from a panel on Hmong Language and Linguistics chaired by David Strecker during the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute ISEASSI) Conference at the University of Michigan in the summer of 1985. Later several papers on Mien (by Caron. Court, Pumell. and Solnit) were added. along with last-minute conlributions by Lyman and Jaisser. The end reult is a well-rounded set of papers that cover a range of synchronic and diachronic topics in Hmong-Mien phonology. grammar. and orthography. We would like to thank DavId Strecker and Brenda Johns for conceiving this idea of a special issue on Hmong-Mien. Tanya Smith was ably assisted in the prepamtion of the manuscripts by Steve Baron. Amy Dolcourt. John Lowe. and Jean McAneny. to all of whom many thanks. A curnulathre index to the Brst ten volumes of LTBA appears on pp. 177- 180. Also. back issues of LTBA (originals when available. photocopies othe~wke]may be purchased according to the price schedule on p. 182. We are about to launch a serious Subscription Drive to further stabilize our financial base. Wewelcome suggestions fmm our present readership as to whom we might soIIcit to become new subwribers! JAM All correspondwe and manuscripts should be sent to: -ry. Ll-lM Dictionay and Thesaurus Project Madntosh dfsks. Othemke. manuscripts should be typ on standard she paper with at least 3/4 inch (2 centfmet page numbers pencilled on the reverse of each page. The and bibliography is left to the authofs discretion. Authors wlll recefve 10 free copies of their published The Hmng-Mien Languages Ihvid Strecker The Hmong-Mien family, which is also called the Miao-Yao family, is one of the major language stocks of Southeast Asia. Most of the languages of the family are spoken in southwestern China, but several languages are spoken in the northem pr- tions of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Burma. A detailed understanding of the family first became available to linguists as a result of the dialect surveys and descriptive linguistic work undertaken in China after the Liberation. Wore recently, the Indochinese war forced thousands of speakers of Hmong-Mien languages from Laos to resettle in Australia, Wope, and the Americas, so tha-t; a number of linguists outside of China and Southeast Asia have now become active Hmong-Mienists, The present collection includes the work of several of these scholars. Even today some linguists who are not specialists in these languages tend to think of Hmong-Mien as a small and obscure group, comprising just two languages, 'Wao" and "Yao". In fact. Hmong-Mien comprises some -two dozm rrrajor subgroups which are sufficiently different from one another to be mutually unintelligible. Yithin several of these sub- groups there exist fUrther - subdivisions showing marked dif- ferences in vocabulary and phonology and considered by their speakers to be separate languages, despite some degree of mutual intellibibility. It is probably closer to the mark to say that there are between 30 and 40 Hmong-Mi~Aanguages. The various subgroups of Hmng-Mien can be grouped in three major branches t Hmongi c Ho Nte Mienic Wienic, also called Yao, is a fairly close-hit group comprising six languages as shown in figure 2. Mun and Mien are widely spoken in China, Vietnam, Us, and Thailand. The other four languages are confined to a relatively limited region within China. Ho Ate, also called She, is a single language spoken in four districts near Hong Kong (figure 1). By contrast, Hmongic. also called Miao, is extremely diverse. I have tried to give a rough idea of the diversity of Hmongic languages and their approxinrate geographic dis- tribution in Figure 1. In Chinese publications, Hmongic Ian- guages are subdivided into mi go^ 'Miao languageg and ~hfifi 'Bunu language' ~~co~dingto whefrhes the speakers are cul- turally Hmong (aaozu) or Yao (Yaozu). This distinction is cultural rather than linguistic. The Ma-e language of Vietnam, also called Pateng, seems in most respects to be simply a southern outlier of the Pa Hng subgroup of Hmongic, as was first pointed out by Andrk Haudricourt . Recently, however, Paul Benedict has argued that Na-e actually constitutes a fourth branch of Hmong-Mien. This suggestion needs further study. A more detailed breakdown of Hmong-Mien languages is as follows : I. Hmongic (Migo ykhi) A. West gunan group or QaXiong language (Migod3 ~iki fan~van:Northern Hmongic) B. East Fuiehou group or Mhu language (MiLidfl 9i&dndow, fw; Eastern Hmaic) C. Mong, White Hmong, etc. 2. Nteheastem Yunnan subgroup (?di&o.o]m~i%d&#cbZi cifangyh) (A-Hmau) % / 3. Guiyang subgroup (Mi&* Guly- c\lf&) (bong1 4. Huishui subgroup (MiLo~~ulshui ckf an^&) (rnong) 5. Mashan subgroup (Migofl dsh& ctfan~y&) (-1 6. hobo River subgroup (~igofl~db6 H; c?fk&) (A-my0 1 7. @step pr-Zhow'an River sub rou (Miiofl **Do bu clf h or Mi8o~zhfngg& Jiang a- 8. Pingtang subgroup (~i&fi) 9. Qianxi- Pingba-Qingzhm-Liuzhi subgroup (~~igofl) 10. hadian Moyin subgroup (~idoy5) I. Hmongic , continued. C. Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan group, c mtinued. 11. Dushan subgroup (Migoy5) 12. hodian Pingyan subgroup (Migo*) 13. Ziyun-Zh enning subgroup (MigoyU 1 14. Wangmo subgroup (mi&*) 15. Yangmo-hodian subgroup (Migofi) (Mhang) 16. IZ1-Nao subgroup (~h~i~fi--&-~o fkvk) a. Pu Nu (Tung Nu) (~hi*GnmB t&fi) b. Nu Nu (~Gnfiy5Nhfi tfiy-ll) em fi Ma (3k6d5 B~U;t~vti) d. Nao Klao (~ksy5~'aogglgo M) e. NU mou (B~IEY~NGO tE*) D. Pa ~ng(B*u~B* BhGq fin&n) E. Hm Nai (M f*) F. Kiong hi (&fifi ~i~sdif&&) G . Yu Nuo (~'unafi~~unu; f%~&) 11. Ho Nte (ShEfi) A. Yestern or Lianhua dialect (~ih~a f-) B. Eastern or hofu dialect (df< f%m&) 111. Mienic (Y~Oflzhi Wih~) A. Mien-Kim (Mik-Jin f&pv&) 1. Mien (Iu Mien) (~Cumikt5fi) 2. (Kim Mun) (~h&ti5q-li) 3. Biao Mon (B~ZO& -1 - B. Biao-Chaa (~iao-~iao f%&) 1. Biao Win (BiZomZn m) 2. Chao Kong Yeng (~iaog%&h tfi~) C. Dzao Win (Zsodn f&m&) IV. Classification uncertain: Ma-e (Patmg) Note that the articles on Hmong in this collection all deal with lrihite Hmong of Thailand and Laos, which belongs to the Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan subgroup of the Sichuan-Guizhou- Yunnan group of Hmongic. Figure I: Hmongic, Na-e, and, Wo Nte, a PoXiong or West Hunan group (also speech lalands in or near the Pug Nu speaking area) Mhu or Eaet Guizhou group (also speech islands in south central and Sbl Guizhou and in W Guangxi) A-Kmau or Northea~temYunnan subgroup of Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan group Diverse Kmon ic languages of south central Guizhou I Guiymg Hmong, Huiahui Mhong, Mang 4Mashan su!group), A-Hmyo (Luobo River subgroup), Pingtang sub- group, Bianxi-Pingba-Qmgzhen-Liuzhl subgroup, Lucdian Moyin subgroup, Dushan subgroup, Luodian Pingyan aubgrou , Ziyun-Xhenning subgroup, Kangmo subgroup, Mhang (dangrno-luodian aubgroupy /1 Zhonglm River Mhong (speech within Mhu area) Nu Nu Sichuan-Guizhou-~unnan eubgroup I Green Mong, Uhite Hmong, etc, Fu No Nao Klao Na- e Nu Fllhou Ho Nte Hng Hm Nai Kiong Nai Yu Nuo Hhi te Hmong Orthography and IPA Equivalents (Broad Transcript ion) 1, Final consonant letters denote tones, not consonants. 2. Doubling a vowel denotes final [g]. Thus the name of the language is spelled Hmob CT~955]. Initials P ph nP n~h TI f m hm CPI Cml Cmbl Cmml Cvl Cfl Cml 181 PI plh npl nplh ml hml Cpll bll Cmbll Cm~11 Cdl [~13 t th nt nth 1 hl n hn Ctl Cthl bdl Cnnl C11 L&1 Lnl i~l tx txh ntx ntxh x [ts] [tsh] [ndz] [ntsh] [s 1 d dh [dl C!1 r rh m nrh ts tsh nts ntsh z s [tgl [tpl Cq&l CqishlCqI ipl c ch nc nch y xY nY hn~ @I Llhl CdJ LCqK Ljl ipl Cpl @I k kh nk nkh g Ck! Ckh! Cggl i+hl [!I 1 9 sh nq nqh CqI Cqhl LNG] Cbhl P, h C33 ihl For 4 and see Jarkey's paper in this collection. Finals iciJ idia] eC el aCal 0~31 uCul w Cff I Tones -b i55] high level - j [52] high falling -V [24] rising -s [22] mid-low level -d [33] mid level -g [42] falling, whispery voiced .. Y -m L21]- low fdlling, creaky voiced -d ~133.[213] low rising, or falling-rising (a syntactically determined variant of -m) Huffman's bibliography provides a very complete listin of I sources on Hmang-Yim languages up to 1983 or early 19b. 1 Here we give a small update of Huffman, listing works which do not appear in his bibliography or which he lists as con- ference presentations and which have since been published. Benedict. Paul K. 1986a. Miao-Yao Pnigma: the Na-e bguage.