| A-Hmao | |
| Also Known As: | Large Flowery Miao |
| Nativename: | , |
| States: | China |
| Region: | Guizhou, Yunnan |
| Ethnicity: | A-Hmao |
| Speakers: | 300,000 |
| Date: | 1995 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Hmong-Mien |
| Fam2: | Hmongic |
| Fam3: | West Hmongic |
| Script: | Latin, Pollard |
| Iso3: | hmd |
| Glotto: | larg1235 |
| Glottorefname: | Diandongbei-Large Flowery Miao |
The A-Hmao language, also known as Large Flowery Miao or Northeast Yunnan Miao, is a Hmongic language spoken in China. It is the language the Pollard script was designed for,[1] [2] and displays extensive tone sandhi.[3] There is a high degree of literacy in Pollard among the older generation.
The standard written language, both in Pollard and in Latin script, is that of village in Weining County.
The A-Hmao language is a branch of the West Hmongic languages, also known as Chuanqiandian Miao and Western Miao, which is a major branch of the Hmongic languages of China and Southeast Asia.
Wang Fushi (1985) grouped the Western Miao languages into eight primary divisions:[4]
The A-Mao language is distributed in Zhaotong, Kunming, Qujing and Chuxiong Yi autonomous prefecture in the Northeast of Yunnan Province. And also Weining Yi, Hui, and Miao autonomous county, Hezhang county, Liupanshui, and Ziyun Miao and Buyi autonomous county in the West of Guizhou Province. There are 300,000 native speakers. The standard dialect is that of Shimenkan (Chinese: 石门坎), Weining County (Chinese: 威宁县).
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive / Affricate | b pronounced as /link/ | d pronounced as /link/ | z pronounced as /link/ | dl /pronounced as /tl̥// | dr pronounced as /link/ | zh pronounced as /link/ | j pronounced as /link/ | g pronounced as /link/ | gh pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| nb pronounced as /link/ | nd pronounced as /link/ | nz pronounced as /link/ | ndl pronounced as /link/ | ndr pronounced as /link/ | nzh pronounced as /link/ | nj pronounced as /link/ | ng pronounced as /link/ | ngh pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| p pronounced as /link/ | t pronounced as /link/ | c pronounced as /link/ | tl pronounced as /link/ | tr pronounced as /link/ | ch pronounced as /link/ | q pronounced as /link/ | k pronounced as /link/ | kh pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| np pronounced as /link/ | nt pronounced as /link/ | nc pronounced as /link/ | ntl pronounced as /link/ | ntr pronounced as /link/ | nch pronounced as /link/ | nq pronounced as /link/ | nk pronounced as /link/ | nkh pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| b pronounced as /link/ | d pronounced as /link/ | z pronounced as /link/ | dl /pronounced as /dl// | dr pronounced as /link/ | zh pronounced as /link/ | j pronounced as /link/ | g pronounced as /link/ | gh pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| nb pronounced as /link/ | nd pronounced as /link/ | nz pronounced as /link/ | ndl pronounced as /link/ | ndr pronounced as /link/ | nzh pronounced as /link/ | nj pronounced as /link/ | ng pronounced as /link/ | ngh pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative / Lateral | f pronounced as /link/ | s pronounced as /link/ | hl pronounced as /link/ | sh pronounced as /link/ | hlr pronounced as /link/ | x pronounced as /link/ | hx pronounced as /link/ | (h pronounced as /link/) | h pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| v pronounced as /link/ | r pronounced as /link/ | l pronounced as /link/ | rh pronounced as /link/ | lr pronounced as /link/ | y pronounced as /link/ | hy pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Nasal | m pronounced as /link/ | n pronounced as /link/ | nr pronounced as /link/ | ni pronounced as /link/ | ngg pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| hm pronounced as /link/ | hn pronounced as /link/ | hni pronounced as /link/ | hng pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||||
| Semivowel | w pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||
| Close | i pronounced as /link/ | yu pronounced as /link/ | w pronounced as /link/ | u pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Mid | e pronounced as /link/ | e pronounced as /link/ | o pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Open | a pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Diphthong | ai pronounced as //ai̯// | eu pronounced as //œy̯// | ang pronounced as //ɑɯ̯// | ao pronounced as //ɑu̯// | |||
| ie pronounced as //i̯e// | iw pronounced as //i̯ɯ//ia pronounced as //i̯ɑ// | iu pronounced as //i̯u//io pronounced as //i̯o// | |||||
| Triphthong | iai pronounced as //i̯ai̯// | iang pronounced as //i̯ɑɯ̯// | iao pronounced as //i̯ɑu̯// | ||||
| Tone | Symbol | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | ˥˧ 54 | |
| 2 | x | ˧˥ 35 | |
| 3 | d | ˥ 55 | |
| 4 | l | ˩ 11 | |
| 5 | t | ˨ 33 | |
| 6 | s | ˧˩ 31 | |
| 7 | k | ˩ 11 | |
| 8 | f | ˧˩ 31 |
On the basis of the eight tones of A-Hmao, in the eastern region, the fourth, sixth, and eighth tones are broken up partially or entirely into two categories. At most, there can be up to eleven tones. Essentially, nouns and quantifiers are part of the first category, and they are higher in pitch. Other word classes are part of the second category, and they are lower in pitch.
The A-Hmao language displays extensive tone sandhi. Similar to other branches of the West Hmongic languages, the tone sandhi happens on the second syllable when the first syllable of a disyllable word is level tone (first and second tone).
The morphology of the three branches of the Hmong language is basically the same. The following examples are from Central Miao. A-Hmao is similar to Hmong, which is an isolating language in which most morphemes are monosyllables. As a result, verbs are not overtly inflected. Tense, aspect, mood, person, number, gender, and case are indicated lexically.[5]
Single-morpheme word
Example:
'human being'
'tiger'
'tree'
'I'
'you'
'he'
'thousand'
'ten thousand'
'hundred'
'come'
go; 'leave'
'hurry up; quickly'
'itchy'
'nausea'
Same tone:
'girl'
'run'
'boiling'
'star'
'cloud'
'dirty'
Different tones:
'clean'
'in case'
'magpie'
'crow'
'nearly; almost'
'chair'
'slowly'
'together'
'still'
'occasionally'
Compound word
'language'
'relative'
'name'
'age'
'rebuke'
'construct'
'lesson'
'bend'
'poverty'
'candle'
'key'
'tears'
'corn'
'uncle'
'aunt'
'dress up'
'rest'
'patience'
'pleasantly cool'
'proficiency'
'tired'
Mostly are prefixes, and commonly used prefixes are, and so on. is the most commonly used.
'body'
'ear'
'root'
'leaf'
'living room'
'kicken'
'soul'
'destiny'
'provincial capital'
on the street
at home
aspect of eating and wearing
'here'
'there'
'where'
'above'
'below'
'outside'
'inside'
'child'
'grandchild'
'man'
'girl'
'man, boy, husband'
'uncle'
'stone'
'knee'
'fist'
'a handful of'
The syntax of Hmong languages, regardless of the type of part of speech or phrase and the division of constituents of the sentence and the sentence types, are basically the same. The basic word order of Hmong is SVO. Within the noun phrase, possessors precede possessed nouns, and adjectives and relative clauses follow the nouns they modify. Noun phrases have the form as (possessive) + (quantifier) + (classifier) + noun + (adjective) + (demonstrative).[6] As in Chinese, question formation does not involve word order change. For wh- questions, the wh- word does not occupy a sentence-initial position in Hmong as in many other languages. (e.g. the English sentence 'What are you doing?' would be rendered 'you do what' in Hmong)
The A-Hmao have no indigenous writing system. In the beginning of the 20th century, missionary Samuel Pollard invented the Pollard script, which was based on the decorative symbols on their clothing. Before the introduction of the Pollard script, the A-Hmao people recorded their history through their ancient songs and weaving the history of their memories on their clothes. Those images formed a history of the A-Hmao.[7]