Iu Mien language explained

Iu Mien
Nativename:Iu Mienh
Pronunciation:pronounced as /ium/
States:China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand,
Communities in United States, and France.
Date:1995–2019
Ref:e25
Familycolor:Hmong-Mien
Fam2:Mienic
Fam3:Mian–Jin
Nation: China (in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County)
Iso3:ium
Glotto:iumi1238
Glottorefname:Iu Mien
Notice:IPA

The Iu Mien language (Iu Mienh, pronounced as /ium/; Chinese: 勉語 or Chinese: 勉方言; Thai: ภาษาอิวเมี่ยน) is the language spoken by the Iu Mien people in China (where they are considered a constituent group of the Yao peoples), Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and, more recently, the United States in diaspora. Like other Mien languages, it is tonal and monosyllabic.

Linguists in China consider the dialect spoken in Changdong, Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi to be the standard. This standard is also spoken by Iu Mien in the West, however, because most are refugees from Laos, their dialect incorporates influences from the Lao and Thai languages.

Iu Mien has 78% lexical similarity with Kim Mun (Lanten), 70% with Biao-Jiao Mien, and 61% with Dzao Min.

Geographic distribution

In China, it is spoken in the following counties (Mao 2004:302–303).[1] There are 130,000 speakers in Hunan province, and 400,000 speakers in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou and Jiangxi provinces.

Yangshuo, Lingui, Guanyang, Ziyuan, Xing'an, Longsheng, Gongcheng, Yongfu, Luzhai, Lipu, Mengshan, Pingle, Jinxiu, Yishan, Rong'an, Rongshui, Luocheng, Huanjiang, Shanglin, Xincheng, Laibin, Baise, Napo, Lingyun, Tianlin, Cangwu, Hezhou, Fuchuan, Zhaoping, Fangcheng, Shangsi

Yingde, Lechang, Shixing, Qujiang, Renhua, Wengyuan, Ruyuan, Liannan, Lianshan, Yangshan, Yangchun

Hekou, Jinping, Honghe, Mengla, Malipo, Maguan, Gangnan, Funing, Wenshan

Rongjiang, Congjiang, Sandu, Danzhai, Leishan, Zhenfeng, Luodian

Quannan, Shanggao

Jianghua, Yongzhou, Shuangpai, Xintian, Changning, Daoxian, Lanshan, Lingxian, Ningyuan, Jiangyong, Dong'an, Chenzhou, Zixing, Lingwu, Guiyang, Xinning, Yizhang, Chengbu, Qiyang, Chenxi; also in Longzha Township (龙渣瑶族乡), Yanling County

In Vietnam, Dao people belonging to the Đại Bản, Tiểu Bản, Quần Chẹt, Ô Gang, Cóc Ngáng, and Cóc Mùn subgroups speak Iu Mien dialects.[2]

Phonology

Consonants

There are 31 cited consonant phonemes in Iu Mien. A distinguishing feature of Iu Mien consonants is the presence of voiceless nasals and laterals.

! rowspan="2"
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasalpronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Plosive/
Affricate
pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /pʰ/pronounced as /tʰ/pronounced as /t͡sʰ/pronounced as /t͡ɕʰ/pronounced as /kʰ/
pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Fricativepronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Glidepronounced as /ink/pronounced as /ink/
Lateralpronounced as /ink/
pronounced as /ink/
  1. The standard spelling system for Iu Mien does not represent the stop sounds in a way that corresponds to the IPA symbols, but instead uses e.g.,, and to represent pronounced as //tʰ/, /t/, and /d//. This may stem from an attempt to model the Iu Mien spelling system on Pinyin (used to represent Mandarin Chinese), where and represent pronounced as //tʰ/ and /t//. The Pinyin influence is also seen in the use of,, and to represent the alveolar affricates pronounced as //t͡sʰ/, /t͡s/, and /d͡z// and,, and for the postalveolar affricates pronounced as //t͡ɕʰ/, /t͡ɕ/, and /d͡ʑ//. The use of to represent the velar nasal pronounced as //ŋ// means that it cannot also be used to represent pronounced as //ɡ//, as would be predicted; instead, is used.
  2. According to Aumann and Pan,[3] in a certain Chinese dialect, the postalveolar affricates are instead palatal stops (pronounced as //cʰ/, /c/, /ɟ//).
  3. According to Daniel Bruhn, the voiceless nasals are actually sequences pronounced as /[h̃m], [h̃n], [h̃ŋ], and [h̃ɲ]/ (i.e. a short nasalized pronounced as //h// followed by a voiced nasal), while the voiceless lateral is actually a voiceless lateral fricative pronounced as /[ɬ]/.
  4. Bruhn also observed that younger-generation Iu Mien Americans were more likely to substitute the voiceless nasals and voiceless laterals with pronounced as //h// and the alveolo-palatal affricates with their corresponding palato-alveolar variants.

Onset

It appears that all single consonant phonemes except pronounced as //ʔ// can occur as the onset.[4]

Coda

Unlike Hmong, which generally prohibits coda consonants, Iu Mien has seven single consonant phonemes that can take the coda position. These consonants are pronounced as //m/, /n/, /ŋ/, [p̚], [t̚], [k̚], and /ʔ//. Some of the stops can only occur as final consonants when accompanied by certain tones; for example, pronounced as //ʔ// only occurs with the tone or .

Vowels

Monophthongs of Iu Mien (unknown dialect)!! Front! Central! Back
Highpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
High-midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Low-midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Near-lowpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Lowpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/

Iu Mien vowels are represented in the Iu Mien United Script using combinations of the six letters,,,,,, and .

According to Bruhn, the monophthongs are,,,,,,,,, and . The diphthongs are,,,,,,, . Furthermore, additional diphthongs and triphthongs can be formed from the aforementioned vowels through pronounced as //i//- or pronounced as //u//-on-gliding (having pronounced as //i// or pronounced as //u// before the vowel). Such vowels attested by Bruhn include,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and .

The dialect studied by Bruhn, and described in the above table, has a phoneme pronounced as //ɛ// that does not have its own spelling, but is represented in various contexts either as or (which are also used for pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //aɪ//, respectively). In all cases where pronounced as //ɛ// is spelled, and nearly all cases where it is spelled, it does not contrast with pronounced as //e// or pronounced as //aɪ//, respectively, and can be viewed as an allophone of these sounds. The only potential exception appears to be when occurring as a syllable final by itself, where it has an extremely restricted distribution, occurring only after the (alveolo-)palatal consonants pronounced as //tɕ/, /dʑ/, and /ɲ//. The sound pronounced as //ɛ// may be a secondary development from pronounced as //aɪ// in this context, although Bruhn does not discuss this issue.

Tones

Iu Mien is a tonal language with six observed tonemes.

In the Iu Mien United Script (the language's most common writing system), tones are not marked with diacritics; rather, a word's tone is indicated by a special marker letter at the end of the word. If a word lacks a marker, then it is to be pronounced with a middle tone.

IPADescriptionIMUSExampleEnglish meaning
˦/˦˥ High v maai'''v''' lopsided
˧˩ Mid, falling h maai'''h''' to have
˧ Mid maai basic tail of bird
˨/˨˩ Low c maai'''c''' to sell
˨˧ Low, rising x maai'''x''' nightmare
˨˧/˨˧˨ Lower, longer, rise-fall z maai'''z''' to buy

Grammar

Iu Mien is an analytic language and lacks inflection. It is also a monosyllabic language, with most of its lexicon consisting of one syllable.

The language follows a SVO word order. Some other syntactic properties include the following:

Writing system

In the past, the lack of an alphabet caused low rates of literacy amongst the Iu Mien speakers. It had been written with Chinese characters in China; however, this is extremely difficult for Iu Mien speakers from other countries such as Laos and from groups who now live in the West.

In an effort to address this, an Iu Mien Unified Script was created in 1984 using the Latin script, based on an earlier orthography developed in China.[5] Unlike the Vietnamese language, this alphabet does not use any diacritics to distinguish tones or different vowel sounds, and only uses the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. This orthography distinguishes 30 initials, 128 finals, and eight tones. Hyphens are used to link adjectives with the nouns they modify. The alphabet is similar to the RPA used to write the Hmong language and the Hanyu Pinyin transcription scheme used for Chinese.

IMUS spelling-to-sound correspondences

Consonants
SpellingIPAExample
hmpronounced as //m̥//'''hm'''ien ('face')
mpronounced as //m//'''m'''aiv ('not'), hna'''m'''v
hnpronounced as //n̥//'''hn'''oi ('day')
npronounced as //n//'''n'''ie ('soil'), bu'''n''' ('give')
hnypronounced as //ɲ̥//'''hny'''angx ('year')
nypronounced as //ɲ//'''ny'''ei ('mine')
hngpronounced as //ŋ̊//'''hng'''ongx ('dumb')
ngpronounced as //ŋ//'''ng'''ongh ('cow'), zaa'''ng'''z ('elephant')
ppronounced as //pʰ//'''p'''orng ('shovel')
bpronounced as //p//'''b'''enx ('to become')
mbpronounced as //b//'''mb'''uo ('us')
tpronounced as //tʰ//'''t'''ov ('to beg')
dpronounced as //t//'''d'''a'nyeic ('second')
ndpronounced as //d//'''nd'''au ('ground')
kpronounced as //kʰ//'''k'''orqv ('gourd')
gpronounced as //k//'''g'''anh ('oneself')
nqpronounced as //ɡ//'''nq'''aang ('rear')
q (syllable-final)pronounced as //ʔ//zu'''q'''c ('must')
cpronounced as //t͡sʰ//'''c'''ongh ('from')
zpronounced as //t͡s//'''z'''ingh ('city wall')
nzpronounced as //d͡z//'''nz'''angc ('character')
q (syllable-initial)pronounced as //t͡ɕʰ//'''q'''am ('hug')
jpronounced as //t͡ɕ//'''j'''aix ('penis')
njpronounced as //d͡ʑ//'''nj'''iuv ('scissors')
fpronounced as //f//'''f'''ingx ('surname')
spronounced as //s//'''s'''iang ('new')
hpronounced as //h//'''h'''oqc ('learn')
ypronounced as //j//'''y'''ie ('I')
wpronounced as //w//'''w'''etv ('dig')
hlpronounced as //l̥//'''hl'''o ('big')
lpronounced as //l//'''l'''aengz (accept)
Vowels
SpellingIPAExample
apronounced as //ɐ//j'''a'''pv ('to cut with scissors')
aapronounced as //a//m'''aa''' ('mother')
aaipronounced as //aːɪ//l'''aai''' ('final')
aaupronounced as //aːʊ//s'''aau''' ('to socialize')
aepronounced as //æ//d'''ae''' ('father')
aipronounced as //aɪ//l'''ai''' ('vegetable')
aupronounced as //aʊ//nd'''au''' ('ground')
epronounced as //e//h'''e'''h ('shoe')
eipronounced as //ɛɪ//m'''ei'''h ('you')
erpronounced as //ɜ//s'''er'''n (a raw meat dish)
eupronounced as //ɜo//b'''eu''' ('to wrap')
ipronounced as //i//'''i''' ('two')
opronounced as //o//g'''o''' ('far')
oipronounced as //oɪ//'''oi'''x ('like')
orpronounced as //ɒ//p'''or'''ng ('shovel')
oupronounced as //əu//s'''ou''' ('book')
upronounced as //u//'''u'''v ('gestures')
Tones
SpellingIPAExample
vpronounced as //˦/, /˦˥//maai'''v''' ('lopsided')
hpronounced as //˧˩//maai'''h''' ('to have')
pronounced as //˧//maai ('basic tail of bird')
cpronounced as //˨/, /˨˩//maai'''c''' ('to sell')
xpronounced as //˨˧//maai'''x''' ('nightmare')
zpronounced as //˨˧/, /˨˧˨//maai'''z''' ('to buy')

Films

The following films feature the Iu Mien language:

Notes

References

Dissertations

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Mao . Zongwu 毛宗武 . Bāhēng yǔ yánjiū . Li . Yunbing 李云兵 . 1997 . Shanghai yuandong chubanshe . Shanghai . zh . zh:巴哼语研究 . A Study of Baheng [Pa-Hng].
  2. Phan Hữu Dật & Hoàng Hoa Toàn (1998). "Về vấn đề xác minh tên gọi và phân loại các ngành Dao Tuyên Quang." In Phan Hữu Dật (ed). Một số vấn đề về dân tộc học Việt Nam, p.483-567. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Đại Học Quốc Gia Hà Nội. [Comparative word list of 9 Dao dialects in [[Tuyen Quang Province]] from p. 524–545]
  3. Aumann . Greg . Chengqian . Pan . 2004 . Report on the Iu Mien—Chinese—English Dictionary Project . Asian Lexicography Conference, Chiangmai 24–26th May 2004 . en . https://web.archive.org/web/20040821144929/http://crcl.th.net/sealex/Aumann_IuMienDict.pdf . 2004-08-21 . dead.
  4. Web site: Lesson 1 - Consonants . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20051101220225/http://mienh.net/language/consonants.html . 2005-11-01 . Mienh.net . en.
  5. Web site: Our Iu Mien Community in Cyberspace . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060514020443/http://www.iumien.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1&page=2 . 2006-05-14 . iumien.com . en.