Miao language

Not to be confused with the Miao languages, of which these are merely a member-language or subfamily.

Miao (Greater Hmong)
lol Hmongb, hveb Hmub, dut Xongb, ad Hmaob lul
Spoken in	China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, United States
Language family	Hmong–Mien Hmongic Miao (Greater Hmong)
Writing system	Latin, Pollard script, Pahawh Hmong script (Laos), RPA (USA)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	hmn
ISO 639-3	variously: hmn – [[]] mmr – [[]] muq – [[]] hea – [[]] hms – [[]] hmq – [[]] cqd – [[]] mww – [[]] hnj – [[]] hrm – [[]] sfm – [[]] hmd – [[]] hml – [[]] hmj – [[]] huj – [[]] hmg – [[]] hmy – [[]] hmi – [[]] hmh – [[]] hmc – [[]] hme – [[]] hmm – [[]] hmp – [[]] hmw – [[]] hma – [[]]

Miao refers to the various languages of the Miao (Hmong) peoples of China. The Miao languages are part of the Hmong–Mien language family. It is written with Chinese characters or the Latin alphabet. Today in the United States, the Romanized Popular Alphabet is often used, for White Hmong, but most Miao languages remain unwritten (even though in China, there're 4 distinct Roman Hmong alphabets taught and used for all the 3 branches, which was developed in 1950s, these systems are still unknown to the United States).

The Miao languages include:

• Hmong language (Western Hmongic languages, 川黔滇方言 Chuān-Qián-Diān fāngyán)
  • Chuan-qian-dian sub-dialect (川黔滇次方言 Chuān-Qián-Diān cìfāngyán) Standard Hmong based on Dananshan (Hmong Len) [cqd]
    • First patois (第一土语)
      • Hmong Daw in Lao–U.S. orthography [mww]
      • Hmong Njua [hnj]
      • Hmong Len
    • Second patois (第二土语)
      • (only found in China)
  • Diandongbei (滇东北次方言) - Standard A Hmao [hmd]
  • etc.
• Hmu language (黔东方言)
  • Standard Hmu [hea]
• Xong language (湘西方言)
  • Standard Xong [mmr]

Teaching and Literacy of Miao language in China

Samuel Pollard introduced a Romanized script for the Flower Miao after 1905, this is still used for White Miao .^[1] Currently a dialect has been taken as the standard dialect of Hmu language [East Guizhou dialect (黔东方言 Qián-Dōng fāngyán)] for Miao language textbook teaching in China.^{[2][not in citation given]} The all these three dialects used to use a number of different sinogram and syllabary writing systems.

References

1. ^ Tanya Storch Religions and missionaries around the Pacific, 1500-1900 2006 p293 "he invented the first script for any Miao language"
2. ^ 石德富 Shi Defu; 苗语基础教程(黔东方言) Miao-yu jichu jiaocheng (Qian-Dong fangyan) 中央民族大学出版社 Central Minorities Publishing House (2006-08出版)