Kim Mun language
Kim Mun is a Mienic language spoken by 200,000 of the Yao people in the Chinese provinces of Guangxi, Hunan and Yunnan, with about 61,000 of the speakers in Hainan Province. There are also speakers in Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.
Iu Mien and Kim Mun are similar to each other, having a lexical similarity percentage of 78%.
Distribution
In China, Kim Mun is spoken in the following counties.- Yunnan: Hekou, Malipo, Maguan, Xichou, Qiubei, Guangnan, Funing, Yanshan, Shizong, Jiangcheng, Mojiang, Yuanyang, Jinping, Lüchun, Mengla, Jinghong
- Guangxi: Xilin, Lingyun, Napo, Tianlin, Fengshan, Bama, Lipu, Pingle, Mengshan, Jinxiu, Yongfu, Luzhai, Fangcheng, Shangsi
- Hainan: Qiongzhong, Baoting, Qionghai, Tunchang, Ledong, Wanning, Sanya. In Hainan, Kim Mun speakers are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Miao, rather than Yao.
Daniel Arisawa has performed fieldwork with an isolated speaker of Kim Mun in Lampang province, northern Thailand.
Phonology
Consonants
- Lateral-released sounds are also present as.
- Fricative sounds are realized as affricate sounds in the Liangzi dialect.
- may also be heard as a retroflex in free variation in the Liangzi dialect.
- may also be heard as in different positions in the Liangzi dialect.
- Palatalized sounds ; can also be heard as palatal sounds ; in free variation.
- Sounds are more stiff-voiced in free variation.
- Sounds are heard as unreleased in word-final position.
Vowels
- /ɐ/ is heard as in the Laos dialects of Kim Mun.
- /i, u/ can be heard as when in closed syllables.
- /o/ may be labialized as in word-final position.
- /e/ may have a palatal off-glide as in word-final syllables.
- /ɔ/ when before a velar consonant can be heard as a diphthong .
- /o, ɔ/ may also be heard as lowered in free variation in the Laos dialects.