West Hmongic languages


The West Hmongic languages, also known as Chuanqiandian Miao and Western Miao, are a major branch of the Hmongic languages of China and Southeast Asia.
The name Chuanqiandian is used both for West Hmongic as a whole and for one of its branches, the Chuanqiandian cluster.

Names

Autonyms include:
West Hmongic is the most diverse branch of the Hmong language family. There are nine primary branches in Chinese sources, though the unity of these are not accepted in all Western sources.
Items marked ‡ have been split into individual languages by either Matisoff or Strecker; all of these are branches of Miao listed with subbranches in Chinese sources. The other three are not so divided in either Chinese or Western sources. The three divisions of the Chuanqiandian cluster are only as divergent as the divisions of the other branches marked ‡, but are listed separately due to the internal complexity of Hmong.
The various varieties of Pingtang, new branches of Guiyang and Mashan, and Matisoff's Raojia and Pa Na are not listed in Ethnologue 16 and have no ISO codes. Matisoff gives very different names, and it's not clear how these correspond to the branches listed here.

Wang (1983)

Wang Fushi, summarized in English by David Strecker, emphasized the diversity of Western Hmongic. The names below are from Strecker; Wang did not assign names, but identified the districts where the varieties were spoken.
;Chuanqiandian
These are not all established as unitary branches, however. In a follow-up, Strecker broke up Bu–Nao on the basis of newly accessible data, and noted that several of the languages listed by Wang were unclassified due to lack of data and had not been demonstrated to be West Hmongic. The other groups are then listed as unclassified within Hmongic, and not specifically West Hmongic. However, Wang identified two as varieties of Guiyang. The eight unclassified languages are all spoken in a small area of south-central Guizhou, along with Guiyang, Huishui, Mashan, and Luobo River Miao. These were later addressed by Li Yunbing.

Wang (1985)

Wang Fushi later grouped the Western Miao languages into eight primary divisions. Datapoint locations of representative dialects are from Li Yunbing, all of which are located in Guizhou province, China.
  • Chuanqiandian Miao
  • *Lect 1
The Tuhe 土河 dialect is spoken in Xishui County, Guizhou.
  • *Lect 2
  • *Lect 3
  • Northeast Yunnan Miao
  • Guiyang Miao
  • *Northern
  • *Southwestern
  • *Southern
  • *Northwestern
  • *Central
  • Huishui Miao
  • *Northern
  • *Western
  • *Central
  • *Eastern
  • Mashan Miao
  • *Central
  • *Northern
  • *Western
  • *Southern
  • *Southwestern
  • *Southeastern
  • Luobohe Miao
  • Chong'anjiang Miao
  • Pingtang Miao
  • *Northern
  • *Eastern
  • *Southern
  • *Western
The above classification was later revised by Li Jinping & Li Tianyi to include 7 dialects instead of the 8 given by Wang; Pingtang Miao is excluded.
  • Western Miao
  • *Chuanqiandian Miao
  • **Lect 1
  • **Lect 2
  • *Guiyang Miao
  • **Northern
  • **Western
  • **Southern
  • *Huishui Miao
  • **Northern
  • **Western
  • **Central
  • **Eastern
  • *Mashan Miao
  • **Central
  • **Northern
  • **Western
  • **Southern
  • *Northeast Yunnan Miao
  • *Luobohe Miao
  • *Chong'anjiang Miao

    Li (2000)

Li Yunbing classified those varieties left unclassified by Wang, grouping four of them together as an eighth branch of West Hmongic, Pingtang. He identified Luodian Muyin and Wangmo as varieties of Mashan. Wang had already established Qianxi and Ziyun as varieties of Guiyang. This classification is repeated in Wu and Yang :
  • Chuanqiandian cluster
  • A-Hmao
  • Guiyang Miao
  • Huishui Miao
  • Mashan Miao
  • A-Hmyo
  • Gejia
  • Pingtang Miao
The varieties analyzed by Li Yunbing are:
  • Guiyang Miao
  • * in Hongyan, Baiyun township, Ziyun County 紫云县白云乡红岩寨; 4,000 speaker
  • * in Tieshi township, Qianxi County 黔西县铁石苗族彝族乡
  • Pingtang Miao
  • * in Jiatong township, Pingtang County 平塘县甲桐乡 ; 11,000 speakers
  • * in Xinmin township, Dushan County 独山县新民乡; 4,000+ speakers
  • * in Pingyan, Luodian County 罗甸县平岩乡; 6,000 speakers
  • * in Youmai, Wangmo County 望谟县油迈乡; 3,000 speakers
  • Mashan Miao
  • * in Dalang, Ziyun County 紫云县打狼乡; 4,000 speakers
  • * in Moyin, Luodian County 罗甸县模引乡; 4,000+ speakers
Li considers Raojia of Heba 河坝, Majiang County, to be a separate dialect of Hmu. It has 5,000 speakers in Majiang County, and 10,000 speakers total.
Bu–Nao was not included because the speakers are classified by the Chinese government as ethnically Yao rather than Miao.

Matisoff (2001)

outlined the following in 2001. Not all languages are necessarily listed.
;Western Hmong
  • Libo Miao
  • Weining Miao
  • Guangshun Miao
  • Sichuan–Guizhou–Yunnan
  • * Petchabun
  • * Green Hmong
  • * Suyong Miao
  • * Chuan Miao
  • * Huajie Miao

    Mortensen (2004)

David Mortensen argues for the following classification of Western Hmongic based on shared tonal innovations, including tone sandhi. Pingtang, Luobohe, and Chong'anjiang are not addressed.
  • Western Hmongic
  • *Guiyang-Huishui
  • **Guiyang
  • ***Baituo 摆托
  • ***Tieshi 铁石
  • ***Zhongba 中坝
  • **Huishui
  • ***Jiading 甲定
  • *Core Western Hmongic
  • **Mashan
  • ***Jiaotuo 绞坨, Shuijingping 水井坪
  • ***Xinzhai 新寨
  • **Far Western Hmongic
  • ***A-Hmao
  • ****Western
  • ****Eastern
  • ***Hmong

    Ratliff (2010)

Martha Ratliff includes three languages specifically:
  • Hmong
  • A-Hmao
  • Bunu
The last contradicts Matisoff, who had posited a Bunu branch of Hmongic with Bu–Nao in it, but recapitulates Strecker. The other Western varieties are not addressed, though some are included in her reconstruction of Proto-Hmong–Mien.

Castro & Gu (2010): Wenshan

Andy Castro and Gu Chawen divide the Hmong dialects of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, into four subdivisions, listed from east to west.
  • Hmongb Shuat
  • Hmongb Dleub
  • Shib-Nzhuab
  • * Hmongb Shib
  • * Mongb Nzhuab
  • Soud-Bes-Buak
  • * Hmongb Soud
  • * Hmongb Bes
  • * Hmong Buak
The dialects given above are named after the groups they are spoken by.

Castro, Flaming & Luo (2012): Honghe

Castro, Flaming & Luo found that there are 4 different West Hmongic languages in Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan.
Castro, Flaming & Luo propose the following classification for the Western Miao dialects of southeastern Yunnan, which is based on Michael Johnson's 1998 classification of Western Miao dialects.
  • Western Miao
  • * Sinicised Miao
  • ** Sat
  • ** Shuat
  • * Farwestern Miao
  • ** White Miao
  • *** Dleub
  • ** Northern Hua Miao
  • *** Standard Western Miao
  • *** Bes
  • *** Soud
  • *** Ndrous
  • *** Black Miao
  • **** Dlob
  • **** Buak
  • ** Southern Hua Miao
  • *** Shib
  • *** Lens
  • *** Nzhuab
  • *** Dlex Nchab

    Writing

The Miao languages were traditionally written with various adaptations of Chinese characters. Around 1905, Sam Pollard introduced a Romanized script for the A-Hmao language, and this came to be used for Hmong Daw as well. In the United States, the Romanized Popular Alphabet is often used for White and Green Hmong.
In China, pinyin-based Latin alphabets have been devised for Chuanqiandian—specifically the variety of Dananshan, Yanzikou Town, Bijie—and A-Hmao. Wu and Yang report attempts at writing Mashan in 1985 and an improvement by them; they recommend that standards should be developed for each of the six other primary varieties of West Hmongic.