Folk Arts - The Hmong Language: An Oral Memory

By Cliff Sloan

 

For centuries, the Hmong language was based strictly on oral communication. There was no alphabet, no written texts, no cultural reason to require literacy. Literature and learning were passed on from memory; the most learned elders were those with the most exhaustive memories, and the ability to apply only to daily life.

 

There have been many efforts to develop a writing system for Hmong, with varying degrees of success. In the early 1950s, a team of French and American missionary-linguists developed a way of writing Hmong words that used the same letters as English, French or German. Their intention was to develop a system that could be used on the simplest typewriters, without any fancy marks or accents. This was the Romanized Popular Alphabet, or RPA. Within 10 years, it became extremely popular, and remains to this day the most widely used writing system.

 

Hmong words have some unique features. Each word is a single syllable, characterized by an initial consonant (or cluster), a vowel, and a tone. There are no final consonants.

 

Tones are just as important a feature of the words as are the consonants and vowels. There are seven tones in Hmong, represented by a written consonant at the end of a word. For example:

- tsib (meaning “five”) has a high level tone, represented by –b.

- tsiv (meaning “to move”) has a rising tone, represented by –v.

- tsij (meaning “to drive a nail”) has a falling tone, represented by –j.

- tsi (part of the expression meaning “what?”) has a medium tone.

- tsis (meaning “no” or “not”) has a low level tone, represented by –s.

- tsim (meaning “Wake up!”) has a short, low, grunt-like tone, represented by –m.

- tsig (not a real word) has a falling, breathy, gasp-like tone, represented by –g.

 

Some Hmong words end in a sound similar to a final –ng, like “sing.” This is represented by the use of a double vowel. Thus, the way to write Hmong would be ‘Hmoob”.

 

There are also many sounds in Hmong that do not exist in English. For example, the letter /r/ sounds like the English /d/, but with the tongue rolled back. The letter /c/ is closest to the English /j/, but unvoiced. There is also a distinction between aspirated and un-aspirated consonants. For example, the letter /p/ is un-aspirated; it sounds like an unvoiced /b/, while the consonant /ph/ sounds like the English /p/.

 

Vowels, too, are typically Hmong. The Hmong family name, spelled in RPA as Hawm, is spelled in English as Her; the family name Thoj is spelled in English as Thao.

 

^ - next article: The Thread of Life: Hmong Needlework compiled by Pang Xiong