Hmu language


The Hmu language, also known as Qiandong Miao, Central Miao, East Hmongic, or Black Miao, is a dialect cluster of Hmongic languages of China. The best studied dialect is that of Yǎnghāo village, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, China.
Qanu 咯努, a Hmu variety, had 11,450 speakers as of 2000, and is spoken just south of Kaili City, Guizhou. The Qanu are ethnoculturally distinct from the other Hmu.

Names

Autonyms include ' in Kaili, ' in Jinping County, ' in Tianzhu County, ' in Huangping County, ' in some parts of Qiandongnan, and ' in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, Guangxi. Ná-Meo, spoken by the Mieu people of Cao Minh Commune, Tràng Định District, Lạng Sơn Province, Vietnam, may be closely related.

Subdivisions and distribution

Wang (1985)

Wang Fushi groups the Qiandong Miao languages as follows.
Wu Zhengbiao divides Hmu into 7 different dialects. Past classifications usually included only 3 or 4 dialects. For example, Li Jinping & Li Tianyi, based on past classifications, divide Hmu into the 3 dialects of Northern, Southern, and Eastern. Datapoint locations of representative dialects are from Li Yunbing.
Sanqiao 三锹 is a mixed Kam–Hmu language spoken in Liping County and Jinping County, Guizhou, China by about 6,000 people.

Classification

Hmu has been recognized as a branch of Hmongic since the 1950s. Wang recognized three varieties. Matisoff treated these as distinct languages, which is reflected in Ethnologue. Lee added a fourth variety, Western Hmu, among the Yao, and Matisoff lists seven.

Writing

Northern Qiandong Miao, also known as Central Miao and as Eastern Guizhou Hmu, was chosen as the standard for Hmu-language textbooks in China, based on the pronunciation of Yǎnghāo village.

Phonology

The phonemic inventory and alphabetic transcription are as follows.
is not distinct from a zero initial, and only occurs with tones 1, 3, 5, 7.
The aspirated nasals and fricatives do not exist in Southern or Eastern Hmu; cognates words use their unaspirated homologues. Further, in Eastern Hmu, di, ti merge into j, q; c merges into x; r merges into ni; and v is pronounced. In Southern Hmu, words cognate with hni are pronounced ; those with r are ; and some words exchange s and x.
Ai does not occur after palatalized consonants. after palatalized consonants is spelled in.
Closing
Close component is frontei
Close component is backeu

Additional diphthongs occur in Chinese loans.
All dialects have eight tones. There is no sandhi. In the chart below, Northern Hmu is represented by Yanghao village, Eastern Hmu by 偶里 village, and Southern Hmu by 振民.
ToneLetterNorthernEasternSouthern
1b 3 3 3
3d 35 2 35
5t 4 45 4
7k 53 24 24
2x 5 ~ 45 42 53
4l 1 21 31
6s 13 5 2
8f 31 12 213

The lowest tones—Northern tones 4 and 6, Eastern tones 3 and 8, and Southern tone 6—are said to make the preceding consonant murmured, presumably meaning that these are murmured tones as in other Hmongic languages. They are marked with in the chart.