Hmong-Mien Languages

Hmong-Mien languages, also called Miao-Yao languages, family of languages spoken in southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Although some linguists have proposed high-level genetic relationships to several language families—including Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, Austronesian, and Austroasiatic—no genetic relationships between Hmong-Mien and other language families have been conclusively demonstrated.

Most Hmong-Mien speakers belong to the Miao and Yao nationalities, two minority ethnic groups in China, although not all Miao or Yao people speak a Hmong-Mien language. Hmong-Mien speakers in China primarily inhabit Guizhou, Hunan, and Yunnan provinces and the Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi, although smaller numbers live in Sichuan, Guangdong, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces and on the island of Hainan.

Under pressure from the dominant Han Chinese population, waves of Hmong and Mien speakers migrated to Southeast Asia during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Another wave of migration followed the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, when tens of thousands of Southeast Asian Hmong and Mien emigrated to the United States, France, French Guiana, and Australia. At the beginning of the 21st century, the total number of Hmong-Mien speakers worldwide was estimated to be approximately 10 million. However, as six out of seven speakers of Hmong-Mien languages live in China, and the Chinese government reports the number of people in the Miao and Yao ethnic groups (which may contain speakers of languages other than Hmong-Mien), the actual number may be somewhat smaller.