Key facts
- Geographic distribution
- China , Southeast Asia
- Linguistic classification
- One of the world's primary language families
- Proto language
- Proto-Hmong–Mien
- Subdivisions
- Hmongic (Miao) Mienic (Yao)
- Iso 639 5
- hmx
- Glottolog
- hmon1336
via Wikipedia infobox
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Hmong–Mien languages (also known as Miao–Yao and rarely as Yangtzean) are a highly tonal language family of southern China and northern Southeast Asia. They are spoken in mountainous areas of southern China, including Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hubei provinces. The speakers of these languages are predominantly "hill people", in contrast to the neighboring Han Chinese, who have settled the more fertile river valleys. Since their migration about four centuries ago, Hmong–Mien populations have also established communities in northern Vietnam and Laos.
Relationships
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hmong–Mien” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.