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<\/a>H<\/strong><\/span><\/em>mong people have their unique language, which might have been related to languages in China and Laos, yet it is also different from Chinese, Thai, Laotian, and Cambodian. When the French began to create colonies in the southeastern part of Asia, French explorers spread out throughout the region in search of whatever of value they could find. One of them, Father F.M. Savina, a Catholic priest, was not seeking treasure but conversions; he was looking for people who might wish to become Catholic. He settled in with the Hmong in their highland villages, and there he studied the Hmong language in great detail, learning it well. Finally,\u00a0<\/span>he published a book in 1921 about the Hmong in which he declared that, after much thought, the Hmong language was related to other languages from places far away, such as Mongolia, the southeastern part of Europe, and even Turkey. The Hmong language is a \u201ctonal\u201d language, similar to those of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. This means the definition of a word will change depending on the tone with which it is spoken.\u00a0In the Hmong language, a word spoken in one tone will have an entirely different meaning from the same word spoken in a different tone. There are seven tones in the Hmong language, and some people even say eight, since two of the tones are so similar that people disagree whether they are different or not. Some of these Hmong tones are referred to with such terms as \u201chigh tone,\u201d \u201chigh falling tone,\u201d \u201clow tone,\u201d \u201clow falling tone,\u201d and even \u201cbreathy mid-low tone.\u201d At all events, the final letter of the printed form of a Hmong word will indicate which tone it is when that word is to be spoken.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” show_divider=”on” color=”#1c1c1c” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
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Hmong words are usually quite short; most are not more than one syllable. Thus, many words in Hmong sound the same to someone not used to listening for the difference. In the Hmong language, for example, one word such as \u201ccee<\/em>\u201d can have several meanings depending on whether it is spoken with a high tone, a low tone, or some other tone.<\/p>\n Some commonly used Hmong words are:\u00a0Hello \u00a0(Nyob zoo<\/em>);\u00a0How are you? \u00a0(Koj nyob li cas<\/em>), a literal translation of this phrase would be, \u201cHow do you stay?”;\u00a0I\u2019m fine (Kuv nyob zoo<\/em>), literally meaning \u201cI stay well\u201d;\u00a0My name is John (Kuv lub npe hu ua John<\/em>);\u00a0You are my friend (Koj yog kuv tus phooj ywg<\/em>);\u00a0Good-bye (Sib ntsib dua<\/em>), meaning \u201cSee you next time\u201d.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” show_divider=”on” color=”#1c1c1c” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although the Hmong language may seem complicated, one should not conclude from this that the Hmong language is difficult for young Hmong children to learn. In fact, many young Hmong children learn to speak Hmong at home. Still, English has been the main language for the second and third generation of Hmong Americans, especially among themselves. They also often serve as translators for their parents who might have limited English fluency.<\/p>\n The Hmong language is a rich, full, and very effective means by which to express and preserve the hopes, history, and values of a people with a cultural heritage developed over thousands of years. While it is certainly, in many ways, very different from English, and may therefore seem complex, the Hmong language deserves effort to be preserved, maintained, and continued, and effort to do so is a common theme and goal for many “heritage” language learners in a multicultural America today.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” show_divider=”on” color=”#1c1c1c” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Cha, Dia, Mai Zong Vue, and Steve Carmen. Field Guide to Hmong Culture<\/em>. Madison, WI:\u00a0Madison Children Museum, 2004.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hmong people have their unique language, which might have been related to languages in China and Laos, yet it is also different from Chinese, Thai, Laotian, and Cambodian. When the French began to create colonies in the southeastern part of Asia, French explorers spread out throughout the region in search of whatever of value they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1490,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" Making and Using Language <\/b><\/p> We make language using our chests, lungs, mouths, lips, tongues, and vocal cords. With these tools we make sounds and shape them into a form that will be recognized by others, and we do this to communicate feelings, ideas, needs, and a variety of information. This is accomplished by the use of words, and by putting these words into the correct order according to rules which are known to and accepted by the people around us in our society. These rules govern both the meanings of words, called definitions, and the order in which those words can be used to convey meaning, called grammar. <\/span><\/p> The Origins of Hmong<\/b><\/p> We have already seen, in our chapter on Hmong history, that when the French began to create colonies in the southeastern part of Asia, French explorers spread out throughout the region in search of whatever of value they could find. One of them, Father F.M. Savina, a Catholic priest, was not seeking gold, silver, gems and jewels, or other such precious things; he was looking for people who might wish to become Catholic. He settled in with the Hmong in their highland villages, and there he studied the Hmong language in great detail, learning it well. Finally, <\/span><\/p> in 1920, he published a book about the Hmong in which he declared that, after much thought, he considered that the Hmong language was related to other languages from places far away, such as Mongolia, the southeastern part of Europe, and even Turkey. Thus, the Hmong language may have originated far from Laos and China. We cannot know where it originated precisely, but two things are certain: the Hmong have traveled far in their long history and their language is quite unusual. <\/span><\/p> Tones in Hmong<\/b><\/p> One characteristic of the Hmong language which may be somewhat difficult for us to understand is that Hmong is a \u201ctonal\u201d language. This means the definition of a word will change depending on the tone with which it is spoken. Let\u2019s consider some examples. As Americans we use tones ourselves in our everyday speech. When we inquire, \u201cExcuse me, can you tell me what time it is?\u201d our voices rise a little at the end. We can say, then, that this is an example of a rising tone. When we find that the dog has torn apart our favorite pillow, we may groan, \u201cOh, no...\u201d Often our tone of voice as we groan these words will fall slightly, so that we might say this is an example of a falling tone. Another tone will be used when we say, \u201cFor my vacation, Mom and Dad are taking me to Hawai\u2019i.\u201d Between the two final letters of Hawai\u2019i \u2013 that is, between one letter \u201ci\u201d and the other letter \u201ci,\u201d we leave a slight break or pause, so we might call this a broken tone. If we say, in a matter of fact voice, \u201cThis is my school book,\u201d our voices do not change at all, and so we might call this a flat tone. And so on. <\/span><\/p> In the Hmong language, a word spoken in one tone will have an entirely different meaning from the same word spoken in a different tone. We who have been born and raised in the United States may feel this is a bit unusual, but it is also true of the Chinese language and the languages of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In fact, there are seven tones in the Hmong language, and some people even say eight, since two of the tones are so similar that people disagree whether they are different or not! Some of these Hmong tones are referred to with such terms as \u201chigh tone,\u201d \u201chigh falling tone,\u201d \u201clow tone,\u201d \u201clow falling tone,\u201d and even \u201cbreathy mid-low tone.\u201d At all events, the final letter of the printed form of a Hmong word will indicate to us which tone it is in which that word is to be spoken.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> Syllables in Hmong<\/b><\/p> Hmong words are usually quite short; most are not more than one syllable. Thus, many words in Hmong sound the same to someone not used to listening for the difference. Foreign students of English often have the same trouble, and cannot tell when to use the words \u201cto,\u201d \u201ctoo,\u201d and \u201ctwo.\u201d So, we can appreciate that, in the Hmong language, one word such as \u201ccee\u201d can have several meanings depending on whether it is spoken with a high tone, a low tone, or some other tone. Indeed, in our chapter on ceremony, we have already seen that this word, when spoken with a specific tone indicated by the final letter \u201cb,\u201d means \u201cworld\u201d \u2013 as in yaj ceeb, our material world; or yeeb ceeb, the world of the spirits.<\/span><\/p> Words in Hmong<\/b><\/p> Some Hmong words we might like to know are:<\/span><\/p> Hello <\/b>- Nyob zoo <\/span><\/p> How are you?<\/b> - Koj nyob li cas (A literal translation of this phrase would<\/span><\/p> be, \u201cHow do you stay,\u201d)?<\/span><\/p> I\u2019m fine<\/b> - Kuv nyob zoo (Literally, \u201cI stay well\u201d). <\/span><\/p> My name is Joe<\/b> - Kuv lub npe hu ua Joe <\/span><\/p> You are my friend<\/b> - Koj yog kuv tus phooj ywg <\/span><\/p> Good-bye<\/b> - Sib ntsib dua (This means, \u201cSee you next time\u201d).<\/span><\/p> \u00a0\u00a0- Mus zoo (\u201cGo well\u201d). <\/span><\/p> \u00a0<\/p> Hmong Language and Tradition <\/b><\/p> Although the Hmong language may seem complicated, no doubt a similar discussion of English will seem quite the same to foreign students of our language. We should not conclude from this that the Hmong language is difficult for young Hmong children to learn. In fact, as we may readily suppose, all young Hmong children learn to speak Hmong, as we may observe in the wide variety of Hmong stories, jokes, and riddles enjoyed by children and adults alike, taken together with the large number of proverbs calculated to educate and inform. <\/span>We have already seen one example in our chapter on clan and lineage: a wise proverb which states, \u201c An individual is but a drop of water in a bucket \u2013 if it crosses <\/span>the rim and falls, it is tiny and will soon dry out.\u201d Another is, \u201cWe see the pigeon, but we don\u2019t see its nest.\u201d This means that while the bird may appear beautiful to the eye, it may secretly have made an ugly mess of things at home. In English we say much the same thing with the words, \u201cBeauty is only skin deep.\u201d Related to this is the riddle, \u201cWhat is a bowl that cannot hold water?\u201d The answer: A bird\u2019s nest. Another is, \u201cWho is the old man with a pot on his head who walks up and down the river?\u201d Give up? The answer is: a crab.<\/span><\/p> \u00a0<\/p> The Hmong language is a rich, full, and very effective means by which to express and preserve the hopes, history, and values of a people with a cultural heritage developed over thousands of years. While it is certainly, in many ways, very different from English, and may therefore seem complex to English speakers, it is certainly not complex to the Hmong. The Hmong, rather, enjoy the use of their language in expressing themselves in daily life, just as, with great delight, they enjoy a variety of jokes, proverbs, riddles, and stories.<\/span><\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-646","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/646\/revisions\/756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/hmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}