1. The Non-Native Project With an American Undertone
HMONG
The Non-Native Project
With an American Undertone

2. Where Hmong originated and where Hmong populations are the US today
Origination
In the US today

3. Introduction to Amy Her St. Paul, MN
Amy Her is Hmong American. She graduated from the Roseville Area High School in 2002 and the University of MN in She was born in the United States so her “first impressions” of the U.S. were the first impressions anyone would have. She had the privilege of being born with both English and Hmong speaking family. Her heritage is very important to her and she had much joy in assisting in teaching me (and others) about the Hmong language.
Introduction to Amy Her St. Paul, MN

4. The Origin Countries of the Hmong Language
“Hmong was just developed into a language twenty- seven years ago by a French pastor,” says Amy. “The vowels and consonants are the same, it’s just that they sound different. We also don’t have as many. We do use the American alphabet. For example, ‘you’ is spelt out ‘koj’”.
The Origin Countries of the Hmong Language

5. HMONG: Amy Her’s Interview
Katie: “Plurals and Past tense. How are they constructed in Hmong?”
Amy: “It’s different from English. We don’t have things like ‘ed’ to make words past tense. It’s more about how you say the sentence. There are words like ‘yesterday’ and past tense words to make the whole sentence past tense.”
Katie: “Syntax Issues. How are they constructed in Hmong?”
Amy: “It’s all in the tone.”
Katie: “Noun Phrases. How are they constructed in Hmong?”
Amy: Examples such as ‘the dog’, ‘the cat’ or ‘the car’ include ‘identifiers’ put in front of the words just like in English. ‘The’ would be ‘tus’ and ‘a’ would be ‘cog’; so Hmong is very similar to English.”
Katie: “What’s interesting about Hmong to you?”
Amy: “It’s all based off of tones. In the “Hmong” language, there are 7 tones. Depending on the tone it changes the words completely. So you have to be careful what you say because it could mean more then one word. Most Asian languages do not have a ‘r’ or ‘z’ so it’s really hard for the older generations to pronounce words with those letters.”

6. Hmong: Amy’s Interview Continues…
Katie: “What is your education?”
Amy: “I graduated from Roseville Area High School in Then graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007.”
Katie: “What is the Hmong Culture like?”
Amy: “Hmong families are paternal. Since there are only 16 clans when a girl gets married, she’s sold off to the husband’s side. The husband’s family pays a dowry and the girl changes her last name and clans. For centuries, it was always more important to have sons because, by having sons, your last name would carry on. Since Hmong people immigrated to America, that is not the truth anymore. Daughters can get married and they can still come and visit their parents; they no longer have to belong to a specific clan. Nowadays, you follow your husband’s family. The gender role has changed. Women have the same rights as men. That has caused a big issue with the Hmong community.”

7. Hmong
A study was done by the Lao Human Rights Council in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and United Hmong International in the United States in August 2001 and collected national population data for Hmong-American people in the United States and reported the following:
There are about 300,000 Hmong American people in the United States.
There are approximately 80,000 Hmong American people in Minnesota.
There are about 80,000 Hmong Americans in Wisconsin.
About 40,000 Hmong Americans moved from California to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other states between 1996 and 2001.
About 70,000 Hmong Americans still live in California.
Many Hmong Americans moved from California to Minnesota and Wisconsin and other states because of the problems of welfare reforms and unemployment problems.
About 70,000 Hmong Americans live in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Washington, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alaska and other states.
About 3,000 Hmong Americans live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; 1,000 in Menomonie, Wisconsin; and about 3,400 in LaCrosse and more than 15,000 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Mee Moua is the first Southeast Asian refugee (she is Hmong-American) to be elected to a state legislature in the US and serves as Minnesota state senator: “We have well over 800 Hmong businesses in the Twin Cities alone”.

8. Hmong: Vowel Chart/Consonant Chart
Hmong Origination

9. Hmong BACKGROUND AND POPULATION
“The Hmong is a Laotian hills people group. Their culture dates back over three thousand years to China. For centuries, Hmong kingdoms and independent settlements fought with China’s armies to maintain their independence. Finally they were defeated by numerically superior forces. Survivors fled to the mountainous regions in southwest China, where many still live today. The Hmong began migrating into Laos and Vietnam between 1810 and Between 1960 and 1975, the U.S. recruited the Hmong to fight communism during the Secret War in Laos. The objective of their involvement was to stop communist expansion and take pressure off U.S. troops in South Vietnam. After the American withdrawal from Southeast Asia, the Hmong were slaughtered by communists in Laos and the Vietnamese forces. To escape, thousands of Hmong fled to Thailand. There they stayed in refugee camps until they could be resettled in another country. Between 1975 and 1988, many Hmong refugees came to the United States.”

10. Hmong History of the Countries and Language Politics of the Language
Early Language Experts
In the northern Highlands of Laos, tribes people are called “Hmong”.
Some dialects are mutually intelligible while others are so distinct as to be considered separate languages.
Shong Lue Yang
The Hmong people came from China in the early 1800’s.
Sub dialects: Hmong Der/Daw (White Hmong) and Mong Leng (Blue Mong/Mong Njua).
Chao Fang
The CIA recruited Hmong men and women to disrupt traffic on the Viet Cong trail (s). Thousands of Hmong people were killed.
The history of the Hmong people is difficult to trace; they have an oral tradition, but there are no written records .
Chang Yu-hung
As late as 1983, nearly 60,000 Hmong were in Thai camps.
Hmong history has been passed down through legends and ritual ceremonies from one generation to another.
Chu Kwo-ray

11. Hmong Proverbs and Sayings Cultural Issues Current Language Issues
Status of English
A stupid person eats a lot, a smart person eats only to fulfill his hunger.
The Hmong people are mostly animist, but some are Buddhist.
Until recently, the Hmong had no written language.
Amy Her states that the Hmong language uses the English Alphabet.
An intelligent person makes the laws, an unintelligent person follows the laws.
The Hmong believe in magic spells and evil spirits.
No alphabet had been created for the Hmong language until recent years.
In English, there are “s” and “t”. For example, if you say “scissors”, most people from other countries will just hear the “s” sound.
A stupid person does it and think later, A smart person think and does it later.
Clan (xeem) remains a dominant organizing force in Hmong society. There are eighteen Hmong clans that are known in Laos and Thailand (Cha, Chang, Cheng, Chue, Fang, Hang, Her, Khang, Kong, Kue, Lee, Lor, Moua, Pha, Thao, Vang, Vue, Xiong and Yang).
The Hmong came from a “preliterate society”.
Both English and Hmong are hard to learn. Most Hmong speakers learn by listening.
A smart person would fall behind the trail, A person who knows will leave behind shoes.
The Hmong have the highest percentage of people on welfare.
Hmong is a hard language to learn because nowadays, hardly anyone speaks it but the elderly.

12. Hmong Word formation Patterns Sentence Patterns
Sound Differences between Hmong and English
Word formation Patterns
Sentence Patterns
What is difficult in English for a Hmong Speaker?
Hmong is a “tone” language.
Hmong is an isolating language in which most morphemes are monosyllables.
Tense, aspect, mood, person, number, gender and case are indicated lexically.
Hmong has no “r” or “z”.
Hmong has 7 distinct “tones”.
Verbs are not overtly inflected.
It is not uncommon for as many as 5 verbs to be strung together share the same subject.
Hmong speakers speak in “tones”. There are no “tones” in English.
Hmong syllables have a very simple structure: onsets are obligatory
Hmong verbs can be serialized. Two or more verbs can be combined in 1 clause.
Since the verb form in Hmong does not change to indicate tense, the simplest way to indicate the location in time of an event is to use temporal adverb phrases like “last year”, “today” or “next week”.
Hmong makes a number of phonemic contrasts unfamiliar to English speakers.

13. Orthographic Spelling
Hmong: Tones
Tones
Hmong is a tone language and makes use of seven distinct tones:
Tone
Example[6]
Orthographic Spelling
High
/pɔ́/ 'ball'
pob
Mid
/pɔ/ 'spleen' po
Low
/pɔ̀/ 'thorn'
pos
High-falling
/pɔ̂/ 'female'
poj
Mid-rising
/pɔ̌/ 'to throw'
pov
Low-falling (creaky) tone
/pɔ̰/ 'to see'
pom
Mid-low (breathy) tone
/pɔ̤/ 'grandmother'
pog

14. Hmong: What I learned
I did not realize how Hmong differs from the English language. I expected the writing in Hmong to be drastically different. I knew that Asian languages were languages in which “tones” were used but I thought it very fascinating that each tone had a purpose and could be identified. I also thought that “past tense” was interesting in that there is no need for a suffix. One word (i.e. yesterday) can place the setting for any sentence. Amy tried to teach me a sentence in which more then one tone was used. She laughed at my attempt. It was fun to try.

15. Bibliography
McGuire, William. Southeast Asians. Visual Education Corporation. Princeton, NJ
Personal Interview. Her, Amy. 11/16/2011.