Iu Mien language
| Iu Mien | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iu Mienh | ||||
| Pronunciation | [ju mjɛn][need tone] | |||
| Spoken in | China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, USA, and France. | |||
| Region | South East Asia | |||
| Native speakers | 840,000 (1995–1999)[1] | |||
| Language family |
Hmong–Mien
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| Official status | ||||
| Official language in | China (in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County) | |||
| Regulated by | No official regulation | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | either: ium – Iu Mien bmt – Biao Mon |
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The Iu Mien language (Thai: ภาษาอิวเมี่ยน) is one of the main languages spoken by the Yao people in China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and, more recently, the United States in diaspora. Like other Hmong-Mien languages, it is tonal and monosyllabic.
Linguists in China consider the dialect spoken in Changdong, Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi to be the standard. However, most Iu Mien people in the West are refugees from Laos, so they primarily speak dialects common in Laos.[2]
Iu Mien has 78% lexical similarity with Kim Mun (Lanten), 70% with Biao-Jiao Mien, and 61% with Dzao Min.[2]
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[edit] Geographic distribution
In China, it is spoken in the Jinxiu County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Ruyuan County of Guangdong province, Yunnan, and Hunan provinces, and in the Rongjian, Congjian and Libo counties of Guizhou province.[3]
[edit] Dialects
There are several known dialects of Iu Mien. Dialects vary by clan and geographic location. Dialects include, but are not limited to, Cham, Deo Tien, Man Do, Quan Chet, and Quan Trang.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Consonants
Iu Mien makes a distinction between aspirated and unaspirated sounds.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m̥ | m | n̥ | n | ɲ̥ | ɲ | ŋ̊ | ŋ | ||||||
| Stop | pʰ p | b | tʰ t | d | kʰ k | ɡ | ʔ | |||||||
| Affricate | t͡sʰ t͡s | d͡z | t͡ɕʰ t͡ɕ | d͡ʑ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | |||||||||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||||||||||
| Lateral Appr. | l̥ | l | ||||||||||||
- According to Aumann and Chengqian, in a certain Chinese dialect, the postalveolar affricates are instead palatal stops (/cʰ/, /c/, /ɟ/).
- Daniel Bruhn observed that younger-generation Iu Mien Americans were more likely to substitute the voiceless nasals and voiceless laterals with /h/ and the alveolo-palatal affricates with their corresponding palato-alveolar variants.
[edit] Onset
It appears that all single consonant phonemes except /ʔ/ can occur as the onset.[4][5]
[edit] Coda
Unlike Hmong, which generally prohibits coda consonants, Iu Mien has seven single consonant phonemes that can take the coda position. These consonants are /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, [p̚], [t̚], [k̚], and /ʔ/. Some of the stops can only occur as final consonants when accompanied by certain tones; for example, /ʔ/ only occurs with the tone ⟨c⟩ or ⟨v⟩.
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| long | short | long | short | long | short | |
| Close | ||||||
| Mid | ||||||
| Open | ||||||
Iu Mien vowels are represented in the Iu Mien United Script using combinations of the six letters, ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩, and ⟨r⟩.
According to Bruhn, the monophthongs are ⟨i⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨ai⟩, ⟨er⟩, ⟨ae⟩, ⟨a⟩, ⟨aa⟩, and ⟨or⟩. The diphthongs are ⟨ai⟩, ⟨aai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aau⟩, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨oi⟩, ⟨ou⟩, ⟨eu⟩. Furthermore, additional diphthongs and triphthongs can be formed from the aforementioned vowels through /i/- or /u/-on-gliding (having /i/ or /u/ before the vowel). Such vowels attested by Bruhn include ⟨ia⟩, ⟨iaa⟩, ⟨ie⟩, ⟨io⟩, ⟨iu⟩, ⟨ior⟩, ⟨iai⟩, ⟨iaai⟩, ⟨iau⟩, ⟨iaau⟩, ⟨iei⟩, ⟨iou⟩, ⟨ua⟩, ⟨uaa⟩, ⟨uae⟩, ⟨ue⟩, ⟨ui⟩, ⟨uo⟩, ⟨uai⟩, ⟨uaai⟩, and ⟨uei⟩.
[edit] Tones
Iu Mien is a tonal language. Tones are not marked with diacritics in the Iu Mien United Script (the language's most common writing system); rather, a word's tone is indicated by a special marker letter placed at the end of the word. This letter is not pronounced but rather indicates with what tone the word is to be pronounced. If a word lacks a marker, then it is to be pronounced with a middle tone.
| IPA | Description | IMUS | Example | English meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | v | maaiv | lopsided | |
| Mid, falling | h | maaih | to have | |
| ˧ | Mid | maai | basic tail of bird | |
| Low | c | maaic | to sell | |
| Low, rising | x | maaix | nightmare | |
| Lower, longer, rise-fall | z | maaiz | to buy |
[edit] Grammar
Iu Mien is an analytic language; there are no cases, tenses, or plural marking, and words never change their endings. It is also a monosyllabic language. The language follows a SVO word order. Adjectives usually come after nouns. Question words like those meaning 'where' come at the end of the sentence.
Iu Mien contains many contractions. Some words consist of a contracted syllable, followed by an uncontracted second syllable (in IMUS, the syllables are separated by an apostrophe). For example, the first contracted syllable may be just m.
The word maiv (often shortened to mv) means "no" or "not". It may occur before a verb to negate it.
[edit] Writing system
In the past, the lack of an alphabet caused low rates of literacy amongst the Iu Mien speakers. It had been written with Chinese characters in China; however, this is extremely difficult for Iu Mien speakers from other countries such as Laos and from groups such as the Chao Clan.
In an effort to address this, an Iu Mien Unified Script was created in 1984 using the Latin script, based on an earlier orthography developed in China.[6] Unlike the Vietnamese language, this alphabet does not use any diacritics to distinguish tones or different vowel sounds, and only uses the 26 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. This orthography distinguishes 30 initials, 128 finals, and eight tones. Hyphens are used to link adjectives with the nouns they modify. The alphabet is similar to the RPA used to write the Hmong language and the Hanyu Pinyin transcription scheme used for Chinese.
[edit] IMUS spelling-to-sound correspondences
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/.
- ^ a b Ethnologue report for language code:ium
- ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ium
- ^ mienh.net online lesson - Initial Consonants
- ^ Zhou 2003:259
- ^ [1]
[edit] References
- Smith Panh [Kweifo Panh/盘贵富]: Modern English-Mienh and Mienh-English Dictionary (Trafford 2002), ISBN 1-55369-711-1.
- Tony Waters. "Adaptation and Migration among the Mien People of Southeast Asia." Ethnic Groups vol. 8, pages 127-141 (1990).
- Máo Zōngwǔ 毛宗武，Méng Cháojí 蒙朝吉，Zhèng Zōngzé 郑宗泽 etc. (eds.): Yáoyǔ jiǎnzhì 瑶语简志 (Overview of the Yao language; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1982)
- Máo Zōngwǔ 毛宗武: Yáozú Miǎnyǔ fāngyán yánjiū 瑶族勉语方言研究 (Studies in Mien dialects of the Yao nationality; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 2004).
- Minglang Zhou: Multilingualism in China. The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages, 1949-2002 (Berlin, Walter de Gruyter 2003); ISBN 3-11-017896-6.
http://www.omf.org/omf/us/peoples_and_places/people_groups/mien_of_thailand
[edit] Further reading
- Kim, Katherine Cowy. Quietly Torn: A Literary Journal by Young Lu Mien American Women Living in Richmond, California. San Francisco, CA: Pacific News Service, 1999.
[edit] Films
- 2003 - Death of a Shaman. Directed by Richard Hall; produced by Fahm Fong Saeyang.
- 2010 - "Siang-Caaux Mienh". A story of a very irresponsible family man, alcoholic, and drug addict. He likes his bad friends but he doesn’t love his family. But as he starts paying his mistakes, has become a turning point in his life. A short movie directed by Alejandro Cardeinte
- 2011 - "Mborqv Jaax Ciangv". A Short movie directed by Alejandro Cardeinte
