Hmong, Mong, Meo: How to pronounce and write them correctly?

A Hmong village located high in the mountains. Photo courtesy of Thanh Cuong.

First, let's learn about how this ethnic group refers to themselves. We call ourselves "Hmoob." The "H" is silent; when pronounced, it almost only serves as a background for the "m" sound and isn't actually pronounced. This is similar to the role of the "h" in the English word "hour" or the French word "homme." Therefore, the vowel cluster "Hm" here, when pronounced, is almost just the "m" sound. The "oo" sound is similar to "ông" in Vietnamese. And finally, the "b" at the end is a symbol indicating that the word has a tone mark, like the acute or grave accent in Vietnamese.

However, the problem here is that this "b" sound is a nasal sound; when pronounced, it almost doesn't produce a complete sound, but rather emphasizes the word being pronounced. This nasal sound doesn't exist in Vietnamese, making it difficult for the author to provide pronunciation guidance in written form. From all these explanations, we see that pronouncing or calling the Hmong people "Hmong" is the closest way to the name that our community uses.

There's just one minor issue here: the appearance of the nasal 'b' sound in this phrase. Since it doesn't exist in Vietnamese, it's difficult for me to explain it in words. Therefore, readers can listen to the pronunciation of the Hmong ethnic name in the MP3 file below:

Thus, in terms of pronunciation, "Mong-b" (emphasizing the nasal sound b) is almost the most accurate way to refer to the Hmong people. But what about writing? Why, in written texts, is the ethnic name of the Hmong sometimes written as "Miao," "Miao," or "Miao"; and other times as "Hmong," "HMong," or "Mong"?

Hmong students at Tay Son Ethnic Boarding Primary and Secondary School (Nghe An province) perform the Hmong flute dance. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Regarding the naming and writing of the term "Miao" (狗), research documents explain that: In the past, when the Hmong people mainly lived in the Yellow River basin (in present-day China), we were one of the earliest ethnic groups to practice agriculture. The Han people at that time called us Miao (Chinese: 苗; pinyin: Miáo). This is explained by the pictographic character for Miao, which is composed of the characters for "field" (田) and "grass" (愺). In Chinese, "field" refers to land, and "grass" refers to plants.

So, the character Miao (苗) actually refers to a community that cultivates plants on the land or a community engaged in agricultural farming. It is not the character Mao (猫) to refer to a cat, as some people mistakenly believe. Thus, besides calling the Hmong people "Mong-b" as above, we can also call them Miao, as they are called in Chinese.

Literacy class for Hmong women in Huoi Moi village, Tri Le commune, Que Phong district. Photo: Khanh Ly

As for the ways of naming and writing the Hmong (H'mong, HMong, Hmong), these are actually entirely due to errors in the transmission of administrative and statistical documents.

On April 29, 1955, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree 230/SL establishing the Thai-Mèo Autonomous Region, which included Article 14 stating: “For ethnic groups without their own script, we will study how to transcribe their spoken languages. All ethnic groups have the right to use their own spoken and written languages ​​in all matters.” From that time, the Research and Development Department of Ethnic Minority Scripts of the Ministry of Education developed the Vietnamese Hmong script, using the Hmong Hoa dialect of Sa Pa, Lao Cai province, as the standard pronunciation. Subsequently, the Government issued Decree No. 206/CP on November 27, 1961, approving the Hmong script, officially putting it into use as a script for teaching literacy to the Hmong people and teaching the Hmong language to officials working in Hmong-inhabited areas.

According to this Vietnamese Hmong script, the ethnic name of the Hmong people is recorded as "Hmongz". In this script, "h" remains silent when pronounced, only supplementing "m"; "z" is a nasal tone mark similar to "b" as I explained at the beginning of this article. Thus, from this point onwards, the ethnic name of the Hmong people has been recorded almost officially in administrative documents as "Hmongz".

By 1979, in the List of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups, the ethnic name of the Hmong people was recorded as "Hmong," omitting the "z" at the end. This was likely a drafting error. And from then on, the name "Hmong" or "HMong" was born. Later, many people, including administrative officials, incorrectly recorded the Hmong ethnic name using names such as "H'mong," "H'Mong," or "Ho-Mong."

To standardize the ethnic name of the Hmong people, the National Assembly's Ethnic Council of the 10th term issued document No. 09-CV/HĐDT dated December 4, 2001, requesting the correct pronunciation and definition of the ethnic group. The document clearly states: "The name of the Hmong ethnic group, if written in the common script which is the official language of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, should be written as 'Hmong ethnic group'."

Therefore, regarding the name of the Hmong people, the pronunciation is Hmoob (Hmongz) as in the dialogue above, while the written form is Mong, which is the most accurate both semantically and in official texts.

Talentwhetherfor reference

Vuong, QD (2005).The spiritual culture of the Hmong people: Tradition and the present.. Culture and Information Publishing House and Institute of Culture.

Hanoi National University Publishing House. (2016).Searching for the Hmong script: A study with the Hmong community in Giang Tra village, Ta Phin commune, Sa Pa district, 2013-2014.

Statistical Publishing House. (2020). Chapter 2: Population and demographic characteristics. InResults of the 2019 Survey on the Socio-Economic Situation of 53 Ethnic Minority Groups. essay.

Nguyen, KT (nd).The Hmong people in Vietnam and some issues concerning language 1198278 - Journal of Social Sciences, Issue. StuDocu. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://www.studocu.com/vn/document/truong-dai-hoc-su-pham-thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh/lich-su-dang/dan-toc-mong-o-viet-na m-va-mot-so-van-de-ve-ngon-ngu-1198278/22062204?fbclid=IwAR1fAbsYyuDBM_e1Nbr7r4eBkzkQqIvy9I2WpKrLECrzD1sT3XIU0e89CFA

Lemoine, J. (2005).What is the actual number of the (h)mong in the world? by Jacques ...Hmong Studies Journal. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/uploads/4/5/8/7/4587788/lemoinehsj6.pdf

Nguyen, TM (2017).The Singing Peaks of the Mountains: A Path to Rediscovering the Hmong Identity. Tri Thuc Publishing House and Tao Dan Book Company.