Huishui Miao language

(Redirected from Guizhu language)

Huishui Miao, a.k.a. Huishui Hmong, is a Miao language of China. It is named after Huishui County, Guizhou, though not all varieties are spoken there. The endonym is Mhong, though it shares this with Gejia and it is simply a variant spelling of Hmong.

Huishui Miao
Mhong
Native toChina
RegionGuizhou
Native speakers
(180,000 cited 1995)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
hmc – Central
hme – Eastern
hmi – Northern
hmh – Southwestern
Glottologhuis1239

Huishui was given as a subgroup of Western Hmongic in Strecker (1987). Matisoff (2001) split it into four separate languages, and, conservatively, did not retain it as a group.

Demographics

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Below is a list of Miao dialects and their respective speaker populations and distributions from Li (2018),[2] along with representative datapoints from Wang (1985).[3]

Dialect Speakers Counties Representative datapoint (Wang 1985)
North 60,000 Guiyang (including in Huaxi Gaopo 花溪区高坡乡), Longli, Guiding, Huishui Jiading 甲定寨, Gaopo Township 高坡苗族乡, Guiyang City
Central 40,000+ Huishui, Changshun Baijin Township 摆金乡, Huishui County
East 10,000+ Huishui, Pingtang Xiguan Township 西关乡, Pingtang County
West 50,000 Huishui, Changshun Yarong Township 鸭绒乡, Huishui County

According to Sun (2017), the northern dialect of Huishui Miao is spoken in the following townships by a total of approximately 50,000 speakers.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Central at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Eastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Northern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Southwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Li, Yunbing 李云兵 (2018). Miao Yao yu bijiao yanjiu 苗瑶语比较研究 (A comparative study of Hmong-Mien languages). Beijing: The Commercial Press. ISBN 9787100165068. OCLC 1112270585.
  3. ^ Wang Fushi 王辅世. 1985. Miaoyu jianzhi 苗语简志. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社.
  4. ^ Sun, Hongkai 孙宏开; Ting, Pang-hsin 丁邦新, eds. (2017). Hanzangyu yuyin he cihui 汉藏语语音和词汇. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe 民族出版社. p. 40. ISBN 9787105142385.