Hmong

About Hmong

Hmong is the language of the Hmong people of the mountains of southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, and of large communities in the United States, especially in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It has about 4.5 million speakers. The two main varieties in the United States are White Hmong (Hmoob Dawb) and Green Hmong (Hmoob Ntsuab), and their speakers understand each other.

Hmong is a tonal language. Most Hmong outside Asia write it in the Romanized Popular Alphabet, where the last letter of a word is not pronounced but shows its tone. So the b at the end of Hmoob marks a high tone, and the word sounds roughly like "mong". A doubled vowel, as in oo, is said through the nose.

FamilyHmong-Mien
Speakersabout 4.5 million (2015)
Where spokenChina, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, United States
ScriptLatin alphabet (Romanized Popular Alphabet), also Pahawh Hmong
Tonesseven or eight, depending on how they are counted, shown in writing by the last letter
Codehmn (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Ethnologue, via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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