Talk:Hmong-Mien languages
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Early on I have asked linguists to define similarity between languages spoken by the Hmong and Mien; I have yet to recieve any answers, respectively. Characteristics defined here are "high-tones" and "monosyllabic" which goes for most East Asian languages. I hope this classification was not made based on recent socio-economic relations between the two groups. I believe both languages are distinct and I have not found/read any research to justify them related. History behind the creation of this classification is appreciated.
- From everything I've heard, these languages are transparently related. There's no controversy at all. I'm reverting your edit until you can back up your objections. kwami 09:56, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
u cannot say that it is "suggested" that all east asian tonal languages are derived from hmong.
- I never said they were. I said that HM may be the source of tone. Tone can be passed from language to language; that doesn't mean the languages themselves are related. Old Chinese was not a tonal language, nor was Vietic. That leaves HM and Kradai. If Kradai descended from Austronesian, as some maintain, then it wasn't originally tonal either. That leaves either HM or some other family that has since gone extinct. kwami 07:15, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
This article should mention something about typology. So far as I can see from looking at a list of Hmong phrases with English translations, it is rather isolating, heavily analytic, SVO and head-inital, but I am not a linguist in any case I'm pretty sure that would be "original research". So some reference is probably needed. I'll look it up at the college library if I remember... Bryce 03:42, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] History
- The history section appears to be a mix of original research & un-verified claims. What constitutes "Han Chinese" during the Zhou Dynasty? Linking ethnicity from such ancient times is a fun exercise, but extremely difficult to support, even with good evidence. It's a bit of a stretch to go from plausible linguistics theories to determination of ethnic identity. This line: "Chinese legend portrays Hmong-Mien people as being one of the founders of China" is also rather dubious, and not verified. Most serious archaeologists do not claim any sort of "Chineseness" for Pengtoushan, which was definitely not a city--Confuzion 05:10, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
