Hey I'm not Hmong but i heard theres 3 kinds of Hmong people Red, White and Green?

Can yall give me discriptions for each or explain why there are 3 types of hmong?

Thanks

hrmmm i neva heard of red? well i've heard of onlie white and green...well i'm white i thin k it it just has tah do wit region and cutoms thats all like the difference between tribes? i think iono ahaha...

its just not colors... there are white hmong, green hmong, flower hmong, stripe hmong, and i think there is more.. but those are the common ones... but the name just refers to the way the people are dressed... and their accented language...

well they speak one langauge.. but some sound different than other.....like white hmong mostly don't understand what a green hmong would say.. (Crap... can't explain this in word)

thanks for responding back yall, it just seems to interest me i wanna know bout the hmong culture.

hmm..never heard of red...... :genius:

Well before I say anything else just wanna say that I'm, a 75% white and 25% green but I speak white most. In fact I can't even speak green but I can kinda understand it cuz i hear my mom talking to my aunt and uncle.

I always thought the difference between the two was the way they talk.

RED????????

i dunt think thea is such a language as red....lemme c...whyte i think has like an extra syllable to it....the green hmong language is shorter....(ex: thiab-whyte hab-green)...but theas dis otha language dats sounds chineseish....

hA! you copy Todd sig!

That's what I thought.

Never heard of red either...

There is hmong red but not in the US. I think back in Laos or so....

red hmong neva heard of it and i think theres a hmong strip or somethin like that and the colors are i think to tell from differ tribes cus they green and white have differ accent and speek differently but still mostly the same and understandable as for me im white so when green speeks its like they have a differ words for somethings and have a differ accent when speak in hmong

oh yeah and theres also chinese hmong but their language is so different

Colors??? Actually, if you talk about colors, it can mean many things. Language for one, dress the other, and rituals (if they still follow the old culture that is). Anyways, if you talk about language, there is only 2 types of dialects spoken in the USA and outside of China by the Hmong. One would be interpreted as White, the other language is really called Leng, sometimes refered to as Green or Blue. But Leng, Blue, and Green are all one and the same dialect. I don't believe most second generation Hmong Americans realize that green actually is a derogatory termonology though.

If you talk about dress, they all dress differently in some ways. Keep in mind that there is always references back to the Hmong term. They tend to use words like Hmong this, Hmong that, to represent almost everything. Anyways, There is only 4 types of dress styles outside of China, again, as well. There is Hmong Strip, Hmong White, Hmong Green, and Hmong Black. And it all represents just colors of clothes.

As for red, those are the ones who reside in China.

Between the Green and the White Hmong's, there is also differences in how they do there rituals. And so most times, you can differentiate them by that. Because there are some Hmongs who end up speaking White Hmong through the generations, but if you understand the rituals and what to look for. You can normally trace, which ones were orginally Hmong Leng to begin with.

yea...like hua said....but its all good when you speak both language....... :genius:

damn thats hella interesting, i got some hmong homegirls but their parents and whole family don't like me because im Laos? i had to hall @$$ out of their house one time through the window and $hit wooooooooo...rush rush what a rush but i am interested in the culture and would like to know more bout it you know. INTERESTING :guitar:

yeah Hmong Leng/Green were the orginally laugauge.

Really? I always thought that white was the origanal one cuz much more people speak it now-a-days.

i thought there were three dialects, green/leng, white, and chinese hmong.

lol! i thought white were the first too. i can understand white very well, i understand green about 30-40% of their language, and about 10=20% of the chinese hmong. <-------- this is wat i really want to learn hahaha cuz it really weired the way they talk.

Collect em all!

From my understanding that the green and white is the different dialect that Hmong speaks. But if you are talking about the different kind of Hmong such as black Hmong, strip Hmong and ect, than that is hmong that ate from a different region and have different style of clothing. As for me I am black Hmong, but I speak white Hmong. Therefore my traditional clothing is manly black. If I choose to represent white Hmong, than I would wear the traditional clothing with a white dress. I just learned this over the weekend. Interesting don’t you think.

I know that there are three different kind of Hmong such as the green and white, but I forgot the third one

I was told that the stripe arms hmong clothes as well as the white skirts and the black clothes were hmong white and the colorful skirts were the hmong green.

From my understanding the Stripes on the arm of the clothing means that they speak green (most of them are) and also the corlorful skrits.
My mom is a stripe hmong and she is green but learn how to speak white with my dad.

if u're talking about the language of white and green, it is the same except green just speak a bit different (or the other way around)

Sorry to hear that. But a big reason may be just that. That ur Laotion. Some elders, if not most, still are resentful to the communist Laotions. And what's the closest thing that reminds them of why they can't return to the country of their birth. Laotians themselves. Not only that, I think some or most elder's had bad or have heard of bad experiences with Laotian's in the past. So now, it's hard for them to except u. Some or most elder's can't or will not tolerate u because of that.

There is actually four types of hmong...But I could be wrong cause there might be more than that.

Those four types:

white
green
stripe
lang

I DONT KNOW BUT..IM WHITE

LOL And the fifth is highlanders "hmong tho-shia" , sorry but can't write in hmong.

There are actually a lot more different Hmong groups than just the three you named or the number that have been named by others so far. The answer to your first question, yes there are Red Hmong.

Although Hmong now live all over the world today, there is no doubt that the first known country in which the Hmong have lived is China. It is there that the Hmong are known as the "Miao." In addition to that China also contains the largest population of Hmong people in the world (a few million). Ok, now that we've got some knowledge of the general stuff, we'll get down to the nitty gritty. It is thought that there are over 80 different kinds of Miao groups and languages. (How amazing is that!?) The ones I've come across and have heard of are the white, blue, black, red, flower (hua), and stripe. Linguistically, there is little doubt that the white and blue Hmong are related since both languages share a number of common words. Not only that, but it doesn't really matter what dialect you speak with blue and white, you will most likely understand most of what the other is saying. I think that perhaps the black Hmong in China may also understand the white and blue Hmong of America but am unsure due to the fact that I don't think I've ever come across one.

I think the most confusing part, is trying to decipher what type of "miao" a person is in China. When I was there with my best friend, the Hmong in WenShan in the Yunnan province spoke our dialect of Hmong but like the Hmong in Laos and Thailand, have integrated many words and phrases from the surrounding culture. (i.e. A woman said, "Peb moog mai dongxi"- mai dongxi means in mandarin to "buy things.") In addition to that, my American accent and poor knowledge of the spoken Hmong language didn't help with communication. However, there was no doubt that our ancestors came from that part of China because we understood what the Hmong there were saying. (i.e. They were saying amongst themselves, "I don't understand what they're saying- let's just nod our heads like we understand.") In addition to that, they kept referring to us and "hmong shi," something neither of us has ever come across.

In Beijing, we came across some Miao women at the "dirt" market from Guizhou. They did not understand a word we said nor us them. I don't know what "kind" of Miao they are but linguistically, we are very different. In addition to that, the Hmong couple we stayed with in Yunnan had a "Miao" babysitter. She was from the Hmong villages not far from KunMing. She spoke a different dialect of Hmong but could understand ours.

So what makes us so different? I think the most obvious part is our dress. I think that's where the different names originated from. The second is language. But, to clarify, the white and blue Hmong are related whereas the other different types of Hmong may not be related linguistically but related through shared customs and religion.

So theere's a long answer to your short question!

that's very interesting. One of my uncles (a few years back) went to China, I think Yunnan, but not sure, and did videotape his whole trip. I only understood like....one out of every 10 words that the Hmong Chinese were speaking. It was during a New Year festival, so I have no idea if it was that region's dialect or just that group of women that they talked to ?
But, I'm green and very proud of it. IMO, the green dialect is less crisp, and sounds less abrupt to me.

in hmong, i guess right now it's considered "cool" to speak hmong green. a lot of my hmong white friends try to speak with a green dialect and it's just hilarious. haha, even i do it. yes, hmong chinese is way hard to understand. hmong leng and hmong green are the same, but only khangs are considered hmong lengs. i think. or i also heard that within the hmong greens, they call themselves lengs, but people that are not hmong green calls them green. not really sure..???....

All that's been said has been said except for this:

Red Hmong might just be wrong interpretation of: monkey Hmong. lol - J/K.

I think Red Hmong = Communist Hmong.

The other two Green/White refer to language dialect and custom differences.

the_simplelife and hua always has the most informative and useful posts.


to me, if i compare it to the chinese language, hmong white/black is more like cantonese (not that they are alike at all) and hmong blue/green are more like mandarin (not saying that they are the same).


hey i'm hmong dawb and proud of it.

I have no idea where you got that from. From my knowledge, we only have 2 dialects and they are: Hmoob Dawb and Hmoob Lees. Today, many Hmongs would say they are Hmong White or Hmong Green, that is because we got our dialect names from our clothings. But I wouldn't consider myself a Hmong GREEN; instead I would say I am Hmoob LEES!

There are alot more "colors" than what was stated in the previous threads.

I could only think of nine at the moment, but feel free to add.

1. Red Hmong (Hunan, Vietnam)
2. White Hmong (China, Southeast Asia, and Western countries)
3. Green/Leng (spelling) Hmong (China, Southeast Asia, Western countries)
4. Black Hmong (Guizhou, Vietnam)
5. Flowery (Sinicized) Hmong (Guizhou, Yunnan, Vietnam)
6. Stripe Hmong (Southeast Asia, Western countries)
7. Horned Hmong (Guiyang, Yunnan)
8. Gha Mu (Small Flowery Hmong) (Guizhou)
9. A-Hmao (Big Flowery Hmong) (Guizhou, Yunnan)

Theere are four major Hmong dialects spoken throughout the world today. These four dialects are:

1. Qiandong Miao (Eastern Miao)
2. Xiangxi Miao (Northern Miao)
3. Western Hmongic
4. Farwestern Hmongic

And within these four major dialects, there are subdialects and sub-subdialects. They are as follows:

1. Qiandong Miao
Subdialects: Northern Qiandong, Eastern Qiandong, and Southern Qiandong

2. Xiangxi Miao
Subdialects: Eastern Xiangxi, Western Xiangxi

3. Western Hmongic
Subdialects: Chong'anjiang (spelling), Guiyang, Mashan (4 dialects), Huishui (5 dialects), Luobohe, and others (unknown number of dialects).

4. Farwestern Hmongic
Subdialects: A-Hmao, Gha Mu, Core Farwestern Hmongic.

The Core Farwestern Hmongic subdialect is then divided further into sub-subdialects.

Sub-subdialects for the Core Western Hmongic: Horned Miao, Sinicized Miao, White, Hua Miao (2 dialects).

The Hua Miao subdialect is also divided further into subdialects, they are: Black, Northern Hua and Southern Hua.

And if you're just curious, all Hmong people outside of China speak the Farwestern Hmongic dialect.