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 to | China |
| Region | Guizhou |
Native speakers | (180,000 cited 1995)[1] |
Hmong–Mien
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:hmc – Centralhme – Easternhmi – Northernhmh – Southwestern |
| Glottolog | huis1239 |
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
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]
- Guiyang City: Gaopo 高坡
- Huishui County: Yangchang 羊场
- Guiding County: Tangbao 塘堡, Pingfa 平伐, etc.