Hmong is spoken by approximately 2.7 million people across Southeast Asia, the U.S., and other countries. Its tonal system, with seven tones, plays a crucial role in distinguishing meanings. The language is analytic with no inflections and uses the Romanized Popular Alphabet for writing. Despite being displaced from its traditional regions, the Hmong language and culture are actively maintained by its diaspora. (The Hmong Daw variety was used as a grammatical reference).
Stats
Language Family: Hmong-Mien
Writing System: Latin, Pahawh Hmong
Writing System Type: Alphabet (Latin), Semi-Syllabary (Pahawh Hmong)
Writing Direction: L to R
Tones / Pitch Accent: 7
Morphology: Analytic
Cases: None
Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: None
Number of Verb Tenses: None (Aspect-based)
Word Order: SVO
Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 9
Number of Consonants: 53
Areas Where Spoken
China (0.19%) (2.7 mil)
Laos (6.03%) (460 k)
Myanmar (.005%) (2.5 k)
Thailand (0.17%) (125 k)
Vietnam (9.1%) (900 k)
United States of America (0.06%) (~200 k)