There are two dialects of Hmong spoken by the White and Green Hmong tribes. The written forms were developed in conjunction with missionaries in the 1950s, and of those literate in Hmong today, many are Christians.

Hmong speak a tonal language with six tones that sounds nothing like Thai, Lao or Burmese. The sliding, slurred vowels and consonant combinations actually slightly resemble Mandarin, and about 30% of Hmong words are the same as Mandarin. This is probably as a result of the long period of time in which the tribe lived in China.

The tones are represented by the last letter in the syllable, which is not actually pronounced.  A doubled vowel gives a word an “ng” sound. Thus, the greeting word written Nyob zoo is pronounced something like “Nyaw zawng.”  It means, literally, “live well!”

Some simple phrases:

A typical greeting is:  “Kaj puas noj qaab nyob zoo?”  (Do you eat and live well?)

Which is answered:  “Kuv noj qaab nyob zoo”  (I eat and live well.)

This is used in much the same way “How are you/I’m fine” is used in English.

If visiting a house you will hear:  “Lug tsev mas!”  which means, “Come into the house!” You don’t have to take off your shoes, as you do with Thai people, but you should remove your hat!

To ask if a house is off limits prior to entering, you can say:  “Mej puas caiv os?”

You might hear the answer, “Peb tsis caiv os" or “No, we are not off-limits,” signaling you can indeed enter a house.

In Hmong, people are happy or sad “in the liver.”  Literally, the phrases below relate to the health of the liver but are used to describe a more general state: 

To be happy:  zoo sab

To be not good/sad:  tsis zoo sab                     

To be angry/sad:  chim sab