It’s Iimi! The Impact

Certain moments have a dramatic effect on people, for better or for worse. They change things. The question is, how will we handle it when we face… The Impact

On The Hmong Spelling and Pronunciation.

If you’re wondering about why the spelling of Hmong names doesn’t line up with the conventional English use, it is logical, but you need to understand the rules. As I understand it, it’s about expressing tones.

 Of the Asian languages that use tones, Mandarin has 4 (5 if you count the neutral), Cantonese has 6-9, and Vietnamese has 6 or 8, depending on the region. When transliterated into Roman letters, Mandarin (Pinyin), Cantonese (Yale), and Vietnamese use diacritical marks to designate the tones. However, while the Hmong language has 8 tones, it doesn’t use diacritical marks. Seven of the eight tones are indicated by the final consonants b, j, s, v, m, g, and d. The eighth tone is used when the word ends with no final consonant (i.e., ends in a vowel).

So, with Ka Lia’s grandfather, “Lij Ntxawg Xyooj,” Lij is roughly “Lee” with a tone. Ntxawg is close to “n-chao” with a tone, and Xyooj is “Shyong” or “Syong” with a tone. This is why the “Ntxawm” in Ka Lia’s mother’s name is also pronounced “n-chao” in the footnotes. It has the same pronunciation as Ntxawg but a different tone. Ka Lia (a modern Hmong-American name) is written without a tone-marking letter… which corresponds to the 8th tone in Hmong. Because nothing is added at the end to mark tone, the spelling closely matches the English pronunciation.

Once I learned about this, I could see how their pronunciation aligned with the spelling. (“Oh, right. «tx» is similar to «ch.»”) For more information, see: https://studyhmong.com/the-hmong-alphabet.

Image Credits

The Cover image is © 2015 Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.

The Page 16 background is copyright John Buckley, used with permission.

AI Disclaimer

I stopped using AI for covers and background scenery after Issue 277. I still use it to create logos, doodles, and symbols, simply because there are no non-AI logo-creation programs (suggestions are welcome). Some previously used AI-generated images are retained for consistency (iconic buildings and “historic photographs”), with the intent to replace them when possible. Any other appearance of AI means the stock art seller I bought from misrepresented their product.