A Comparative Study of Vocabulary in Mandarin Chinese and Hmong

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the similarities and differences of vocabulary in Mandarin Chinese and Hmong in three aspects: the words that have similar pronunciation in all syllables; the words which are pronounced similarly in some syllables; and the words that their pronunciations are different. The data were collected from a book about Mandarin Chinese vocabulary used in daily life,and dictionary of English and Hmong language, with 12 categories of words, totally 1,472 words.  The results demonstrated that 92.39% of vocabulary in Mandarin Chinese and Hmong were the words that their pronunciations are different; 6.93% were the words which are pronounced similarly in some syllables; and 0.68% were the words that have similar pronunciation in all syllables.  Furthermore, the researcher found that some vocabulary in both languages is pronounced similarly, probably due to the Hmong people in Thailand descended from the Chinese.  However, Mandarin Chinese and Hmong have different language family.  In addition, the Hmong people settled in Thailand for a long time resulted in the Hmong culture and the original language have been integrated into the new culture and language, that caused Mandarin Chinese and Hmong more different.