Mienic languages

Mienic
Yao
Ethnicity:	some of the Yao peoples
Geographic distribution:	China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, United States.
Linguistic classification:	Hmong–Mien Mienic
Glottolog:	mien1242
Mienic languages are in green

The Mienic or Yao languages are spoken by the Yao people of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.

Some of the Yao peoples speak Hmongic languages (Miao); these are called Bunu. A small population of Yao people in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County (金秀瑶族自治县) in eastern Guangxi speak a Tai-Kadai language called Lakkia.

Mienic is one of the primary branches of the Hmong–Mien language family, with the other being Hmongic.

Martha Ratliff (2010:3) proposed the following classification:

Strecker 1987, followed (with the addition of Moxi) by Matisoff 2001, proposed the following, with some of the more divergent varieties as additional languages:

Mao Zongwu (2004) classifies the following Mienic languages and dialects of China as such. Data points studied in Mao (2004) are also listed for each dialect.

A Mienic lect called bjau2 mwan2, related to Mien of Changping and Luoxiang, is spoken in Liuchong 六冲, Qiaoheng Township 桥亭乡, Pingle County 平乐县, Guangxi (Tang 1994). There are about 10,000 speakers in Mengshan, Lipu, Pingle, and Zhaoping counties.

The comparative vocabulary chart in Mao Zongwu (2004) consists of the following languages.

Using Mao's (2004) new data, Aumann & Sidwell (2004) propose the following classification of the Mienic languages, based on innovations in rhotic consonants. This classification presents a bipartite division of the Mienic into a subgroup consisting of Iu Mien and Biao Min, and another subgroup consisting of Kim Mun and Dzao Min. Luoxiang is grouped with Kim Mun, while Changping is grouped with Dzao Min.

Aumann & Sidwell (2004) consider the following classification by Wang & Mao to be unlikely, which is based on the voicing of voiceless sonorants, a common areal feature.