Hmong Speech and Language Development – Difference or Disorder?
Categories: English Language Learners - Evaluation and Therapy
If you are a speech-language pathologist who lives in Minnesota or Wisconsin, chances are, you’ve encountered a Hmong speaker. Recently, I’ve had a lot of emails from all over the United States requesting information on Hmong speech and language development. Before we dive in, here is a little background information. 
About Hmong
Where are Hmong speakers from? Hmong is spoken by people in China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. There are about four million Hmong speakers worldwide and approximately 250,000 Hmong speakers in the United States. The majority of Hmong speakers in the United States are in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The Sound Systems of Hmong and English
If you’ve read our book, Difference or Disorder: Understanding Speech and Language Development in Children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds, then you 
Assume we are testing a child from a Hmong background who is learning English as a second language.
If errors occur on the sounds that are unique to English, that is indicative of language influence.
If errors occur on the sounds unique to Hmong or the sounds shared between Hmong and English, that is indicative of a speech impairment.
It’s more complex than that, obviously, but that’s a good place to start. Then we need to think about the order of acquisition of the sounds in development, and of course the phonotactic constraints. For more information on all of that, check out the Difference or Disorder book.
Hmong Speech and Language Development
The use of phonological processes in Hmong speakers
More About Hmong
- A study by Briggs (1984) found the three most frequently occurring processes used by both groups were Cluster Reduction, Sonorant Deviation, and Prevocalic Voicing. This means that these phonological patterns are shared between both English and Hmong and can be addressed in therapy.
- We can’t forget to talk about tone. Hmong is a tonal language. There are 6 tones and they are phonemic. In other words they mean different things even when the same consonant-vowel combination is uses. The six tones are described as high, mid, low, high falling, mid rising, creaky (my personal favorite), and low falling breathy.
- Now, we have to talk a bit about language differences, too. This following table highlights a few of the linguistic differences between Hmong and English. These differences help you to know what language influence errors you might see. And remember, if the errors result from an influence from the other language, we don’t have to worry. That is a normal part of learning a second language.
| Feature | Hmong | English | Possible Errors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronouns | Subject and object pronouns are the same | Subject and object pronouns are different | He hit he.* |
| Plurals | Nouns are not marked for plurality | Add “s” to nouns | Four dog* |
| Adjectives | Nouns precede adjectives | Adjectives precede nouns | Dress blue* |
| Tense | Verbs are not modified for tense | Verbs are modified for tense | Sally jump* |
| Gerunds | Do not exist | Exist | bark dog*/barking dog |
Thank you for all the great feedback for all the languages you are requesting information on! We have published posts or are working on: Albanian, Amharic, Cambodian, Cantonese, Flemish / Dutch, Filipino/Tagalog, Hmong, Igbo, Karen, Kinyarwanda (ever heard of that one?), Portuguese, Romanian, Somali, Thai, Turkish, and Urdu/Hindi. For those not familiar with our current book, we’ve already compared and contrasted English with Spanish, Vietnamese (see post about it), Hebrew, Korean, German, Czech, Japanese, Farsi, Mandarin, French, Russian, Arabic, and the African-American English dialect.
If there are other languages you would like to see, please let us know with your comments below!
If you are looking for speech therapy in Austin, Texas for a child who speaks Hmong, contact our Austin speech therapy clinic.
Thanks for this helpful post, Ellen!
I just had a question today from an SLP who has a student who is exposed to both English and Telugu. Parents and teacher are concerned about his speech sound production. I had just read this post and was able to share the link with her. Even though it is about another language, with a little research about the phonology of Telugu, the concepts regarding sorting difference from disorder can still be applied!
Hi Lori,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, you are correct that the same approach can be applied for any pair of languages. I know that all of your FWISD SLPs have the Difference or Disorder book. Chapter 1 describes the framework we use to compare and contrast speech and language patterns in any language pair. It really makes it pretty simple to identify whether errors are due to native language influence or whether they are indicative of impairment.
Hello! I stumbled upon this site by accident and I am loving it! One reason is that I am a current graduate student studying speech language pathology, and I’ll be graduating in May. The second is that I am Hmong! I’m really wanting to give bilingual services when I get a job, but I haven’t had much experience with it. I’m also very interested the differences that Hmong has with English and would like to study more on it.This is very helpful! I can’t wait for the new book!
Also, if you know of any SLPs who are Hmong or provides bilingual services in Hmong, please let me know because I am very interested in it. Thank you!
Hi Mary Lee,
So glad to hear you stumbled across this blog post and loved it. In our first Difference or Disorder book we included a piece from native speakers of each language on culture and their experiences learning a second language. Would you be interested in sharing some of your experiences for the next book? If so, send me an email at ellen.kester@bilinguistics.com
Thanks for your kind comments about the blog post!
Would it be possible to add Nepali to the list? We are increasing the numbers of Nepali speaking students who are Bhutan refugees in Minneapolis. Thank you for your consideration.
Hi Linda,
Thank you, we will add it to the list and keep digging. How fortunate you are to be exposed to those cultures!
I would be interested in information on the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic language. In the Detroit, Michigan greater metro area, there are large numbers of Chaldean Neo-Aramaic speakers. Also, information on Bengali would be appreciated, too! Thank you!
Hi Eleanor,
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is a new one on me. I look forward to exploring it. I’ve added Bengali to the list also.
Do you have any information regarding the R sound? I didn’t see that phoneme represented on the Venn diagram.
Thank you!
The rhotic r of English is on the “unique to English” side of the Venn for the Hmong-English comparison. It is represented by the upside down r in IPA.
Hello, is there any research to help ELL students whose native language is Pohnpeian language from Micronesia.
Hi Michele,
I don’t currently have information on Pohnpeian but I will add it to our list.
Best,
Ellen
When is your new book coming out? Trying to decide to wait and order your book until the new one comes out. Thank you.
Tanya
Hi Tanya,
Thanks for checking in about this. We are still a ways off from completing the second edition–it just keeps growing!
Ellen
Hi! I love your website and just left a district where we all had copies of the Difference or Disorder book and am so sad not to have it anymore!
I saw in the paragraph below that you have a post on Cambodian but I can’t find it! I have a preschooler who speaks Cambodian that I need to evaluate.
Thanks!
Hannah, hopefully your new district will get you the DOD book too! I just sent some information about Cambodian to your email. Best, Ellen
Hi! I’m in the same situation where I have to evaluate a student who speaks Cambodian. Would you be able to also send me information through email?
yes
Hi,
I own the first Bilinguistics Difference or Disorder book and constantly refer to it! I can’t wait to purchase the new one. I am currently assessing a student who speaks Cambodian. Could you possibly email me this information as well? I am having difficulty finding information on Cambodian speech/language differences.
Thank you so much for your help!
Hi Kathryn,
I am so glad the Difference or Disorder book is a great resource for you. I sent some information about Cambodian to your email.
Best, Ellen
Hi thanks for the info on Hmong. Any chance you are developing similar info for Lao?
Hi Nicole,
It’s in the works but not available yet.
Thanks for all this excellent information!
Bilinguistics’ efforts are positively impacting students and SLPs’ lives worldwide!
Could you please send me any information available related to Khmer/Cambodian articulation/phonology?
Many thanks!
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
I sent you some information about Cambodian to your email.
Best, Ellen
Please send me information on Cambodian Articulation/Phonology. I am searching and cannot find it anywhere!
I sent you some information through your email address.
I am currently an undergrad in the CMSD program to aspiring to be a speech pathologist , I am also HMONG i found this so very helpful. I want to be a bilingual SLP in the future but I do know that the Hmong language is a lot different from others too. Thank you for this I cant wait to get my hands on the new edition !
Hi Melydia,
Thank you so much for reaching out. We need Hmong SLPs!! I am so happy to hear that you are pursuing your degree. I would love for you to be a chapter reviewer for our Hmong chapter. Will you reach out to me by email with all of your contact information? ellen.kester@bilinguistics.com
Thanks!
Is there a way to access the posts that compare the other languages? We are looking specifically for Urdu. We already have Difference or Disorder, but we would love to purchase any additional options for other languages if they are available. Any information you could share is appreciated.
We haven’t done a post on Urdu but I’ll send you some information.
Hi Ellen!! Speech and language therapy student from Ireland here, I’m doing my first bilingual assessment on Monday with a child whose languages are English and Urdu. These resources are amazing, if you could send me any information on Urdu and English please I would be so grateful!
Hi Rebecca,
You can find some information on Dari which has similarities to Urdu on Portland State’s website:
We wrote a book – Difference or Disorder? and have courses on how to do evaluations like this which would get you up to speed pretty quickly. Difference or Disorder Course.
Hi there! Thanks for all the helpful information – if you have any information about Khmer, I’d like it as well :).
Hi there. I just sent some information about Khmer to your email. Enjoy!
Hi Ellen!
Would it be possible to receive this information on Khmer as well?
Hi Jessamine,
You’re in luck! I just finished a Khmer speech language evaluation. I’ll send you an email.
Best, Ellen
Hi!
Thank you so much for the work you do, this is such great information to have. I am desperately looking for this information in Samoan and it’s not in your book or on the blog that I can find! Do you have any suggestions for where to looking for good resources?
Thanks!
Hi Sophie,
We do not have a chapter on Samoan but there is some good information on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoan_language. I checked the Portland State website also and did not see information about Samoan there.
Good luck!
Hello, we are building a Hmong Bilingual program in our school district. I would love to preview your Hmong chapter. Please contact me.
Hi Pa,
Thanks for your interest. We added most of the current information that we have to this post for you to use in your bilingual program. We may reach back out when the chapter is completed and we go to publish the next version of the book to get your feedback.
Hi!
I’m looking for information about Lao. (It was a work in progress un 2018 I think.) Is it available?
Thank you, it’s really helpful.
Hi Katryne, big project, we are still collecting information. I can share some information here. This use to be up on the internet but I am not sure where it went:
The Lao Language
Lao is a tonal language of the Kradai language family. It is spoken in Laos, as well as in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Lao is spoken by over 5 million people- 20 million if Isan is included.
History and Development
Lao is descended from ancient Tai languages spoken in what is now southern China and northern Vietnam. Around the 12th century, the Tai peoples moved south down the Mekong River valley, settling as far south as the Malay Peninsula. Tai speakers in what is now Laos pushed out or absorbed earlier groups of Mon-Khmer and Austronesian languages. Linguists believe that the ancient Tai language had only 3 tones, as opposed to the 5 or 6 in the various dialects of modern Lao.
Vocabulary
The Lao language consists primarily of native Lao words. However, due to the influence of Buddhism, Pali has contributed numerous terms, especially those relating to religion. Due to their geographic proximity, Lao language has influenced Khmer language and Thai language and vice versa. To make oneself more polite, using pronouns (especially formal pronouns) is employed, as well as ending statements in dè ([dèː]) or deu ([dɤ]). Negative statements are made more polite by ending the statement in dok ([dɔːk]).
Phonology and Morphology
Consonants
Many consonants in Lao make a phonemic contrast between labialized (shown in parantheses) and plain versions.
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Voiced Plosive b d
Voiceless Plosive p t c (cʷ) k (kʷ) ʔ (ʔʷ) Aspirated Plosive pʰ tʰ (tʷʰ) kʰ (kʷʰ) Fricative f s (sʷ) h Nasal m n ɲ ŋ (ŋʷ) Approximate l (lʷ) j w