World Language Map

Hmong-Mien languages map

43 Hmong-Mien languages are on the map, most of them in China. It divides into 2 main branches, the largest being Hmongic (38 languages). The best-known members include Chuanqiandian Cluster Miao, Iu Mien and Bunu. Only this family is drawn; tap the map to list every language at a spot.

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

The Hmong-Mien family at a glance

  • 43languages
  • 1drawn as areas
  • 42shown as points
  • 2main branches

Colours on the map mark the ten largest families; this page’s filter shows Hmong-Mien alone. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap with the areas of other families.

Biggest Hmong-Mien languages

By approximate speaker counts from Wikidata, each with its source and year on its own page.

  1. Where is Chuanqiandian Cluster Miao spoken? (about 4.5 million speakers)
  2. Where is Iu Mien spoken? (about 820,000 speakers)
  3. Where is Bunu spoken? (about 390,000 speakers)

Branches of Hmong-Mien

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Hmongic (38)
  • Mienic (5)

Where Hmong-Mien languages are spoken

Countries with the most Hmong-Mien languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

All 43 Hmong-Mien languages, A to Z

Questions about Hmong-Mien languages

How many Hmong-Mien languages are there?

43 living Hmong-Mien languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 2 main branches, the biggest being Hmongic (38 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Hmong-Mien languages spoken?

China (41), Vietnam (9), Laos (4), Thailand (3), Myanmar (2) and France (1) have the most Hmong-Mien languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Hmong-Mien languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Chuanqiandian Cluster Miao (about 4.5 million), Iu Mien (about 820,000) and Bunu (about 390,000). These figures differ between sources and years.

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.