The word “Hmong” means “Free People” and the Hmong people are thought to have migrated from Siberia and Southeast Asia to other countries. Therefore this minority ethnic group can be found in several Asian and Western countries such as the United States, South-western China, Thailand, Laos and more.
Hmong is also the common name for a group of dialects of the Hmong-Mien/Miao-Yao language family. The total number of speakers worldwide has been estimated to be more than 4 million.
“Pahawh”, the unique alphabet of Hmong, was created using 81 symbols in 1959. Since the end of the 19th century, more than 20 Hmong writing systems have been created that are influenced by Chinese, Lao, Russian, Thai, and Vietnamese.
