Hmong Language as homeland
From UW-Madison
Linguists estimate that by the end of the next century, fully half of the some six thousand languages spoken on our planet will
be extinct....
Yet despite all odds, some small communities with distinctive languages are bucking the trend. In this public symposium,
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and invited experts will explore the forces at work behind both language loss and
language maintenance.
What happens when a language community finds itself in a new or changed environment, surrounded by new influences and a
foreign majority language? What happens when the dominant polity of an area acts to put an end to a minority language
considered a nuisance, a relic of the past, or a hindrance to progress? What happens when a majority polity acts in the opposite
manner: attempting to support the maintenance of a small language? Examples will be drawn from the Upper Midwest region and
from the world at large.
In the hope of answering these qestions, a free day-long symposium, titled "Language as Homeland" was held at the Pyle
Center on February 13 as part of the University of Wisconsin's Year of the Humanities program.
As part of the University of Wisconsin’s Year of Humanities, the symposium, “Language as Homeland” was held last
February 13 to explore indigenous as well as diasporic small language communities and their futures. Topics presented at the
symposium meant to encourage us to question the relationships between language, environment, culture, and politics, in
particular as these relationships determine the future existence of a particular language.
One theme underscoring the “Language as Homeland” Symposium is that small languages are worthy of documentation and
study. In the academic context, much of this work takes place in the form of language instruction. UW-Madison is proud to be the
founder and host of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL). In support of the NCOLCTL program
and the associated language-learning courses offered on campus, the Libraries actively collect textbooks, grammars, primers,
dictionaries and other resources in over 350 languages. Highlighted in case 2 are examples from Ojibwe, Danish, Pennsylvania
German, New Norwegian, Lappish and Yiddish.
Not all languages are fortunate enough to have long histories with such tools, particularly languages without a strong written
tradition. One such example is Hmong. The Hmong language was primarily an oral one until the early 1950s when three
missionaries in Laos devised a systematic writing system for the language, the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA). In 2007, the
UW Libraries received the personal archive of one of those missionaries, Father Yves Bertrais, the RPA’s principal proponent.
Examples from this linguistically and culturally important archive appeared in case 1. The collection significantly enhanced
future understandings of Hmong language, history and culture.
Hmong Language, Father Yves Bertrais, and the R.P.A.
An Asian language, Hmong came to America with the eventual resettlement of over a hundred thousand Hmong following the
communist takeover of Laos in 1975. Prior to 1952/3 Hmong was essentially an oral language, lacking a writing system. In
Laos, Father Yves Bertrais, from France, and two American missionaries collaborated on developing the groundbreaking Hmong
Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), now the most widely used Hmong script worldwide.
This case included examples of Hmong RPA books, from primers to scholarly works as well as a dual translation (in Green and
White Hmong) of a popular children’s book. Some of them are in fact those published by Father Bertrais, the main RPA proponent
and a most significant Hmong cultural advocate. As he wrote, “ . . . writing is necessary for the survival of a language. And a
language is the most important element for guaranteeing the lasting originality of a culture.”
The special Memorial Library Exhibit also featured a map showing the Asian homeland areas of the Hmong, along with several
cultural resources.
The photographs highlighted Father Bertrais’ lifelong work with the Hmong, beginning in Laos, and extending to, especially,
Thailand, Vietnam, China, France, French Guiana, and the U.S., and included several from the special Hmong RPA Founders
celebration held in Milwaukee in 1997 honoring the three men. Some of the photographs were copied from the Father Yves
Bertrais Collection, a truly unique resource for Hmong studies, received by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries on a
permanent loan basis from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in August 2007, and housed in the Department of Special
Collections.
The exhibit lasted until the end of March 2010.
Linguists estimate that by the end of the next century, fully half of the some six thousand languages spoken on our planet will
be extinct....
Yet despite all odds, some small communities with distinctive languages are bucking the trend. In this public symposium,
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and invited experts will explore the forces at work behind both language loss and
language maintenance.
What happens when a language community finds itself in a new or changed environment, surrounded by new influences and a
foreign majority language? What happens when the dominant polity of an area acts to put an end to a minority language
considered a nuisance, a relic of the past, or a hindrance to progress? What happens when a majority polity acts in the opposite
manner: attempting to support the maintenance of a small language? Examples will be drawn from the Upper Midwest region and
from the world at large.
In the hope of answering these qestions, a free day-long symposium, titled "Language as Homeland" was held at the Pyle
Center on February 13 as part of the University of Wisconsin's Year of the Humanities program.
As part of the University of Wisconsin’s Year of Humanities, the symposium, “Language as Homeland” was held last
February 13 to explore indigenous as well as diasporic small language communities and their futures. Topics presented at the
symposium meant to encourage us to question the relationships between language, environment, culture, and politics, in
particular as these relationships determine the future existence of a particular language.
One theme underscoring the “Language as Homeland” Symposium is that small languages are worthy of documentation and
study. In the academic context, much of this work takes place in the form of language instruction. UW-Madison is proud to be the
founder and host of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL). In support of the NCOLCTL program
and the associated language-learning courses offered on campus, the Libraries actively collect textbooks, grammars, primers,
dictionaries and other resources in over 350 languages. Highlighted in case 2 are examples from Ojibwe, Danish, Pennsylvania
German, New Norwegian, Lappish and Yiddish.
Not all languages are fortunate enough to have long histories with such tools, particularly languages without a strong written
tradition. One such example is Hmong. The Hmong language was primarily an oral one until the early 1950s when three
missionaries in Laos devised a systematic writing system for the language, the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA). In 2007, the
UW Libraries received the personal archive of one of those missionaries, Father Yves Bertrais, the RPA’s principal proponent.
Examples from this linguistically and culturally important archive appeared in case 1. The collection significantly enhanced
future understandings of Hmong language, history and culture.
Hmong Language, Father Yves Bertrais, and the R.P.A.
An Asian language, Hmong came to America with the eventual resettlement of over a hundred thousand Hmong following the
communist takeover of Laos in 1975. Prior to 1952/3 Hmong was essentially an oral language, lacking a writing system. In
Laos, Father Yves Bertrais, from France, and two American missionaries collaborated on developing the groundbreaking Hmong
Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), now the most widely used Hmong script worldwide.
This case included examples of Hmong RPA books, from primers to scholarly works as well as a dual translation (in Green and
White Hmong) of a popular children’s book. Some of them are in fact those published by Father Bertrais, the main RPA proponent
and a most significant Hmong cultural advocate. As he wrote, “ . . . writing is necessary for the survival of a language. And a
language is the most important element for guaranteeing the lasting originality of a culture.”
The special Memorial Library Exhibit also featured a map showing the Asian homeland areas of the Hmong, along with several
cultural resources.
The photographs highlighted Father Bertrais’ lifelong work with the Hmong, beginning in Laos, and extending to, especially,
Thailand, Vietnam, China, France, French Guiana, and the U.S., and included several from the special Hmong RPA Founders
celebration held in Milwaukee in 1997 honoring the three men. Some of the photographs were copied from the Father Yves
Bertrais Collection, a truly unique resource for Hmong studies, received by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries on a
permanent loan basis from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in August 2007, and housed in the Department of Special
Collections.
The exhibit lasted until the end of March 2010.