Hmong Language and Cultural Maintenance in Merced, California

Bilingual Research Journal, Fall 2004 by Withers, Andrea C

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to ascertain whether the Hmong language and culture were shifting or were being maintained within a generational cross-section of 12 Hmong participants in Merced, California. Data was collected in the form of interviews, questionnaires, Internet research, and library research. The results of the study showed that though there were Hmong language and cultural resources available in Merced, the participants nonetheless seemed to be undergoing a generational shift in their heritage language in terms of both ability and use, as well as their attitudes about and participation in their heritage culture.

Introduction: The Hmong Journey to Merced, California

The Hmong people in Merced, California, are mainly from the Southeast Asian country of Laos (Vang & Lewis, 1984; Yang, 1995). While the United States fought against the communist regime in Vietnam, a "Secret War" was also occurring in Laos against the communist Prathet Lao Party. The American government's Central Intelligence Agency enlisted the Hmong people to help fight communism in these two Southeast Asian countries. When the United States' allies lost the conflict in Vietnam by 1975, a quarter to a half million Hmong people had no choice but to try to escape to refugee camps in Thailand (Willcox, 1986). Overcoming intense hardships along the way, those who did make it to the refugee camps were sent to France, Germany, Canada, Australia, and the United States (Fadiman, 1997; Willcox).

Merced, California, located in the San Joaquin Valley, was chosen by many Hmong families as a place to relocate because it is a largely agricultural area. According to the U.S. Census of 2000, the Hmong community in Merced made up 6,148 of the countywide population of 210,554 (California Census Data Center, 2001).

The researcher, though non-Hmong, was born and raised in Merced and grew up with friends who belonged to the Hmong community there. It is the researcher's desire to find out if the Hmong language and culture within a generational cross-section of Hmong participants in Merced are being maintained or are shifting.

Hmong Culture and Language

For the Hmong who live in the United States, there are differing ideas of what defines their present Hmong culture. Important aspects that have been identified by some include the following: having a common history of immigration from their ancestral home of China, being without a home country, having patriarchal and age-related social systems within the family unit and the community, living in close vicinity to other Hmong people, practicing ancestral worship and animism, having Hmong physical features, practicing traditional Hmong birthing practices, being affiliated with a Hmong clan or family, having a Hmong last name, caring for and respecting others, and being able to speak the Hmong language (Donnelly, 1994; Lee, 1995 ; Pfeifer, 2001 ; Saykao, 2002; Trueba, Jacobs, & Kirton, 1990).

The Hmong language is relevant to the Sino-Tibetan language family and has two main dialects: White Hmong and Blue Hmong or Green Hmong (Vang & Lewis, 1984). It is comprised of about twice as many consonants and vowels as English and has eight tones. The Hmong people may have had a written form of their language in centuries past, when they lived in China, where the written form may not have been allowed by the Chinese and may consequently have been lost (Brittan, 1997). Though several alphabets have been invented for the Hmong language since that time, two of the most popular in the United States include an alphabet created in the 1950s by American and French missionary linguists based on the Roman Popular Alphabet and the Pahawh Hmong alphabet created in 1959 by Shong Lue Yang, a previously illiterate Hmong farmer who credited God for revealing the Pahawh alphabet to him (Ager,2004).

Language and Cultural Shift and Maintenance

Language shift is a change in the use of a person's heritage language that results in a loss of that person's ability to use his or her heritage language. Likewise, cultural shift is a change in participating in one's heritage culture that results in a loss of understanding and adherence to one's cultural heritage. Fishman ( 1991 ) maintains that both language and cultural shift result in losing sight of one's true self, the security that self brings, the cultural heritage it fosters, and the value it has for one's life as well as the lives of others.

Factors affecting such a shift in language and culture include the following: the prestige of the dominant language and the comparatively lesser status of the heritage language, the lack of societal support for the ethnic group and its heritage language, the perception of the heritage language as unnecessary by subsequent generations, a decrease of group identification through the heritage language, a low level of acquisition of the heritage language at the time of decreased use of that language, an increased amount of contact with the dominant culture, an increased use of the dominant language instead of the heritage language with children, and attitudes against keeping the heritage language (Schmid, 2002). Other prominent factors include the use of the primary language of the dominant culture exclusively in at least some areas, a change in the environment in which the heritage language is used, and an infiltration of words or phrases from the dominant language into the minority language (Fishman, 1966;Haugen, 1969,1972).