Hmong Minor at Fresno State

09/01/2026

Feel free to suggest your own names of countries.

09/01/2026

ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESSES OF BORROWING ENGLISH WORDS INTO HMONG LANGUAGE.
What can we learn from the words contributed by our viewers? They offer a fascinating glimpse into how Hmong changes when it lives alongside English. Five aspects particularly stand out:

1. Borrowing responds to new experiences. Many of the proposed words belong to domains that became especially important in life in the United States: college, insurance, manager, police, garage, Facebook, computer, diaper, food stamps, and automobile vocabulary. When speakers encounter new objects, institutions, and practices, borrowing is one of the fastest ways to name them.

2. Borrowed words are reshaped by Hmong pronunciation. Speakers do not necessarily reproduce English sounds exactly. They fit unfamiliar words into sound patterns that are easier or more natural in Hmong. Thus English words can gradually acquire a distinctly Hmong pronunciation.

3. The same borrowed word can develop several forms. Pepsi is a wonderful example. Viewers proposed pev xij, pes xij, pej si, pev sij, among others. This variation suggests that many borrowings circulate primarily through speech. When speakers later try to write them in RPA, they may interpret the sounds differently. There is not necessarily a standardized spelling.

4. Borrowing can become so complete that speakers forget the foreign origin. One viewer wrote about bley/nplem “bread”: This is an important stage of lexical borrowing. Once a word is transmitted within families and communities, younger speakers may inherit it simply as part of the language they grew up speaking.

5. Not everything that sounds English should automatically be called a Hmong loanword. The comments contain established borrowings, recent adaptations, code-switching, playful pronunciations, and humorous reinterpretations. A speaker saying an English word with Hmong phonology does not necessarily make it a lexicalized Hmong word. We need evidence of repeated community use before making that conclusion.

Perhaps the most interesting lesson is that borrowing is also a record of history. Hmong has lived in sustained contact with other languages in different countries. Each period of contact can leave traces in vocabulary. English borrowings among Hmong Americans therefore tell us not only how language changes, but also something about migration, adaptation, family transmission, and everyday life.

Languages do not live behind glass. They travel with their speakers. And when people move, words travel too. 🌏📚

08/31/2026

08/31/2026

Every action carries consequences😭. What we do, what we say, and how we treat others leave traces behind us. Sometimes those traces are gentle; sometimes they return as consequences we never expected.

Power does not free anyone from this simple truth. In fact, the higher a person rises, the farther the consequences of their conduct can travel. Leadership is not only about achievement, recognition, or authority. It is also about responsibility, humility, and knowing that our decisions may affect many lives.

This is why we should think carefully before harming others. A position of power may seem strong today, but power is temporary. Our conduct follows us.

Perhaps this is one of the simplest ways to understand karma: not as punishment from somewhere above, but as the quiet return of what our own actions have set into motion. 🌿

Every action has consequences, even for those who hold positions of power.

08/30/2026

The Hmong names for different national groups tell us more than simply who these people are. They also preserve traces of Hmong history and contact with other peoples.

Names such as Neeg Suav, Neeg Nplog, Neeg Thaib, Neeg Nyab Laj, Neeg Fab Kis, Neeg Asmeslivkas, and others reflect different periods and places in which Hmong people encountered, lived among, traded with, learned from, or migrated into the societies of other national groups.

Some names therefore carry older historical encounters, while others reflect more recent experiences of migration and globalization. Vocabulary becomes a small archive: through these names, we can glimpse where Hmong people have been, whom they have encountered, and how their world has expanded over time.

Learning Hmong vocabulary is also learning Hmong history, mobility, and cultural memory. 🌏📚

08/29/2026

What words or expressions did Hmong borrow from English?

I know "care -> khe"

08/29/2026

If you know other words borrowed from French, let me know.

08/28/2026

Borrowed words are not necessarily a weakness in a language. In fact, borrowing is a natural process through which languages grow, adapt, and respond to new experiences.

For the Hmong, borrowing has been especially important historically. As a stateless people, Hmong communities have lived immersed in different nations and alongside speakers of many languages. Through migration, trade, education, government, and everyday contact, Hmong speakers have naturally borrowed words to name new objects, institutions, foods, ideas, and experiences.

At the same time, it is important to know that a borrowed word does not always replace a Hmong word. Sometimes both forms coexist, as the examples on this poster show. Knowing the Hmong word helps preserve the richness of the language, while recognizing borrowed words helps us understand how Hmong has evolved through contact with other cultures.

A living language does not remain frozen. It inherits, borrows, creates, and adapts. 🌱

Can you identify which languages some of these borrowed words came from?