Home to 4 dialects represented on Dialect Atlas, spanning 4 language families.
also: Miao
A cluster of Hmong-Mien languages spoken across the highlands of southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Carried abroad through the post-Vietnam-War Hmong diaspora to the United States, France, and Australia.
also: Yao
A cluster of Hmong-Mien languages spoken by the Yao peoples across southern China and adjacent Southeast Asia. Sister branch to Hmong, with around 800,000 speakers across the diaspora.
also: Mrabri, Yumbri
A Khmuic (Austroasiatic) language of formerly nomadic hunter-gatherers in the highlands of Nan and Phrae provinces, northern Thailand, and adjacent Laos. Roughly 100–300 speakers; its numeral system allows only one and two to modify nouns, and it lacks the register contrasts typical of related languages.
A Tai-Kadai language and the official language of Laos. Closely related to Thai Isan; written in a script derived from the same source as Thai but distinct in several letters and vowel signs.