Dananshan dialect, Xianjin Xiang, Guizhou. Miao
dialects are spoken in quite widely scattered areas of
Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan in China
and in northern parts of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The
dialect represented here is described in the Miao Language
Team article (1962) and by Wang (1983, 1985). It is
described with 8 tones, transcribed on the Chinese 5-point
scale as 55, 44, 33, 43, 31, 24, 21, 13. Aspirated stops,
voiceless nasals and voiceless fricatives only occur with
the first 4 tones in this list. Unaspirated stops, voiced
nasals and voiced fricatives occur with all eight tones
but become breathy voiced ("voiced aspirates") with the
last two tones (low-fall and low rise). An alternative
analysis might add breathy voiced segments to the
consonant inventory and reduce the number of tones but the
consonants undergo an alternation when tone sandhi results
in the 13 tone replacing another tone. Hence breathy
voicing is treated as an attribute of these tones. /l/
clusters with labial stops and with /t/ and /th/
initially. Native words seem to have mostly simple
vocalism but more complex vowel nuclei have been borrowed
from Chinese. Only dental and velar nasals occur as
syllable final consonants.

Wang, Fushi. 1985. Miaoyu jianzhi. Brief guide to Miao
language. Minzu Chubanshe, Beijing.

Wang, Fushi. 1983. Miaoyu fangyan huafen wenti (On the
division of Miao dialects). Minzu Yuwen, 1983.5: 1-22.

Purnell, H.C. (editor) 1972. Miao and Yao Linguistic
Studies, Selected articles in Chinese, translated by Chang
Yu-hung and Chu Kwo-ray. Linguistics Series VII.
Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca.