RPA. For instance Hmong in the U.S. spell Hmoob as "Hmong," and Liab Lis is spelled as Lia Lee. The Dananshan standard in China is written in a pinyin-based alphabet, with tone letters similar to those used in RPA. Correspondence between orthographies The following is a list of pairs of RPA and Dananshan segments having the same sound (or very similar sounds). Note however that RPA and the standard in China not only differ in orthographic rules, but are also used to write different languages. The list is ordered alphabetically by the RPA, apart from prenasalized stops and voiceless sonorants, which come after their oral and voiced homologues. There are three overriding patterns to the correspondences: RPA doubles a vowel for nasalization, whereas pinyin uses ; RPA uses for aspiration, whereas pinyin uses the voicing distinction of the Latin script; pinyin uses (and ) to derive the retroflex and uvular series from the dental and velar, whereas RPA uses sequences based on vs. for the same. Vowels Consonants There is no simple correspondence between the tone letters. The historical connection between the tones is as follows. The Chinese names reflect the tones given to early Chinese loan words with those tones in Chinese. Tones 4 and 7 merged in Hmoob Dawb, whereas tones 4 and 6 merged in Mong Leeg. Example: lus Hmoob /̤ lṳ˧˩ m̥̥õ˦ / / (White Hmong) / lug Moob / / (Mong Leng) / lol Hmongb (Dananshan) / lus Hmôngz (Vietnamese) "Hmong language". Grammar Hmong is an analytic SVO language in which adjectives and demonstratives follow the noun. Noun phrases can contain the following elements (parentheses indicate optional elements): (possessive) + (quantifier) + (classifier) + noun + (adjective) + (demonstrative) The Hmong pronominal system distinguishes between three grammatical persons and three numbers – singular, dual, and plural. They are not marked for case, that is, the same word is used to translate both "I" and "me", "she" and "her", and so forth. These are the personal pronouns of Hmong Daw and Mong Leeg: 1st Row: IPA, Hmong RPA 2nd Row: Vietnamese Hmong 3rd Row: Pahawh Hmong 4th Row: Nyiakeng Puachue Verbs Hmong is an isolating language in which most morphemes are monosyllables. As a result, verbs are not overtly inflected. Tense, aspect, mood, person, number, gender, and case are indicated lexically. Serial verb construction Hmong verbs can be serialized, with two or more verbs combined in