The Hmongic languages, also known as Miao languages (), include the various languages spoken by the Miao people (such as Hmong, Hmu, and Xong), the Pa-Hng language, and the Bunu languages used by non-Mien-speaking Yao people. Names The most common name used for the languages is Miao (), the Chinese name and the one used by Miao in China. However, Hmong is more familiar in the West, due to Hmong emigration. Many overseas Hmong prefer the name Hmong, and claim that Miao is both inaccurate and pejorative, though it is generally considered neutral by the Miao community in China. Of the core Hmongic languages spoken by ethnic Miao, there are a number of overlapping names. The three branches are as follows, as named by Purnell (in English and Chinese), Ma, and Ratliff, as well as the descriptive names based on the patterns and colors of traditional dress: The Hunan Province Gazetteer (1997) gives the following autonyms for various peoples in Hunan classified by the Chinese government as Miao. Xiangxi Prefecture: (), (), ( ) [ceremonial] Luxi County and Guzhang County: (), () Jingzhou County, Huaihua: (), ( ) Chengbu County, Shaoyang: Hmao () Classification Hmongic is one of the primary branches of the Hmong–Mien language family, with the other being Mienic. Hmongic is a diverse group of perhaps twenty languages, based on mutual intelligibility, but several of these are dialectically quite diverse in phonology and vocabulary, and are not considered to be single languages by their speakers. There are probably over thirty languages taking this into account. Four classifications are outlined below, though the details of the West Hmongic branch are left for that article. Mo Piu, first documented in 2009, was reported by Geneviève Caelen-Haumont (2011) to be a divergent Hmongic language, and was later determined to be a dialect of Guiyang Miao. Similarly, Ná-Meo is not addressed in the classifications below, but is believed by Nguyen (2007) to be closest to Hmu (Qiandong Miao). Strecker (1987) Strecker's classification is as follows: Hmongic (Miao) West Hunan = Xong = Xiangxi (Northern Hmongic) East Guizhou = Mhu = Qiandong (Eastern Hmongic) Pa Hng Hm Nai = Wunai Kiong Nai = Jiongnai Yu Nuo = Younuo Sichuan–Guizhou–Yunnan = Chuanqiangdian (Western Hmongic, including Bu-Nao) (See) In a follow-up to that paper in the same publication, he tentatively removed Pa-Hng, Wunai, Jiongnai, and Yunuo, positing that they may be independent branches of Miao–Yao,