Brief historical background of the Hmong RPA Script
The Hmong constitute one of the most ancient peoples in Asia. Today, they number about 8 million, including other subgroups of Miao, scattered by the events of history, over centuries, from China to Southeast Asian, from Laos to Australia, Europe and America. Since 1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War, more than 150,000 Hmong refugees from the Secret War of Laos have been resettled in the United States.
If the Hmong had a long and rich oral tradition, their language was provided with a writing system only 45 years ago. Thus, in 1952, in Luang Prabang, the Royal City of the former Kingdom of Laos, three men - Dr. Linwood Barney, Father Yves Bertrais and Dr. William Smalley - put their efforts and knowledge together to create the Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet (R.P.A.) script. Immediately after, Father Bertrais started teaching the Hmong R.P.A. to a first group of young Hmong in his adopted Hmong village of the Guars Mountains (Roob Nyuj Qus), some 50 miles south of Luang Prabang, where in 1950 he had begun his apostolic mission with the Hmong in Laos, whom he has never left since then.
Today, tens of thousands of Hmong, men and women, young and old, in Laos, Thailand, Burma, China, Vietnam, France (and French Guyana), Australia, Canada, Argentina and in the United States use the Hmong RPA script as a vehicle to communicate among themselves. The Hmong media (newspapers, radio broadcast and television) which are beginning to develop in the United States, and American public offices and hospitals use the Hmong writing system for their official translations or communications. The Hmong RPA is now officially taught at the Central Institute of the Chinese Nationalities in Beijing and in several American public schools and universities. Finally, in the early 1980’s, thanks to the beneficence and contribution of Archbishop Renato R. Martino, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Father Bertrais, with the assistance of a group of Hmong, was able to start conducting intensive research on Hmong history, culture and traditions in Southeast Asia and in China. Over the past four decades, thousands of books and newsletters have been published in the Hmong languages. In brief, in less than a half century, the Hmong RPA has contributed to he social, economic and political development of the Hmong people who came from the Middle ages to modern times.
Thus, the Hmong around the world owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Barney, Father Bertrais and Dr. Smalley, the founders of the Hmong RPA. The Hmong RPA Founders’ Recognition which takes place today at Sheraton Inn Milwaukee of Brown Deer, Wisconsin, is the humble expression of the Hmong sentiments of appreciation.
Who are these founders with a so generous heart?
Dr. Linwood Barney
Dr. Linwood Barney was born in 1923 in Rumney, New Hampshire, U.S.A. He graduated in 1946 from Taylor University of Indiana and received his Doctoral Degree in Anthropology at the University of Minnesota in 1968. In 1951, he was sent by his Christian and Missionary Alliance Church to Xieng Khouang, Laos, where he first met the Hmong people. In 1952, he contributed to the creation of the Hmong RPA in Luang Prabang, in 1954, Dr. Barney was forced by the situation of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) to leave Southeast Asia to come back to the United States. He was successively pastor, missionary, professor and, finally, dean of Jaffrey School of Missions, renames as Alliance Theological Seminary in New York.
Dr. William Smalley
Dr. William Smalley was born in 1923 in Jerusalem, Palestine. He received his Ph.D. in anthropological linguistics at Columbia University in New York City in 1956. In 1951, he went to Luang Prabang, Laos, to study and analyze the Khmu language. In 1952, he was instrumental in the creation of the Hmong RPA and , in 1954, he left Southeast Asia to come back to the United States, where he worked as a translation consultant for the American Bible Society. From 1968 to 1987, he taught at Bethel College of Shoreview, Minnesota.
Father Yves Bertrais
Born July 30, 1921, Reverend Yves Bertrais, OMI began living among the Hmong of the Gaurs Mountain at the age of 29. While his love would have been to share his faith with these people, he realized that he must first be content only to live amongst them, to study their language and absorb their culture.
Studying the Hmong language would not be easy since it did not exist in written form. At first he created his own transcription system by assigning Latin letters to Hmong sounds as much as possible. This lasted for three years until he learned of an American Protestant minister who was working in another village and developing his own transcription of Hmong. With the aid of a linguistics specialist and two Hmong friends to help with exact pronunciation, the two collaborated in an effort to develop a uniform system, the “Hmong R.P.A. Script” (Romanized Popular Alphabet), which is currently used worldwide.
The next task was to teach the written form to the Hmong. Each evening after work ended in the fields, the village youth, some adults and other Hmong from as far as 20 miles away would gather to learn the script. A small catechism was developed at that time.
From 1963 to 1975 the Hmong people were seriously affected by war, at which time many came to stay with Fr. Bertrais at the School of Masters in Christian Teaching. During this period the R.P.A. script spread rapidly. During their vacations, students would return to their mountain villages and teach their friends how to read Hmong. A Hmong newspaper and radio station were also created, as well as many other publications in the Hmong script.
The Laotian government did not cast a favorable eye on the R.P.A. script, instead required all ethnic groups to use Laotian characters even in the mountain schools where all the students were Hmong. Beginning in 1975, however, the use of the R.P.A. script spread to tens of thousands in the refugee camps of Thailand. And as they were resettled in the United States, France, Australia, Argentina, and Guyana — so, too, the R.P.A. script found new homes.
With so many learning to read and write came the necessity of creating books to place in their hands. At that time Father Bertrais approached Archbishop Renato R. Martino, then apostolic nuncio to Thailand who, understanding this important need, assisted tremendously in procuring funds from specialized organizations. One of the many fruits of this task was the birth of the Hmong Cultural Heritage Association, with its headquarters in the Hmong village of Javouhey, French Guyana. Thus, the language and script were brought into the computer age.
Since 1985, the R.P.A. script has spread among the Hmong in China.
The R.P.A. script been successful for many reasons: its use of Latin letters which are in current use throughout the world; its easy adaptation to the dialects of both the White and Green Hmong; the perseverance of the teachers of the script 40 years ago; the tragic events over the past four decades which, at the time, seemed like fatal blows for the diffusion of the script but which, in fact, contributed to its ever-greater expansion; the many people who have generously worked to produce publications and to find funding for research, composition, printing and distribution; and especially the Hmong peoples themselves, who passed the script on to family and friends.
Father Bertrais is very hopeful of the script’s continuing spread. He writes: “Writing is necessary for the survival of a language. And a language is the most important element for guaranteeing the lasting originality of a culture. And we must hope that the Hmong culture lasts a long time; not in opposition to other cultures, but so that everyone on earth not end up dressing the same way, speaking the same language, listening to the same music and becoming unable to sing in his or her own language.”
For his perseverance and commitment to the Hmong people, particularly his efforts in developing a written form of their language, the Path to Peace Foundation is pleased to bestow upon Reverend Yves Bertrais, OMI, the title of “Servitor Pacis” — Servant of Peace.
Addendum: During the stay of Father Bertrais in French Guyana from 1977 to 1996, the mayors wanted to honor his work in favor of the Hmong of Guyana. They first awarded him the National Merit Medal, and then some years later, the medal (insignia) of the Knight of the Legion of Honor.
