It is the language the Pollard script was designed for,[2][3] and displays extensive tone sandhi.
The standard written language, both in Pollard and in Latin script, is that of Shíménkǎn (石门坎) village in Weining County.
Wang Fushi (1985) grouped the Western Miao languages into eight primary divisions:[5] The A-Hmao language is spoken in the northeast of Yunnan Province and in the west of Guizhou Province, particularly in Zhaotong, Kunming, Qujing, Chuxiong Yi autonomous prefecture, Weining Yi, Hui, and Miao autonomous county, Hezhang county, Liupanshui, and Ziyun Miao and Buyi autonomous county.
[9] A-Hmao is similar to Hmong, which is an isolating language in which most morphemes are monosyllables.
Tense, aspect, mood, person, number, gender, and case are indicated lexically.
[13][16] Questions are typically formed with the wh- question word in situ, i.e., it appears where the corresponding noun would in the sentence, rather than appear sentence-initially:[15] ʦɑ⁵⁵ndɑɯ³³TsaDawɑ²¹n̥ɑɯ²¹yesterdayntʂɿ⁵³metqɑ²¹ndy²²whoʦɑ⁵⁵ndɑɯ³³ ɑ²¹n̥ɑɯ²¹ ntʂɿ⁵³ qɑ²¹ndy²²TsaDaw yesterday met who'Who did TsaDaw meet yesterday?