②The Miao dialect belongs to the Miao－Yao Austronesian of the Chinese－Tibetan Phylum.It has three main dialects in China—one based in west Hunan, one in east Guizhou, and the other in Sichuan, Yunnan, and part of Guizhou.The Miao people once had their own written characters, but these have been long lost.After 1956, the Miao people invented a kind of phonetic characters.③Due to their centuries of contact with the Han Chinese, many Miaos can also speak Chinese.