Bunu languages
The Bunu are the Yao people who speak Hmongic languages. That is, Bunu in the broad sense is a cultural rather than linguistic group. Strecker had classified Bunu proper as a Western Hmongic language, and the other Bunu languages—Younuo, Wunai, and Jiongnai —as distinct branches of Hmongic. Matisoff grouped all of these together in a Bunu branch of Hmongic. Ratliff returned Bunu proper to Western Hmongic, and moved Jiongnai to its own peripheral branch of Hmongic, but did not address Younuo or Wunai. Mao Zongwu found that Younuo, Wunai, and Pa-Hng form a distinct branch of Hmongic.
The Bunu languages form a group in Chinese classification, but that is because Chinese classifications are not purely linguistic, but take into account ethnic identity.
