How do expressive words describe sounds and movements in White Hmong?

In White Hmong, expressive words—also known as ideophones—function as a distinct part of speech that captures aesthetic qualities of a scene, including specific patterns of movement, sounds, or the appearance of objects.1

These words are unique because they possess their own internal structure and operate outside the standard grammatical structure of a clause. Rather than serving a purely descriptive function, they evoke sensory experiences. For instance, the White Hmong expressive /dhû dhɛ̌ŋ/ conveys the abstract sense of "in and out." This term can be used to describe physical movements or sensations, such as the experience of nearly recalling a memory before losing it again, or the rhythmic process of drifting into and out of consciousness.1

By focusing on these aesthetic aspects, expressives allow speakers to vividly characterize the nature of an action or observation beyond what is possible with conventional verbs or adjectives.1