The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in

Mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are the majority languages of Vietnam and Cambodia. There are around 117 million speakers of Austroasiatic languages. Of these languages, only Vietnamese, Khmer, and

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...

have a long-established recorded history. Only two have official status as modern national languages: Vietnamese in Vietnam and Khmer in Cambodia. The Mon language is a recognized indigenous language in Myanmar and Thailand. In Myanmar, the Wa language is the de facto official language of Wa State. Santali is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. The rest of the languages are spoken by minority groups and have no official status. ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'' identifies 168 Austroasiatic languages. These form thirteen established families (plus perhaps Shompen, which is poorly attested, as a fourteenth), which have traditionally been grouped into two, as Mon–Khmer, and Munda. However, one recent classification posits three groups (Munda, Mon-Khmer, and Khasi–Khmuic), while another has abandoned Mon–Khmer as a taxon altogether, making it synonymous with the larger family. Austroasiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across Southeast Asia and parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and East Asia, separated by regions where other languages are spoken. They appear to be the extant original languages of Mainland Southeast Asia (excluding the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

), with the neighboring, and sometimes surrounding, Kra–Dai, Hmong-Mien,

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

, and Sino-Tibetan languages being the result of later migrations.

Etymology

The name ''Austroasiatic'' comes from a combination of the Latin words for "South" and "Asia", hence "South Asia".

Typology

Regarding word structure, Austroasiatic languages are well known for having an iambic "sesquisyllabic" pattern, with basic nouns and verbs consisting of an initial, unstressed, reduced minor syllable followed by a stressed, full syllable. This reduction of presyllables has led to a variety among modern languages of phonological shapes of the same original Proto-Austroasiatic prefixes, such as the causative prefix, ranging from CVC syllables to consonant clusters to single consonants. As for word formation, most Austroasiatic languages have a variety of derivational prefixes, many have

infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts with ''adfix,'' a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix. When marking text for int ...

es, but suffixes are almost completely non-existent in most branches except Munda, and a few specialized exceptions in other Austroasiatic branches. The Austroasiatic languages are further characterized as having unusually large vowel inventories and employing some sort of register contrast, either between modal (normal) voice and breathy (lax) voice or between modal voice and creaky voice. Languages in the Pearic branch and some in the Vietic branch can have a three- or even four-way voicing contrast. However, some Austroasiatic languages have lost the register contrast by evolving more diphthongs or in a few cases, such as Vietnamese,

tonogenesis Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

. Vietnamese has been so heavily influenced by Chinese that its original Austroasiatic phonological quality is obscured and now resembles that of South Chinese languages, whereas Khmer, which had more influence from Sanskrit, has retained a more typically Austroasiatic structure.

Proto-language

Much work has been done on the reconstruction of

Proto-Mon–Khmer Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while a ...

Harry L. Shorto Harry Leonard Shorto (19 September 1919 – 30 July 1995) was a British philologist and linguist who specialized on the Mon language and Mon-Khmer studies. He authored both a modern Mon dictionary and a dictionary of Mon epigraphy. He worked f ...

's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary''. Little work has been done on the Munda languages, which are not well documented. With their demotion from a primary branch, Proto-Mon–Khmer becomes synonymous with Proto-Austroasiatic. Paul Sidwell (2005) reconstructs the consonant inventory of Proto-Mon–Khmer as follows: This is identical to earlier reconstructions except for . is better preserved in the

Katuic languages The fifteen Katuic languages form a branch of the Austroasiatic languages spoken by about 1.3 million people in Southeast Asia. People who speak Katuic languages are called the Katuic peoples. Paul Sidwell is the leading specialist on the Katuic ...

, which Sidwell has specialized in.

Internal classification

Linguists traditionally recognize two primary divisions of Austroasiatic: the Mon–Khmer languages of Southeast Asia, Northeast India and the

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian s ...

, and the Munda languages of East and

Central India Central India is a loosely defined geographical region of India. There is no clear official definition and various ones may be used. One common definition consists of the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which are included in alm ...

and parts of Bangladesh, parts of Nepal. However, no evidence for this classification has ever been published. Each of the families that is written in boldface type below is accepted as a valid clade. By contrast, the relationships ''between'' these families within Austroasiatic are debated. In addition to the traditional classification, two recent proposals are given, neither of which accepts traditional "Mon–Khmer" as a valid unit. However, little of the data used for competing classifications has ever been published, and therefore cannot be evaluated by peer review. In addition, there are suggestions that additional branches of Austroasiatic might be preserved in substrata of Acehnese in Sumatra (Diffloth), the

Chamic languages The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Mala ...

of Vietnam, and the

Land Dayak languages The Land Dayak languages are a group of dozen or so languages spoken by the Bidayuh Land Dayaks of Borneo. Languages ''Glottolog'' ''Glottolog'' classifies the Land Dayak languages as follows. *Benyadu-Bekati: Bekati (Bekatiq), Sara, Lara (Ra ...

of Borneo (Adelaar 1995).

Diffloth (1974)

Diffloth's widely cited original classification, now abandoned by Diffloth himself, is used in '' Encyclopædia Britannica'' and—except for the breakup of Southern Mon–Khmer—in ''Ethnologue.'' * Munda ** North Munda *** Korku *** Kherwarian ** South Munda *** Kharia–Juang *** Koraput Munda * Mon–Khmer ** Eastern Mon–Khmer *** Khmer (Cambodian) *** Pearic ***

Bahnaric The Bahnaric languages are a group of about thirty Austroasiatic languages spoken by about 700,000 people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Paul Sidwell notes that Austroasiatic/Mon–Khmer languages are lexically more similar to Bahnaric and Katui ...

***

Katuic The fifteen Katuic languages form a branch of the Austroasiatic languages spoken by about 1.3 million people in Southeast Asia. People who speak Katuic languages are called the Katuic peoples. Paul Sidwell is the leading specialist on the Katuic ...

***

Vietic The Vietic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic language family, spoken by the Vietic peoples in Laos and Vietnam. The branch was once referred to by the terms ''Việt–Mường'', ''Annamese–Muong'', and ''Vietnamuong''; the term '' ...

(Vietnamese, Muong) ** Northern Mon–Khmer ***

Khasi Khasi may refer to: * Khasi people, an ethnic group of Meghalaya, India * Khasi language, a major Austroasiatic language spoken in Meghalaya, India * Khāṣi language, an Indo-Aryan language of Jammu and Kashmir, India See also * Khasi Hills * Gh ...

( Meghalaya, India) *** Palaungic ***

Khmuic The Khmuic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic languages spoken mostly in northern Laos, as well as in neighboring northern Vietnam and southern Yunnan, China. Khmu language, Khmu is the only widely spoken language in the group. Homelan ...

** Southern Mon–Khmer ***

***

Aslian The Aslian languages () are the southernmost branch of Austroasiatic languages spoken on the Malay Peninsula. They are the languages of many of the '' Orang Asli'', the aboriginal inhabitants of the peninsula. The total number of native speakers ...

(

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

) *** Nicobarese (

)

Peiros (2004)

Peiros is a

lexicostatistic Lexicostatistics is a method of comparative linguistics that involves comparing the percentage of lexical cognates between languages to determine their relationship. Lexicostatistics is related to the comparative method but does not reconstruct a ...

classification, based on percentages of shared vocabulary. This means that languages can appear to be more distantly related than they actually are due to

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

. Indeed, when Sidwell (2009) replicated Peiros's study with languages known well enough to account for loans, he did not find the internal (branching) structure below. AustroAsiatic tree Peiros2004

* Nicobarese * Munda–Khmer ** Munda ** Mon–Khmer ***

*** Nuclear Mon–Khmer ****

Mangic The Pakanic languages constitute a branch of two Austroasiatic languages, Bolyu and Bugan. They are spoken in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces of southern China. Mang was formerly included, but is now considered by Paul Sidwell to form its own ...

( Mang + Palyu) (perhaps in Northern MK) ****

(perhaps in Northern MK) **** Northern Mon–Khmer ***** Palaungic *****

**** Central Mon–Khmer ***** Khmer dialects ***** Pearic ***** Asli-Bahnaric ******

****** Mon–Bahnaric ******* Monic ******* Katu–Bahnaric ********

********

Diffloth (2005)

Diffloth compares reconstructions of various clades, and attempts to classify them based on shared innovations, though like other classifications the evidence has not been published. As a schematic, we have: Or in more detail, * Munda languages (India) :* Koraput: 7 languages :*Core Munda languages ::* Kharian–Juang: 2 languages ::*North Munda languages ::: '' Korku'' ::: Kherwarian: 12 languages * Khasi–Khmuic languages (Northern Mon–Khmer) :* Khasian: 3 languages of north eastern India and adjacent region of Bangladesh :*Palaungo-Khmuic languages ::*

: 13 languages of Laos and Thailand ::*Palaungo-Pakanic languages ::: Pakanic or Palyu: 4 or 5 languages of southern China and Vietnam ::: Palaungic: 21 languages of Burma, southern China, and Thailand * Nuclear Mon–Khmer languages :* Khmero-Vietic languages (Eastern Mon–Khmer) ::* Vieto-Katuic languages ?Sidwell (2005) casts doubt on Diffloth's Vieto-Katuic hypothesis, saying that the evidence is ambiguous, and that it is not clear where Katuic belongs in the family. :::

: 10 languages of Vietnam and Laos, including Muong and Vietnamese, which has the most speakers of any Austroasiatic language. :::

: 19 languages of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. ::* Khmero-Bahnaric languages :::*

: 40 languages of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. :::*Khmeric languages :::: The Khmer dialects of Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. :::: Pearic: 6 languages of Cambodia. :* Nico-Monic languages (Southern Mon–Khmer) ::* Nicobarese: 6 languages of the

, a territory of India. ::* Asli-Monic languages :::

: 19 languages of peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. ::: Monic: 2 languages, the

Mon language The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peopl ...

of Burma and the Nyahkur language of Thailand.

Sidwell (2009–2015)

Paul Sidwell (2009), in a

lexicostatistical Lexicostatistics is a method of comparative linguistics that involves comparing the percentage of lexical cognates between languages to determine their relationship. Lexicostatistics is related to the comparative method but does not reconstruct a p ...

comparison of 36 languages which are well known enough to exclude loanwords, finds little evidence for internal branching, though he did find an area of increased contact between the Bahnaric and Katuic languages, such that languages of all branches apart from the geographically distant Munda and Nicobarese show greater similarity to Bahnaric and Katuic the closer they are to those branches, without any noticeable innovations common to Bahnaric and Katuic. He therefore takes the conservative view that the thirteen branches of Austroasiatic should be treated as equidistant on current evidence. Sidwell & Blench (2011) discuss this proposal in more detail, and note that there is good evidence for a Khasi–Palaungic node, which could also possibly be closely related to Khmuic.Sidwell, Paul, and Roger Blench. 2011.
The Austroasiatic Urheimat: the Southeastern Riverine Hypothesis
" Enfield, NJ (ed.) ''Dynamics of Human Diversity'', 317–345. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. If this would the case, Sidwell & Blench suggest that Khasic may have been an early offshoot of Palaungic that had spread westward. Sidwell & Blench (2011) suggest Shompen as an additional branch, and believe that a Vieto-Katuic connection is worth investigating. In general, however, the family is thought to have diversified too quickly for a deeply nested structure to have developed, since Proto-Austroasiatic speakers are believed by Sidwell to have radiated out from the central Mekong river valley relatively quickly. Subsequently, Sidwell (2015a: 179) proposed that Nicobarese subgroups with

, just as how Khasian and Palaungic subgroup with each other. A subsequent computational phylogenetic analysis (Sidwell 2015b) suggests that Austroasiatic branches may have a loosely nested structure rather than a completely rake-like structure, with an east–west division (consisting of Munda, Khasic, Palaungic, and Khmuic forming a western group as opposed to all of the other branches) occurring possibly as early as 7,000 years before present. However, he still considers the subbranching dubious. Integrating computational phylogenetic linguistics with recent archaeological findings, Paul Sidwell (2015c)Sidwell, Paul. 2015c. ''Phylogeny, innovations, and correlations in the prehistory of Austroasiatic''. Paper presented at the workshop ''Integrating inferences about our past: new findings and current issues in the peopling of the Pacific and South East Asia'', 22–23 June 2015, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. further expanded his Mekong riverine hypothesis by proposing that Austroasiatic had ultimately expanded into Indochina from the

Lingnan Lingnan (; Vietnamese: Lĩnh Nam) is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as modern northe ...

area of southern China, with the subsequent Mekong riverine dispersal taking place after the initial arrival of Neolithic farmers from southern China. Sidwell (2015c) tentatively suggests that Austroasiatic may have begun to split up 5,000 years B.P. during the Neolithic transition era of

mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

, with all the major branches of Austroasiatic formed by 4,000 B.P. Austroasiatic would have had two possible dispersal routes from the western periphery of the Pearl River watershed of

, which would have been either a coastal route down the coast of Vietnam, or downstream through the Mekong River via Yunnan. Both the reconstructed lexicon of Proto-Austroasiatic and the archaeological record clearly show that early Austroasiatic speakers around 4,000 B.P. cultivated rice and

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

, kept livestock such as dogs, pigs, and chickens, and thrived mostly in estuarine rather than coastal environments. At 4,500 B.P., this "Neolithic package" suddenly arrived in Indochina from the Lingnan area without cereal grains and displaced the earlier pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer cultures, with grain husks found in northern Indochina by 4,100 B.P. and in southern Indochina by 3,800 B.P. However, Sidwell (2015c) found that iron is not reconstructable in Proto-Austroasiatic, since each Austroasiatic branch has different terms for iron that had been borrowed relatively lately from Tai, Chinese, Tibetan, Malay, and other languages. During the Iron Age about 2,500 B.P., relatively young Austroasiatic branches in Indochina such as

, Pearic, and Khmer were formed, while the more internally diverse

branch (dating to about 3,000 B.P.) underwent more extensive internal diversification. By the Iron Age, all of the Austroasiatic branches were more or less in their present-day locations, with most of the diversification within Austroasiatic taking place during the Iron Age. Paul Sidwell (2018) considers the Austroasiatic language family to have rapidly diversified around 4,000 years B.P. during the arrival of rice agriculture in Indochina, but notes that the origin of Proto-Austroasiatic itself is older than that date. The lexicon of Proto-Austroasiatic can be divided into an early and late stratum. The early stratum consists of basic lexicon including body parts, animal names, natural features, and pronouns, while the names of cultural items (agriculture terms and words for cultural artifacts, which are reconstructible in Proto-Austroasiatic) form part of the later stratum. Roger Blench (2017)Blench, Roger. 2017.
Waterworld: lexical evidence for aquatic subsistence strategies in Austroasiatic
'. Presented at ICAAL 7, Kiel, Germany. suggests that vocabulary related to aquatic subsistence strategies (such as boats, waterways, river fauna, and fish capture techniques) can be reconstructed for Proto-Austroasiatic. Blench (2017) finds widespread Austroasiatic roots for 'river, valley', 'boat', 'fish', 'catfish sp.', 'eel', 'prawn', 'shrimp' (Central Austroasiatic), 'crab', 'tortoise', 'turtle', 'otter', 'crocodile', 'heron, fishing bird', and 'fish trap'. Archaeological evidence for the presence of agriculture in northern Indochina (northern Vietnam, Laos, and other nearby areas) dates back to only about 4,000 years ago (2,000 BC), with agriculture ultimately being introduced from further up to the north in the Yangtze valley where it has been dated to 6,000 B.P. Sidwell (2022)Sidwell, Paul. 2021
''Austroasiatic Dispersal: the AA "Water-World" Extended''SEALS 2021

Video)
/ref> proposes that the locus of Proto-Austroasiatic was in the Red River Delta area about 4,000-4,500 years before present, instead of the Middle Mekong as he had previously proposed. Austroasiatic dispersed coastal maritime routes and also upstream through river valleys. Khmuic, Palaungic, and Khasic resulted from a westward dispersal that ultimately came from the Red Valley valley. Based on their current distributions, about half of all Austroasiatic branches (including Nicobaric and Munda) can be traced to coastal maritime dispersals. Hence, this points to a relatively late riverine dispersal of Austroasiatic as compared to

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

, whose speakers had a distinct non-riverine culture. In addition to living an aquatic-based lifestyle, early Austroasiatic speakers would have also had access to livestock, crops, and newer types of watercraft. As early Austroasiatic speakers dispersed rapidly via waterways, they would have encountered speakers of older language families who were already settled in the area, such as Sino-Tibetan.

Sidwell (2018)

Sidwell (2018) (quoted in Sidwell 2021) gives a more nested classification of Austroasiatic branches as suggested by his computational phylogenetic analysis of Austroasiatic languages using a 200-word list. Many of the tentative groupings are likely linkages. Pakanic and Shompen were not included.

Possible extinct branches

Roger Blench (2009) also proposes that there might have been other primary branches of Austroasiatic that are now extinct, based on

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...

evidence in modern-day languages. * Pre-

Chamic The Chamic languages, also known as Aceh–Chamic and Achinese–Chamic, are a group of ten languages spoken in Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) and in parts of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hainan, China. The Chamic languages are a subgroup of Malay ...

languages (the languages of coastal Vietnam before the Chamic migrations). Chamic has various Austroasiatic loanwords that cannot be clearly traced to existing Austroasiatic branches (Sidwell 2006, 2007).Sidwell, Paul. 2006.
Dating the Separation of Acehnese and Chamic By Etymological Analysis of the Aceh-Chamic Lexicon
." In The ''Mon-Khmer Studies Journal'', 36: 187–206.Sidwell, Paul. 2007.
The Mon-Khmer Substrate in Chamic: Chamic, Bahnaric and Katuic Contact
" In SEALS XII Papers from the 12th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 2002, edited by Ratree Wayland et al.. Canberra, Australia, 113-128. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. Larish (1999)Larish, Michael David. 1999. ''The Position of Moken and Moklen Within the Austronesian Language Family''. Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. also notes that

Moklenic languages The Moklenic or Moken–Moklen languages consist of a pair of two closely related but distinct languages, namely Moken and Moklen. Larish (1999) establishes the two languages as forming two distinct subgroups of a larger Moken–Moklen branch. La ...

contain many Austroasiatic loanwords, some of which are similar to the ones found in Chamic. * Acehnese substratum (Sidwell 2006). Acehnese has many basic words that are of Austroasiatic origin, suggesting that either Austronesian speakers have absorbed earlier Austroasiatic residents in northern Sumatra, or that words might have been borrowed from Austroasiatic languages in southern Vietnam – or perhaps a combination of both. Sidwell (2006) argues that Acehnese and Chamic had often borrowed Austroasiatic words independently of each other, while some Austroasiatic words can be traced back to Proto-Aceh-Chamic. Sidwell (2006) accepts that Acehnese and Chamic are related, but that they had separated from each other before Chamic had borrowed most of its Austroasiatic lexicon. * Bornean substrate languages (Blench 2010). Blench cites Austroasiatic-origin words in modern-day Bornean branches such as

Land Dayak The Land Dayak languages are a group of dozen or so languages spoken by the Bidayuh Land Dayaks of Borneo. Languages ''Glottolog'' ''Glottolog'' classifies the Land Dayak languages as follows. *Benyadu-Bekati: Bekati (Bekatiq), Sara, Lara (Rar ...

(

Bidayuh Bidayuh is the collective name for several indigenous groups found in southern Sarawak, Malaysia and northern West Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo, which are broadly similar in language and culture (see also #Language issues, is ...

, Dayak Bakatiq, etc.), Dusunic ( Central Dusun, Visayan, etc.), Kayan, and Kenyah, noting especially resemblances with

. As further evidence for his proposal, Blench also cites ethnographic evidence such as musical instruments in Borneo shared in common with Austroasiatic-speaking groups in mainland Southeast Asia. Adelaar (1995) has also noticed phonological and lexical similarities between

and

. * Lepcha substratum ("''Rongic''"). Many words of Austroasiatic origin have been noticed in Lepcha, suggesting a

superstrate laid over an Austroasiatic substrate. Blench (2013) calls this branch "''Rongic''" based on the Lepcha autonym ''Róng''. Other languages with proposed Austroasiatic substrata are: *

Jiamao Jiamao (, ''Jiamao''; also ''Tái'' or ''Sāi'') is a possible language isolate spoken in southern Hainan, China. Jiamao speakers' autonym is ''1''.See Proto-Tai_language#Tones for an explanation of the tone codes. Classification Jiamao was l ...

, based on evidence from the register system of Jiamao, a Hlai language (Thurgood 1992). Jiamao is known for its highly aberrant vocabulary in relation to other

Hlai languages The Hlai languages () are a primary branch of the Kra–Dai language family spoken in the mountains of central and south-central Hainan in China by the Hlai people, not to be confused with the colloquial name for the Leizhou branch of Min Chines ...

. * Kerinci: van Reijn (1974) notes that Kerinci, a

Malayic The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia; it further serves as basis for Indon ...

language of central

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

, shares many phonological similarities with Austroasiatic languages, such as

sesquisyllabic Primarily in Austroasiatic languages (also known as Mon–Khmer), in a typical word a minor syllable is a reduced (minor) syllable followed by a full tonic or stressed syllable. The minor syllable may be of the form or , with a reduced vowel, as ...

word structure and vowel inventory. John Peterson (2017) suggests that "pre- Munda" ("proto-" in regular terminology) languages may have once dominated the eastern

Indo-Gangetic Plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain encompassing northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, including most of northern and eastern India, around half of Pakistan, virtually all of Bangla ...

, and were then absorbed by Indo-Aryan languages at an early date as Indo-Aryan spread east. Peterson notes that eastern Indo-Aryan languages display many morphosyntactic features similar to those of Munda languages, while western Indo-Aryan languages do not.

Writing systems

Other than Latin-based alphabets, many Austroasiatic languages are written with the Khmer,

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

, Lao, and

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (hor ...

alphabets. Vietnamese divergently had an indigenous script based on Chinese logographic writing. This has since been supplanted by the Latin alphabet in the 20th century. The following are examples of past-used alphabets or current alphabets of Austroasiatic languages. * Chữ Nôm * Khmer alphabet * Khom script (used for a short period in the early 20th century for indigenous languages in Laos) *

Old Mon script Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...

* Mon script * Pahawh Hmong was once used to write

Khmu The Khmu (; Khmu: ; lo, ຂະມຸ ; th, ขมุ ; vi, Khơ Mú; ; my, ခမူ) are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The majority (88%) live in northern Laos where they constitute the largest minority ethnic group, comprising elev ...

, under the name "Pahawh Khmu" * Tai Le ( Palaung, Blang) *

Tai Tham Tai Tham script ('' Tham'' meaning "scripture") is the name given to an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün and Lao; as well as the liturgical languages of Buddhism ...

( Blang) *

Ol Chiki alphabet The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for San ...

( Santali alphabet) *

Mundari Bani Mundari Bani (Mundari: 𞓗𞓕𞓨𞓚 ''Bani'' 'alphabet', also known as Mundari Bani Hisir ''Hisir'' 'writing', Nag Mundari, or the Mundari alphabet) is the writing system created for the Mundari language, spoken in eastern India. Mundari is ...

( Mundari alphabet) * Warang Citi ( Ho alphabet) *

Ol Onal The Ol Onal is an alphabetic writing script of Bhumij language, spoken by Bhumij peoples. Ol Onal script was created between 1981 and 1992 by ''Ol Guru'' Mahendra Nath Sardar. Ol Onal script is used to write Bhumij language in some parts of We ...

(

Bhumij Bhumij may refer to: *Bhumij people, tribal ethnic group of India * Bhumij language, the language of Bhumij people *Bhumija Bhumija is a variety of north Indian temple architecture marked by how the rotating square-circle principle is applied to ...

alphabet) *

Sorang Sompeng alphabet Sorang Sompeng script is used to write in Sora, a Munda language with 300,000 speakers in India. The script was created by Mangei Gomango in 1936 and is used in religious contexts. He was familiar with Odia, Telugu and English. The Sora ...

( Sora alphabet)

External relations

Austric languages

Austroasiatic is an integral part of the controversial Austric hypothesis, which also includes the Austronesian languages, and in some proposals also the Kra–Dai languages and the Hmong–Mien languages.

Hmong-Mien

Several lexical resemblances are found between the Hmong-Mien and Austroasiatic language families (Ratliff 2010), some of which had earlier been proposed by

Haudricourt Haudricourt () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A farming village situated in the Pays de Bray, some southeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D9 and D436 roads. The commune b ...

(1951). This could imply a relation or early language contact along the Yangtze. According to Cai (et al. 2011), Hmong–Mien is at least partially related to Austroasiatic but was heavily influenced by

, especially Tibeto-Burman languages.

Indo-Aryan languages

It is suggested that the Austroasiatic languages have some influence on Indo-Aryan languages including Sanskrit and middle Indo-Aryan languages. Indian linguist

Suniti Kumar Chatterji Bhashacharya Acharya Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second-highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan. Life Childhood Chatterji ...

pointed that a specific number of substantives in languages such as Hindi,

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

and

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

were borrowed from Munda languages. Additionally, French linguist Jean Przyluski suggested a similarity between the tales from the Austroasiatic realm and the Indian mythological stories of

Matsyagandha Satyavati ( sa, सत्यवती, ; also spelled Satyawati) was the queen of the Kuru. She is the wife of king Shantanu of Hastinapura, and the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes (The principal characters of the Hin ...

(from '' Mahabharata'') and the Nāgas.

Austroasiatic migrations and archaeogenetics

Mitsuru Sakitani suggests that Haplogroup O1b1, which is common in Austroasiatic people and some other ethnic groups in southern China, and haplogroup O1b2, which is common in today's Japanese, Koreans and some

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

, are the carriers of early rice-agriculturalists from Indochina. Another study suggests that the haplogroup O1b1 is the major Austroasiatic paternal lineage and O1b2 the "para-Austroasiatic" lineage of the

, Korean and

Yayoi people The were an ancient ethnicity that migrated to the Japanese archipelago from Korea and China during the Yayoi period (300 BCE–300 CE). Although highly controversial, a single study that utilized radiometric dating techniques inconclusively ...

. A 2021 study by Tagore et al. found that the proto-Austroasiatic speakers split from an Basal East Asian source population, native to

and Northeast India, which also gave rise to other East Asian-related populations, including Northeast Asians and Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The proto-Austroasiatic speakers can be linked to the Hoabinhian material culture. From Mainland Southeast Asia, the Austroasiatic speakers expanded into the Indian-subcontinent and Maritime Southeast Asia. There is evidence that later back migration from more northerly East Asian groups (such as Kra-Dai speakers) merged with indigenous Southeast Asians, contributing to the fragmentation observed among modern day Austroasiatic-speakers. In the Indian subcontinent, Austroasiatic speakers, specifically Mundari, intermixed with the local population. Furthermore they concluded that their results do not support a genetic relationship between Ancient Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers (Hoabinhians) with Papuan-related groups, as previously suggested by McColl et al. 2018, but that these Ancient Southeast Asians are characterized by Basal East Asian ancestry. The authors finally concluded that genetics do not necessarily correspond with linguistic identity, pointing to the fragmentation of modern Austroasiatic speakers. Larena et al. 2021 could reproduce the genetic evidence for the origin of Basal East Asians in Mainland Southeast Asia, which are estimated to have formed about 50kya years ago, and expanded through multiple migration waves southwards and northwards. Early Austroasiatic speakers are estimated to have originated from an lineage, which split from Ancestral East Asians between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago, and were among the first wave to replace distinct Australasian-related groups in Insular Southeast Asia. East Asian-related ancestry became dominant in Insular Southeast Asia already between 15,000 years to 12,000 years ago, and may be associated with Austroasiatic groups, which however got again replaced by later Austronesian groups some 10,000 to 7,000 years ago. Early Austroasiatic people were found to be best represented by the Mlabri people in modern day Thailand. Proposals for Austroasiatic substratum among later Austronesian languages in Western Indonesia, noteworthy among the

Dayak language The Dayak (; older spelling: Dajak) or Dyak or Dayuh are one of the native groups of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic groups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each w ...

s, is strengthened by genetic data, suggesting Austroasiatic speakers were assimilated by Austronesian speakers. A study in November 2021 (Guo et al.) found that modern East-Eurasians can be modeled from four ancestry components, which descended from a common ancestor in Mainland Southeast Asia, one being the "Ancestral Austroasiatic" component (AAA), which is more prevalent among modern Southeast Asians, and making up the exclusive ancestry among Austroasiatic-speaking

Lua Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

and Mlabri people. The early Austroasiatic speakers are suggested to have been hunter-gatherers but became rice-agriculturalists quite early, spreading from Mainland Southeast Asia northwards to the Yangtze river, westwards into the Indian subcontinent, and southwards into Insular Southeast Asia. Evidence for these migrations are Austroasiatic loanwords related to rice-agriculture found among non-Austroasiatic languages, and the presence of Austroasiatic genetic ancestry. According to a recent genetic study,

Sundanese Sundanese may refer to: * Sundanese people * Sundanese language * Sundanese script Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (' ...

, Javanese, and Balinese, has almost an equal ratio of genetic marker shared between

and Austroasiatic heritages. Proto-Austroasiatic migration

Migration into India

According to Chaubey et al., "Austro-Asiatic speakers in India today are derived from dispersal from Southeast Asia, followed by extensive sex-specific admixture with local Indian populations." According to Riccio et al., the

Munda people The Munda people are an Austroasiatic speaking ethnic group of India. They predominantly speak the Mundari language as their native language, which belongs to the Munda subgroup of Austroasiatic languages. The Munda are found mainly concentr ...

are likely descended from Austroasiatic migrants from Southeast Asia. According to Zhang et al., Austroasiatic migrations from Southeast Asia into India took place after the last Glacial maximum, circa 10,000 years ago. Arunkumar et al., suggest Austroasiatic migrations from Southeast Asia occurred into Northeast India 5.2 ± 0.6 kya and into East India 4.3 ± 0.2 kya.

Notes

References

Sources

* Adams, K. L. (1989). ''Systems of numeral classification in the Mon–Khmer, Nicobarese and Aslian subfamilies of Austroasiatic''. Canberra, A.C.T., Australia: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. * * Alves, Mark J. (2015). Morphological functions among Mon-Khmer languages: beyond the basics. In N. J. Enfield & Bernard Comrie (eds.), ''Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: the state of the art''. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton, 531–557. * Bradley, David (2012).
Languages and Language Families in China
, in Rint Sybesma (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics''. * Chakrabarti, Byomkes. (1994). ''A Comparative Study of Santali and Bengali''. * * Diffloth, Gérard. (2005). "The contribution of linguistic palaeontology and Austro-Asiatic". in Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, eds. ''The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics.'' 77–80. London: Routledge Curzon. * Filbeck, D. (1978). ''T'in: a historical study''. Pacific linguistics, no. 49. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. * Hemeling, K. (1907). ''Die Nanking Kuanhua''. (German language) * Jenny, Mathias and Paul Sidwell, eds (2015).
The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages
'. Leiden: Brill. * Peck, B. M., Comp. (1988). ''An Enumerative Bibliography of South Asian Language Dictionaries''. * Peiros, Ilia. 1998. ''Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia.'' Pacific Linguistics Series C, No. 142. Canberra: Australian National University. * Shorto, Harry L. edited by Sidwell, Paul, Cooper, Doug and Bauer, Christian (2006).
A Mon–Khmer comparative dictionary
'. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics. * Shorto, H. L. ''Bibliographies of Mon–Khmer and Tai Linguistics''. London oriental bibliographies, v. 2. London: Oxford University Press, 1963. * * * * van Driem, George. (2007). Austroasiatic phylogeny and the Austroasiatic homeland in light of recent population genetic studies. ''Mon-Khmer Studies, 37'', 1-14. * Zide, Norman H., and Milton E. Barker. (1966) ''Studies in Comparative Austroasiatic Linguistics'', The Hague: Mouton (Indo-Iranian monographs, v. 5.). *

External links

* Swadesh lists for Austro-Asiatic languages (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
Austro-Asiatic
at the Linguist List MultiTree Project (not functional as of 2014): Genealogical trees attributed to Sebeok 1942, Pinnow 1959, Diffloth 2005, and Matisoff 2006

Mon–Khmer Languages Project
at SEAlang
Munda Languages Project
at SEAlang
RWAAI
(Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage) * http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-66A4-2@view RWAAI Digital Archive
Michel Ferlus's recordings of Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic) languages
(CNRS) {{Authority control Agglutinative languages Language families Sino-Austronesian languages