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The East Asian languages are a
Stanley Starosta's (2005) East Asian proposal includes a "Yangzian" branch, consisting of Austroasiatic and Hmong–Mien, to form an East Asian superphylum. However, Starosta believes his proposed Yangzian to be a direct
According to van Driem, the linguistic evidence for the East Asian languages matches the genetic evidence from Y-DNA Haplogroup O. (Further information: Father Tongue hypothesis)
Proto-Kra
." ''Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area'' 23 (1): 1-251.
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
(alternatively '' macrofamily'' or ''superphylum'') proposed by Stanley Starosta in 2001. The proposal has since been adopted by George van Driem and others.
Classifications
Early proposals
Early proposals of similar linguistic macrophylla, in narrower scope: *''Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra-Dai, Tibeto-Burman'': August Conrady (1916, 1922) and Kurt Wulff (1934, 1942) *''Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra-Dai, Hmong-Mien'': Paul K. Benedict (1942), Robert Blust (1996), Ilia Peiros (1998) *''Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra-Dai, Tibeto-Burman, Hmong-Mien'': Stanley Starosta (2001) Precursors to the East Asian proposal: *'' Austro-Tai'' (Kra-Dai and Austronesian): Gustave Schlegel (1901, 1902), Weera Ostapirat (2005) *'' Austric'' (Austroasiatic and Austronesian): Wilhelm Schmidt (1906), Lawrence Reid (1994, 2005)Starosta (2005)
Stanley Starosta's (2005) East Asian proposal includes a "Yangzian" branch, consisting of Austroasiatic and Hmong–Mien, to form an East Asian superphylum. However, Starosta believes his proposed Yangzian to be a direct sister
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...
of Sino-Tibetan rather than Austronesian, which is more distantly related to Sino-Tibetan as a sister of Sino-Tibetan-Yangzian. He concludes Proto-East Asian was a disyllabic (CVCVC) language spoken from 6,500 to 6,000 BCE by Peiligang culture and Cishan culture 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 millets belong to the tribe Paniceae.
Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...
farmers on the North China Plain
The North China Plain () is a large-scale downfaulted rift basin formed in the late Paleogene and Neogene and then modified by the deposits of the Yellow River. It is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bordered to the north by th ...
(specifically the Han River, Wei River, and central Yellow River
The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...
areas).
*East Asian
** Austronesian
***(various Formosan branches)
***Extra-Formosan
**** Tai–Kadai
**** Malayo-Polynesian
**Sino-Tibetan-Yangzian
*** Sino-Tibetan
***Yangzian
**** Austroasiatic
**** Hmong–Mien
Starosta (2005) proposes the following Proto-East Asian morphological affixes, which are found in Proto-Tibeto-Burman and Proto-Austronesian, as well as in some morphologically conservative Austroasiatic branches such as Nicobaric.
* *m(V)- 'agent of V-ing'
* *-Vn 'patient of V-ing'
* *sV- 'instrument of V-ing'
* *n(V)- 'perfective'
van Driem (2012)
The following tree of East Asian superphylum (macrofamily) was proposed by George van Driem in 2012 at the 18th Himalayan Languages Symposium, held at the Benares Hindu University.van Driem, George. 2013. "", ''Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics'', 7 (1): 135-188. *East Asian ** Austro-Tai *** Kradai *** Austronesian ** Austroasiatic **Himalayan-Yangtzean *** Trans-Himalayan **** Sino-Bodic **** Burmo-Qiangic **** Brahmaputran **** Gongduk, etc. **** Kiranti, etc. ***Yangtzean **** Hmong–Mien
According to van Driem, the linguistic evidence for the East Asian languages matches the genetic evidence from Y-DNA Haplogroup O. (Further information: Father Tongue hypothesis)
Larish (2006, 2017)
According to Michael D. Larish, the languages of Southeast and East Asia descended from one proto-language (which he calls "Proto-Asian"). Japonic is grouped together with Koreanic as one branch of the Proto-Asian family. The other branch consists of the Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Kra-Dai, Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan languages. *East Asian **Japano-Koreanic *** Japonic *** Koreanic **Austro-Asian *** Austronesian *** Austroasiatic *** Kra-Dai *** Hmong-Mien *** Sino-TibetanVocabulary comparison
Below is a comparison of basic vocabulary items for proto-languages of all 5 East Asian language families. ;Sources * Proto-Tibeto-Burman: Matisoff (2015) * Proto-Hmong-Mien: Ratliff (2010) * Proto-Austroasiatic: Sidwell (2024); Sidwell & Rau (2015)Sidwell, Paul and Felix Rau (2015). "Austroasiatic Comparative-Historical Reconstruction: An Overview." In Jenny, Mathias and Paul Sidwell, eds (2015). ''The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages''. Leiden: Brill. * Proto-Austronesian: Blust & Trussel (2020) * Proto-Tai: Pittayaporn (2009) * Proto-Hlai: Norquest (2007) * Proto-Kra: Ostapirat (2000)Ostapirat, Weera. 2000.Proto-Kra
." ''Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area'' 23 (1): 1-251.
Distributions
See also
* Father Tongue hypothesis * Classification of Southeast Asian languages ** Sino-Austronesian languages **Austric languages
The Austric languages are a proposed language family that includes the Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Madagascar, as well as Kra–Dai and Austroasiatic languages spoken in Mainland Sout ...
** Austro-Tai languages
* Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area
* Haplogroup O (Y-DNA)
* Languages of East Asia
* Languages of Southeast Asia
*Languages of China
There are several hundred languages in the People's Republic of China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on Beijing dialect, Beijingese, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as ''Hany ...
Notes and references
External links
* {{Eurasian languages Proposed language families