The East Asian languages are a language family (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)Conrady, August. 1916. Eine merkw rdige Beziehung zwischen den austrischen und den indochinesischen Sprachen. Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte vornehmlich des Orients: Ernst Kuhn zum 70. Geburtstage am 7. Februar 1916 gewidmet von Freunden und Schülern, 475-504. München: Verlag von M. & H. Marcus.Conrady, August. 1922. Neue austrisch-indochinesische Parallelen. Asia Major: Hirth Anniversary Volume, 23-66. London: Robsthan and Company. and Kurt Wulff (1934, 1942)Wulff, Kurt. 1934. Chinesisch und Tai: Sprachvergleichende Untersuchungen. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard.Wulff, Kurt. 1942 [posthumous]. Über das Verhältnis des Malay-Polynesischen zum Indochinesischen. Copenhagen: Munksgaard. Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien: Paul K. Benedict (1942),Benedict, Paul King. 1942. Thai, Kadai and Indonesia: A new alignment in southeastern Asia. American Anthropologist 44:576-601. Robert Blust (1996),Blust, Robert. 1996. Beyond the Austronesian homeland: The Austric hypothesis and its implications for archaeology. Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific, ed. by Ward H. Goodenough, 117-160. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. Ilia Peiros (1998)Peiros, Ilia. 1998. Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 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),Schlegel, Gustave. 1901. Review: ‘Elements of Siamese Grammar by O. Frankfurter, Ph.D., Bangkok: Printed at the American Presbyterian Mission Press, Leipzig, Karl W. Hiersemann, 1900’. T'oung Pao (Série II), II:76-87.Schlegel, Gustave. 1902. Siamese Studies. T'oung Pao, New Series II, Volume II, Supplement. Leiden. Weera Ostapirat (2005)Ostapirat, Weera. 2005. Kra-Dai and Austronesian: Notes on phonological correspondences and vocabulary distribution. The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics, ed. by Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, 107-131. London: Routledge Curzon.Ostapirat, Weera. 2013. Austro-Tai revisited. 23rd Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 29 May 2013. Austric (Austroasiatic and Austronesian): Wilhelm Schmidt (1906),Schmidt, Wilhelm. 1906. Die Mon-Khmer Völker, ein Bindeglied zwischen Völkern Zentral-Asiens und Austronesiens. Archiv für Anthropologie Neue Folge V:59-109. Lawrence Reid (1994, 2005)Reid, Lawrence A. 1994. Morphological evidence for Austric. Oceanic Linguistics 33.2:323-344.Reid, Lawrence A. 2005. The current status of Austric: a review and evaluation of the lexical and morphosyntactic evidence. The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics, ed. by Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, 132-160. London: Routledge Curzon, London.

Starosta (2005)

Stanley Starosta's (2005)Since Starosta died on July 18, 2002, his paper, originally written in 2001, was published posthumously. 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 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 farmers on the North China Plain (specifically the Han River, Wei River, and central Yellow River 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.van Driem, George. 2016. "", pp. 467-524, Vol. II in Elena Nikolaevna Kolpačkova, ed., Проблемы китайского и общего языкознания — Problems in Chinese and General Linguistics. St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Studija « NP-Print ».

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.van Driem, George. 2018. "", Journal of the Asiatic Society, LX (4): 1-38. (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.Larish, Michael. 2017. Proto-Asian and its branches: An archeolinguistic approach for the history of Eastern Asia. Linguistic Society of the Philippines.

East Asian Japano-Koreanic Japonic Koreanic Austro-Asian Austronesian Austroasiatic Kra–Dai Hmong–Mien Sino-Tibetan

Vocabulary 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)Matisoff, James A. 2015. The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus . Berkeley: University of California. (PDF ) Proto-Hmong–Mien: Ratliff (2010)Ratliff, Martha. 2010. Hmong–Mien language history. Canberra, Australia: Pacific Linguistics. . 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)Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2009. The Phonology of Proto-Tai. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Linguistics, Cornell University. Proto-Hlai: Norquest (2007)Norquest, Peter K. 2007. A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai . Ph.D. dissertation. Tucson: Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona. Proto-Kra: Ostapirat (2000)Ostapirat, Weera. 2000. "Proto-Kra ." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 23 (1): 1-251.

Sino-Tibetan Hmong–Mien Austroasiatic Austronesian Kra–Dai gloss Proto-Tibeto-Burman Proto-Hmong–Mien Proto-Austroasiatic Proto-Austronesian Proto-Tai Proto-Hlai Proto-Kra hair *(t)sam *pljei *sukˀ, *sɔkˀ *bukeS *prɤmA *hnom *m-səmA eye *s-myak *mu̯ɛjH *matˀ *maCa *p.taːA *tʃʰaː *m-ʈaA ear *r/g-na *mbræu *Ctoːr *Caliŋa *krwɯːA *ljəy *k-raA nose *s-na ~ *s-naːr *mbruiH *muːh, *muːɕ *ujuŋ *ɗaŋA *kʰət *hŋətD tooth *s/p-wa *hmjinʔ *muɲ, *məɲ *lipen, *n/ŋipen *wanA *fjən *l-pənA tongue *m/s-lay ~ *s-ley *mblet *lntaːkˀ *Sema, *lidam *liːnC *hliːnʔ *l-maA hand *lak ~ *C-yak *-bɔuʔ *tiːˀ *kamay *mwɯːA *C-mɯː *mjaA bone *s/m/g-rus *tshuŋʔ *cʔaːŋ *CuqelaN *C̥.dukD *Cuɾɯːk *dəkD blood *s-hywəy-t *ntshjamʔ *(m)ɕaːm *daRaq *lɯətD *alaːc *platD liver *m-sin *-hri̯ən *kləːm; *gre(ː)ɕ *qaCay *tapD *ɗəy *təpD meat, flesh *sya-n P-Mienic *ʔaB *sacˀ *Sesi *n.mɤːC *rəmʔ *ʔaɯC dog *d-kʷəy-n P-Hmongic *hmaŋC *cɔʔ *asu *ʰmaːA *hmaː *x-maA bird *s-ŋak *m-nɔk *ciːm *manuk *C̬.nokD *səc *ɳokD fish *s-ŋya *mbrəuʔ *kaʔ *Sikan *plaːA *hlaː *p-laA louse *s-r(y)ik *ntshjeiʔ *ciʔ *kuCux *trawA *tʃʰwəw *C-ʈuA leaf *lay P-Hmongic *mblɔŋA,P-Mienic *nɔmA *slaʔ *waSaw *ɓaɰA *ɓɯː *ɖiŋA sun, day *s-nəy P-Mienic *hnu̯ɔiA *tŋiːˀ *waRi, *qajaw *ŋwanA *hŋwən *(l-/h)wənA moon *s/g-la *hlaH *khe(ː)ʔ *bulaN, *qiNaS *ɓlɯənA *C-ɲaːn *(C-)tjanA water *m-t(w)əy-n ~ *m-ti-s *ʔu̯əm *ɗaːkˀ; Pal. *ʔoːm *daNum *C̬.namC *C-nəmʔ *ʔuŋC rain *r/s/g-wa P-Hmongic *m-noŋC *gmaːˀ *quzaN *C̥.wɯnA *fun *jəlA fire *mey *douʔ *ʔuːɕ *Sapuy *wɤjA *fiː *puiA name *r-mi(ŋ/n) *mpɔuH *ɟmuh, *ɟmɨh *ŋajan *ɟɤːB *pʰaːŋ *n(ʒ)iA eat *m-dz(y)a-k/n/t/s P-Mienic *ɲənC *ca(ː)ʔ *kaen *kɯɲA *kʰən *kanA die *səy *dəjH *kceːt *ma-aCay *p.taːjA *hlaːwɦ *pɣonA I *ŋa-y ~ *ka P-Hmongic *kɛŋB *ʔaɲ -ku *kuːA *ɦuː *kuA you (sg.) *na-ŋ *mu̯ei *miːˀ, *meːˀ -mu *mɯŋA *C-mɯː *məA/B

Distributions

See also Father tongue hypothesis Classification of Southeast Asian languages Sino-Austronesian languages Austric languages Austro-Tai languages Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area Haplogroup O (Y-DNA) Languages of East Asia Languages of Southeast Asia Languages of China

Notes and references

External links