LANGUAGE FAMILIES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Résumé
This chapter briefly describes the state of the art of linguistic research on the main language
families represented in Southeast Asia: Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai,
Hmong-Mien, and Sino-Tibetan. It reviews the vocabulary of agriculture, and more generally
of subsistence, that can be reconstructed to each family’s proto-language. It attempts
to clarify the dates and locations of the respective proto-languages and to throw light on
the circumstances surrounding the population expansions that gave rise to them. The
deepest linguistic divide in the region is thought to be between Austroasiatic and the rest.
Kra-Dai is regarded as a subgroup of Austronesian. Based on original observations by M.
Ratliff, the author suggests that Hmong-Mien and Austronesian (including Kra-Dai) are
sister families. It is further argued that this large south-eastern group is related to Sino-
Tibetan, with an origin in the language of the Císhān-Péilǐgāng culture of northern Chinese
neolithic millet farmers.
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