Proto-Austroasiatic language

Proto-Austroasiatic
Proto-Mon–Khmer
Reconstruction ofAustroasiatic languages
RegionSouthern China[1]
Erac. 3000 BCE – c. 2000 BCE
Lower-order reconstructions

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 new Proto-Austroasiatic reconstruction is currently being undertaken by Paul Sidwell.[2]

Scholars generally date the ancestral language to c. 3000 BCE – c. 2000 BCE with a homeland in southern China or the Mekong River valley. Sidwell (2022) proposes that the locus of Proto-Austroasiatic was in the Red River Delta area around c. 2500 BCE – c. 2000 BCE.[3] Genetic and linguistic research in 2015 about ancient people in East Asia suggest an origin and homeland of Austroasiatic in today southern China or even further north.[4]

500 Proto-Austroasiatic etyma were published by Paul Sidwell in 2024.[5]

  1. ^ Zhang, Xiaoming; Liao, Shiyu; Qi, Xuebin; Liu, Jiewei; Kampuansai, Jatupol; Zhang, Hui; Yang, Zhaohui; Serey, Bun; Tuot, Sovannary (20 October 2015). Y-chromosome diversity suggests southern origin and Paleolithic backwave migration of Austro- Asiatic speakers from eastern Asia to the Indian subcontinent OPEN. Vol. 5.
  2. ^ Alves, Mark; Sidwell, Paul James (2022). "Re-evaluating Shorto's Austroasiatic Reconstructions ("Will the Real Austroasiatic Etyma Please Stand Up?")". 10th International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics (ICAAL10). doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.22170.72645. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  3. ^ Sidwell, Paul (28 January 2022). Alves, Mark; Sidwell, Paul (eds.). "Austroasiatic Dispersal: the AA "Water-World" Extended". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society: Papers from the 30th Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2021). 15 (3): 95–111. doi:10.5281/zenodo.5773247. ISSN 1836-6821. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  4. ^ Zhang, Xiaoming; Liao, Shiyu; Qi, Xuebin; Liu, Jiewei; Kampuansai, Jatupol; Zhang, Hui; Yang, Zhaohui; Serey, Bun; Tuot, Sovannary (20 October 2015). Y-chromosome diversity suggests southern origin and Paleolithic backwave migration of Austro- Asiatic speakers from eastern Asia to the Indian subcontinent OPEN. Vol. 5.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sidwell 500 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).