View source for Social:Austric languages

{{Short description|Hypothetical parent family of the Austroasiatic and Austronesian languages}}
{{Infobox language family
| name = Austric
| acceptance = proposed
| region = [[Place:Southeast Asia|Southeast Asia]], Pacific Islands, [[Place:South Asia|South Asia]], [[Place:East Asia|East Asia]], {{wipe|Madagascar}}
| familycolor = Superfamily
| family = Proposed language family
| child1 = [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]
| child2 = [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]
| child3 = ([[Social:Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]] – sometimes included)
| child4 = ([[Social:Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]] – sometimes included)
| glotto = none
| ancestor = 
| glottoname = 
| glottorefname = 
| notes = 
| map = Austric Languages.png
| mapcaption = The distribution of Austric languages
{{legend|#ff0000|[[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]}}
{{legend|#ffa600|[[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]}}
{{legend|#81c178|Kra-Dai}}
{{legend|#6186cb|Hmong-Mien}}
}}

The '''Austric languages''' are a proposed language family that includes the [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian languages]] spoken in Taiwan, [[Place:Maritime Southeast Asia|Maritime Southeast Asia]], the Pacific Islands, and {{wipe|Madagascar}}, as well as Kra–Dai and [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic languages]] spoken in [[Place:Mainland Southeast Asia|Mainland Southeast Asia]] and [[Place:South Asia|South Asia]]. A genetic relationship between these language families is seen as plausible by some scholars, but remains unproven.{{sfnp|Reid|2009}}{{sfnp|Blust|2013|pp=696–703}}

Additionally, [[Social:Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien languages]] are included by some linguists, and even [[Social:Japanese language|Japanese]] was speculated to be Austric in an early version of the hypothesis by Paul K. Benedict.{{sfnp|van Driem|2001|p=298}}

==History==
The Austric macrofamily was first proposed by the German missionary Wilhelm Schmidt in 1906. He showed [[Social:Phonology|phonological]], [[Social:Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]], and lexical evidence to support the existence of an Austric phylum consisting of [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] and [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian]].{{sfnp|Schmidt|1906}}{{efn|The terms "Austroasiatic" and "Austronesian" were in fact both coined by Schmidt. The previous common designations "Mon-Khmer" and "Malayo-Polynesian" are still in use, but each with a scope that is more limited than "Austroasiatic" and "Austronesian".}} Schmidt's proposal had a mixed reception among scholars of Southeast Asian languages, and received only little scholarly attention in the following decades.{{sfnp|Blust|2013|p=697}}

Research interest into Austric resurged in the late 20th century,<ref>{{harvp|Shorto|1976}}, {{harvp|Diffloth|1990}}, {{harvp|Diffloth|1994}}.</ref> culminating in a series of articles by La Vaughn H. Hayes who presented a corpus of Proto-Austric vocabulary together with a reconstruction of Proto-Austric phonology,<ref>{{harvp|Hayes|1992}}, {{harvp|Hayes|1997}}, {{harvp|Hayes|1999}}, {{harvp|Hayes|2000}}, {{harvp|Hayes|2001}}.</ref> and by Lawrence Reid, focussing on morphological evidence.<ref>{{harvp|Reid|1994}}, {{harvp|Reid|1999}}, {{harvp|Reid|2005}}.</ref>

== Evidence ==
Reid (2005) lists the following pairs as "probable" cognates between [[Social:Proto-Austroasiatic|Proto-Austroasiatic]] and [[Social:Proto-Austronesian|Proto-Austronesian]].{{sfnp|Reid|2005|p=150–151}}

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center
! Gloss
! ashes !! dog !! snake !! belly !! eye !! father !! mother !! rotten !! buy
|-
! Proto-Austroasiatic
| *qabuh || *cu(q) || *[su](l̩)aR || *taʔal/*tiʔal || *mə(n)ta(q) || *(qa)ma(ma) || *(na)na || *ɣok || *pə[l̩]i
|-
! Proto-Austronesian
| *qabu || *asu || *SulaR || *tiaN || *maCa || *t-ama || *t-ina || *ma-buRuk || *beli
|}

Among the morphological evidence, he compares reconstructed affixes such as the following, and notes that shared infixes are less likely to be borrowed (for a further discussion of infixes in Southeast Asian languages, see also Barlow 2022<ref>Barlow, Russell. 2022. ''[https://seals31.sched.com/event/11UvQ/infix-preservation-and-loss-in-southeast-asia-typological-and-areal-factors Infix preservation and loss in Southeast Asia: Typological and areal factors]''. Presentation given at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 31), [[Organization:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa|University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa]], May 18–20, 2022. ([https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/seals31/f0/Barlow_infixes_SEALS31%20-%20Russell%20Barlow.pdf slides])</ref>).{{sfnp|Reid|2005|p=146}}
* prefix *pa- 'causative' (Proto-Austroasiatic, Proto-Austronesian)
* infix *-um- 'agentive' (Proto-Austroasiatic, Proto-Austronesian)
* infix *-in- 'instrumental' (Proto-Austroasiatic), 'nominalizer' (Proto-Austronesian)

Below are 10 selected Austric lexical comparisons by Diffloth (1994), as cited in Sidwell & Reid (2021):<ref name="WOL-MSEA-15">{{cite book|last1=Sidwell|first1=Paul|last2=Reid|first2=Lawrence A.|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia|chapter=Language macro-families and distant phylogenetic relations in MSEA|publisher=De Gruyter|date=2021|doi=10.1515/9783110558142-015|pages=261–276|isbn=9783110558142|s2cid=238653052}}</ref><ref>Diffloth, Gérard. 1994. The lexical evidence for Austric, so far. ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 33(2): 309–322.</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Gloss !! [[Social:Proto-Austroasiatic|Proto-Austroasiatic]] !! [[Social:Proto-Austronesian|Proto-Austronesian]]
|-
| ‘fish’ || *ʔaka̰ːʔ || *Sikan
|-
| ‘dog’ || *ʔac(ṵə)ʔ || *asu
|-
| ‘wood’ || *kəɟh(uː)ʔ || *kaSi
|-
| ‘eye’ || *ma̰t || *maCa
|-
| ‘bone’ || *ɟlʔaːŋ || *CuqelaN
|-
| ‘hair’ || *s(ɔ)k || *bukeS
|-
| ‘bamboo rat’ || Khmu dəkən || Malay ''dəkan''
|-
| ‘molar’ || Khmer thkìəm || Malay ''gərham''
|-
| ‘left’ || p-Monic *ɟwiːʔ || *ka-wiʀi
|-
| ‘ashes’ || Stieng *buh || *qabu
|}

== Extended proposals ==
The first extension to Austric was first proposed Wilhelm Schmidt himself, who speculated about including Japanese within Austric, mainly because of assumed similarities between Japanese and the Austronesian languages.{{sfnp|Schmidt|1930}} While the proposal about a link between Austronesian and Japanese still enjoys some following as a separate hypothesis, the inclusion of Japanese was not adopted by later proponents of Austric.

In 1942, Paul K. Benedict provisionally accepted the Austric hypothesis and extended it to include the [[Social:Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai (Thai–Kadai) languages]] as an immediate sister branch to [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian]], and further speculated on the possibility to include the [[Social:Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien (Miao–Yao) languages]] as well.{{sfnp|Benedict|1942}} However, he later abandoned the Austric proposal in favor of an extended version of the [[Social:Austro-Tai languages|Austro-Tai hypothesis]].{{sfnp|Benedict|1991}}

Sergei Starostin adopted Benedict's extended 1942 version of Austric (i.e. including Kra–Dai and Hmong–Mien) within the framework of his larger Dené–Daic proposal, with Austric as a coordinate branch to [[Social:Dené–Caucasian languages|Dené–Caucasian]], as shown in the tree below.<ref>Cited in {{harvp|van Driem|2005|p=309}}</ref>
{{clade
|label1=Dene-Daic
|1={{clade 
   |1={{clade
      |label1=&nbsp;'''Austric'''&nbsp;
      |sublabel1=''sensu lato''
      |1={{clade
         |1={{clade
            |label1=&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
            |1=[[Social:Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]]
            |2=[[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]
            }}
         |2={{clade
            |label1=[[Social:Austro-Tai languages|Austro-Tai]]
            |1={{clade
               |1=[[Social:Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]]
               |2=[[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]
               }}
            }}
         }}
      }}
   |2=[[Social:Dené–Caucasian languages|Dené–Caucasian]]
   }}
}}
Another long-range proposal for wider connections of Austric was brought forward by John Bengtson, who grouped Nihali and [[Social:Ainu language|Ainu]] together with [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]], [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian]], [[Social:Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]], and [[Social:Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]] in a "Greater Austric" family.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bengtson |first=John D. |year=2006 |title=A Multilateral Look at Greater Austric |journal=Mother Tongue |volume=11 |pages=219–258 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6158955}}</ref>

== Reception ==

In the second half of the last century, Paul K. Benedict raised a vocal critique of the Austric proposal, eventually calling it an 'extinct' proto-language.{{sfnp|Benedict|1976}}{{sfnp|Benedict|1991}}

Hayes' lexical comparisons, which were presented as supporting evidence for Austric between 1992 and 2001, were criticized for the greater part as methodologically unsound by several reviewers.{{sfnp|Reid|2005|p=134}}{{sfnp|Blust|2013|pp=700–703}} Robert Blust, a leading scholar in the field of Austronesian comparative linguistics, pointed out "the radical disjunction of morphological and lexical evidence" which characterizes the Austric proposal; while he accepts the morphological correspondences between Austronesian and Austroasiatic as possible evidence for a remote genetic relationship, he considers the lexical evidence unconvincing.{{sfnp|Blust|2013|pp=703}}

A 2015 analysis using the [[Social:Automated Similarity Judgment Program|Automated Similarity Judgment Program]] (ASJP) did not support the Austric hypothesis. In this analysis, the supposed "core" components of Austric were assigned to two separate, unrelated clades: Austro-Tai and Austroasiatic-Japonic.{{sfnp|Jäger|2015|p=12754}} Note however that ASJP is not widely accepted among historical linguists as an adequate method to establish or evaluate relationships between language families.<ref>Cf. comments by Adelaar, Blust and Campbell in {{harvp|Holman|2011}}.</ref>

==Distributions==
{{gallery
|width=225
|File:Austroasiatic-en.svg|Distribution of [[Social:Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic languages]]
|File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|Distribution of [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian languages]]
|File:Taikadai-en.svg|Distribution of [[Social:Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai languages]]
|File:Hmong-Mien-en.svg|Distribution of [[Social:Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien languages]]
}}

==See also==
* [[Social:East Asian languages|East Asian languages]]
* [[Social:Austro-Tai languages|Austro-Tai languages]]
* [[Social:Sino-Austronesian languages|Sino-Austronesian languages]]
* Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area
* Classification of Southeast Asian languages

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin|2|indent=yes}}

* {{cite journal |last=Benedict |first=Paul K. |year=1942 |title=Thai, Kadai, and Indonesian: A New Alignment in Southeastern Asia |journal=American Anthropologist |issue=44 |volume=4 |pages=576–601|doi=10.1525/aa.1942.44.4.02a00040 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book |last=Benedict |first=Paul K. |author-mask=3 |year=1976 |chapter=Austro-Thai and Austroasiatic |editor-first1=Philip N. |editor-last1=Jenner| editor-first2=Laurence C. |editor-last2=Thompson |editor-first3=Stanley |editor-last3=Starosta |title=Austroasiatic Studies, Part I |series=Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications |issue=13 |pages=1–36 |location=Honolulu |publisher=University of Hawai{{okina}}i Press |jstor=20019153 }}
* {{cite book |last=Benedict |first=Paul K. |author-mask=3 |year=1991 |chapter=Austric: An 'Extinct' Proto-language |editor-last=Davidson |editor-first=Jeremy H. C. S. |title=Austroasiatic Languages: Essays in Honour of H. L. Shorto |pages=7–11 |location=London |publisher=School of Oriental and African Studies }}
* {{cite book |last=Blust |first=Robert |title=The Austronesian Languages |edition=revised |publisher=Australian National University |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-922185-07-5 |hdl=1885/10191 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Diffloth |first=Gerard |year=1990 |title=What Happened to Austric? |journal=Mon–Khmer Studies |volume=16–17 |pages=1–9 |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/diffloth1987-1988what.pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last=Diffloth |first=Gerard |author-mask=3 |year=1994 |title=The lexical evidence for Austric so far |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=309–321 |doi=10.2307/3623131 |jstor=3623131 }}
* {{Cite book |last=van Driem |first=George |date=2001 |title=Languages of the Himalayas. |series=Vol. 1 |location=Leiden |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9004120629 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiavPYCz4dYC&pg=PA298}}
* {{cite book |last=van Driem |first=George |author-mask=3 |chapter=Sino-Austronesian vs. Sino-Caucasian, Sino-Bodic vs. Sino-Tibetan, and Tibeto-Burman as default theory |pages=285–338 |chapter-url=http://himalayanlanguages.org/files/driem/pdfs/2005Sino-Caucasian.pdf |title=Contemporary Issues in Nepalese Linguistics |editor-first=Yogendra P. |editor-last=Yadava |publisher=Linguistic Society of Nepal |year=2005 |isbn=978-99946-57-69-8 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hayes |first=La Vaughn H. |year=1992 |title=On the Track of Austric, Part I: Introduction |journal=Mon–Khmer Studies |volume=21 |pages=143–77 |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/hayes1992track.pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hayes |first=La Vaughn H. |author-mask=3 |year=1997 |title=On the Track of Austric, Part II: Consonant Mutation in Early Austroasiatic |journal=Mon–Khmer Studies |volume=27 |pages=13–41 |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/hayes1997track.pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hayes |first=La Vaughn H. |author-mask=3 |year=1999 |title=On the Track of Austric, Part III: Basic Vocabulary Correspondence |journal=Mon–Khmer Studies |volume=29 |pages=1–34 |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/hayes1999track.pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hayes |first=La Vaughn H. |author-mask=3 |year=2000 |title=The Austric Denti-alveolar Sibilants |journal=Mother Tongue |volume=5 |pages=1–12 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hayes |first=La Vaughn H. |author-mask=3 |year=2001 |title=On the Origin of Affricates in Austric |journal=Mother Tongue |volume=6 |pages=95–117 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Holman |first=Eric W. |year=2011 |title=Automated Dating of the World's Language Families Based on Lexical Similarity |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=52 |issue=6 |pages=841–875 |doi=10.1086/662127|hdl=2066/94255 |s2cid=60838510 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/132915/1/Holmanetal2011_AutomatedDatingWorld%27sLanguageFamilies.pdf |hdl-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |first=Gerhard |last=Jäger |title=Support for linguistic macrofamilies from weighted sequence alignment |journal=PNAS |volume=112 |issue=41 |pages=12752–12757 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1500331112 |pmid=26403857 |pmc=4611657 |year=2015 |bibcode=2015PNAS..11212752J |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last=Reid |first=Lawrence A. |year=1994 |title=Morphological evidence for Austric |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/32987/1/A39.1994.pdf |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=323–344 |doi=10.2307/3623132 |jstor=3623132 |hdl=10125/32987 |hdl-access=free }}
* {{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Lawrence A. |author-mask=3 |year=1999 |chapter=New linguistic evidence for the Austric hypothesis |title=Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics |editor-last1=Zeitoun |editor-first1=Elizabeth |editor-last2=Li |editor-first2=Paul Jen-kuei |location=Taipei |publisher=Academia Sinica |pages=5–30 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Lawrence A. |author-mask=3 |year=2005 |chapter=The current status of Austric: A review and evaluation of the lexical and morphosyntactic evidence |title=The peopling of East Asia: putting together archaeology, linguistics and genetics |editor-first1=Laurent |editor-last1=Sagart |editor-first2=Roger |editor-last2=Blench |editor-first3=Alicia |editor-last3=Sanchez-Mazas |location=London |publisher=Routledge Curzon |hdl=10125/33009 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Lawrence A. |author-mask=3 |year=2009 |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Keith |editor2-last=Ogilvie |editor2-first=Sarah |title=Concise Encyclopaedia of Languages of the World |publisher=Elsevier |location=Oxford |pages=92–94 |chapter=Austric Hypothesis }}
* {{cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Wilhelm |year=1906 |title=Die Mon–Khmer-Völker, ein Bindeglied zwischen Völkern Zentralasiens und Austronesiens ('[The Mon–Khmer Peoples, a Link between the Peoples of Central Asia and Austronesia') |journal=Archiv für Anthropologie |volume=5 |pages=59–109 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Wilhelm |author-mask=3 |year=1930 |title=Die Beziehungen der austrischen Sprachen zum Japanischen ('The connections of the Austric languages to Japanese') |journal=Wiener Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte und Linguistik |volume=1  |pages=239–51 }}.
* {{cite journal |last=Shorto |first=H. L. |year=1976 |title=In Defense of Austric |journal=Computational Analyses of Asian and African Languages |volume=6 |pages=95–104 }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Solnit|first=David B.|date=1992|title=Japanese/Austro-Tai By Paul K. Benedict (review)|journal=Language|language=en|volume=68|issue=1|pages=188–196|doi=10.1353/lan.1992.0061|s2cid=141811621|issn=1535-0665 }}

{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|2}}
* Blazhek, Vaclav. 2000. Comments on Hayes "The Austric Denti-alveolar Sibilants". Mother Tongue V:15-17.
* Blust, Robert. 1996. Beyond the Austronesian homeland: The Austric hypothesis and its implications for archaeology. In: Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific, ed. by Ward H.Goodenough, {{ISBN|978-0-87169-865-0}} DIANE Publishing Co, Collingdale PA, 1996, pp.&nbsp;117–137. (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 86.5. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society).
* Blust, Robert. 2000. Comments on Hayes, "The Austric Denti-alveolar Sibilants". Mother Tongue V:19-21.
* Fleming, Hal. 2000. LaVaughn Hayes and Robert Blust Discuss Austric. Mother Tongue V:29-32.
* Hayes, La Vaughn H. 2000. Response to Blazhek's Comments. Mother Tongue V:33-4.
* Hayes, La Vaughn H. 2000. Response to Blust's Comments. Mother Tongue V:35-7.
* Hayes, La Vaughn H. 2000. Response to Fleming's Comments. Mother Tongue V:39-40.
* Hayes, La Vaughn H. 2001. Response to Sidwell. Mother Tongue VI:123-7.
*Larish, Michael D. 2006. [http://www.philippines-languages.sil.org/ical/papers/larish-proto_asian.pdf Possible Proto-Asian Archaic Residue and the Statigraphy of Diffusional Cumulation in Austro-Asian Languages]. Paper presented at the Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, 17–20 January 2006, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines.
* Reid, Lawrence A. 1996. The current state of linguistic research on the relatedness of the language families of East and Southeast Asia. In: Ian C. Glover and Peter Bellwood, editorial co-ordinators, Indo-Pacific Prehistory: The Chiang Mai Papers, Volume 2, pp . 87–91. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 15. Canberra: Australian National University.
* Sidwell, Paul. 2001. Comments on La Vaughn H. Hayes' "On the Origin of Affricates in Austric". Mother Tongue VI:119-121.
* Van Driem, George. 2000. Four Austric Theories. Mother Tongue V:23-27.
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040805021947/http://home.att.net/~lvhayes/Langling/Glossary/glosspg1.htm Glossary of purported lexical links among Austronesian and Austroasiatic languages]
* Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120422063515/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/classification.php?node=Austronesian Austronesian], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120422063544/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/classification.php?node=Tai-Kadai Tai–Kadai], [https://web.archive.org/web/20130605092357/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/classification.php?node=Hmong-Mien, Hmong–Mien], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120422104851/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/classification.php?node=Austro-Asiatic, Austro-Asiatic] word lists

{{Tai-Kadai languages}}
{{Hmong-Mien languages}}
{{Eurasian languages}}


[[Category:Proposed language families]]

{{Sourceattribution|Austric languages}}