The Current State of Linguistic Research on the Relatedness of the Language Families of East and Southeast Asia

Abstract

The current state of knowledge on the relatedness of the major language families of East and Southeast Asia is summarized following a major conference on this topic in Hawai‘i in 1993. It is concluded that the Austric hypothesis linking the Austronesian and Austroasiatic language families is based on good evidence and the “homeland” of Austric was perhaps in the middle Yangzi Valley. On the other hand, the hypotheses suggesting common roots between Austro–Thai and Austronesian, and between Japanese and Austronesian, did not find much support and the numerous similarities can best be explained as the result of language contact. The relationship between Chinese and Austronesian was not resolved and merits more study.