Austro Asiatic languages Austro Asiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages are a large language family of Southeast Asia and India The name comes from the Greek word for South Asia.
Austroasiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across India and Southeast Asia separated by regions where other languages are spoken It is widely believed that the Austroasiatic languages are the autochthonous languages of Southeast Asia and eastern India and that the other languages of the region including the Indo European Tai Kadai and Sino Tibetan languages are the result of later migrations of people There are for example Austroasiatic words in the Tibeto Burman languages of eastern Nepal Some linguists have attempted to prove that Austroasiatic languages are related to Austronesian languages thus forming the Austric superfamily.
Linguists traditionally recognize two major divisions of Austroasiatic the Mon Khmer languages of Southeast Asia and the Munda languages of east central and central India Ethnologue identifies Austroasiatic languages of which are Mon Khmer languages and are Munda languages However no evidence for this classification has ever been published and it remains speculative.
Each of the subdivisions of the classification below that is written in boldface type is accepted as a valid family However the relationships between these families within Austroasiatic is debated It should be noted that little of the data used for competing classifications has ever been published and therefore cannot be evaluated by peer review The classification used here is that of Diffloth in press which does not accept traditional Mon Khmer as a valid unit.
 Munda languages India. Koraput languages. Core Munda languages
 Kharian Juang languages. North Munda languages
 Korku language. Kherwarian languages.
 Khasi Khmuic languages
 Khasian languages of eastern India and Bangladesh. Palaungo Khmuic languages
 Khmuic languages of Laos and Thailand.
 Palaungo Pakanic languages
 Pakanic or Palyu languages of southern China
 Palaungic languages of Myanmar southern China and Thailand plus Mang of Vietnam.
 Core Mon Khmer languages
 Khmero Vietic languages
 Vieto Katuic languages
 Viet Muong or Vietic languages of Vietnam and Laos includes the Vietnamese language which has the most speakers of any Austroasiatic language These are the only Austroasiatic languages to have highly developed tone systems. Katuic languages of Laos Vietnam and Thailand.
 Khmero Bahnaric languages
 Bahnaric languages of Vietnam Laos and Cambodia. Khmeric languages
 The Khmer language of Cambodia Thailand and Vietnam. Pearic languages of Cambodia.
 Nico Monic languages
 Nicobarese languages languages of the Nicobar Islands a territory of India.
 Asli Monic languages
 Aslian languages of peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. Monic languages includes the Mon language of Myanmar and the Nyahkur language of Thailand.
There are in addition several unclassified languages of southern China.