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{{Short description|Hypothetical parent family of the Austroasiatic and Austronesian languages}}
{{Infobox language family
| name = Austric
| acceptance = proposed
| region = [[Southeast Asia]], [[Pacific Islands]], [[South Asia]], [[East Asia]], [[Madagascar]]
| familycolor = Superfamily
| family = Proposed language family
| child1 = [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]
| child2 = [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]
| child3 = [[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]] – sometimes included
| child4 = [[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|[[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]}}
{{legend|#ffa600|[[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]}}
{{legend|#81c178|[[Kra-Dai languages|Kra-Dai]]}}
{{legend|#6186cb|[[Hmong-Mien languages|Hmong-Mien]]}}
}}

The '''Austric languages''' are a proposed language family that includes the [[Austronesian languages]] spoken in [[Taiwan]], [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], the [[Pacific Islands]], and [[Madagascar]], as well as [[Kra–Dai]] and [[Austroasiatic languages]] spoken in [[Mainland Southeast Asia]] and [[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, [[Hmong–Mien languages]] are included by some linguists, and even [[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 (linguist)|Wilhelm Schmidt]] in 1906. He showed [[phonology|phonological]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]], and [[lexical semantics|lexical]] evidence to support the existence of an Austric phylum consisting of [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] and [[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 [[Proto-Austroasiatic]] and [[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 [[infix]]es 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), [[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 [[Gerard Diffloth|Diffloth]] (1994), as cited in [[Paul Sidwell|Sidwell]] & [[Lawrence A. Reid|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 !! [[Proto-Austroasiatic]] !! [[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 languages|Monic]] *ɟwiːʔ || *ka-wiʀi
|-
| ‘ashes’ || [[Stieng language|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 [[Classification of the Japonic languages#Proposals relating Japonic languages to Southeast Asian language families|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 [[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai (Thai–Kadai) languages]] as an immediate sister branch to [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]], and further speculated on the possibility to include the [[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 [[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 [[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='''Austric'''
|sublabel1=''sensu lato''
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|label1=
|1=[[Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]]
|2=[[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]
}}
|2={{clade
|label1=[[Austro-Tai languages|Austro-Tai]]
|1={{clade
|1=[[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]]
|2=[[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]
}}
}}
}}
}}
|2=[[Dené–Caucasian languages|Dené–Caucasian]]
}}
}}
Another long-range proposal for wider connections of Austric was brought forward by [[John Bengtson]], who grouped [[Nihali language|Nihali]] and [[Ainu language|Ainu]] together with [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]], [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]], [[Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]], and [[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 [[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 [[Austroasiatic languages]]
|File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|Distribution of [[Austronesian languages]]
|File:Taikadai-en.svg|Distribution of [[Kra–Dai languages]]
|File:Hmong-Mien-en.svg|Distribution of [[Hmong–Mien languages]]
}}

==See also==
* [[East Asian languages]]
* [[Austro-Tai languages]]
* [[Sino-Austronesian languages]]
* [[Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area]]
* [[Classification of Southeast Asian languages]]
* [[Haplogroup O-M175]]

==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 |author-link=George van Driem |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.
* [[Robert Blust|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. 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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703220442/http://www.philippines-languages.sil.org/ical/papers/larish-proto_asian.pdf |date=2018-07-03 }}. Paper presented at the Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, 17–20 January 2006, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines.
* Ostapirat, Weera. 2018. "[https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=7894&file_id=22&file_no=1 Macrophyletic Trees of East Asian Languages Re examined]." In ''Let's Talk About Trees'', ed. by Ritsuko Kikusawa and Lawrence A. Reid. Osaka: Senri Ethnological Studies, Minpaku. {{doi|10.15021/00009007}}. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240414092728/https://minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/7894/files/SES98_07.pdf|date=2024-04-14}}
* 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

{{Austroasiatic languages}}
{{Austronesian languages}}
{{Tai-Kadai languages}}
{{Hmong-Mien languages}}
{{Long-range comparative linguistics}}
{{Eurasian languages}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Austric languages| ]]
[[Category:Proposed language families]]

Austric languages - Revision history

Felipa7295 at 10:06, 6 March 2026