Austro-Tai languages
The Austro-Tai languages, sometimes also Austro-Thai languages, are a proposed language family that comprises the Austronesian languages and Kra–Dai languages.
Related proposals include Austric and Sino-Austronesian.
Origins
The Kra–Dai languages contain numerous similar forms with Austronesian which were noticed as far back as Schlegel in 1901. These are considered to be too many to explain as chance resemblance. The question then is whether they are due to language contact or to common descent.Evidence
The first proposal of a genealogical relationship was that of Paul Benedict in 1942, which he expanded upon through 1990. This took the form of an expansion of Wilhelm Schmidt's Austric phylum, and posited that Kra–Dai and Austronesian had a sister relationship within Austric, which Benedict then accepted. Benedict later abandoned Austric but maintained his Austro-Tai proposal, adding the Japonic languages to the proposal as well. The proposal remained controversial among linguists, especially after the publication of Benedict whose methods of reconstruction were idiosyncratic and considered unreliable. For example, Thurgood examined Benedict's claims and concluded that since the sound correspondences and tonal developments were irregular, there was no evidence of a genealogical relationship, and the numerous cognates must be chalked up to early language contact.However, the fact that many of the Austro-Tai cognates are found in core vocabulary, which is generally more resistant to borrowing, continued to intrigue scholars. There were later several advances over Benedict's approach: Abandoning the larger Austric proposal; focusing on lexical reconstruction and regular sound correspondences; including data from additional branches of Kra–Dai, Hlai and Kra; using better reconstructions of Kra–Dai; and reconsidering the nature of the relationship, with Kra–Dai possibly being a branch of Austronesian.
Sagart cited a core of regular sound correspondences relating words belonging to the basic vocabulary in Benedict's work. He pointed out the lack of a substantial body of shared cultural words. He took these facts as indications that Benedict's Austro-Tai cannot be explained as a contact phenomenon. He further listed a number of specifically Malayo-Polynesian features in the vocabulary shared by Tai-Kadai and Austronesian, concluding that Tai-Kadai is a subgroup within Austronesian, rather than a sister group to it.
Ostapirat reconstructed proto-Kra, one of the least-well attested branches of Kra–Dai. Ostapirat later presented fifty core vocabulary items found in all five branches of Kra–Dai, and demonstrated that half of them—words such as child, eat, eye, fire, hand, head, I, you, louse, moon, tooth, water, this, etc.—can be related to proto-Austronesian by regular sound correspondences, a connection which Reid finds convincing.
Austronesian is characterized by disyllabic roots, whereas Kra–Dai is predominantly monosyllabic. It appears that in Kra–Dai, the first vowel reduced and then dropped out, leaving a consonant cluster which frequently reduced further to a single consonant. For example, the proto-Austronesian root * "live, raw" corresponds to proto-Kra ' and its reflex ' in Laha, as well as Tai , all with the same meaning.
In proto-Kra–Dai, there appear to have been three tones in words ending in a sonorant, labeled simply A, B, C, plus words ending in a stop consonant, D, which did not have tone. In general, Austronesian words ending in a sonorant correspond to A, and words ending in a stop correspond to D. This accounts for most of the words. There are also a few cognates with B and C tone. From Indic borrowings it appears that tone B was originally a final h in Kra–Dai, and some of the corresponding Austronesian roots also end in h, such as AN * "chaff", Kam–Sui paa-B, though there are few examples to go on. Tone C seems to have originally been creaky voice or a final glottal stop. It may correspond to *H, a laryngeal consonant of uncertain manner, in proto-Austronesian, but again the number of cognates is too low to draw firm conclusions.
Sagart presented data from a newly described Kra language, Buyang, which—like many other Kra languages—retains the disyllabic roots characteristic of Austronesian. Some examples are:
| Root | Buyang | Proto-MP |
| "to die" | * | |
| "eye" | * | |
| "head" | * | |
| "eight" | * | |
| "bird" | * | |
| "flower" | * |
Ostapirat lists the following potential cognates between Proto-Kra-Dai and Proto-Austronesian. The Proto-Kra-Dai "C" signifies any unknown consonant; the Proto-Austronesian "C" is a phoneme tentatively reconstructed either as or.
| Meaning | Proto-Kra-Dai | Proto-Austronesian |
| "eye" | *maTaː | *maCa |
| "hand" | *imɤː | *lima |
| "tongue" | *əmaː | *Səma |
| "tooth" | *lipan | *nipən |
| "louse" | *KuTuː | *kuCu |
| "fire" | *apuj | *Sapuy |
| "water" | *aNam | *daNum |
| "I" | *akuː | *aku |
| "you", sg. | *isuː | *iSu |
| "one" | *itsɤː | *əsa, *isa |
| "to die" | *maTaːj | *ma-aCay |
Sagart finds multiple examples of the correlation between the coda of Proto-Austronesian polysyllabic words and the tone of suspected Kra-Dai cognates.
- Sonorant-final Austronesian terms corresponded with tone A in Kra-Dai.
- Proto-Austronesian uvular fricative finals corresponded with tone B.
- Proto-Austronesian final sibilants and corresponded with tone C.
Ostapirat (2005)
Core vocabulary
Kra-Dai core vocabulary and Proto-Austronesian cognates:| # | Gloss | p-Austronesian | p-Tai | p-Kam-Sui | p-Hlai | Gelao | p-Kra-Dai tone |
| 1 | blood | *lɯat | *phjaat | *daːt | plɒ | *D | |
| 2 | bone | *duuk | *laak | *rɯːʔ | taŋ | *D | |
| 3 | ear | *huu | *qhaa | zau | *A | ||
| 4 | eye | *maCa | *taa | *daa | *tsha | tau | *A |
| 5 | excrement | *Caqi | *khii | *qee | *hai | qɒ | *C |
| 6 | fart | *qetut | *tot | *tət | *thuːt | tae | *D |
| 7 | fingernail | *lep | *ljap | *liːp | kle | *D | |
| 8 | grease | *SimaR | *man | *man | *man | mal | *A |
| 9 | hand | lima | *mɯɯ | *mjaa | *meɯ | mpau | *A |
| 10 | head | *qulu | *klau | *ku | *rau | *C | |
| 11 | knee | *khau | *quu | qo | *B | ||
| 12 | leg, thigh | *paqa | *khaa | *qaa | *ha | qau | *A |
| 13 | liver | *tap | *tap | tae | *D | ||
| 14 | navel | *dɯɯ | *ʔdwaa | *reɯ | zo | *A | |
| 15 | nose | *ijuŋ | *daŋ | *ʔnaŋ | *doŋ | daŋ | *A |
| 16 | shoulder | *qabaRa | *baa | *wie | *va | baa | *B |
| 17 | tooth | *nipen | *fan | *wjan | *phen | pan | *A |
| 18 | bear | *Cumay | *mii | *ʔmii | *mui | mi | *A |
| 19 | bird | *manuk | *nok | *nok | ntau | *D | |
| 20 | dog | *maa | *m̥aa | *ma | mpau | *A | |
| 21 | fish | *plaa | *paa | *da | lau | *A | |
| 22 | horn | *khau | *qaau | *hau | qa | *A | |
| 23 | louse | *kuCu | *hau | *tuu | *tshou | ta | *A |
| 24 | tail | *hət | *tshut | tshan | *D | ||
| 25 | leaf | *bai | *waa | *beɯ | *A | ||
| 26 | seed | *fan | *wan | *phen | pa | *A | |
| 27 | sesame | *leŋa | *ŋaa | *ʔŋaa | *keɯ | ŋklau | *A |
| 28 | cloud | *faa | *faa | *fa | phaa | *C | |
| 29 | fire | *Sapuy | *fai | *wii | *pei | pai | *A |
| 30 | moon | *bulaN | *dɯan | *njaan | *ɳaːn | daan | *A |
| 31 | path | *hon | *khun | *kuːn | qan | *A | |
| 32 | rain | *fon | *fən | *pun | *A | ||
| 33 | stone | *hin | *tin | *tshiːn | *A | ||
| 34 | smoke | *khwan | *kwan | *hwoːn | qɒ | *A | |
| 35 | water | *daNum | *naam | *nam | *nom | *C | |
| 36 | black | *tidem | *dam | *ʔnam | *dom C | ʔdam | *A |
| 37 | dry | *khaɯ | *khu C | *kheɯ | xau | *B | |
| 38 | full | *tik | *thiːʔ | tei | *D | ||
| 39 | green | *khiau | *ɕu | *khiːu | *A | ||
| 40 | long | *rii | *ʔɣaai | *loi | ðii C | *A | |
| 41 | live, raw | *qudip | *dip | *ʔdjup | *riːp | te | *D |
| 42 | come | *maa | *m̥aa | *peɯ | mu | *A | |
| 43 | eat | *kaen | *kin | *tsjaan | *khan | kaan | *A |
| 44 | kill | *khaa | *haa | *hau | *C | ||
| 45 | walk, go | *pai | *paai | *pei | pai | *A | |
| 46 | child, person | *aNak | *luuk | *laak | *dɯːʔ | lei | *D |
| 47 | grandmother | *aya | *jaa B | *jaa C | *tsaɯ C | ʑɒ C | *B/C |
| 48 | this | *i-ni | *nii | *naai | *nei | ni | *B/C |
| 49 | I | *aku | *kuu | *hou | kuu | *A | |
| 50 | you | *kamu | *mɯŋ | *maa | *meɯ | maa | *A |