East Asian languages

The East Asian languages are a language family proposed by Stanley Starosta in 2001. The proposal has since been adopted by George van Driem and others.

Classifications

Early proposals

Early proposals of similar linguistic macrophylla, in narrower scope:

Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra–Dai, Tibeto-Burman: August Conrady and Kurt Wulff
Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien: Paul K. Benedict, Robert Blust, Ilia Peiros
Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Kra–Dai, Tibeto-Burman, Hmong–Mien: Stanley Starosta

Precursors to the East Asian proposal:

Austro-Tai : Gustave Schlegel, Weera Ostapirat
Austric : Wilhelm Schmidt, Lawrence Reid
Starosta (2005)

's East Asian proposal includes a "Yangzian" branch, consisting of Austroasiatic and Hmong–Mien, to form an East Asian superphylum. However, Starosta believes his proposed Yangzian to be a direct sister of Sino-Tibetan rather than Austronesian, which is more distantly related to Sino-Tibetan as a sister of Sino-Tibetan-Yangzian. He concludes Proto-East Asian was a disyllabic language spoken from 6,500 to 6,000 BCE by Peiligang culture and Cishan culture millet farmers on the North China Plain.

East Asian
*Austronesian
**
**Extra-Formosan
***Tai–Kadai
***Malayo-Polynesian
*Sino-Tibetan-Yangzian
**Sino-Tibetan
**Yangzian
***Austroasiatic
***Hmong–Mien

Starosta proposes the following Proto-East Asian morphological affixes, which are found in Proto-Tibeto-Burman and Proto-Austronesian, as well as in some morphologically conservative Austroasiatic branches such as Nicobaric.

*m- 'agent of V-ing'
*-Vn 'patient of V-ing'
*sV- 'instrument of V-ing'
*n- 'perfective'
van Driem (2012)

The following tree of East Asian superphylum was proposed by George van Driem in 2012 at the 18th Himalayan Languages Symposium, held at the Benares Hindu University.

East Asian
*Austro-Tai
**Kradai
**Austronesian
*Austroasiatic
*Himalayan-Yangtzean
**Trans-Himalayan
***Sino-Bodic
***Burmo-Qiangic
***Brahmaputran
***Gongduk, etc.
***Kiranti, etc.
**Yangtzean
***Hmong–Mien

According to van Driem, the linguistic evidence for the East Asian languages matches the genetic evidence from Y-DNA Haplogroup O.

Larish (2006, 2017)

According to Michael D. Larish, the languages of Southeast and East Asia descended from one proto-language. Japonic is grouped together with Koreanic as one branch of the Proto-Asian family. The other branch consists of the Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Kra–Dai, Hmong–Mien and Sino-Tibetan languages.

East Asian
*Japano-Koreanic
**Japonic
**Koreanic
*Austro-Asian
**Austronesian
**Austroasiatic
**Kra–Dai
**Hmong–Mien
**'''Sino-Tibetan'''
Vocabulary comparison

Below is a comparison of basic vocabulary items for proto-languages of all 5 East Asian language families.
;Sources

Proto-Tibeto-Burman: Matisoff
Proto-Hmong–Mien: Ratliff
Proto-Austroasiatic: Sidwell ; Sidwell & Rau
Proto-Austronesian: Blust & Trussel
Proto-Tai: Pittayaporn
Proto-Hlai: Norquest
Proto-Kra: Ostapirat

	Sino-Tibetan	Hmong–Mien	Austroasiatic	Austronesian	Kra–Dai	Kra–Dai	Kra–Dai
gloss	Proto-Tibeto-Burman	Proto-Hmong–Mien	Proto-Austroasiatic	Proto-Austronesian	Proto-Tai	Proto-Hlai	Proto-Kra
hair	*sam	*pljei	sukˀ, sɔkˀ	*bukeS	*prɤm^A	*hnom	*m-səm^A
eye	*s-myak	*mu̯ɛjH	*matˀ	*maCa	*p.taː^A	*tʃʰaː	*m-ʈa^A
ear	*r/g-na	*mbræu	*Ctoːr	*Caliŋa	*krwɯː^A	*ljəy	*k-ra^A
nose	s-na ~ s-naːr	*mbruiH	muːh, muːɕ	*ujuŋ	*ɗaŋ^A	*kʰət	*hŋət^D
tooth	*s/p-wa	*hmjinʔ	muɲ, məɲ	lipen, n/ŋipen	*wan^A	*fjən	*l-pən^A
tongue	m/s-lay ~ s-ley	*mblet	*lntaːkˀ	Sema, lidam	*liːn^C	*hliːnʔ	*l-ma^A
hand	lak ~ C-yak	*-bɔuʔ	*tiːˀ	*kamay	*mwɯː^A	*C-mɯː	*mja^A
bone	*s/m/g-rus	*tshuŋʔ	*cʔaːŋ	*CuqelaN	*C̥.duk^D	*Cuɾɯːk	*dək^D
blood	*s-hywəy-t	*ntshjamʔ	*ɕaːm	*daRaq	*lɯət^D	*alaːc	*plat^D
liver	*m-sin	*-hri̯ən	kləːm; greɕ	*qaCay	*tap^D	*ɗəy	*təp^D
meat, flesh	*sya-n	P-Mienic *ʔa^B	*sacˀ	*Sesi	*n.mɤː^C	*rəmʔ	*ʔaɯ^C
dog	*d-kʷəy-n	P-Hmongic *hmaŋ^C	*cɔʔ	*asu	*ʰmaː^A	*hmaː	*x-ma^A
bird	*s-ŋak	*m-nɔk	*ciːm	*manuk	*C̬.nok^D	*səc	*ɳok^D
fish	*s-ŋya	*mbrəuʔ	*kaʔ	*Sikan	*plaː^A	*hlaː	*p-la^A
louse	*s-rik	*ntshjeiʔ	*ciʔ	*kuCux	*traw^A	*tʃʰwəw	*C-ʈu^A
leaf	*lay	P-Hmongic mblɔŋ^A, P-Mienic* *nɔm^A	*slaʔ	*waSaw	*ɓaɰ^A	*ɓɯː	*ɖiŋ^A
sun, day	*s-nəy	P-Mienic *hnu̯ɔi^A	*tŋiːˀ	waRi, qajaw	*ŋwan^A	*hŋwən	*wən^A
moon	*s/g-la	*hlaH	*kheʔ	bulaN, qiNaS	*ɓlɯən^A	*C-ɲaːn	*tjan^A
water	m-təy-n ~ m-ti-s	*ʔu̯əm	ɗaːkˀ; Pal. ʔoːm	*daNum	*C̬.nam^C	*C-nəmʔ	*ʔuŋ^C
rain	*r/s/g-wa	P-Hmongic *m-noŋ^C	*gmaːˀ	*quzaN	*C̥.wɯn^A	*fun	*jəl^A
fire	*mey	*douʔ	*ʔuːɕ	*Sapuy	*wɤj^A	*fiː	*pui^A
name	*r-mi	*mpɔuH	ɟmuh, ɟmɨh	*ŋajan	*ɟɤː^B	*pʰaːŋ	*ni^A
eat	*m-dza-k/n/t/s	P-Mienic *ɲən^C	*caʔ	*kaen	*kɯɲ^A	*kʰən	*kan^A
die	*səy	*dəjH	*kceːt	*ma-aCay	*p.taːj^A	*hlaːwɦ	*pɣon^A
I	ŋa-y ~ ka	P-Hmongic *kɛŋ^B	*ʔaɲ	-ku	*kuː^A	*ɦuː	*ku^A
you	*na-ŋ	*mu̯ei	miːˀ, meːˀ	-mu	*mɯŋ^A	*C-mɯː	*mə^A/B

East Asian languages

Classifications

Early proposals

Starosta (2005)

van Driem (2012)

Larish (2006, 2017)

Vocabulary comparison

Distributions