Proto-Palaungic language
Proto-Palaungic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Palaungic languages of mainland Southeast Asia.
Homeland
Paul Sidwell suggests that the Urheimat of Proto-Palaungic was in what is now the border region of Laos and Sipsongpanna in Yunnan, China. The Khmuic homeland was adjacent to the Palaungic homeland, resulting in many lexical borrowings among the two branches due to intense contact. Sidwell suggests that the word for 'water', which Gérard Diffloth had used as one of the defining lexical innovations for his Northern Mon-Khmer branch, was likely borrowed from Palaungic into Khmuic.Reconstructed forms
The following list of Proto-Palaungic reconstructions, organized by semantic category, is from Sidwell.;Personal pronouns
| singular | dual | plural | |
| 1st person | *ʔɔːʔ | *ʔaːj | *ʔɛʔ |
| 1st person | - | *jaːr | *ˀjɛ/eːʔ |
| 2nd person | *miːʔ | *paːr | *pɛʔ |
| 3rd person | *ʔan; *ʔɤːn | *gaːr, *gɛʔ | *giːʔ |
;Demonstratives
- *nɔʔ ‘this ’
- *neʔ ‘this’
- *tVj ‘that ’
;Cereal cultivation
;Agriculture and village economy
;Fruits and plant products
;Domesticated animals
;Invertebrates
;Housing and infrastructure
Lexical similarities with Khmuic
Sidwell notes that Palaungic and Khmuic share many lexical items, but considers this phenomenon to be a result of lexical diffusion due to intense language contact. Sidwell lists the following Proto-Palaungic forms as having diffused from Palaungic into Khmuic.;Palaungic > Khmuic lexical forms
- *ʔɔːt ‘wipe’
- *ʔiɛk ‘armpit’
- *ɓɤs ‘carry on head/back’
- *bliɛs ‘spear’
- *cəˀŋam ‘clear, clean’
- *criːl ‘gold’
- *gɔːʔ ‘friend; relative’
- *kərɗiŋ ‘navel’
- *kɤːŋ ‘to dig’
- *kʋɤj ‘above, upper part’
- *laj ‘to trade’
- *mɔk ‘to fell’
- *ɲɤk ‘sticky’
- *tjaːk ‘sambar deer’
;Khmuic > Palaungic lexical forms
- *ɟɤːl ‘light in weight’
- *klaw ‘testicles’
- *-daːk ‘palm, sole’
- *-jaːŋ ‘female’
- *kəlɔːŋ ‘seed’
- *krlaːŋ ‘planet’
- *-nuːs ‘mouth’
- *tɤːʔ ‘smoke’
- *sŋɔːʔ ‘paddy rice’