Sino-Austronesian languages
Proposed language family / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sino-Austronesian or Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian is a proposed language family suggested by Laurent Sagart in 1990.[1] Using reconstructions of Old Chinese, Sagart argued that the Austronesian languages are related to the Sinitic languages phonologically, lexically and morphologically. Sagart later accepted the Sino-Tibetan languages as a valid group and extended his proposal to include the rest of Sino-Tibetan.[2] He also placed the Tai–Kadai languages within the Austronesian family as a sister branch of Malayo-Polynesian.[3] The proposal has been largely rejected by other linguists who argue that the similarities between Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan more likely arose from contact rather than being genetic.[4][5][6]
Sino-Austronesian | |
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(hypothetical) | |
Geographic distribution | East, South and Southeast Asia |
Linguistic classification | proposed language family |
Subdivisions |
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Glottolog | None |