Mon–Khmer languages

Mon–Khmer
Nuclear Mon–Khmer
Geographic
distribution:		 Indochina
Linguistic classification: Austro-Asiatic
  • Mon–Khmer
Proto-language: Proto-Mon–Khmer
Subdivisions:
ISO 639-2 and 639-5: mkh

The Mon–Khmer languages are a language family of Southeast Asia. Together with the Munda languages of India, they are one of the two traditional primary branches of the Austro-Asiatic family. However, several recent classifications have abandoned this dichotomy, either reducing the scope of Mon–Khmer (Diffloth 2005) or breaking it up entirely, effectively reclassifying Munda as a branch of Mon–Khmer (Sidwell 2009). (See Austro-Asiatic languages for details.)

The reconstructed ancestor of the Mon–Khmer languages is Proto-Mon–Khmer.

Languages

The classic classification of Mon–Khmer is that of Diffloth (1974), now abandoned by Diffloth himself. (See Austroasiatic languages for details.) The only proper classification in recent years is that of Diffloth (2005), though the evidence has not been published and so cannot be evaluated by other researchers. Diffloth (2005) breaks up his 1974 conception of Mon–Khmer, resulting in Khasi–Khmuic (see) and Nuclear Mon–Khmer:

 (Nuclear) 
 Mon–Khmer 



Vietic

?

Katuic




Bahnaric



Khmer


Pearic






Nicobarese



Aslian


Monic




Sidwell (2005) casts doubt on Diffloth's Vieto-Katuic hypothesis, saying that the evidence is ambiguous, and that it is not clear where Katuic belongs in the family. Using lexicostatistics, Sidwell (2009) sees no strong evidence for grouping the branches of Mon–Khmer, and abandons the distinction between Mon–Khmer and Austroasiatic, resulting in a family with potentially thirteen primary branches.

Further reading

  • Adams, K. L. (1989). Systems of numeral classification in the Mon–Khmer, Nicobarese and Aslian subfamilies of Austroasiatic. Canberra, A.C.T., Australia: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 0858833735
  • Diffloth, Gérard. A History of the Khmer Language. [199-].
  • Diffloth, Gérard 2005. "The contribution of linguistic palaeontology and Austroasiatic". in Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, eds. The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics. 77–80. London: Routledge Curzon.
  • Filbeck, D. (1978). T'in: a historical study. Pacific linguistics, no. 49. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 0858831724
  • Hemeling, K. (1907). Die Nanking Kuanhua. (German language)
  • Shorto, H. L. Bibliographies of Mon–Khmer and Tai Linguistics. London oriental bibliographies, v. 2. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.
  • Shorto, Harry L. edited by Sidwell, Paul, Cooper, Doug and Bauer, Christian (2006). A Mon–Khmer comparative dictionary. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-570-3
  • Sidwell, Paul (2005). "Proto-Katuic Phonology and the Sub-grouping of Mon–Khmer Languages". In Sidwell, ed., SEALSXV: papers from the 15th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society.
  • Sidwell, Paul (2009). The Austroasiatic Central Riverine Hypothesis. Keynote address, SEALS, XIX.

External links