The Origin and Dispersal of Austroasiatic Languages from the Perspectives of Linguistics, Archeology, and Genetics

Abstract

The Austroasiatic (AA) languages comprise a large language family in mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and South Asia. Theoretical, methodological, and material constraints have limited research on the origin and dispersal of AA-speaking populations within historical-comparative linguistics. With the deepening of archaeological and genetic studies, interdisciplinary collaboration has become key to solving this problem. We review the latest hypotheses in linguistics, archaeology, and molecular anthropology and propose insights on the origin and dispersal of AA languages. The ancestors of the AA-speaking populations were suggested to be rice farmers living in the Neolithic Age in southern China. Between 3,000 and 4,500 BP, some of these ancestors who spoke Proto-AA migrated from southern China to northern Vietnam, together with shouldered stone tools and domesticated rice. They mixed with local hunter-gatherers and expanded to the south of MSEA, giving rise to the Mon-Khmer, Aslian, and Nicobarese populations. They also spread to the northeast of India to form the Munda-speaking populations. Another group arrived near Dian Lake in Yunnan about 2,500 BP, where they created the Bronze Drum culture with the Proto- Tai-Kadai (TK)–speaking populations and later spread eastward to northern Vietnam via Guangxi. Finally, the Proto-AA–speaking people who remained in southern China mixed with the Proto-TK–speaking groups from Fujian and Guangdong, leading to a language shift, which we hypothesize was one of the main reasons for the “disappearance” of AA in southern China.