Austric languages
Austrisch is first proposed in 1906 by Wilhelm Schmidt macro family that includes several language families of Southeast Asia and the Pacific region. A generally recognized proof of a genetic relationship of the languages in question has not yet been rendered. The macro family is thus recognized by only a few researchers as a genetic unit.
The components of the Austrischen
After Merritt Ruhlen 1991 is the Austric macro family of the following components:
- Austrisch Hmong - Mien ( Miao - Yao languages previously mentioned )
- Austro Asian
- Tai - Kadai
- Austronesian
The four components are commonly recognized language families whose structure is to be found in the respective articles. Ruhlen looks - based on a suggestion by Joseph Greenberg - a somewhat closer relationship between Tai - Kadai and Austronesian, which he sums up to unity Austro -Tai so.
Historical development of austrischen hypothesis
The genetic relatedness of the languages of Southeast Asia and the Pacific area remained until the mid-19th century largely in the dark, then the image was lit only hesitantly. It took nearly 100 years before the present regional language families were established and classified. One obstacle in the way of proper classification was the relationship long adopted the Tai and Hmong - Mien languages with the Sino Tibetan who ( can still be found today and in popular works ) is only gradually as it turned out wrong.
Wilhelm Schmidt
1906 hit Father Wilhelm Schmidt, the Austro Asiatic as a summary of the Mon-Khmer languages with the Munda languages (the latter had previously held for Dravidian ), called the Malayo -Polynesian languages in Austronesian languages around and took both to the new larger unit Austrisch together. However, Schmidt made according to current knowledge, several errors: he classified the Austronesian Cham languages as Austro- Asiatic, Austro- Asiatic, the Vietnamese he counted continue to Sino Tibetan, the independent Tai and Hmong - Mien languages remained for him also Sino-Tibetan.
Paul Benedict
In the early 1940s, Paul Benedict began with the study of Southeast Asian languages. He recognized the Kadai Group in southern China and adds them properly, add the Tai languages , which is now so formed a Tai - Kadai Group. Furthermore, he believed relations between the Tai - Kadai, Austronesian, Hmong - Mien and Austro Asiatic to recognize that he will consequently summarized in a macro group, which he also gave the name " Austrisch ". This comprehensive Austrisch divided by Benedict as follows:
Austrisch by Benedict in 1942
- Austrisch Hmong - Mien
- Austro Asian Mon-Khmer
- Viet - Muong
- Munda
- Kadai
- Tai
- Austronesian
As at Schmidts smaller approach strong criticism was leveled at Benedicts wholesale Austrisch. The evidence for this large group are generally considered very weak. In 1975, Benedict out the Austro Asiatic from the Austrischen and established the smaller grouping Austro -Tai, which consisted only of Hmong - Mien, Tai - Kadai and Austronesian.
Merritt Ruhlen
Merritt Ruhlen is - based on Greenberg's work - in his much- quoted work A Guide to the World's Languages in 1991 from the comprehensive Austrisch by Benedict from 1942, which he divided as follows:
Austrisch by Greenberg and Ruhlen 1980 1991
- Austrisch Hmong - Mien
- Austro Asian
- Austro -Tai Tai - Kadai
- Austronesian
Current status
Although widely used by Ruhlen, the Austric macro family could hardly prevail. The vast majority of researchers expected to return to four separate language families of Southeast Asia. An important contribution to the subject is the article Far Eastern Languages from S. Egerod 1991.
A major problem in clarifying the austrischen hypothesis is still the very different state of research into the various language families and in particular the absence of part of the reconstruction of a proto-language. While the proto- languages of the Austronesian and Tai - Kadai could be reconstructed to some extent, missing for the Austro- Asiatic and especially the Hmong - Mien languages so far a reconstruction of the proto- languages largely yet.