33:
100:, as well as many other languages spoken in scattered pockets as far afield as Malaya and eastern India. Most linguists believe that Austroasiatic languages once ranged continuously across southeast Asia and that their scattered distribution today is the result of the subsequent migration of speakers of other language groups from southern China.
435:
was atonal. A smaller amount of similar evidence has been found for proto-Tai. Moreover, since the realization of tone categories as pitch contours varies so widely between languages, the correspondence observed in early loans suggests that the conditioning consonants were still present at the time
426:
solved this paradox by demonstrating that
Vietnamese tones corresponded to certain final consonants in other (atonal) Austroasiatic languages. He thus argued that the Austroasiatic proto-language had been atonal, and that its development in Vietnamese had been conditioned by these consonants, which
180:
typologically fit into the
Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, which typically has creoloid morphosyntactic patterns, rather than with the languages of the Tibetosphere. Post (2015) also notes that Tani culture is similar to those of Mainland Southeast Asian
506:, which were common phonemes in many Asian languages and which behaved like voiceless obstruents. In addition, Vietnamese developed voiced fricatives through a different process (specifically, in words consisting of two syllables, with an initial, unstressed
230:
Most MSEA languages tend to have monosyllabic morphemes, but there are exceptions. Some polysyllabic morphemes exist even in Old
Chinese and Vietnamese, often loanwords from other languages. A related syllable structure found in some languages, such as the
456:, the voicing distinction subsequently disappeared, and the pitch contour became distinctive. In tonal languages, each of the tones split into two "registers", yielding a typical pattern of six tones in unchecked syllables and two in checked ones.
452:) occurred in most southeast Asian languages around 1000 AD. First, syllables with voiced initial consonants came to be pronounced with a lower pitch than those with unvoiced initials. In most of these languages, with a few exceptions such as
431:. Haudricourt further proposed that tone in the other languages had a similar origin. Other scholars have since uncovered transcriptional and other evidence for these consonants in early forms of Chinese, and many linguists now believe that
71:
families spoken in an area stretching from
Thailand to China. Neighbouring languages across these families, though presumed unrelated, often have similar typological features, which are believed to have spread by diffusion.
421:
It was long believed that tone was an invariant feature of languages, suggesting that these groups must be related. However this category cut across groups of languages with shared basic vocabulary. In 1954
798:
Post, M. W. 2015. ‘Morphosyntactic reconstruction in an areal-historical context: A pre-historical relationship between North East India and
Mainland Southeast Asia?’ In N. J. Enfield and B. Comrie, Eds.
309:", because their distribution parallels that of syllables with nasal codas. Moreover, the earliest strata of loans display a regular correspondence between tonal categories in the different languages:
227:
at the same points of articulation, with no clusters and no voice distinction. Languages in the northern part of the area generally have fewer vowel and final contrasts but more initial contrasts.
139:. Today they are scattered across isolated hill regions of southern China. Many of them migrated to southeast Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries, after the suppression of a series of revolts in
418:
divide the level tone between two volumes while covering each of the other tones in a single volume. Vietnamese has a different distribution, with tone B four times more common than tone C.
131:, were originally spoken in what is now southern China, where the greatest diversity within the family is still found, and possibly as far north as the Yangtze valley. With the exception of
247:
meaning "one and a half"), consisting of a stressed syllable with approximately the above structure, preceded by an unstressed "minor" syllable consisting only of a consonant and a
135:, most of the Kra–Dai languages still remaining in China are spoken in isolated upland areas. Similarly the Hmong–Mien languages may originally have been spoken in the middle
597:
just to the west of
Southeast Asia also has numerical classifiers, even though it is an Indo-European language that does not share the other MSEA features. Bengali also lacks
223:, limited clusters at the beginning of a syllable, and plentiful vowel contrasts. Final consonants are typically highly restricted, often limited to glides and nasals or
277:
is one of the most well-known of southeast Asian language characteristics. Many of the languages in the area have strikingly similar tone systems, which appear to have
479:
vowels. Often, the breathy-voiced vowels subsequently went through additional, complex changes (e.g. diphthongization). Examples of languages affected this way are
614:
111:
into the
Yangtze valley and then into southern China during the first millennium BC and first millennium AD. Indigenous groups in these areas either
1355:
1294:
1211:
1192:
1138:
1119:
710:
570:
order retained by most other Sino-Tibetan languages. The order of constituents within a noun phrase varies: noun–modifier order is usual in
1396:
146:
The upland regions of the interior of the area, as well as the plains of Burma, are home to speakers of other Sino-Tibetan languages, the
510:, the medial stop at the beginning of the stressed major syllable turned into a voiced fricative, and then the minor syllable was lost).
785:
de Sousa, Hilário. 2015. ‘The Far
Southern Sinitic languages as part of Mainland Southeast Asia.’ In N. J. Enfield and B. Comrie, Eds.
1312:
Henderson, Eugénie J.A. (1965), "The topography of certain phonetic and morphological characteristics of South East Asian languages",
464:, as well as neighbouring Tai languages, have further tone splits in checked syllables, while many other Chinese varieties, including
1335:
Siebenhütter, Stefanie (2020), "Conceptual
Transfer as an Areal Factor: Spatial Conceptualizations in Mainland Southeast Asia.",
189:
1129:
Luo, Yongxian (2008), "Sino-Tai and Tai–Kadai: Another Look", in Diller, Anthony; Edmondson, Jerold A.; Luo, Yongxian (eds.),
487:(Cambodian). Breathy voicing has since been lost in standard Khmer, although the vowel changes triggered by it still remain.
32:
1401:
567:
555:
423:
1279:
150:. The Austronesian languages, spoken across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, are represented in MSEA by the divergent
665:
624:
1180:
56:
449:
232:
490:
Many of these languages have subsequently developed some voiced obstruents. The most common such sounds are
602:
551:
147:
68:
37:
689:
635:
503:
499:
495:
491:
263:
251:
220:
165:
are also part of the
Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area, as demonstrated by Hilário de Sousa (2015).
64:
52:
60:
294:
408:
The incidence of these tones in Chinese, Tai and Hmong–Mien words follows a similar ratio 2:1:1. Thus
619:
535:
1406:
1104:
547:
93:
17:
1259:
1168:
598:
590:
519:
409:
188:
David Gil (2015) considers the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area to be part of the larger
825:
Gil, David. 2015. ‘The Mekong-Mamberamo linguistic area?’ In N. J. Enfield and B. Comrie, Eds.
305:
endings. In traditional analyses, syllables ending in stops have been treated as a fourth or "
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1351:
1290:
1207:
1188:
1134:
1115:
1100:
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Many non-tonal languages instead developed a register split, with voiced consonants producing
173:
108:
1343:
1321:
1233:
1160:
1086:
1082:
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is rich in polysyllabic words. Grammatical relations are typically signalled by word order,
531:
465:
259:
151:
104:
1379:
1114:, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, pp. 207–228,
1091:
224:
197:
177:
132:
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1247:
1221:
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507:
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302:
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73:
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120:
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814:
Language Interrupted: Signs of non-native acquisition in standard language grammars
559:
480:
445:
306:
216:
209:
124:
112:
1064:, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, pp. 133–139.
301:
and early Vietnamese all display a three-way tonal contrast in syllables lacking
640:
543:
498:(often pronounced with some implosion), which result from former preglottalized
476:
461:
432:
428:
278:
208:
A characteristic of MSEA languages is a particular syllable structure involving
116:
629:
527:
523:
453:
254:. That structure is present in many conservative Mon–Khmer languages such as
182:
81:
48:
298:
193:
158:
1238:
1347:
1032:
Ballard, W.L. (1985), "Aspects of the Linguistic History of South China",
702:
645:
212:
119:, or migrated to the south. Thus the Kra–Dai languages, today including
1338:
1263:
1151:(1991), "Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Present State and Future Prospects",
1069:
Enfield, N. J. (2005), "Areal Linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia",
185:
cultures, and is not particularly adapted to cold montane environments.
1172:
1045:
457:
162:
140:
136:
84:", but viewed it as a zone of mutual influence in the ancient period.
1226:
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society
1133:, Routledge Language Family Series, Psychology Press, pp. 9–28,
539:
414:
1280:"The Austroasiatic Urheimat: the Southeastern Riverine Hypothesis"
31:
1287:
Dynamics of Human Diversity: The Case of Mainland Southeast Asia
262:, and it is reconstructed for the older stages of a number of
219:, a fairly large inventory of consonants, including phonemic
668:
layer of loans, the correspondence of *B and *C is reversed.
29:
Geolinguistic region sharing areal features such as tonality
827:
Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art
801:
Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art
787:
Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art
915:
913:
849:
847:
1062:
Linguistic Comparison in South East Asia and the Pacific
691:
The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia
589:
MSEA languages typically have well-developed systems of
1224:(2002), "Timing Tonogenesis: Evidence from Borrowing",
888:
886:
427:
had subsequently disappeared, a process now known as
1110:, in Gedney, William J.; Bickner, Robert J. (eds.),
1289:, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 317–345,
566:are thought to have changed to this order from the
530:. Nouns are derived by compounding; for example,
749:
8:
688:Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias, eds. (2021).
554:. The usual word order in MSEA languages is
615:Classification of Southeast Asian languages
582:most modifiers are placed before the noun.
522:type, with mostly mono-morphemic words, no
440:Loss of voicing with tone or register split
1112:Selected Papers on Comparative Tai Studies
1237:
1090:
475:vowels and unvoiced consonants producing
737:
311:
1083:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120406
1015:
1003:
979:
967:
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838:
803:. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter: 205 – 261.
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45:Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area
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991:
955:
931:
904:
892:
865:
773:
761:
1339:https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501506642
468:, have merged some tonal categories.
7:
92:The Austroasiatic languages include
1337:Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
1165:10.1146/annurev.an.20.100191.002345
877:
192:, which also includes languages in
168:Mark Post (2015) observes that the
157:The far southern Sinitic languages
816:. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
25:
18:Mainland Southeast Asian languages
1250:(1986), "On the departing tone",
1105:"Speculations on early Tai tones"
578:, while in Chinese varieties and
190:Mekong-Mamberamo linguistic area
518:Most MSEA languages are of the
1252:Journal of Chinese Linguistics
1206:, Princeton University Press,
1187:, Cambridge University Press,
1092:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-167B-C
107:spread from their home in the
76:referred to this area as the "
1:
1153:Annual Review of Anthropology
1071:Annual Review of Anthropology
1055:"Chinese, Thai, and Miao-Yao"
632:, the Chinese cultural sphere
586:organization is also common.
117:retreated to the hill country
103:Chinese civilization and the
1326:10.1016/0024-3841(65)90020-3
829:. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter.
789:. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter.
1397:Languages of Southeast Asia
750:Sidwell & Blench (2011)
258:(Cambodian), as well as in
51:including languages of the
1423:
1285:, in Enfield, N.J. (ed.),
1202:Ramsey, S. Robert (1987),
625:East Asian cultural sphere
36:Ethnolinguistic Groups of
1060:, in Shorto, H.L. (ed.),
812:McWhorter, John H. 2007.
424:André-Georges Haudricourt
326:
323:
320:
317:
314:
285:Origin of tonal contrasts
552:sentence-final particles
80:", contrasted with the "
1131:The Tai–Kadai Languages
603:Indo-European languages
148:Tibeto-Burman languages
38:Mainland Southeast Asia
1239:10.3765/bls.v28i2.1043
1204:The Languages of China
636:Southeast Asian Massif
264:Sino-Tibetan languages
244:
40:
1348:10.1515/9781501506642
1053:Downer, G.B. (1963),
703:10.1515/9783110558142
514:Morphology and syntax
88:Language distribution
35:
620:East Asian languages
289:The tone systems of
1402:Linguistic typology
1006:, pp. 189–190.
982:, pp. 187–190.
970:, pp. 192–193.
841:, pp. 186–187.
776:, pp. 278–279.
752:, pp. 339–340.
728:, pp. 182–184.
591:numeral classifiers
568:subject–object–verb
556:subject–verb–object
550:is expressed using
233:Mon–Khmer languages
1149:Matisoff, James A.
1101:Gedney, William J.
1034:Asian Perspectives
410:rhyme dictionaries
204:Syllable structure
41:
1372:External link in
1357:978-1-5015-0664-2
1296:978-0-85883-638-9
1213:978-0-691-01468-5
1194:978-0-521-29653-3
1140:978-0-7007-1457-5
1121:978-0-89148-037-2
712:978-3-11-055814-2
576:Hmongic languages
444:A characteristic
406:
405:
327:suggested origin
321:proto-Hmong–Mien
281:in the same way.
174:Arunachal Pradesh
109:North China Plain
16:(Redirected from
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477:normally voiced
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324:Middle Chinese
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198:Mamberamo River
178:Northeast India
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59:(or Miao–Yao),
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1050:
1040:(2): 163–185,
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1021:
1020:
1018:, p. 189.
1016:Enfield (2005)
1008:
1004:Enfield (2005)
996:
994:, p. 280.
984:
980:Enfield (2005)
972:
968:Enfield (2005)
960:
948:
944:Ratliff (2002)
936:
924:
922:, p. 171.
920:Ballard (1985)
909:
907:, p. 101.
897:
882:
870:
858:
856:, p. 186.
854:Enfield (2005)
843:
839:Enfield (2005)
831:
818:
805:
791:
778:
766:
764:, p. 233.
754:
742:
740:, p. 486.
730:
726:Enfield (2005)
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711:
697:. De Gruyter.
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601:, unlike most
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508:minor syllable
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450:phonemic split
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291:Middle Chinese
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237:sesquisyllable
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170:Tani languages
113:became Chinese
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74:James Matisoff
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992:Ramsey (1987)
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958:, p. 53.
957:
956:Norman (1988)
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932:Gedney (1989)
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906:
905:Sagart (1986)
901:
898:
895:, p. 56.
894:
893:Norman (1988)
889:
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883:
880:, p. 11.
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866:Downer (1963)
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584:Topic-comment
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1037:
1033:
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951:
939:
927:
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794:
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690:
683:
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544:prepositions
517:
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470:
446:sound change
443:
420:
413:
412:such as the
407:
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307:checked tone
288:
273:
270:Tone systems
229:
217:lexical tone
210:monosyllabic
207:
196:west of the
187:
167:
156:
152:Chamic group
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102:
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65:Austronesian
53:Sino-Tibetan
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26:
1375:|work=
1320:: 400–434,
1159:: 469–504,
1077:: 181–206,
1046:10125/16898
1025:Works cited
641:Tonogenesis
558:. Chinese,
526:and little
462:Yue Chinese
433:Old Chinese
429:tonogenesis
399:"departing"
334:ngang-huyền
315:Vietnamese
1407:Sprachbund
1391:Categories
878:Luo (2008)
676:References
630:Sinosphere
528:affixation
524:inflection
454:Wu Chinese
318:proto-Tai
221:aspiration
183:hill tribe
94:Vietnamese
82:Indosphere
78:Sinosphere
57:Hmong–Mien
49:sprachbund
536:particles
520:isolating
299:proto-Tai
279:developed
235:, is the
213:morphemes
194:Indonesia
159:Cantonese
1365:citation
1278:(2011),
1264:23754220
1183:(1988),
1103:(1989),
646:Urheimat
609:See also
548:Modality
374:"rising"
359:sắc-nặng
1185:Chinese
1173:2155809
540:coverbs
458:Pinghua
384:hỏi-ngã
349:"level"
260:Burmese
245:sesqui-
163:Pinghua
141:Guizhou
137:Yangtze
61:Kra–Dai
1354:
1314:Lingua
1293:
1262:
1210:
1191:
1171:
1137:
1118:
709:
599:gender
593:. The
415:Qieyun
239:(from
133:Zhuang
1283:(PDF)
1260:JSTOR
1169:JSTOR
1108:(PDF)
1058:(PDF)
695:(PDF)
652:Notes
564:Karen
485:Khmer
372:shǎng
256:Khmer
241:Latin
98:Khmer
47:is a
1380:help
1352:ISBN
1291:ISBN
1208:ISBN
1189:ISBN
1135:ISBN
1116:ISBN
707:ISBN
574:and
562:and
538:and
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502:and
500:/ʔb/
494:and
483:and
460:and
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377:*-ʔ
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347:píng
332:*A (
303:stop
161:and
129:Shan
127:and
121:Thai
96:and
67:and
43:The
1344:doi
1322:doi
1234:doi
1161:doi
1087:hdl
1079:doi
1042:hdl
699:doi
572:Tai
560:Bai
542:or
496:/d/
492:/b/
481:Mon
448:(a
252:/ə/
172:of
125:Lao
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1369::
1367:}}
1363:{{
1350:,
1342:,
1318:15
1316:,
1274:;
1256:14
1254:,
1230:28
1228:,
1167:,
1157:20
1155:,
1085:,
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1038:24
1036:,
912:^
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846:^
705:.
605:.
546:.
397:qù
395:去
392:*C
389:*B
370:上
367:*B
364:*C
352:-
345:平
342:*A
339:*A
297:,
293:,
266:.
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176:,
154:.
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63:,
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1044::
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701::
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336:)
20:)
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