Austric

Introduction

Austric is the name of a proposed language phylum that includes the Austroasiatic (AA) and Austronesian (AN) language families.  The languages of the AA family are spoken in India, the Indo-China peninsula, southern China, and the Nicobar archepelago in the Indian Ocean.  The languages of the AN family are spoken in Madagascar, the Indo-China peninsula, insular South East Asia, Formosa, Papua-New Guinea, and Oceania.

The Father of Austric

Wilhelm Schmidt was a Lutheran clergyman from Germany who worked as a missionary in South East Asia. He took great interest in the languages of this region and published a number of related articles between the 1890s and 1930s.  Schmidt is the originator of the names Austronesian and Austric.  In the case of Austronesian, he merely renamed a recognized language family previously called Malayo-Polynesian, but in the case of Austric, he proposed a new and previously unrecognized language phylum; hence, Schmidt can be rightly called the father of Austric.

History of the Austric Hypothesis

In 1906, Schmidt proposed that Austroasiatic and Austronesian be grouped into a new Austric phylum and presented phonological, morphological, and lexical evidence in support of this hypothesis.  The consensus of the linguists who have looked into the matter has been that the phonological and morphological evidence is convincing, but not the lexical , and for that reason, Austric has never been generally accepted as a valid taxonomic unit.  Since Schmidt's day, a number of scholars have looked for the missing lexical evidence, but none was able to find it.

In 1966, Paul K. Benedict proposed a new Austro-Tai phylum which grouped together the Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, and Miao-Yao language families.  The languages of the latter two families are spoken in the Indo-China peninsula and southern China.  In 1973, Benedict examined the Austric hypothesis, but was also unable to find the missing lexical evidence and recommended accordingly that the Austric hypothesis be abandoned.

Since 1982, I have been engaged in an off-and-on endeavor to discover the lexical evidence needed to confirm the Austric hypothesis, and in my recent paper, On the Track of Austric, Part III: Basic Vocabulary Correspondence, published in 1999, I feel myself able at last to claim that I have found sufficient lexical evidence to corroborate Schmidt's proposal and validate the existence of the Austric phylum.

References

• Schmidt, Wilhelm.  1906.  Die Mon-Khmer-Völker, ein Bindeglied zwischen Völkern Zentralasiens und Austronesiens [The Mon-Khmer Peoples, a Link between the Peoples of Central Asia and Austronesia].  Archiv far Anthropologie, Braunschweig, new series, 5:59-109.
• Benedict, Paul K.  1975.  Austro-Thai: Language and Culture, with a Glossary of Roots.   HRAF Press.
• Benedict, Paul K.  1976.  Austro-Thai and Austroasiatic. Austroasiatic Studies, pp. 1-36.
• Hayes, La Vaughn H.  1992. On the Track of Austric, Part I: Introduction.  Mon-Khmer Studies XXI:143-77.
• _____ 1997. On the Track of Austric, Part II: Consonant Mutation in Early Austroasiatic.  Mon-Khmer Studies XXVII:13-41.
• _____ 1999.  On the Track of Austric, Part III: Basic Vocabulary Correspondence.   Mon-Khmer Studies XXIX:1-34.
• _____ 2000. The Austric Denti-alveolar Sibilants. Mother Tongue V:3-14.
• _____ 2001. On the Origin of Affricates in Austric. Mother Tongue VI:95-117.

Introduction
Austric Glossary
Austric Issues
Austroasiatic
Austronesian
Austro-Tai