Austro-Tai

alternative obsolete Austro-Thai

1. A proposed language family comprising the Austronesian and Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai families.

   She thinks the evidence for Austro-Tai is more convincing than for Dene-Yeniseian.

   1 more example

   Simultaneous membership of Tai-Kadai in Li Fang-kuei's Sino-Tibetan and Benedict's Austro-Tai had posed a problem to Zhengzhang, as he had found both of these mutually exclusive proposals to be well-grounded: Sagart's 1990 suggestion that Chinese and Austronesian are genetically related, soon supported by Xing Gongwan, provided a solution to the conundrum, leading Zhengzhang to the present proposal.

   2025 February 28, Laurent Sagart, “Zhengzhang Shangfang: 华澳语系同源词根研究 Huáo Aò Yŭ xì Tóng yuán Cígēn Yánjiū (Researches on the cognate roots of the Pan-Sino-Austric family) Shanghai: Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 2024. ISBN 978 7 5444 7681 2.”, in Bulletin of SOAS, volume 88, number 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 188

alternative obsolete Austro-Thai

1. not comparablePertaining to that language family.

   The paper contained some newly-proposed Austro-Tai etymons.

   2 more examples

   One striking illustration will suffice here: the writer had not even included IN °kutu, Thai (T) °hraw "head louse"; in his list of possible correspondences, but the KS forms (Sui tu, Mak tau, Then tiu) led him to reconstruct T °[t]hraw, and he was delighted to uncover OB kat "lice"; he was then able to interpret the already recognized Li cognate sau~su as a development from a °tl- initial cluster, exactly paralleling IN °təlu "3", Li śu~su, and on this basis was able to reconstruct Austro-Thai (AT) °kut(a)lu.

   1966, Paul K. Benedict, “Austro-Thai”, in Behaviour Science Notes, volume 1, number 4, New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, →DOI, page 230

   Sagart rejected the possibility that Proto-Kra-Dai and Proto-Austronesian are sister languages, therefore rejecting the Austro-Tai hypothesis in its original formulation.

   2005 November 24, L[awrence] A. Reid, “Austro-Tai Hypotheses”, in Keith Brown, editor, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, second edition, Elsevier Science, →DOI, →ISBN, page 609