Austroasiatic languages

The Austroasiatic languages are a large language family of Southeast Asia and India. The name comes from the Greek word for South Asia.

Austroasiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across India and Southeast Asia, separated by regions where other languages are spoken. It is widely believed that the Austroasiatic languages are the autochthonous languages of Southeast Asia and eastern India, and that the other languages of the region, including the Indo European, Tai-Kadai, and Sino-Tibetan languages, are the result of later movements of people.

Linguists recognize two major divisions of Austroasiatic, the Mon-Khmer languages of Southeast Asia and the Munda languages of east-central and central India. The Ethnologue identifies 168 Austroasiatic languages, of which 147 are Mon-Khmer languages and 21 are Munda languages. The major subdivisions of the Austroasiatic family are listed below:

• Mon-Khmer languages
  • Aslian languages (19 languages) of peninsular Malaysia.
  • Eastern Mon-Khmer languages (67 languages) includes the Khmer language of Cambodia and other languages of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
  • Monic (2 languages) includes the Mon language of Myanmar and the Nyahkur language of Thailand.
  • Nicobar languages (6 languages) includes the languages of the Nicobar Islands, part of India.
  • Northern Mon-Khmer languages (38 languages), includes the Khasi language of India's Meghalaya province, the Khmu language of Laos, and other languages of northern Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand, and southern China.
  • Palyu, a language of southern China.
  • Viet-Muong languages (10 languages), includes the Vietnamese language, which has the most speakers of any Austroasiatic language, and other languages of Vietnam and Laos.
  • four Mon-Khmer languages of southern China are as yet unclassified.

• Munda languages
  • North Munda languages (12 languages)
  • South Munda languages (9 languages)