Austroasiatic

American  

[aw-stroh-ey-zhee-at-ik, -shee-] / ˌɔ stroʊˌeɪ ʒiˈæt ɪk, -ʃi- /

noun

1. a family of languages spoken in SE Asia and the landsaround the Bay of Bengal and consisting principally of Vietnamese, Khmer, Mon, Khasi, Nicobarese, and the Munda languages.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Austroasiatic.

Etymology

Origin of Austroasiatic

First recorded in 1920–25; austro- + Asiatic

Example Sentences

They numbered some 400,000, spoke a language of the Austroasiatic family—unlike India’s mainstream Indo-European and Dravidian languages—and lay largely outside the Hindu world.

From Scientific American • Jan. 5, 2023

His family belongs to an ethnic minority, the Wa, who speak an Austroasiatic language that is also widespread in parts of China.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 27, 2018

The 60 million Austroasiatic speakers are scattered from Vietnam in the east to the Malay Peninsula in the south and to northern India in the west.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

The Semang Negritos persisted as hunter-gatherers trading with neighboring farmers but adopted an Austroasiatic language from those farmers—much as, we shall see, Philippine Negrito and African Pygmy hunter-gatherers adopted languages from their farmer trading partners.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

But the language families closest to Austronesian are thought to be Tai-Kadai, Austroasiatic, and Miao-Yao.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond