Austroasiatic

Austroasiatic is a language family of Southeast Asia and parts of the Indian subcontinent. It comprises a large number of languages spoken by tens of millions of people, including Vietnamese and Khmer, with smaller but enduring communities across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, parts of Thailand and Myanmar, as well as central and eastern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The family exhibits substantial linguistic diversity in phonology, morphology, and syntax.

The family is typically divided into two broad branches: Munda and Mon-Khmer. Munda languages are spoken mainly in central and eastern India and include Santali, Mundari, Ho, and Kharia. Mon-Khmer, the Mainland Southeast Asian branch, contains Vietnamese, Khmer, Mon, and numerous minority languages in Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as Khasi and related languages in Northeast India. The Nicobarese languages are sometimes treated as a separate branch within Austroasiatic or placed within Mon-Khmer. Classification within the family remains a matter of scholarly debate, and reconstructions of Proto-Austroasiatic vary.

Linguistic features vary widely across Austroasiatic languages. Some branches, notably Vietnamese and several Vietic languages, develop tonal or register distinctions, while others are non-tonal. Writing systems are diverse: Vietnamese uses a Latin-based script, Khmer has its own Khmer script, Mon has the Mon script, and many Munda languages have used Devanagari or other local scripts. The family’s long history includes substantial contact with Tai-Kadai, Dravidian, and Indo-Aryan languages, shaping vocabulary and structure over time.