Proto-Austroasiatic language
| Proto-Austroasiatic | |
|---|---|
| Proto-Mon–Khmer | |
| Reconstruction of | Austroasiatic languages |
| Region | Southern China or northern Southeast Asia |
| Era | c. 3000 BCE – c. 2000 BCE |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary, while a new Proto-Austroasiatic reconstruction is currently being undertaken by Paul Sidwell.
Scholars generally date the ancestral language to c. 3000 BCE – c. 2000 BCE with a homeland in southern China or the Mekong River valley. Sidwell (2022) proposes that the locus of Proto-Austroasiatic was in the Red River Delta area around c. 2500 BCE – c. 2000 BCE.
500 Proto-Austroasiatic etyma were published by Paul Sidwell in 2024.