Origin of Austroasiatic people

Introduction

This article narrates the earliest homeland of the proto-Austro-Asiatic people which is largely based on the linguist Paul Sidwell's riverine hypothesis which was made after consideration of the current understanding of the Austro-Asiatic branches and the current geographical distributions of the branches.

Homeland

The most probable homeland of the proto-Austroasiatic is the Mekong River basin in northern Laos.

Mekong River is the river of dispersal for the earliest Austroasiatic tribes and considered the mother river for all Austro-Asiatic branches. Their ancestors spread north and south along the Mekong River basin into most parts of mainland South-East Asia.

The location of the upper Mekong River, which is called Lancang River in China, is in Yunnan.

Past proposed homelands

The exact homeland of the proto-Austro-Asiatic people has perplexed many researchers for many decades. Let's look at the various different past proposals.

Yangtze River homeland

Some researchers suggested a homeland in middle Yangtze River based on some possibly Austro-Asiatic loanwords into Chinese such as Klong.

Gerard Diffloth concluded that on the basis of floral and fauna terms, the homeland is in a tropical zone instead of a temperate zone as in Yangtze River in China. Furthermore, there are no Austro-Asiatic tribes recorded along the Yangtze River or south-eastern China in Chinese history books.

Bay of Bengal homeland

According to Sidwell, there are also no ancient Austroasiatic tribes around the Bay of Bengal and the Munda might not be so diverse to indicate a very ancient presence there.

Main Austroasiatic branches

The northern Laos homeland meets almost all the criteria set by past researchers.

• Northern Laos is the location where the Austro-Asiatic branches began to diversify and spread from a center of gravity. In other words, northern Laos is the last location in which the speakers presented a linguistic unity. Refer to first map above.
• Northern Laos and also southern Yunnan are in the tropical zone which is essential for planting rice and taro.

• The Palaungic tribes had contact with the Lolo-Burmese near upper Yangtze River during ancient times which could have resulted in some borrowing of loanwords. (Refer to 'Ethnic origin of Palaungic people' in this blog). Note that the upper Yangtze River and Mekong River are very close to each other.

Yunnan

Proto-Austro-Asiatic was formed in this northern Laos homeland around 3000 BC-2000 BC. The Austro-Asiatic people can be grouped into four main branches (according to the linguist Gerard Diffloth) which we will call Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western.

Northern Austroasiatic

The Northern Austroasiatic people first migrated from southern Yunnan border with Laos along Mekong River to central Yunnan. The mass migration of the Lolo-Burmese people from the north into Yunnan caused another migration into three directions which became the Khasic, Palaungic and Mangic people.

Northern Austro-Asiatic

Southern Austroasiatic

The Southern Austroasiatic people first migrated from Mekong River basin in northern Laos following the Pasak River basin towards the Chao Phraya River basin in central Thailand to form the Monic people. The Chao Phraya River basin is the homeland of the South Austroasiatic people.

From the Chao Phraya River basin, the ancestors of Nicobarese followed the coastal area south probably into region of Phuket which is the nearest mainland to the Andaman sea. From there, they eventually sailed to the Nicobar islands.

From the Chao Phraya River basin, the ancestors of the Senoic people followed the coastal area south into the Malay Peninsular around 2000 BC. (Date quote from Search for Origins of Melayu by Prof. Leonard Andaya)

Southern Austro-Asiatic

Western Austroasiatic

The Western Austroasiatic people can be traditionally grouped into North Munda and South Munda branches.

The proto-Munda first formed in Mahanadi Delta in eastern India; however, their earliest history of how and when they arrived is a mystery.

Western Austro-Asiatic

The researcher Sidwell argued that they probably reached eastern India via a maritime route from mainland South-East Asia around 1500 BC. Their ancestors could have been forcefully swept westward by the monsoon storm from one of the following places

• Kra Ishtmus in southern Thailand 
• The Nicobarese islands 

Their male ancestors married the native Indian female to form a mixed-race.

The altered phonology of the Munda languages due to contact with Indic languages made it difficult for linguists to determine their exact relationship to other Austro-Asiatic branches in order to trace their most probable migration path to eastern India.

However, recent genetic study show the possibility of the Munda people being closer to the Southern Austroasiatic genes which means they split from the Southern Austroasiatic branch. 

It is highly possible that they travelled via the Nicobar islands before reaching India. Nicobar islands were the intermediate islands where some of them stayed behind while the rest sailed on to eastern India.

Eastern Austroasiatic 

The Eastern Austro-Asiatic people migrated from northern Laos following the Mekong River basin southward to form the Muongic, Katuic, Bahnaric, Khmeric and Pearic branches.

Eastern Austroasiatic

The Eastern Austroasiatic people also extended into the neigboring coastal regions of central and southern Vietnam to establish the ancient cultures there.

Note that Muongic is used instead of Vietic; the word Viet/Yue was originally connected with the Tai people and not the Austro-Asiatic people which caused past confusion among many people.

Furthermore, the Vietnamese Kinh are not Austro-Asiatic people; this confusion resulted from the merger of their original language with the language of the ethnic Muong. Refer to 'Origin of Vietnamese language' for details.

Fragmentation of Austro-Asiatic people 

Cambodia is the sole country left in the world where both the rulers and the natives are Austro-Asiatic people. There were four main groups of people who took land away from the native Austro-Asiatic people. Refer to map below.

Migration of non Austro-Asiatic people

• Tai people moved south from south-eastern China to form modern day Thailand and Laos.
• Vietnamese Kinh moved south from Red River Delta in northern Vietnam and annexed central and southern Vietnam.
• Sino-Tibetan people such as Pyu, Bamar, Chin, Naga, Karen moved into Myanmar from south-western China. 
• Austronesian people came from Indonesian islands and took away land in Peninsular Malaysia, southernmost Thailand and central Vietnam.

Austro-Asiatic physical features

The Austro-Asiatic people have South-East Asian features such as darker-skin, bigger eyes and thicker lips than the Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai people. Most people mistook the ethnic Mon-Khmer people in Thailand as ethnic Tai.

Ethnic Khmer boy in Cambodia

Conclusion

The Austro-Asiatic people are the natives and earliest Mongoloid people to spread throughout mainland South-East Asia. The Negritos are only found in very small numbers in regions such as northern Malaysia, some islands in the Philippines and also Andaman Islands.

The Mekong River is their mother river where most branches formed from upper Mekong River basin in Yunnan to lower Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

One group spread all the way southward to Peninsular Malaysia and another group spread westward to eastern India.

Related links

Ethnic origin of Muong, Khmer, Mon, Senoi, Palaung, Mang, Khasi

http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/search/label/Ethnic%20origin%20-%20Austroasiatic

Origin of Vietnamese language
http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2017/07/origin-of-vietnamese-language.html

Subgroups of East Asians
http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2017/07/subgroups-of-east-asians.html

Sources

• The Austroasiatic central riverine hypothesis. Journal of Language Relationship 2010. Paul Sidwell.
• Classifying the Austroasiatic languages: History and state of the art. By Paul Sidwell Year 2009.
• The Munda maritime hypothesis. Journal of Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 2019. By Paul Sidwell & Felix Rau. https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/52454/02RauSidwell2019_2Munda.pdf
• The contribution of linguistic palaeontology to the homeland of Austroasiatic. Diffloth. (2005)
• Reconstructing Austroasiatic prehistory by Roger Blench. Year 2014.
• The Austroasiatic Urheimat: the Southeastern Riverine Hypothesis. Paul Sidwell and Roger Blench. Year 2011.
• https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001141

Last updated: 30 Aug 2022

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