Kra–Dai languages


The Kra–Dai languages are a language family of tonal languages found in Mainland Southeast Asia, southern China, and Northeast India. They include Thai and Lao, the national languages of Thailand and Laos respectively. Around 93 million people speak Kra–Dai languages, 60% of whom speak Thai. Ethnologue lists 95 languages in the family, with 62 of these being in the Tai branch.
The high diversity of Kra–Dai languages in southern China points to the origin of the Kra–Dai language family in southern China. The Tai branch moved south into Southeast Asia only around 1000 AD. Genetic and linguistic analysis show great homogeneity between Kra–Dai speaking people in Thailand.

Names

The name "Kra–Dai" was proposed by Weera Ostapirat, as Kra and Dai are the reconstructed autonyms of the Kra and Tai branches respectively. "Kra–Dai" has since been used by the majority of specialists working on Southeast Asian linguistics, including Norquest, Pittayaporn, Baxter & Sagart, and Enfield & Comrie.
The name "Tai–Kadai" is used in many references, as well as Ethnologue and Glottolog, but Ostapirat and others suggest that it is problematic and confusing, preferring the name "Kra–Dai" instead. "Tai–Kadai" comes from an obsolete bifurcation of the family into two branches, Tai and Kadai, which had first been proposed by Paul K. Benedict. In 1942, Benedict placed three Kra languages together with Hlai in a group that he called "Kadai", from ka, meaning "person" in Gelao and Laqua, and Dai, a form of a Hlai autonym. Benedict's "Kadai" group was based on his observation that Kra and Hlai languages have Austronesian-like numerals. However, this classification is now universally rejected as obsolete after Ostapirat demonstrated the coherence of the Kra branch, which does not subgroup with the Hlai branch as Benedict had proposed. "Kadai" is sometimes used to refer to the entire Kra–Dai family, including by Solnit. Adding to the confusion, some other references restrict the usage of "Kadai" to only the Kra branch of the family.
The name "Daic" is used by Roger Blench.

Internal classification

Kra–Dai consists of at least five well established branches, namely Kra, Kam–Sui, Tai, Be and Hlai.
Chinese linguists have also proposed a Kam–Tai group that includes Kam–Sui, Tai and Be.
Kra–Dai languages that are not securely classified, and may constitute independent Kra–Dai branches, include the following.
Kra–Dai languages of mixed origins are:
An early but influential classification, with the traditional Kam–Tai clade, was Edmondson and Solnit's classification from 1988:
This classification is used by Ethnologue, though by 2009 Lakkia was made a third branch of Kam–Tai and Biao was moved into Kam–Sui.

Ostapirat (2005); Norquest (2007)

Weera Ostapirat suggests the possibility of Kra and Kam–Sui being grouped together as Northern Kra–Dai, and Hlai with Tai as Southern Kra–Dai. Norquest has further updated this classification to include Lakkia and Be. Norquest notes that Lakkia shares some similarities with Kam–Sui, while Be shares some similarities with Tai. Norquest notes that Be shares various similarities with Northern Tai languages in particular. Following Ostapirat, Norquest adopts the name Kra–Dai for the family as a whole. The following tree of Kra–Dai is from Norquest.
Additionally, Norquest also proposes a reconstruction for Proto-Southern Kra–Dai.

External relationships

Sino-Tai

The Kra–Dai languages were formerly considered to be part of the Sino-Tibetan family, partly because they contain large numbers of words that are similar to Sino-Tibetan languages. However, these words are seldom found in all branches of the family and do not include basic vocabulary, indicating that they are old loan words.
Outside China, the Kra–Dai languages are now classified as an independent family.
In China, they are called Zhuang–Dong languages and are generally included, along with the Hmong–Mien languages, in the Sino-Tibetan family. It is still a matter of discussion among Chinese scholars whether Kra languages such as Gelao, Qabiao and Lachi can be included in Zhuang–Dong, since they lack the Sino-Tibetan similarities that are used to include other Zhuang–Dong languages in Sino-Tibetan.

Austro-Tai

Several scholars have presented suggestive evidence that Kra–Dai is related to or a branch of the Austronesian language family. There are a number of possible cognates in the core vocabulary displaying regular sound correspondences. Among proponents, there is yet no agreement as to whether they are a sister group to Austronesian in a family called Austro-Tai, a back-migration from Taiwan to the mainland, or a later migration from the Philippines to Hainan during the Austronesian expansion.
The inclusion of Japanese in the Austro-Tai family, as proposed by Paul K. Benedict in the late 20th century, is not supported by the current proponents of the Austro-Tai hypothesis.

Hmong-Mien

Kosaka argued specifically for a Miao–Dai family. He argues that there is much evidence for a genetic relation between Hmong-Mien and Kra–Dai languages. He further suggests that similarities between Kra–Dai and Austronesian are because of later areal contact in coastal areas of eastern and southeastern China or an older ancestral relation.

Japonic languages

proposed that the location of the Japonic Urheimat is in Southern China. Vovin argues for typological evidence that Proto-Japanese may have been a monosyllabic, SVO syntax and isolating language, which are also characteristic of Tai–Kadai languages. According to him, these common features are however not due to a genetic relationship, but rather the result of intense contact.

Reconstruction

No full reconstruction of Proto-Kra–Dai has been published to date, although tentative reconstructions of many Proto-Kra–Dai roots have been attempted from time to time. Some Proto-Kra–Dai forms have been reconstructed by Benedict and Wu. A reconstruction of Proto-Kam–Tai has also been undertaken by Liang & Zhang.
Weera Ostapirat reconstructs disyllabic forms for Proto-Kra–Dai, rather than sesquisyllabic or purely monosyllabic forms. His Proto-Kra–Dai reconstructions also contains the finals and. Ostapirat lists the following of his own Proto-Kra–Dai reconstructions.
Notes:
GlossProto-Kra–Dai
blood
bone
ear
eye
hand
nose
tongue
tooth
dog
fish
horn
louse
fire
stone
star
water
I
Thou
one
two
die
name
full
new