Ancient Connections of Sinitic

Bibliographic Data

ID5900804
AuthorsDavid Bradley (0000-0002-5530-1789, La Trobe University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume8
Issue3
Pages176
Publication date2023-07-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8030176
OpenAlexW4385221510
LanguageEN
References cited26

Six main alternative linkage proposals which involve the Sino-Tibetan family, including Sinitic and other language families of the East Asian area (Miao-Yao, Altaic/Transeurasian, Austroasiatic, Tai-Kadai, Austronesian) are briefly outlined. Using the standard techniques of comparative linguistics, a remote linkage between the Sino-Tibetan languages, including Sinitic, the Yeniseian languages of Siberia, and the Na-Dene languages of northwest North America is demonstrated. This includes cognate core lexicon showing regular sound correspondences, morphological similarities of form and function, as well as similarities in social structure. The other proposals for linkages that connect Sinitic and other languages of the East Asian area appear not to be based on a genetic linguistic relationship but rather due to contact: millennia of loanwords from Sinitic into the languages of those families and some lexicon borrowed into Sinitic. More remains to be done to further document the status of the linkage between Sino-Tibetan and Dene-Yeniseian

Austronesian languages · Biology · Cognate · Gene · Geography · Language contact · Lexicon · Linguistics · Linkage (software · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy · Genetics

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