| Abstract: |
There are five major language phyla in mainland Southeast Asia: Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Daic, Sino-Tibetan and Hmong-Mien, but no true isolates except on offshore islands. Despite a considerable expansion of research in recent years, models for the dates, homelands and engines of expansion of these phyla are scarce in the literature, as are convincing correlations with archaeological and genetic research. A proposal that has been extended to the language phyla of the world and has been influential far out of proportion to its evidential base is the idea that phylic expansions are driven by agriculture. Although this is clearly true in a small number of cases, its explanatory value has been undermined by the difficulties of validating it in many situations. The chapter will consider the proposals that have been advanced for the phyla of Mainland SE Asia (MSEA), their credibility, and will put forward some new hypotheses, particularly with respect to their chronology and geographical interleaving.
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