Peiros Ilia. Comparative linguistics in Southeast Asia

Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, National University of Australia, 1998. — 338 p.The topic of this book is the ancient history of the main language families of Mainland Southeast Asia: Kadai, Miao-Yao, Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan. Although divided by modern political and cultural borders, from a historical perspective these languages form a united body. Understanding the origins and formation of this body of languages, their relationships with each other, and their relationships with the Austronesian languages, constitutes one of the most intriguing and challenging problems of modern comparative linguistics: Southeast Asian prehistory.