Munda & the Austric language group

[l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no]

>On Mon, 11 Mar 1996, Yvette C. Rosser wrote:
>
>> "Most tribal groups in Central India speak Munda languages, which some
>> linguists classify as members of the Austro-Asiatic branch of the Austric
>> language group, which also includes the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which
>> range from Hawaii to New Zealand. (Father W.Schmidt first posed this
>> theory)."
>>
>> My question is, is there reliable research on this linguistic connection or
>> is it a discredited theory?  Thanks for your help.

If I am not entirely wrong, Australia lost "contact" - geologically
speaking - with the rest of the world about 25.000 years ago. We must
assume that Australian languages developed in isolation after that (barring
the odd Polynesian seafarer). Since languages change dramatically over such
long periods, all traces of linguistic connections with other language
families elsewhere should have been lost forever.

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse



Lars Martin Fosse
Research Fellow
Department of East European
and Oriental Studies
P. O. Box 1030, Blindern
N-0315 OSLO Norway

Tel: +47 22 85 68 48
Fax: +47 22 85 41 40

E-mail: l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no