AUSTROASLATIC LANGUAGES. This family of lan guages must once have extended over nearly all Indo-China and the north-east of India.
Structure.—The phonetic system is very simple. It contains the three simple explosives with their spirants and nasals, besides a sort of cerebral. Final sounds may be vocalic and (one–)con sonantic; also as medial sounds consonants—save muta cum liquida—are rather frequently inadmissible.
Suffixes—save in the Munda Languages and the Nicobarese are completely missing. All the simple consonants except n, y, r may form suffixes the functions of which are, however, not yet fully ascertained. The prefix may be augmented by infixing a (secondary) nasal (n, m, n) or a liquid (r, 1). The (primary) infixes which even invade the stem of the word are characteristic : n for the forming of instrumental substantiva and abstracta and adjectiva—in the Nicobarese of a comparative; p and m for forming abstracts of the action—in Santali also of superlativa ; m for the forming of substantives of the actor, of participles and adjectives.
All languages place the genitive after the word to be defined and consequently use possessive suffixes. The Munda Languages now place the genitive before—but use possessive suffixes—due to their being influenced by the Dravida and Tibeto-Burman Languages surrounding them. The accusative of the objective substantive is placed after the verb.
Some of these languages have a plural and a dual in the personal pronoun; with some of the languages the plural seems to be an ancient trial. Munda, Nicobarese, Bahnar discriminate in the first person plural (dual) between inclusive and exclusive.
The grammar and syntax of these languages is of the utmost simplicity.
The main groups are (I) Older Malacca Group: Semang, Sakai (Senoi) .
(2) South-eastern Mixed Group: Cam, Rade, Djarai, Sedang, Raglai.
(3) South-eastern Flank Group (Mon-Khmer) : Mon (Peguan) ; Khmer (Cambodgian) ; Bahnar; Moi-dialects; Bersisi, Jakun.
(4) Central Group: Nicobar; Wa, Palong, Riang; Khasi.
(5) North-western Flank Group (Munda) : Eastern Group, San tali, Mundari, Bhumij, Birhar, Koda, Ho, Turi, Asuri, Koura; Western Group, Kurku, Kharia, Juang and the mixed languages Savara, Andaba.