Austro-tai

//ˈɔstɹoʊˌtaɪ// adj, name

adj, name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Pertaining to that language family. not-comparable

    "The paper contained some newly-proposed Austro-Tai etymons."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A proposed language family comprising the Austronesian and Kra-Dai/Tai-Kadai families.

    "She thinks the evidence for Austro-Tai is more convincing than for Dene-Yeniseian."

Example

More examples

"She thinks the evidence for Austro-Tai is more convincing than for Dene-Yeniseian."

Etymology

From the names of the component Austro(nesian) and Tai(-Kadai) families; coined by Paul K. Benedict in 1966, referring to his 1942 proposal of the family.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.