Editing Khmer language (section)

==Classification==
{{Main|Austroasiatic languages}}

Khmer is a member of the [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] language family, the autochthonous family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India.<ref name=DiffZide>Diffloth, Gerard & Zide, Norman. [http://emile.uni-graz.at/pub/05s/2005-05-0219.PDF ''Austroasiatic Languages''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425153023/http://emile.uni-graz.at/pub/05s/2005-05-0219.PDF |date=2012-04-25 }}.</ref> Austroasiatic, which also includes [[Mon language|Mon]], [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] and [[Munda language|Munda]], has been studied since 1856 and was first proposed as a language family in 1907.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=David |year=1964 |title=A survey of Austroasiatic and Mon-Khmer comparative studies |journal=[[Mon-Khmer Studies]] |volume=1 |pages=149–163 |url=http://www.mksjournal.org/ |access-date=19 June 2012 }}</ref> Despite the amount of research, there is still doubt about the internal relationship of the languages of Austroasiatic.<ref name=SidwellNew>Sidwell, Paul (2009a). [http://www.jolr.ru/files/%2851%29jlr2010-4%28117-134%29.pdf The Austroasiatic Central Riverine Hypothesis]. Keynote address, SEALS, XIX.</ref>

Diffloth places Khmer in an eastern branch of the [[Mon-Khmer languages]].<ref name=Diffloth05>Diffloth, Gérard (2005). "The contribution of linguistic palaeontology and Austroasiatic". in Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, eds. ''The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics.'' 77–80. London: Routledge Curzon.</ref> In these classification schemes Khmer's closest genetic relatives are the [[Bahnaric languages|Bahnaric]] and [[Pearic languages]].<ref name="Shorto">Shorto, Harry L. edited by Sidwell, Paul, Cooper, Doug and Bauer, Christian (2006). ''A Mon–Khmer comparative dictionary''. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics. {{ISBN|0-85883-570-3}}</ref> More recent classifications doubt the validity of the Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austroasiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of the family.<ref name=SidwellNew />