Editing Austronesian languages (section)

===Austro-Tai===
{{Main|Austro-Tai languages}}

An [[Austro-Tai languages|Austro-Tai]] proposal linking Austronesian and the [[Kra-Dai]] languages of the southeastern continental Asian mainland was first proposed by [[Paul K. Benedict]], and is supported by Weera Ostapirat, [[Roger Blench]], and Laurent Sagart, based on the traditional [[comparative method]]. {{Harvcoltxt|Ostapirat|2005}} proposes a series of regular correspondences linking the two families and assumes a primary split, with Kra-Dai speakers being the people who stayed behind in their Chinese homeland. {{harvcoltxt|Blench|2004}} suggests that, if the connection is valid, the relationship is unlikely to be one of two sister families. Rather, he suggests that [[proto-Kra-Dai]] speakers were Austronesians who migrated to [[Hainan]] Island and back to the mainland from the northern Philippines, and that their distinctiveness results from radical restructuring following contact with [[Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]] and [[Sinitic language|Sinitic]]. An extended version of Austro-Tai was hypothesized by Benedict who added the [[Japonic languages]] to the proposal as well.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Solnit, David B.|title=Japanese/Austro-Tai By Paul K. Benedict (review)|journal=[[Language (journal)|Language]]|publisher=[[Linguistic Society of America]]|volume=687|number=1|pages=188–196|date=March 1992|doi=10.1353/lan.1992.0061|s2cid=141811621}}</ref>