Editing Austronesian languages (section)

===Austric===
{{Main|Austric languages}}

A link with the [[Austroasiatic languages]] in an '[[Austric]]' [[phylum (linguistics)|phylum]] is based mostly on typological evidence. However, there is also morphological evidence of a connection between the conservative [[Nicobarese languages]] and Austronesian languages of the Philippines.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} Robert Blust supports the hypothesis which connects the lower Yangtze neolithic Austro-Tai entity with the rice-cultivating Austro-Asiatic cultures, assuming the center of East Asian rice domestication, and putative Austric homeland, to be located in the Yunnan/Burma border area.{{sfn|Sagart|Hsu|Tsai|Hsing|2017|p = 188}} Under that view, there was an east-west genetic alignment, resulting from a rice-based population expansion, in the southern part of East Asia: Austroasiatic-Kra-Dai-Austronesian, with unrelated Sino-Tibetan occupying a more northerly tier.{{sfn|Sagart|Hsu|Tsai|Hsing|2017|p = 188}}