Editing Austronesian languages (section)

===Japanese===
{{Main|Classification of the Japonic languages#Proposals relating Japonic languages to Southeast Asian language families}}
Several linguists have proposed that [[Japanese language|Japanese]] is genetically related to the Austronesian family, cf. Benedict (1990), Matsumoto (1975), Miller (1967).

Some other linguists think it is more plausible that Japanese is not genetically related to the Austronesian languages, but instead was influenced by an Austronesian [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]] or [[adstratum]].

Those who propose this scenario suggest that the Austronesian family once covered the islands to the north as well as to the south. [[Martine Robbeets]] (2017)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robbeets |first=Martine |year=2017 |title=Austronesian influence and Transeurasian ancestry in Japanese: A case of farming/language dispersal |journal=Language Dynamics and Change |volume=7 |issue=2 |doi=10.1163/22105832-00702005 |pages=210–251 |doi-access=free |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002E-8635-7 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> claims that Japanese genetically belongs to the "Transeurasian" (= [[Altaic languages|Macro-Altaic]]) languages, but underwent lexical influence from "para-Austronesian", a presumed sister language of [[Proto-Austronesian]].

The linguist Ann Kumar (2009) proposed that some Austronesians might have migrated to Japan, possibly an elite-group from [[Java]], and created the Japanese-hierarchical society. She also identifies 82 possible cognates between Austronesian and Japanese, however her theory remains very controversial.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kumar |first=Ann |year=2009 |title=Globalizing the Prehistory of Japan: Language, Genes and Civilization. |location=Oxford |publisher=Routledge}}</ref> The linguist [[Asya Pereltsvaig|Asha Pereltsvaig]] criticized Kumar's theory on several points.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> The archaeological problem with that theory is that, contrary to the claim that there was no rice farming in China and Korea in [[Prehistory|prehistoric times]], excavations have indicated that rice farming has been practiced in this area since at least 5000 BC.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> There are also genetic problems. The pre-Yayoi Japanese lineage was not shared with Southeast Asians, but was shared with Northwest Chinese, [[Tibetan people|Tibetans]] and [[Central Asians]].<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Linguistic problems were also pointed out. Kumar did not claim that Japanese was an Austronesian language derived from proto-Javanese language, but only that it provided a superstratum language for [[old Japanese]], based on 82 plausible Javanese-Japanese cognates, mostly related to rice farming.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web |date=2011-05-09 |title=Javanese influence on Japanese |url=https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/historical-linguistics/javanese-influence-on-japanese.html |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=Languages Of The World |language=en-US}}</ref>