The Khasic or Khasian languages are a family of Austroasiatic languages native to the Shillong Plateau and spoken by the Khasi , Pnar and other related ethnic groups. Most of them reside in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya where Khasi speakers form a plurality of the population. Smaller Khasic-speaking pockets are found in Assam , Manipur , Mizoram and Sylhet Division of Bangladesh .
6-530: Sidwell (2018: 27–31) classifies the Khasian languages as follows. Varieties called Bhoi are dialects of both Pnar and Khasi. Paul Sidwell (2011) suggests that Khasian is closely related to Palaungic , forming a Khasi–Palaungic branch . The following eight Khasian- Palaungic isoglosses have been identified by Sidwell (2018: 32). Sidwell (2018: 23) lists the following Khasian lexical innovations (i.e., defining lexical forms) that are found exclusively in
12-728: Is most notable for his work on the historical linguistics of the Austroasiatic language family , and has published reconstructions of the Austroasiatic , Bahnaric , Katuic , Palaungic , Khasic , and Nicobaric proto-languages. Sidwell is currently the President of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS) and also regularly organises the International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics (ICAAL). In 2001, Sidwell
18-819: The Center for Research in Computational Linguistics at Bangkok , and from 2012 to 2016 an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the Australian National University, working on the Austroasiatic Lexicon Project. For the rest of 2016 he rejoined the Center for Research in Computational Linguistics, Bangkok, as a Consulting Linguist on the DARPA/LORELEI Project. Since 2017 he has been a Partner at Language Intelligence, and in 2017/2018
24-650: The Khasian branch, but not in other Austroasiatic branches). Proto-Khasian and Proto-Pnar-Khasi-Lyngngam have been reconstructed by Paul Sidwell (2018). Proto-Khasian is estimated to have originated about 2,000-2,500 years ago, with War splitting from other Khasian linguistic varieties about 1,500 years ago (Sidwell 2018: 20). Proto-Khasian morphology includes a causative *pN- prefix and verbalizing *-r- infix (Sidwell 2018: 66-67). The following reconstructed paradigmatic and closed class morphemes in Proto-Khasian are from Sidwell (2018: 51-67). Sidwell (2018) lists
30-538: The following sound changes from Pre-Khasian (i.e., the ancestral stage of Khasian that preceded Proto-Khasian) to Proto-Khasian. Paul Sidwell Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra , Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University . Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics ,
36-636: Was appointed as a Collaborating Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology , Leipzig . From 2001 to 2004, he was an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian National University , remaining there from 2005 to 2007 as a Visiting Research Fellow, funded by the Max Planck Institute. From 2007 to 2011 he was Director of the Mon-Khmer Language Project at
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