Sino-Tibetan Languages

Sino-Tibetan languages, group of languages that includes both the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages. In terms of numbers of speakers, they constitute the world’s second largest language family (after Indo-European), including more than 300 languages and major dialects. In a wider sense, Sino-Tibetan has been defined as also including the Tai (Daic) and Karen language families. Some scholars also include the Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) languages and even the Ket language of central Siberia, but the affiliation of these languages to the Sino-Tibetan group has not been conclusively demonstrated. Other linguists connect the Mon-Khmer family of the Austroasiatic stock or the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family, or both, with Sino-Tibetan; a suggested term for this most inclusive group, which seems to be based on premature speculations, is Sino-Austric. Yet other scholars see a relationship of Sino-Tibetan with the Athabaskan and other languages of North America, but proof of this is beyond reach at the present state of knowledge.

Sino-Tibetan languages were known for a long time by the name of Indochinese, which is now restricted to the languages of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They were also called Tibeto-Chinese until the now universally accepted designation Sino-Tibetan was adopted. The term Sinitic also has been used in the same sense, but also as below for the Chinese subfamily exclusively. (In the following discussion of language groups, the ending -ic, as in Sinitic, indicates a relatively large group of languages, and -ish denotes a smaller grouping.)