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Language Lineage

Proto-Sino-Tibetan

The reconstructed ancestor of Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, with shared basic words such as *ŋa 'I' (Old Chinese 吾 *ŋˤa, Written Tibetan nga, Burmese ŋa) and numerals: 'five' is Old Chinese 五 *ŋˤaʔ and Tibetan lnga.

c. 5000 – 4000 BCE (reconstructed; dating debated)Probably the upper and middle Yellow River basin of northern China; a Himalayan or southwestern origin has also been proposed
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. The Shape of the Tree
  3. Where its languages are spoken
  4. Turning points
  5. Contested classifications

01

Origins

The relationship between Chinese and Tibetan was recognised in the 19th century from shared basic vocabulary: the pronoun 'I' (Old Chinese *ŋˤa, Tibetan nga, Burmese ŋa), 'five' (Old Chinese *ŋˤaʔ, Tibetan lnga) and 'fish' (Old Chinese *ŋa, Burmese ŋa). Reconstruction is hard, because Chinese is written in characters that do not record pronunciation directly, and many Tibeto-Burman languages are poorly documented.

Two phylogenetic studies published in 2019, by Laurent Sagart and colleagues and by Menghan Zhang and colleagues, both placed the origin of the family among Neolithic millet farmers of northern China, around 7,000–6,000 years ago, and found Sinitic to be the first branch to split off. George van Driem and others instead favour an origin further southwest, in Sichuan or the Himalayas, and question the whole idea of a 'Tibeto-Burman' branch.

02

The Shape of the Tree

The traditional division is into Sinitic (the Chinese languages) and Tibeto-Burman (everything else). This tree follows it, since both 2019 phylogenies support Sinitic as the first split. Tibeto-Burman itself contains dozens of subgroups, and this tree draws five of the best established: Tibetic, Lolo-Burmese, Karenic, Kuki-Chin and Sal. Many others (Qiangic, Nungish, Tamangic and more) are not yet drawn.

On the map

Where its languages are spoken

BhutanTaiwanHong KongSingapore
Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. MyanmarLolo-Burmese c. 34 million · Karenic c. 4 million · Kuki-Chin c. 1 million · Sal c. 0.9 million
  2. TaiwanSinitic c. 23 million
  3. ChinaSinitic c. 1.25 billion · Tibetic c. 5–6 million · Lolo-Burmese c. 9 million · Tani a few thousand · Sal c. 0.1 million
  4. Hong KongSinitic c. 7 million
  5. MalaysiaSinitic c. 6 million
  6. IndiaTibetic c. 0.3 million · Kiranti c. 0.1 million · Kuki-Chin c. 1.5 million · Tani c. 1–1.3 million · Sal c. 4 million
  7. United StatesSinitic c. 3.5 million
  8. SingaporeSinitic c. 2 million
6 more countries
  1. NepalTibetic c. 0.2 million · Kiranti c. 0.9 million
  2. ThailandLolo-Burmese c. 0.2 million · Karenic c. 0.4 million
  3. PakistanTibetic c. 0.4 million
  4. BangladeshKuki-Chin c. 0.05 million · Sal c. 0.2 million
  5. BhutanTibetic c. 0.2 million · Kiranti
  6. LaosLolo-Burmese c. 0.1 million

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Splitc. 5000 – 4000 BCEContested

    Millet farmers of the Yellow River

    Sinitic and the ancestors of Tibeto-Burman part, as millet farmers spread west and southwest from northern China toward the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas. The homeland and date are disputed, and the alternative places the origin in the southwest.

    Sources (2)
    • Sagart, Laurent, et al. 2019. Dated language phylogenies shed light on the ancestry of Sino-Tibetan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116(21).
    • Zhang, Menghan, et al. 2019. Phylogenetic evidence for Sino-Tibetan origin in northern China in the Late Neolithic. Nature 569.

Outside the tree

Contested classifications

These disagreements may never be settled. Each position is given with its grounds, and no side is declared correct.

  • Minority position

    Sino-Austronesian

    Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian share an ancestor

    Evidence for

    Laurent Sagart has proposed sound correspondences and shared vocabulary between Old Chinese and Proto-Austronesian, linked to the spread of millet and rice farming from northern China. The Austronesian tree records the related Austro-Tai debate.

    Evidence against

    The proposed cognates are few, and borrowing between Neolithic farming populations along the Chinese coast could explain them. Most specialists regard the case as unproven.

    Sources (1)
    • Sagart, Laurent. 2005. Sino-Tibetan–Austronesian: An updated and improved argument. In The Peopling of East Asia, ed. Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench & Alicia Sanchez-Mazas. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
  • Largely rejected

    Dene-Caucasian (Sino-Caucasian)

    Sino-Tibetan is related to Yeniseian, North Caucasian, Basque and Na-Dene

    Evidence for

    Sergei Starostin proposed lexical correspondences linking Sino-Tibetan, Yeniseian and North Caucasian, and others later added Basque, Burushaski and Na-Dene.

    Evidence against

    The families are separated by great distances and time depths, the proposed cognates are loosely matched, and reconstructions are compared with other reconstructions. Most historical linguists do not accept it. The better-supported Dene–Yeniseian link, between Yeniseian and Na-Dene, is a separate and narrower proposal.

    Sources (2)
    • Starostin, Sergei A. 1984. Gipoteza o genetičeskix svjazjax sinotibetskix jazykov s enisejskimi i severnokavkazskimi jazykami. In Lingvističeskaja rekonstrukcija i drevnejšaja istorija Vostoka. Moscow: Nauka.
    • Campbell, Lyle & William J. Poser. 2008. Language Classification: History and Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.