The most frequent haplogroup among the Tai – Kadai speaking peoples is haplogroup O2a, which means there was widespread assimilation of Austro-Asiatic peoples.

A 2006 CFSL research article which assessed " 3522 individuals belonging to 54 ( 23 belonging to the Austro-Asiatic, 18 to Dravidian, 7 to Tibeto-Burman and 24 to Indo-European linguistic groups ) endogamous Indian populations, representing all major ethnic, linguistic and geographic groups " for genetic variations to support such classifications found no conclusive evidence.

" There are no written examples of Austro-Asiatic languages being spoken further west than Central India during the recent historical era ( i. e., in the era for which we have written records ).

The homeland of the Austro-Asiatic languages ( e. g. Vietnamese, Cambodian ) which are found from Southeast Asia to India is hypothesized to be located " the hills of southern Yunnan in China ," between 4000 BCE and 2000 BCE, with influences from Aryan and Dravidian languages at the Western edge of its expanse in India, and influence from Chinese at the Eastern edge of the regions where it is found.

They constitute a branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family, which means they are distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer ( Cambodian ).

The Shompen languages, of which there are at least two, are very little known, but appear to be unrelated to Nicobarese, an isolated group of Austro-Asiatic languages, and perhaps even to each other.

Their language is Mundari, which belongs to the Munda subgroup of the Austro-Asiatic language family.

Shafer ( 1965 ) presented evidence suggesting a distant connection with the Austro-Asiatic languages, which include many of the indigenous languages of Southeast Asia.

Khmu lends its name to the Khmuic branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family, the latter of which also includes Khmer and Vietnamese.

Korku is a scheduled tribe ( ST ) community predominantly found in the East Nimar ( Khandwa and Burhanpur ), Betul and Chhindwara districts of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas in Melghat region of Maharastra in India speaking the Korku language, which is a member of the Austro-Asiatic language family.

The Austro-Asiatic ( Austroasiatic ) languages, in recent classifications synonymous with Mon – Khmer, are a large language family of Southeast Asia, also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh.

The relatively autonomous Mongoloid tribal groups of Northeastern India ( including Khasis, Apatani and Nagas ), who are mostly Austro-Asiatic or Tibeto-Burman speakers, are also considered to be adivasis: this area comprises 7. 5 % of India's land area but 20 % of its adivasi population.

Variations in DNA segments on the Y chromosome also reveal affinities to Austro-Asiatic people including the Nicobarese and Vietnamese, rather than to people from mainland India.

Ho ( also known as Bihar Ho and Lanka Kol ) is a Munda language of the Austro-Asiatic language family spoken primarily in India by about 3, 803, 126 people ( 0. 103 % of India's population ) per the 2001 census.

Their language, in the Khmuic language family, is also called Khmu and belongs to the Austro-Asiatic group of languages.

Languages spoken here also include Asuri, an Austro-Asiatic language spoken by approximately 17 000.

It includes the Austronesian language family of Taiwan, the Malay Archipelago, Pacific Islands, and Madagascar, as well as the Austro-Asiatic language family of mainland Southeast Asia, Eastern India, and Bangladesh.

The Mon – Khmer ( Austro-Asiatic ) languages are the original languages of Southeast Asia.

The Mon language is part of the Monic group of the Mon – Khmer branch of the Austro-Asiatic family, closely related to the Nyah Kur language and more distantly related to Khmer.

* Funan was a pre-Angkor Cambodian kingdom, located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon – Khmer settlers speaking an Austro-Asiatic language.

Funan was a pre-Angkor Cambodian kingdom, located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon – Khmer settlers speaking an Austro-Asiatic language.

Some cultures associate divinity with whales, such as among Ghanaians and Vietnamese, who occasionally hold funerals for beached whales, a throwback to Vietnam's ancient sea-based Austro-Asiatic culture.

* In the Austro-Asiatic family, Vietnamese and its closest relatives are strongly tonal.

The Santali language is part of the Austro-Asiatic family, distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer.

* Austro-Asiatic: Khasi, Khmer, Mundari, Vietnamese

Languages spoken here include Asuri, an Austro-Asiatic language spoken by approximately 17 000, partly in the north of Ranchi ; Bhojpuri, a tongue in the Bihari language group with almost 40 000 000 speakers, written in both the Devanagari and Kaithi scripts ; and Bijori, a Munda language distantly related to Khmer and Vietnamese, spoken by about 25 000.

Together with the Munda languages of India, they are one of the two traditional primary branches of the Austro-Asiatic family.

Santali is a language in the Munda subfamily of Austro-Asiatic, related to Ho and Mundari.

Khasis and Nicobarese are considered to be Mongoloid groups and the Munda and Santals are Australoid groups, but all four speak Austro-Asiatic languages.

These result in a substantial amount of loan words from a prefixing language similar to Austro-Asiatic ( Munda, Khasi, etc.

The Gutob language belongs to the South Munda subgroup of the Munda branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family.

India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages ( Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages ) as well as two language isolates ( the Nihali language spoken in parts of Maharashtra and the Burushaski language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir ).

Ostapirat, by contrast, sees connections with the Austro-Asiatic languages ( in Austric ), as has Benedict.

Some linguists have suggested other language family connections for the Ainu language: Shafer has suggested a distant connection to the Austro-Asiatic languages.

Despite the tenuous lexical evidence, the relationship of Austronesian with either Austro-Asiatic or Tai – Kadai has many proponents to this day, mostly on morphological grounds.

India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages ( Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages ) as well as two language isolates ( the Nihali language spoken in parts of Maharashtra and the Burushaski language spoken in parts of Jammu and Kashmir ).

( 2003 ) indicates that: "( 1 ) there is an underlying unity of female lineages in India, indicating that the initial number of female settlers may have been small ; ( 2 ) the tribal and the caste populations are highly differentiated ; ( 3 ) the Austro-Asiatic tribals are the earliest settlers in India, providing support to one anthropological hypothesis while refuting some others ; ( 4 ) a major wave of humans entered India through the northeast ; ( 5 ) the Tibeto-Burman tribals share considerable genetic commonalities with the Austro-Asiatic tribals, supporting the hypothesis that they may have shared a common habitat in southern China, but the two groups of tribals can be differentiated on the basis of Y-chromosomal haplotypes ; ( 6 ) the Dravidian tribals were possibly widespread throughout India before the arrival of the Indo-European-speaking nomads, but retreated to southern India to avoid dominance ; ( 7 ) formation of populations by fission that resulted in founder and drift effects have left their imprints on the genetic structures of contemporary populations ; ( 8 ) the upper castes show closer genetic affinities with Central Asian populations, although those of southern India are more distant than those of northern India ; ( 9 ) historical gene flow into India has contributed to a considerable obliteration of genetic histories of contemporary populations so that there is at present no clear congruence of genetic and geographical or sociocultural affinities.

The Tai branch moved south into Southeast Asia only about a thousand years ago, founding the nations that later became Thailand and Laos in what had been Austro-Asiatic territory.

Various groups of people have been intermarrying for millennia in South Asia, including groups as diverse as the Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman peoples.

Attempts have been made to relate it to many other language families, including Altaic, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Nihali, and the putative Indo-Pacific stock.

The language was then largely relexified from what he believes may have been an Austro-Asiatic language.

The Austro-Asiatic tribals are hypothesized to have been the earliest inhabitants of India, while incoming Indo-European tribes may have displaced Dravidian-speaking tribals southward.