Sino-Tibetan archaeolinguistics

This chapter summarises the linguistic phylogeny of the Sino-Tibetan (ST) languages and how this phylogeny relates to archaeological and genetic information. Early Neolithic farmers of the upper Yellow River region during the early and middle Yangshao culture period ca. 7000-5300 cal. BP were the likely speakers of Proto-ST (Bradley 2017, Bradley 2022, Sagart et al. 2019, M. Zhang, M. et al. 2019, Zhang, H. et al. 2020). Genetic analysis shows that the ancient genome of the Yangshao population is the main genetic precursor of modern populations speaking ST languages. Various cultural practices such as agriculture, animal husbandry, and use of metals which were characteristic of Yangshao and its successors are outlined, tracing the distribution of reconstructed etyma for key concepts. Together, this evidence provides likely dates for the main phylogenetic separations within ST.