ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Austroasiatic languages

Okay kiddo! Austroasiatic language family is a group of many different languages that are spoken by people in many different countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and India. It is one of the largest language families in the world, but not many people know about it because most people only hear about other famous language families such as Romance, Germanic, or Slavic.

Just like we have different types of animals such as dogs, cats, and fish, there are different types of languages too! Austroasiatic languages are unique because they have some common words and grammar rules that help linguists and scholars group them together as a family. Think of a family as a group of people with the same last name, or similar facial features. Similarly, Austroasiatic languages have some common words and sound patterns that make them part of the same family.

Some examples of Austroasiatic languages that you may have heard of before are Khmer, which is spoken in Cambodia, and Vietnamese, which is spoken in Vietnam. These languages are very different from the English language that we are speaking now, but they are just as important and beautiful. People who speak Austroasiatic languages have their own unique culture, traditions, and history, which makes studying these languages even more interesting!

So, in summary, Austroasiatic language family is a big group of different languages spoken all over Asia, and they have some things in common that makes them part of the same family. People who speak these languages are just as important as people who speak other famous languages, and learning about them can help us appreciate the diversity of languages and cultures in our world.