Laurent Sagart

Laurent Sagart (born 1951) is a director of research at the Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale (CRLAO - UMR 8563) unit of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).^[1] Born at Paris in 1951,^[2] he earned his Ph.D. in 1977 at the University of Paris 7 and his Doctorat d'Etat in 1990 at University of Aix-Marseille 1.^[3] His early work focuses on Chinese dialectology and his recent work, together with William H. Baxter, has treated the reconstruction of Old Chinese.

Sino-Austronesian

Sagart is probably most well-known for his proposal of the Sino-Austronesian language family.

Sagart considers the Austronesian languages to be related to the Sino-Tibetan languages, and also groups the Tai–Kadai languages as more closely related to the Malayo-Polynesian languages.^[4]

Sino-Austronesian (Sino-Tibetan–Austronesian)
- Tibeto-Burman ("Sino-Tibetan languages")
- Austronesian
  - Luilang, Pazeh, Saisiat
  - Pituish
    - Atayalic (Thao, Favorlang, Taokas, Papora, Hoanya)
    - Enemish
      - Siraya
      - Walu-Siwaish
        Tsouic (Paiwan, Rukai, Puyuma, Amis, Bunun)
        
        Muish
        Northeastern Formosan (Kavalan, etc.)
        
        Daic or Kra–Dai (Tai–Kadai)
        
        Malayo-Polynesian

^ http://crlao.ehess.fr/document.php?id=213
^ http://www.archivesaudiovisuelles.fr/875/introduction.asp?id=875
^ http://crlao.ehess.fr/document.php?id=213
^ van Driem, George. 2005. Sino-Austronesian vs. Sino-Caucasian, Sino-Bodic vs. Sino-Tibetan, and Tibeto-Burman as default theory. Contemporary Issues in Nepalese Linguistics, pp. 285-338. http://www.eastling.org/paper/Driem.pdf (see page 304)