The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.201

v1.c15.201

Thus Austric languages, which still flourish in Annam and Cambodia, remain in India and Burma as islands of speech to preserve the record of a far distant period when Northern India (possibly Southern India also) and Farther India belonged to the same linguistic area. And there is some evidence that they shared the same culture in neolithic times; for the 'chisel-shaped, high-shouldered celts' are specially characteristic of these regions¹. There can be little doubt that the Indian and Burmese tribes who speak Austric languages are descended from the neolithic peoples who made these celts. We may regard them as representing the earliest population concerning which we possess any definite information. Other tribes may have an equal claim to antiquity; but they have abandoned their ancestral speech and adopted that of their more recent and more progressive neighbours. Their title is consequently less clear.