使用台語稱呼這個語系始於中華民國學者李方桂於1940年出版《龍州土語》：「在龍州城裏粵語（又叫作普通話，很近似廣州話），官話都很通行，但是基本的語言是所謂『龍州土話』。這種話也含有不少的漢語成分，但是基本辭彙，句法是屬於另一個語言系统。我們把這個語言系統叫作台語 Tai languages 。屬於這個系統的有暹羅語 Siamese，撣語 Shan，白泰語 Tay Blanc，儂語，獐語等等。」[2][3]:序。至1980年代，邢公畹等學者開始譯介白保羅與李方桂等人著作，將台語支用法引進中國語言學界。
^Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2009. The Phonology of Proto-Tai. PhD dissertation. Department of Linguistics, Cornell University.
參考文獻
Ostapirat W (2000). "Proto-Kra." In Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 23(1).
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