: The people of the Qin state spoke Old Chinese , a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are famous for standardizing the Small Seal Script , which became the basis for modern Chinese writing.

If you want to explore a real historical connection between China and the Khmer, look to the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279 CE), when Chinese envoys and traders first documented the kingdom of "Chenla" and "Funan" — the precursors to Angkor. Or study the 13th-century Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan, who lived in Angkor and wrote The Customs of Cambodia .

However, as the Qin Empire expanded southward into the "Lingnan" region (modern-day Guangdong, Guangxi, and Northern Vietnam), they encountered the (Hundred Yue) tribes. Many linguists believe that the various Yue peoples spoke languages ancestral to modern-day Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic (the family Khmer belongs to). 2. The Austroasiatic Connection

Was a mosaic of Austroasiatic and Tai-Kadai dialects.