Although the relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic.
Aínda que a relación entre estas linguas xa foi evidenciada a comezos do século XIX, a reconstrución da orixinaria lingua sino-tibetana está moito menos desenvolvida que no caso do indoeuropeo ou o austroasiático.