Paul King Benedict (Chinese name: 白保羅 Bái Bǎoluó) (5 July 1912 – 21 July 1997) was an American
anthropologist,
mental health professional, and
linguist who specialized in languages of East and
Southeast Asia. He is well known for his 1942 proposal of the
Austro-Tai language family and also his reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan and
Proto-Tibeto-Burman. He was also a practicing psychiatrist in the New York area for 20 years and was also a pioneer in the field of ethnopsychiatry.