Austroasiatic in the context of Khasi–Palaungic languages

Vietnam, with its coastal strip, rugged mountainous interior, and two major deltas, became home to numerous cultures throughout history. Its strategic geographical position in Southeast Asia also made it a crossroads of trade and a focal point of conflict, contributing to its complex and eventful past. The first Ancient East Eurasian hunter-gatherers arrived at least 40,000 years ago. Around 4,000 years ago during the Neolithic period, Ancient Southern East Asian populations, particularly Austroasiatic and Austronesian peoples, began migrating from southern China into Southeast Asia, bringing with them rice-cultivation knowledge, languages, and much of the genetic basis of the modern population of Vietnam. In the first millennium BCE the Đông Sơn culture emerged, based on rice cultivation and focused on the indigenous chiefdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc.

Following the 111 BCE Han conquest of Nanyue, much of Vietnam came under Chinese dominance for a thousand years. The period nonetheless saw numerous uprisings, and Vietnamese kingdoms occasionally enjoyed de facto independence. Buddhism and Hinduism arrived by the 2nd century CE, making Vietnam the first place which shared influences of both Chinese and Indian cultures.

The Lạc Việt or Luoyue (駱越 or 雒越; pinyin: Luòyuè ← Middle Chinese: *lɑk̚-ɦʉɐt̚ ← Old Chinese *râk-wat) were an ancient conglomeration of peoples inhabiting northern Vietnam, particularly the ancient Red River Delta, from approximately 700 BC to 100 AD, during the last stage of the Neolithic and the beginning of the period of classical antiquity. They spoke Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic languages. From archaeological perspectives, they were known as the Dongsonian. The Lạc Việt were known for casting large Heger Type I bronze drums, cultivating paddy rice, and constructing dikes. The Lạc Việt who owned the Bronze Age Đông Sơn culture, which centered at the Red River Delta (in Northern Vietnam), are proposed to be the ancestors of the modern Kinh Vietnamese; another population of Luoyue, who inhabited the Zuo river's valley (now in modern Southern China), are proposed to be the ancestors of the modern Zhuang people; additionally, the Luoyue population in southern China are proposed to be ancestors of the Hlai people.