1999/03/01 by Stefan Georg, Peter A. Michalove, Alexis Manaster Ramer +1 · 7 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · #Linguistics and Cultural Studies #Historical Linguistics and Language Studies #Natural Language Processing Techniques
paper · doi:10.1017/s0022226798007312
openalex publication_date 1999/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The hypothesis of an Altaic language family, comprising the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean and, in most recent versions, Japanese languages continues to be a viable linguistic proposal, despite various published claims that it is no longer accepted. A strong body of research continues to appear, developing and refining the hypothesis, along with publications that argue against a demonstrated relationship among these languages. This paper shows that many of the arguments against a genetic relationship fail to address the criteria demanded in modern historical linguistics, while many of the responses from proponents of the Altaic theory have failed to address the criticisms raised. We hope that arguments focusing on the real issues of phonological correspondences and morphological systems will shed greater light on the relationship among these languages.