TY - JOUR
T1 - Telling general linguists about Altaic
AU - Georg, Stefan
AU - Michalove, Peter A.
AU - Ramer, Alexis Manaster
AU - Sidwell, Paul J.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0040505842&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0022226798007312
DO - 10.1017/S0022226798007312
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-2267
VL - 35
SP - 65
EP - 98
JO - Journal of Linguistics
JF - Journal of Linguistics
IS - 1
ER -