Introduction to Altaic Linguistics

Author: Litifu Tuohtui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Altaic linguistics belongs to the field of historical-comparative dialectology. The historical-comparative study of Altaic languages has a history of over a century. The Altaic language family includes more than 40 languages, such as the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages, Korean, and Japanese. China has 20 Altaic languages. This book reviews the emergence and development of Altaic linguistic theory, introduces various schools within the field of Altaic linguistics, including supporters, skeptics, and opponents of the theory. It also introduces the characteristics, classification, and research of Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages, and Korean, as well as the population and distribution of speakers of these languages. The book focuses on describing the phonetic features, phonetic correspondences, and some cognates of Altaic languages, the common morphological components, the basic vocabulary shared by Altaic languages, and the commonalities reflected in the non-arbitrary components of Altaic languages. At the end of the book, it also introduces the mutual borrowing between Altaic languages and non-Altaic languages.