Macro Altaic

The postulated macro-Altaic language family.

Macro-Altaic or Northeast Asian Language Association is a group of Eurasian-Siberian languages that includes the following language families and individual languages:

Northeast Asian according to Hattori (1964)

The question of whether Macro-Altaic is a genetic unit ( language family ) or just a linguistic union of typologically similar languages with areal contacts has long been controversial . The state of the art in linguistics is that (as with every other version of the Altaic hypothesis) there is no genetic unit, but a linguistic union (consisting of the six generally recognized, undisputed, independent genetic units Turkic languages, Mongolian, Tungusian, Korean, Japanese -Ryūkyū and Ainu). The linguist Alexander Vovin judges attempts to link Japanese with the Altaic languages as absurd and scientifically worthless.

This topic is dealt with in the article Altaic languages .

Individual evidence

↑ "While 'Altaic' is repeated in encyclopedias and handbooks most specialists in these languages no longer believe that the three traditional supposed Altaic groups, Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic, are related." Lyle Campbell & Mauricio J. Mixco: A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. University of Utah Press, 2007, p. 7.
↑ "When cognates proved not to be valid, Altaic was abandoned, and the received view now is that Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic are unrelated." Johanna Nichols: Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time. Chicago 1992, p. 4.
↑ "Careful examination indicates that the established families, Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic, form a linguistic area (called Altaic) ... Sufficient criteria have not been given that would justify talking of a genetic relationship here." RMW Dixon: The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge 1997, p. 32.
↑ "... [T] his selection of features does not provide good evidence for common descent" and "we can observe convergence rather than divergence between Turkic and Mongolic languages - a pattern than is easily explainable by borrowing and diffusion rather than common descent ", Asya Pereltsvaig: Languages of the World, An Introduction. Cambridge 2012, has a good discussion of the Altaic hypothesis (pp. 211-216).
^ The Altaic family controversy - Languages Of The World . In: Languages Of The World . February 16, 2011 ( languagesoftheworld.info [accessed March 18, 2017]).
↑ Alexander Vovin: Origins of the Japanese Language. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University, September 2017, accessed November 29, 2019 .

[1] "While 'Altaic' is repeated in encyclopedias and handbooks most specialists in these languages no longer believe that the three traditional supposed Altaic groups, Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic, are related." Lyle Campbell & Mauricio J. Mixco: A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. University of Utah Press, 2007, p. 7.

[2] "When cognates proved not to be valid, Altaic was abandoned, and the received view now is that Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic are unrelated." Johanna Nichols: Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time. Chicago 1992, p. 4.

[3] "Careful examination indicates that the established families, Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic, form a linguistic area (called Altaic) ... Sufficient criteria have not been given that would justify talking of a genetic relationship here." RMW Dixon: The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge 1997, p. 32.

[4] "... [T] his selection of features does not provide good evidence for common descent" and "we can observe convergence rather than divergence between Turkic and Mongolic languages - a pattern than is easily explainable by borrowing and diffusion rather than common descent ", Asya Pereltsvaig: Languages of the World, An Introduction. Cambridge 2012, has a good discussion of the Altaic hypothesis (pp. 211-216).

[5] The Altaic family controversy - Languages Of The World . In: Languages Of The World . February 16, 2011 ( languagesoftheworld.info [accessed March 18, 2017]).

[6] Alexander Vovin: Origins of the Japanese Language. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford University, September 2017, accessed November 29, 2019 .