Group of more than 50 languages, comprising the Turkic , Mongolian , and Manchu-Tungus subfamilies.
Altaic languages are spoken across Eurasia by more than 140 million people (the overwhelming majority of whom speak Turkic languages ). Most scholars consider Altaic itself to be a family, of proven genetic relationship, though a minority attribute similarities in the languages to borrowings and areal convergence. The Uralic and Altaic language families were once believed to form a superfamily, but reliable sound correspondences have not been demonstrated, and the numerous similarities between the two are now attributed to areal influences.