ALTAIC LANGUAGES

family of languages consisting of three branchesTurkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungusthat show similarities in vocabulary, morphological and syntactic structure, and certain phonological features, and which, on the basis of systematic sound correspondences, are generally considered to be genetically related. It contains more than 50 languages, spoken by more than 135 million people spread across virtually the entire breadth of Asia and from the Arctic Ocean to the latitude of Peking (Beijing). The Turkic languages are spoken principally in a nearly continuous band from Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan through the Central Asian republics of Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, to Sinkiang in China. The Mongolian languages are concentrated in the adjacent, roughly oval region formed by Buryatia, Mongolia, and Inner Mongolia (China). The Manchu-Tungus languages are spoken by widely dispersed populations farther to the north and eastthat is, across Siberia (Russia) and in the northeast of China. family of languages consisting of three branchesTurkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungusthat show similarities in vocabulary, morphological and syntactic structure, and certain phonological features, and which, on the basis of systematic sound correspondences, are generally considered to be genetically related. There are approximately 50 Altaic languages, with more than 135 million speakers, spread across almost the breadth of Asia from the Arctic Ocean to the latitude of Peking. The most important members of the family are Turkish, Uzbek, Kazak, Uighur, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, and Mongol. The languages of this family are called Altaic because they are thought to have originated in the steppe lands near the Altai Mountains of Central Asia. The peoples of this region were typically nomads who exploited the horse. Additional reading A general handbook is N. Poppe, Introduction to Altaic Linguistics (1965), which outlines the history and structure of the languages (including Korean), as well as the history of scholarship in Altaic linguistics, while his Vergleichende Grammatik der altaischen Sprachen, vol. 1, Vergleichende Lautlehre (1960), is a comprehensive comparative phonology. G.J. Ramstedt, Einfuhrung in die altaische Sprachwissenschaft, ed. by Pentti Aalto, 3 vol. (195266), is a classic of comparative grammar, although it is somewhat outdated. The standard bibliography is Denis Sinor, Introduction a l'etude de l'Eurasie Centrale (1963). The locations of the various languages are shown in two map supplements to National Geographic, Peoples of the Soviet Union (February 1976), and The Peoples of China (July 1980). The classic though now out-of-date work on the relationship of Korean and Altaic is G.J. Ramstedt, Studies in Korean Etymology, 2 vol. (194953). The relationship of Japanese and Altaic is proposed and argued for in Roy Andrew Miller, Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages (1971). Robert I. Binnick