Altaic /ĉlˈteɪɨk/ is a proposed
language family of central Eurasia. Various versions include the
Turkic,
Mongolic,
Tungusic,
Koreanic, and
Japonic languages.
[1] These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast
Asia through
Central Asia to
Anatolia and eastern
Europe.
[2] The group is named after the
Altai Mountains, a mountain range in
Central Asia.
The Altaic language families share numerous characteristics. The debate is over the origin of their similarities. One camp, often called the "Altaicists", views these similarities as arising from
common descent from a proto-Altaic language spoken several thousand years ago. The other camp, often called the "anti-Altaicists", views these similarities as arising from
areal interaction between the language groups concerned. Some linguists believe the case for either interpretation is about equally strong; they have been called the "skeptics".
[3]
Another view accepts Altaic as a valid family but includes in it only Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic. This view was widespread prior to the 1960s, but has almost no supporters among specialists today.
[4] The expanded grouping, including
Korean and
Japanese, came to be known as "Macro-Altaic", leading to the designation of the smaller grouping as "Micro-Altaic" by
retronymy. Most proponents of Altaic continue to support the inclusion of Korean and Japanese.
[5]
Micro-Altaic includes about 66 living languages,
[6] to which Macro-Altaic would add Korean, Japanese, and the
Ryukyuan languages for a total of about 74. (These are estimates, depending on what is considered a language and what is considered a
dialect. They do not include earlier states of languages, such as
Middle Mongol or
Old Japanese.)