"Altaic languages" 的定义和意义

What are "Altaic languages"?

Altaic languages are a proposed language family that includes languages spoken across a vast region of Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and parts of Siberia. The most commonly cited branches within the Altaic family are Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages. Some classifications also include Korean and Japanese, although their inclusion is debated among linguists. Altaic languages are characterized by features such as agglutinative morphology, vowel harmony, and similar syntactic structures. The study of Altaic languages aims to explore the historical relationships and cultural connections among the peoples who speak them, as well as the shared linguistic features that may indicate a common ancestral language. However, the validity of the Altaic language family remains a topic of ongoing research and discussion in the field of linguistics.