21
votes
Accepted
Why is Korean considered a language isolate?
Remember "isolate" doesn't mean "shown to be unrelated to any other language". It means "not shown to be related to any other language" (in a sufficiently convincing manner to establish a consensus).
...
- 17.2k
8
votes
Can we make a case for Eurasiatic numerals for one and two?
Definitely not.
Two words only aren't enough to establish any kind of relationship.
The best you can do with it is to use them as seeds for possible sound relations and look of regular sound laws ...
- 28.3k
8
votes
Accepted
Origins of Turkic language family? Alternatives to Altaic?
The alternative to the Altaic theory is that every language group included in there (that is Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Japonic and Korean in its widest form, any theory that directly links Uralic ...
- 2,165
7
votes
Origins of Turkic language family? Alternatives to Altaic?
As a matter of fact, there still are a number of linguists believing that some or all of the families considered to belong to the putative Altaic stock are related one way or another.
"Core Altaic" ...
- 952
5
votes
Why is Ural-Altaic controversial, but Indo-European isn't?
For Indogermanic, there are ample word correspondences and regular sound laws allowing the reconstruction of a proto-language (at two levels, one before and one after the split of the Anatolic branch ...
- 28.3k
5
votes
What are arguments for and against a common origin of Korean and Japanese?
A common origin for two languages is a concept that has been proposed and theoretically grounded within the comparative method invented at the beginning of the 19th cent. by Rask, Bopp and Grimm. Two ...
- 2,513
4
votes
Articles in Indo-European Languages
First and foremost, Altaic is a controversial grouping of languages at best. So take claims about them with a grain of salt, though it may be useful to view them as a language area. But it still doesn'...
- 1,176
2
votes
was old Mongolic similar to old Turkic
For Turkish and Mongolian the situation is similar to the case of Mongolian and Tungusic asked in a prior question: To our best current knowledge, there is no provable genetic relationship.
- 28.3k
2
votes
Can Tungusic and Mongolic be a language family that has same root
Many people before were intrigued by the same question but the current consensus seems to be that Manchu-Tungus and Mongolian are independent language families for which no common root can be ...
- 28.3k
2
votes
Why is Korean considered a language isolate?
My mother tongue is Chinese and I speak neither Japanese nor Korean yet I don't think they really sound close. I will definitely not mistake Japanese speakers as speaking Korean.
It's very easy for "...
- 573
1
vote
Why is Korean considered a language isolate?
The Altaic hypothesis is far from dismissed. There are publications out there regarding the Altaic family and there are still voices within major institutions (e.g. Brill) speaking of it. Wikipedia as ...
- 2,534
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