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Altaic is a proposed genetic grouping that would include minimally the Turkic,
Tungusic, and Mongolic families, perhaps also Korean and Japanese. Each of these
components is a well established language family, and Altaic lies perhaps at the dividing line
that separates proponents of wide ranging genetic groupings of languages from those that
remain skeptical. Here the various families and the languages they contain will be noted
without any commitment to the unity of the overall grouping. The Turkic languages
(Johanson and Csato 1998) are spoken, with interruptions, in a broad belt stretching from the
Balkans in the west through the Caucasus and Central Asia and into Siberia.
Classification of the Turkic languages has always been problematic, in part because
most of the languages are very close to one another linguistically, in part because population
movements and even, in recent times, language politics have tended to overlay new
distinctions on old ones. It is recognized that two languages form separate branches of the
family: Chuvash, spoken in the Chuvash Republic (Russia) on the Volga, and Khalaj, spoken
by a small and dwindling population in the Central Province of Iran. Johanson and Csato
(1998: 82–3) propose four other branches, listed here with representative languages.
Southwestern (Oghuz) Turkic includes Turkish (Turkey), Azeri (Azerbaijani).
Titany answered the question on May 11, 2022 at 09:33