| Turanian |
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Information AboutTuranian |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT URAL-ALTAIC LANGUAGES | |
| proposed language families | |
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The theory of a Ural-Altaic group has now been widely disapproved by historical linguists as a misnomer. Even the existence of the Altaic language family has become controversial (see . Both groups follow the principle of Vowel Harmony , are Agglutinative (stringing suffixes, prefixes or both onto a single root), demonstrate SOV word order, and lack grammatical gender (see Noun Class ). However, these typological similarities do not, on their own, constitute evidence of Genetic Relationship , as they may be a result of Areal Influences or coincidence. These features are consistent with a proto-language or a loose collection of areal influences spanning Proto-Uralic, Proto-Indo-European and Turkic languages. Vowel harmony is found in other, unrelated language groups. Moreover, there is no evidence for noninitial labial vowels in Proto-Uralic , thus leaving the remaining /a/ and /i/ open for Allophony controlled by the initial syllable, creating vowel harmony from scratch. However, the prevalence of the above-noted features among the languages of the proposed Ural-Altaic languages suggests a strong relationship—whether genetic or not—whose name may still refer to the languages which share these features. This proposed language family has also sometimes been termed Turanian. The term derives from the Persian word for places beyond the Oxus , '' Turān ''. SEE ALSO |
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