Turkic groups roughly thirty five languages spoken across a broad belt from Turkey and the Caucasus through Central Asia to Siberia, including Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar and Yakut. A twentieth century hypothesis grouped Turkic with Mongolic and Tungusic, and sometimes Japonic and Koreanic, as a broader Altaic family; most comparative linguists now consider this a rejected or fringe proposal, attributing the shared features to prolonged contact rather than common descent.
Facts
Disputed
Proto-Language StatusProto-Turkic is reconstructed via the comparative method and is securely established. Its proposed deeper unity with Mongolic and Tungusic under an Altaic macrofamily is a disputed and largely rejected hypothesis, not standard classification. 2 The internal Proto-Turkic reconstruction is not in dispute; the external Altaic hypothesis linking it to Mongolic and Tungusic is. RegionAnatolia and the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia 1 Speaker CountAggregate total across the Turkic languages, dominated by Turkish; mid-2020s estimate. Connections
Ancestor Of
Common Turkic groups every Turkic language apart from Khalaj and Chuvash, which each split off earliest from the family.
Held Differently
Altaic, Language Families Why this is disputed. Turkic is one of the three core families the Altaic hypothesis proposes to unite; most specialists attribute the resemblance to areal contact rather than common descent.
Source Wikipedia: Altaic Languages
Includes
Source Wikipedia: Azerbaijani Language
Source Ethnologue: Languages of the World
Sources
1. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
2. Glottolog
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyComments on family membership section, glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/turk1311Quote, Comments on family membership section, glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/turk1311
for critique on the Altaic hypothesis.
Wikipedia: Altaic Languages
Wikipedia: Azerbaijani Language
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Azerbaijani, Infobox, Language familyQuote, Includes: Azerbaijani, Infobox, Language family
Top family: Turkic languages; immediate branch: Oghuz languages (Western Oghuz).
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