Chickens and eggs: the undying issue of the primacy of r/l or z/š in Altaic historical linguistics
Date
1999-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
For the better part of this century, the Turkic language family has posed some difficulties for both typological and historical linguistics. The pivotal issue lies with four modern Turkic phonemes /r, l, z, š/ and their reflexes in the peripheral Turkic language Chuvash, spoken south of Moscow along the Volga River. Historically, the question that arises is, which set of phonemes, greater-Turkic or Chuvash, is the older one? And, in turn, what does the potential answer to this question have to say about the classification of Turkic? The Chuvash reflexes /r, I/ (but not z and š)
correspond perfectly with cognates in Mongolian and Manchu-Tungus languages, leading one to believe that not only are the Chuvash phonemes older, but also that Turkic is most certainly an Altaic language. The aim of this paper is to explore each side of the Altaic argument with the issue of the phonemes serving as the focal point.
Description
Keywords
Linguistics, Historical linguistics, Altaic languages, Phonology, Typology (Linguistics)
Citation
Therien, T. L. (1999). Chickens and eggs: the undying issue of the primacy of r/l or z/š in Altaic historical linguistics. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 21(Winter), 96-117.