EURASIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS

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Turkic-Mongolian Language Parallels in Comparative Historical Outline

Zh. K. Tuimebayev
Doctor Philological science, Professor, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan.
Keywords: Altaic Languages, Altaic Studies, Turkic-Mongolian Parallels, Theory of Borrowing, Genetic Relationship. ,

Abstract

Among the Altaic languages, Turkic and Mongolian have a lot of similarities due to their prolonged contact and a common lineage. The two languages share several parallels in vocabulary, sound correspondence, phonotactic rules, and grammar. This study aimed to explore the comparative-historical aspects of Turkic-Mongolian language parallels in lingua-contactological terms. Data was collected to understand various aspects of Altaic languages interaction, and how a formation of lexical corpus of each individual language developed a distinct genre of the Altaic studies. The comparative-contrastive methodology with historical approach was used to examine how linguists of various periods, majors, schools and directions discovered material similarities among the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages, covering almost all structural levels, such as phonetics, morphology, vocabulary and syntax. The findings reveal that the Altaic languages present a differentiation of various chronological and linguistic layers of borrowings. The earliest layer of it, accessible to linguistic and historical explanation of current Altaic studies, is made with Proto-Bulgarian ones in (Proto)Mongolian, considered by traditional Altaic studies as common heritage. It was also found that Altaic studies are evidence of root correspondences between numerous groups of Altaic languages representing all layers of inter-borrowings. The similarities were found in grammar, vocabulary and phonetic rules between the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages, suggesting that a comparison of different layers of diachronic and diatopic borrowings often result in building a structural framework.