Altaic Languages - History of The Altaic Idea

History of The Altaic Idea

The idea that the Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages are closely related to each other was allegedly first published in 1730 by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg, a Swedish officer who traveled in the eastern Russian Empire while a prisoner of war after the Great Northern War. However, as has been pointed out by Alexis Manaster Ramer and Paul Sidwell (1997), Strahlenberg actually opposed the idea of a closer relationship between the languages which later became known as "Altaic".. Von Strahlenberg's classification was the first attempt at classification of a large number of languages some of which are Altaic.

Read more about this topic:  Altaic Languages

Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or idea:

    The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

    In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.
    Stefan Zweig (18811942)

    We like the idea of childhood but are not always crazy about the kids we know. We like it, that is, when we are imagining our own childhoods. So part of our apparent appreciation of youth is simply envy.
    C. John Sommerville (20th century)