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 the, history and/or idea:

    “Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
    —Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

    “The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    “True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)