Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun Hypothetical prehistoric ancestor of all
Altaic languages.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Concerning Proto-Altaic itself, I'm convinced it exists and is unavoidable.
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On page 341 of Choi, Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Vol. 3 (1993) (see link), in the article Notes on Some Japanese-Korean Phonetic Correspondences by Alexander Vovin, we see a list of reconstructed numerals comparing Proto-Japanese, Proto-Manchu-Tungus and Proto-Altaic.
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A wave model would be much more appropriate in understanding Proto-Altaic too.
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One is the wholesale softening of word-final *-t to *-s as seen in the changes on animate plural marker *-it n.b. further erosion of word-final *-s causes in turn Proto-Altaic *-r₂ and the other is an occasional correspondence of *a in IAeg and AG with Boreal *u in certain key words.
Archive 2009-10-01 2009
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One is the wholesale softening of word-final *-t to *-s as seen in the changes on animate plural marker *-it n.b. further erosion of word-final *-s causes in turn Proto-Altaic *-r₂ and the other is an occasional correspondence of *a in IAeg and AG with Boreal *u in certain key words.
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The root yö- is presumed to go back to Proto-Altaic *dȫr- Turkish dört, Mongolian döröv and there is a regular pattern of Altaic *d- Japanese y-.
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Personally, I think that if anything, the OJap roots fitö- '1', yö- '4' and mu- 'six' are the only ones that can be plausibly related to Proto-Altaic.
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Naturally, it shouldn't have to be explained that only one of each pair in the table above may logically ever be attributed to Proto-Altaic.
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So it appears very strongly that the source of all instances of Proto-Altaic *r₂ lies in the early palatalization originating from a neighbouring *i in a Pre-Altaic stage.
My suspicion regarding the source of *r2 in Pre-Altaic seems to be confirmed 2008
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I figured that if the original plural common to Proto-Indo-European (PIE), Proto-Aegean, Proto-Uralic and Proto-Altaic (PA) was *-it, then presumably PIE and PA share the isogloss of Sibilantization of word-final *-t.
My suspicion regarding the source of *r2 in Pre-Altaic seems to be confirmed 2008
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