On the New Concept of the Origin of the Transeurasian or Altaic Languages

Abstract

A new concept of the origin of the Altaic languages emerged in foreign publications recently. This concept, based on linguistic, genetic, and archaeological data, linked the ancestral Altaic language to the early farming cultures of the West Liaohe River. It suggests that farmers, speakers of the prospective Tungus-Manchu, Japanese, and Korean languages, spread outside this area in the eastern direction, whereas pastoralists, speakers of the Turkic-Mongolian languages, moved in the western direction. This article examines the archaeological foundations of the new concept, primarily those related to the Tungus-Manchu languages. According to the authors of the concepts, the Zaisanovkaya Neolithic culture of Primor’e represents the first Proto-Tungus-Manchu speaking population. They suppose that around 6500–4900 cal. BP these people broke away from the Proto-Tungus-Mongolian Hongshan culture, residing in Western Liaohe, and migrated to South-Central Primor’e, and then, much later, already from there, they spread north to the Amur basin. The idea of localizing the homeland of the Tungus-Manchu languages in the south or in the south of Manchuria is not new and has been expressed earlier. The new concept has introduced new linguistic arguments in favor of this idea. However, the article demonstrates that their attempts to correlate these arguments with archaeological data should be considered unsuccessful. The central theses of the new concept, which connect the spread of the Proto-Tungus-Manchu languages and agriculture, remain unproven, as does their connection precisely to West Liaohe farmers.