The Introduction to Altaic Linguistics, with Uygur linguist Litip Tohti as chief editor, is a laudable effort to push forward the long study of Altaic linguistics, or Altaistics.
Released by the Shanxi Education Publishing House, the book touches upon a significant and much-explored linguistic subject in the West.
According to Altaic theory, Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu-Tungusic and Korean - some scholars also add Japanese to this family - all come from a common, hypothetical language, Altaic.
It is claimed they developed into distinctive ethnic tongues in different phases throughout history.
From the early half of the 18th century, linguists have been looking for generic similarities between the different languages that are said to belong to the Altaic family.
In the first half of the 20th century, Finish linguist Gustaf John Ramstedt established systematic studies on the Altaic languages.
In recent decades, several scholars have brought forth increasing documentation to try to validate it, while others have expressed their doubts.
Of the more than 40 kinds of sub-branch languages included in the Altaic family, about 20 are spoken by ethnic minority groups in China. The sub-branches belong to what scholars term as the Turkic, Mongolian and Manchu-Tungusic tongues. Korean has been distinguished from the above sub-language groups.
With such a great variety of living Altaic languages and rich historical material, scholars are expected, as well as obliged, to contribute to the crucial debate about Altaic linguistics, Litip Tohti said.
However, while Chinese linguists used to put heavy emphasis on the study of each of the Altaic languages, little effort was made to complete historical and comparative research among the languages from the general perspective of an integrated Altaic family.
The new book breaks the silence in this field in China.
Carefully drawing an overall picture of Altaic linguistics and giving constructive proof about its development, the book serves both as an introductory text for university students and as a reference source for researchers.
Litip Tohti, who also wrote five of the book's nine chapters, is the director of the Uygur, Kazak and Kirgiz Languages Department at the Central University of Nationalities.
The now 50-year-old professor studied in the United States from 1985 to 1994.
During that time he had the opportunity to listen to lectures from one of the founders of Altaic linguistics, Nicholas Poppe, and obtained his doctorate under the tutorship of Poppe's student, Jerry Norman.
Besides the five chapters written by Litip Tohti, which lay forth a meticulous comparative study of Altaic languages, each of the remaining chapters deals with an individual tongue in the Altaic language family, namely Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu and Korean.
The four authors are all leading or influential scholars in their respective fields in China.
It is unusual for overseas Altaicists to cite the Altaic languages spoken in China to confirm their theory.
So one significant plus for the book is that it makes a full use of China's Altaic language resources, adding to the overall data bank of Altaic studies.
It also redresses some of the mistakes Western scholars have made concerning the Altaic languages spoken in China.
In the preface, famous Chinese linguist Geng Shimin commends the book for its reliability in relation to the linguistic facts it employs.
They present some new discoveries and original opinions based on in-depth research and sound rationale.
(China Daily April 17, 2003)
