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Article published In:
Concentric
Vol. 49:2 (2023) ► pp.295–315

Phylogenetic analyses for the origin of sortal classifiers in Mongolic, Tungusic, and Turkic languages

| CNRS
| MNHN
| MNHN
| MNHN | University Paris City
Numeral classifiers are one of the most common types of nominal classification systems. Their geographical distribution worldwide is concentrated in Asia, which infers a scheme of diffusion from a linguistic innovation. This study investigates the origin of classifier systems in the Mongolic, Tungusic, and Turkic languages in the Altaic region with a phylogenetic analysis based on data from 55 languages. The Single Origin Hypothesis suggests that Sinitic is the most probable original source of classifier systems found in Asia (Her & Li 2023). Under this hypothesis, classifiers are unlikely to be an indigenous feature of the Altaic region, and indeed their phylogenetic signal turns out to be weak. We also conduct a qualitative analysis on the classifier inventory of the studied languages to assess the robustness of phylogenetic methods. The results also indicate that classifiers are most likely a borrowed feature in the Mongolic, Tungusic, and Turkic languages.
Keywords: sortal classifier, Single Origin Hypothesis, Altaic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Turkic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The single origin hypothesis
  • 3.Data
  • 4.Phylogenetic analysis
    • 4.1Tree inference
    • 4.2Testing for phylogenetic signal
  • 5.Qualitative analysis
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Data availability statements
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 2 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.00031.her
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