A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)
TANULMÁNYOK - KI–MOON LEE: A koreai és az altáji nyelvek összehasonlító tanulmányozása (magyar és angol nyelven)
5. Are the Altaic languages and Korean genetically related? Can a genetic relationship among even the Altaic languages themselves be indisputably established? Professor Poppe told me time and time again, "The genetic relationship cannot be denied. A genetic relationship is possible between any two languages. The only problem is proving it." In actuality, the question is the quality and quantity of evidence supporting a genetic relationship between two languages. Meillet (1921, p. 26) puts it very succinctly: "En toute science, démontrer, c'est découvrir des faits qui apparaissent évidents." But what is the basis for judging whether something is "evident"? Meillet cites correspondence of irregular grammatical elements as one example. Unfortunately, however, the Altaic languages and Korean are all extremely regular languages. How then, may genetic relationships among these languages be proved? Even though individual facts may themselves be regular, the peculiar structure they make up may indeed be distinctive. It is my belief that the discovery of such a distinctive structure is valid proof of a genetic relationship. In my opinion, the structure of verbal endings -*r, -*n, -*m mentioned above constitutes an excellent example of this kind of structure. This kind of example may be found not only in grammar, but also in the areas of phonology and vocabulary. IRODALOM Aalto, P. 1975. G. J. Ramstedt and Altaic Linguistics. Central Asiatic Journal 19.3. Lee, Ki-Moon 1959. On the Breaking of *i in Korean. Asea Yongu 2.2. Martin, S. E. 1966. Lexcal evidence relating Korean to Japanese. Language 42. Meillet, A. 1921. Linguistique historique et linguistique generale. Tome 1. Paris. Miller, R. A. 1977. The Altaic accusatives in the light of Old and Middle Korean. J. Janhunen (ed.), Altaica. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting of the PIAC. MSFOu 158. Helsinki. Polivanov, E. D. 1927. Toward the question of the kinship relations of Korean and the "Altaic" languages. Selected Writings compiled by A. A. Leont'ev. The Hague, 1974. Poppe, N. 1950. Review of Ramstedt 1949. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 13. 1955. Review of Ramstedt/Aalto 1952. Language 30. 1960. Vergleichende Grammatik der altaischen Sprachen. Teil 1. Wiesbaden. 1975. Altaic Linguistics - An overview. Sciences of Language 6. Ramstedt, G. J. 1924. A Comparison of the Altaic languages with Japanese. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Second Series 1. 1928. Remarks on the Korean language. MSFOu 67. 1932. Die Palatalisation in den altaischen Sprachen. Melanges de philologie offerts ä M. J. J. Mikkola. Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae. Ser. B: 27. 1939. A Korean Grammar. Helsinki. 1939/1951. Über die Stellung des Koreanischen. JSFOu. 48. 1949. Studies in Korean Etymology. Helsinki. 102
