Languages and History: Japanese, Korean, and Altaic

by Roy Andrew Miller

Summarizing what is known of the history and prehistory of Korean and Japanese, a problem that necessarily involves their possible genetic relationship to the Altaic (Turkic, Mongiol, Tungus) languages, the author examines--and demonstrates that it is necessary to reject--arguments now dominant in most Western scolarship that would attribute all similarities among these languages to borrowing rather than genetic relationship. He argues that the now widely accepted truism that "Korean and Japanese cannot be Altaic laguages" because "there are no Altaic languages" can no longer seriously be maintained. Korean and Japanese both possess important early written records, until now either ignored or largely misrepresented by those who dismiss the Altaic hyphotesis. The author shows that these texts, when approached with proper philological precision, bolster the Altaic hyphotesis in much the same way that the discovery of Tokharian and Hittite materials earlier stimulated and clarified Indo-European historical linguistics

230 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Roy Andrew Miller was an American linguist best known as the author of several books on Japanese language and linguistics, and for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the proposed Altaic language family.

Reviews

[Gertrude & Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is primarily for linguists and philologists or anyone with a keen interest in the Altaic language hypothesis. Those with a genuine enthusiasm for East Asian linguistic history in general, or the complex relationship between East Asian languages and the historical origins of its peoples in particular, might also appreciate this book. This work may be difficult to understand for those with little background in the field of comparative linguistics. It is a highly academic and technical work, with an abundance of linguistic jargon and symbols. The author demonstrates the interrelatedness of one language to another, or others, by the phonetic aspects of the languages concerned.

However, to say that this is only a work of diachronic linguistics or etymology, or even only an investigation into the historical origins and developments of the Korean and Japanese languages, would be too narrow a definition, thus, limiting the scope and purpose of this text.

In this iconoclastic and seminal work by Roy Andrew Miller, the reader can appreciate not only the findings themselves, but the rigorous methods employed for those ends. This book is principally a repudiation and refutation of the current assumptions concerning the relationships between the proto-Altaic language family with Old Korean and Old Japanese. Miller's meticulous research and critical examination of the historical record provides a compelling argument in favor of the Altaic hypothesis, a hypothesis that has found little support today, not only among western academics, but also among their counterparts in the east.

This is a highly impressive document, which provides sufficient evidence for the case of a proto-Altaic language root - this proto-language subsuming the Turkic, Mongol, Tungus, Korean, and Japanese languages. Miller analyzes the generally accepted and most popular theories to date, which claim the contrary, that Old Korean and Old Japanese have little relationship to a proto-Altaic language because such a language does not exist. From the bulk of evidence and a critical deduction he has shown where many linguists have gone wrong, either based on weak methodological models or errors in interpretation of facts.

I recommend this text for those who are not completely satisfied with the alternative theories and wish to discover a more plausible alternative, thus gaining a more meaningful understanding regarding the affinities between the proto-Altaic languages and their offspring.