Current Problems In Comparative-Historical Mongolian Studies

Abstract

Mongolian studies and Altaic studies are intertwined and thus, issues in Mongolian studies often require taking into consideration similar phenomena in other Altaic languages. Research was conducted into adequacy of methodological approaches and methods used in Mongolian studies to determine the causes of long vowels appearance in Mongolic languages. Such causes could be regularities of linguistic development, influence from other languages, sociocultural phenomena. The paper is dedicated to a new methodological approach, Word Length Principle, which is a component of a more general systemic approach in determining causes and features of linguistic development, especially topical for agglutinative languages. This principle has been tested in studying the causes of appearance and development of long and reduced vowels in Mongolic languages. The list of the current issues of the contemporary Altaic studies includes highly controversial questions on genesis of commonality of the Altaic languages. There are two well-known point of view. According to the first of them, Altaic languages descend from a common ancestor language, according to the second one their commonality resulted from mutual interactions.