“Altaic” Influences on “Slavic”. Remarks on a Paper by Marek Stachowski
“Altaic” Influences on “Slavic”. Remarks on a Paper by Marek Stachowski

Summary/Abstract: The present paper deals with the possibility of interpreting the palatalizations of velars and/or the emergence of the correlation of palatalization in “Slavic” by the influence of “Altaic” languages. The negative position, recently expressed by Stachowski (2020), is discussed in the broader context of the history of this hypothesis and, above all, in terms of modern theories of language contact. It is shown that some of Stachowski's objections (in particular the lack of lexical borrowings and the large difference in the features under consideration between Slavic and the putative source language) do not correspond to the principles and findings of contact linguistics. Despite illustrating the explanatory power of the most likely scenario of “Altaic” influence, as introduced by Galton, we ultimately agree that the lack of linguistic data on the languages of the Huns and Avars is a major obstacle that makes this theory unprovable.

• Details
• Contents