Thread:Orange Squirtle*/@comment-35001576-20190702095636/@comment-25977412-20190702102019

There is no need for an Altaic category since most (if not all) categories based off language families are proven to be legitimate unlike the theoretical and later proven discredited. It is usually considered as a Sprachbund nowadays rather than a major language family.

"Instead of a common genetic origin, Clauson, Doerfer, and Shcherbak proposed (in 1956-1966) that Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages form a Sprachbund: a set of languages with similarities due to convergence through intensive borrowing and long contact, rather than common origin."

"Those critics (G. Clauson (1956), G. Doerfer (1963), and A. Shcherbak (1963)) also argued that the words and features shared by Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages were for the most part borrowings and that the rest could be attributed to chance resemblances. They noted that there was little vocabulary shared by Turkic and Tungusic languages, though more shared with Mongolic languages. They reasoned that, if all three families had a common ancestor, we should expect losses to happen at random, and not only at the geographical margins of the family; and that the observed pattern is consistent with borrowing."

Even if they share the same DNA, it doesn't matter when we are talking about a language family. The same DNA you mentioned can be found in Southeast Asia and the Americas, and ethnic groups like the Han, Tibetans, Aleuts, the Yi/Nuosuo, and many other non-Altaic people groups.