(C) The Turanian family of languages is distinguished from the Arian and Semitic in the total absence of inflection.
To express the variations for case, mood, &c., Turanian words undergo no inflection; but an additional word is glued, as it were to the noun, verb, &c., as the case may be, in order to express the relations of case, mood, &c. Hence these have been termed agglutinizing languages.
To connect the idea of plurality with the English word boy, we merely inflect it, and obtain the word boys; but upon the principle of agglutination, a syllable indicative of plurality must be affixed, e.g., singular, boy; plural, boy-crowd. Thus the roots are never obscured, while they admit of a vocal harmony which is altogether peculiar to this family of languages; e.g., (Turkish) aghâ, a lord, becomes in the plural, agha-lar; er, a man becomes in the plural, er-ler, and not er-lar, as in the former case.
The vowels of the agglutinized syllables, it is easily seen, must harmonize with those of the roots; e.g., (Magyar) kert, a garden, makes kert-esz-nek to the gardener, and not kert-asz-nak.
There are two great divisions of this family:—
I. The Northern or Ural-Altaic division includes (a) the Tungusian dialects, spoken in Upper and Lower Tunguska, on the coast of Okhotsk, and by the Mantchoos or Mandshus (in China); (b) the Mongolian dialects, spoken in the North and South of Gobi, in Tibet and Tangut, in the plains on each side of the Volga (by the Olöts or Kalmuks) and by the Buriäts of Lake Baikal; (c) the Turkish dialects, spoken in Derbend, Krimea, Antolia, and Rumelia; (the Yakuts, the Tatars or Turks of Siberia, the Kirghis, the Bashkirs, the Kumians, the Nogais, and the Karatschais, the Usbegs, Uigurs, and Turkomans, speak Turkish dialects); (d) the Finnish dialects, spoken by the Hungarians, Lapps, Finns, Esths, Voguls, Permians, &c.; (e) the dialects of the Samoiedes and Ostiakes.
II. The Southern division comprises the Tamul, the Bhotiya, and the Malay.
The Caucasian dialects are degenerated branches of the Turanian family; they include the idioms of the Georgians or Grusians, the Suans, the Lazes, the Lesghi, the Mitsgeghi, and the Kerkessians and Abasians.