Who Are the Altaic People?

Altaic peoples are the peoples who speak Altaic languages. Altaic, according to its proponents, is a language family that includes 66 languages spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. Altaic language family takes its name from the Altai mountains. While The Altai Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia. In Turkic and Mongolian language, Altai means the "Mountains of Gold".

The Altaic family falls into three branches:

1. Turkic People, speaking Turkic Languages.
2. Tungusic People, speaking Tungusic Languages, and
3. Mongolic People, speaking Mongolian Languages.

Speakers of Altaic languages live over a vast territory that stretches from northeastern Siberia to the Persian Gulf, and from the Baltic Sea to China, with most of them clustering around Central Asia. The largest group of Altaic People are The Turkic.

The Turkic peoples and the related groups migrated west towards Eastern Europe, Iranian plateau and Anatolia. the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan,and Turkey.The Turkic peoples display a great variety of ethnic types. They possess physical features ranging from Caucasoid to Northern Mongoloid. Turkic People look like "European" or "Mediteranian" in Western Turkic Land. They has light-coloured eyes such as blue, green, hazel, or gray and blond or brown hair are common. Total Population of Turkic People estimated more than 160
million.Today, most Turks are Sunni Muslims.

Tungusic People live at North East Asia. Tungusic People are : Evenks, Evens , Jurchens, Manchu, Negidals, Nanai. Oroch, Orok, Oroqen, Udege, Ulchs, Xibe. The largest group of the Tungusic peoples are the Manchu who are estimated over 10 millions peoples. The Manchu ethnicity have largely been assimilated with the Han Chinese. Another Tungusic Peoples are The Evenks. They are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia with a population of 35,527 (In Rusia) and 30,505 (In China). Although most of the Tungus practiced a shamanistic religion, The Evenks of both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are a nominally Orthodox Christian people.

The Mongol peoples includes all people who speak a Mongolic language. They divided into eastern and western Mongols. The Mongols, Khalkha, Uriankhai and Buryats are counted as eastern Mongols. While The Oirats in the Russian Altay and the Kalmyks at the northern side of the Caspian Sea are belong to the western Mongols. Today, people of Mongol origin live in Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia), Russia (include the northern side of the Caspian Sea), and a few other central Asian countries, such as Afghanistan. The predominant religion of Mongolic People is Tibetan Buddhism and Shamanism. Total population of Mongolic People approximately 9 million.