> I was under the impression that opinions are still divided as to whether
> Altaic itself is an actual language family. Does anyone know whether
> that issue has been resolved?
I once asked my Turkish prof. in depth about this and the answer is
that those who claim Altaic as a valid genetic grouping are doing
violence on the notion of _genetic_ relatedness and/or standards of
proving just that. The Altaic lgs share typological similarities but
as one goes back in time the likeness diverges rather than accumulates.
I don't think there's a debate among experts in the field about this,
check for instance "The Turkic Languages" Ed. by Lars Johansson and
Eva Csato-Johansson. best wishes, Harald