Chinese is a language that has evolved in the zone of interaction between two major areal-typological complexes that may be labeled “Sinitic” and “Altaic”. The Sinitic type is dominant in southern China (south of the Yangtze River) and Southeast Asia, while the Altaic type is prevalent in Western and Northern China and Northeast Asia, including Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchuria, Siberia, Korea, and Japan. The terms “Sinitic” and “Altaic” should here be understood as areal-typological labels with no…