How are relative-clause ideas expressed in Mongolian and other Altaic languages?

In Mongolian and other Altaic languages, relative-clause ideas are not expressed through traditional relative clauses as found in many other language families. Instead, these languages utilize participial constructions or verbal nouns to function as modifiers.12

These constructions effectively translate the relative clauses of other languages by acting as adjectives that precede the noun they modify. For example, in Turkic languages, a construction such as the Uzbek kelgän bäla (literally "having-come child") is used to express "the child that has come". Similarly, in Turkish, the phrase yemeğe gelen adam (literally "dinner-to coming man") is used to express "the man (who is) coming to dinner".123

These participial and verbal noun forms are part of the broader Altaic syntactic structure, which is characteristically left-branching, meaning modifiers generally precede the elements they determine. By using these non-finite verb forms, Altaic languages maintain their preference for hypotactic (subordinate) constructions over paratactic (coordinate) ones.12